Fearless

[RichardH]

I'd just like to share a development. When I first learned to sit\practice there came a point where existential confusion, alienation, and fear, (the kind of fear associated with "what is the meaning of life?" questions) subsided in "just sitting". Like Jundo has said here (can't remember where exactly) ...seeking creates a sense of incompleteness. Seeking kicks the ball down the road. When seeking is dropped, the big existential questions are resolved. My bones are my bones, the sun is the sun. Yet this ending of a certain primordial fear/confusion did not remove all situational anxiety. This situation or that situation can still bring up anxious feelings. The difference is that the feelings do not go all the way to the bottom like they used to. A storm may rage on the surface, and it is fully felt, but on the ocean floor it is still. It is this "not reaching all the way down" that is emerging in a natural way lately, and the thing is, it is doing so all by itself. Maybe this is just getting older? Maybe it is sitting uselessly every day? I'm not sure, but it seems a lifetime away from fearful, confusing, world I knew as a child.

Gassho Daizan

[Hans]

Hello Daizan,

thank you for sharing this.

Gassho,

Hans Chudo Mongen

[Mp]

Thank you Daizan for sharing these thoughts and feelings.

Gassho
Shingen

[Jundo]

I am still very curious about 100,000 things, about how this universe is put together and where (if anywhere) it came from. Life is filled with open questions and unending mysteries.

However, this Way totally resolved for me all existential confusion, alienation and fear, and I am totally at home. The "meaning of life" is crystal clear.

I may not know what this universe is made of, but I know exactly what it is made of (much like a mariner who may not know every corner of the sea, or all mysteries of the deep ... yet knows thoroughly the salt and wind and water he sails, and which sails him). I may not know where this world came from, but I know exactly where it is coming From. Also non-coming from each timeless instant.

I guess statements like the above only make sense to other Zen folks.

Gassho, J

[Taikyo]

Thank you Daizan you words echo my experience.

Gassho

David

[Rich]

Thank you Daizan and Jundo for sharing your experience. There are many situations that still push my buttons but all roads seem to lead back to my practice.

[Koshin]

Thank you Daizan, great sharing... maybe someday soon will see you on Zaznekai --you are always there anyway --, I really enjoy your posts

Gassho

[Kyonin]

Thank you for this teaching.

It's always awesome to read you, Daizan.

Gassho,

Kyonin

[Yugen]

There are many situations that still push my buttons but all roads seem to lead back to my practice.

Words to live by. Brilliant. Thank you Rich.

Daizan, deep bows and thank you.

Yugen

[Dosho]

Thank you Daizan...I feel much the same way and couldn't have said it any better than that.

Gassho,
Dosho

[Myosha]

Thank you.


Gassho,
Edward

[Joyo]

Thank you Daizan, you shared so much of my own thoughts and experiences. I've also wondered if it's from getting older, but I can definitely attribute my change in outlook to when I committed to Buddhism.

Gassho,
Treena

[RichardH]

Thank you for these responses. It is good to hear that this experience is a common one. I figure it is, but still it is very good to hear.

I'm also curious about 100,000 things. This evening the CBC science series, The Nature of Things, looked into the search for life on other planets. It recounted how there are billions of galaxies, and billions of solar systems within in each galaxy. Then it reported recent findings in this Galaxy... It turns out that "Goldilocks" planets (not too hot and not too cold) or very common, and there are also many water worlds. These are not just planets with water, they are warm ocean worlds. The thinking is that life occurs when conditions are appropriate, and that appropriate conditions may be common. Talk about firing curiosity!

Gassho, Daizan

Hi Kōshin, I've been missing Zazenkai, been working evenings mostly. I'll be at Zazenkai again, and will pick up the habit. Gassho.

[alan.r]

Hi Daizan and others,

Yes, I have this feeling, too, about some situational anxiety or worry not going all the way down. Like the song goes, it's more than a feeling, really. But also this: when I began this practice (at first, vipassana), one thing I strongly felt was that that deep still water at the bottom of the ocean had always been there. That much of my own suffering was dramatized and hyperbolic, and I had always known that I was, almost, playacting somehow. Being insincere somehow. I just wasn't able to recognize it or realize it, etc.

Gassho

[Heisoku]

Funny thing fear, but fearless isn't bravery it's just that the things that we didn't understand or know how to handle are not so important any more. Fearlessness is walking knowing that whatever you meet will be met, and that the universe is fine with you in it (and everything else!). It's a lovin' thing.