Indiana Jones and the Temple of Zen

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • Nameless
    Member
    • Apr 2013
    • 461

    Indiana Jones and the Temple of Zen

    Just thought I'd stop by and have a cup of tea and talk to you all about spelunking. Haha, just kidding. Though the joke is pseudo-relevant. Except instead of exploring deep and ancient caves and long abandoned mine shafts, I'm bringing up the matter of spelunking the mind shafts. It is great to dive into the myriad of concepts found in Zen Buddhism. The studying, pondering, philosophizing is good for expanding the mind. I'm speaking of the little mind here of course, not the one that's boundless (though they aren't two). But it's important to not let these complex and deep thoughts consume you to the point where it replaces or distracts practice.

    Zazen is the still center of the ever turning wheel. I don't care how you do it: sitting at a Zendo, a home made monastery, in the woods, on your lawn, on the bus, while gardening, doing dishes, chopping wood... whichever. What's important is that we practice. Without that, these thoughts and revolutions of the (little) mind are like planting seeds in barren earth. Abstract thinking is a hobby of mine and I'm sure it is for many of you as well. But for a moment, let's just stop and be...

    Gassho, John
  • lordbd
    Member
    • Jul 2013
    • 68

    #2
    John,

    Your words make a lot of sense to me. I've put myself on a zen text DIET because I have too much fun intellectualizing ABOUT ZEN as opposed to DOING ZAZEN. There is a place for thinking deep thoughts, and there is a place for observing all thoughts and how they change.
    I took an art class once in high school. I just could NOT draw that damn bicycle. Teacher told me, "Stop looking at the page. Look at the damn bicycle."

    Comment

    • Myosha
      Member
      • Mar 2013
      • 2974

      #3
      Quote: ". . .let's just stop and be. . . "

      (forgive me)

      To be is to do. - Socrates

      To do is to be. - Sartre

      Do be do be doo - Sinatra


      Gassho,
      Edward
      "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

      Comment

      • Nameless
        Member
        • Apr 2013
        • 461

        #4
        Originally posted by lordbd
        John,

        Your words make a lot of sense to me. I've put myself on a zen text DIET because I have too much fun intellectualizing ABOUT ZEN as opposed to DOING ZAZEN. There is a place for thinking deep thoughts, and there is a place for observing all thoughts and how they change.
        You hit the nail on the head there! There is a time and place for everything. I do appreciate that when stray thoughts do come to me on the Zafu these days they are usually related to Buddhism, rather than what I'm going to eat for dinner that night, or how I'm going to pay off these student loans haha.

        Originally posted by drocloce


        Do be do be doo - Sinatra

        Gassho,
        Edward
        I like that one the best

        Gassho, John

        Comment

        • lordbd
          Member
          • Jul 2013
          • 68

          #5
          Nameless,

          I'm right there with you on the student loan thing. There really is no choice BUT to be zen about that situation
          I took an art class once in high school. I just could NOT draw that damn bicycle. Teacher told me, "Stop looking at the page. Look at the damn bicycle."

          Comment

          • Nameless
            Member
            • Apr 2013
            • 461

            #6
            Haha, yes indeed! I'll only have to pay a minimum of $50 a month, so I just try to think of it like that. "Fifty bucks? That's not so bad!"

            Gassho, John

            Comment

            • Taigu
              Blue Mountain White Clouds Hermitage Priest
              • Aug 2008
              • 2710

              #7
              Everything in good measure.
              Nothing wrong about reading and you are right, zazen is always the very center of the spinning wheel. The whole Buddhist literature comes from its silence and returns to it.

              You may choose to read one chapter of Shobogenzo a week, one verse of the Shodoka a day, or read at random picking up some gold nuggets and then throwing them away.

              The point is to be shobogenzo.
              To make fukanzazengi with skin-flesh-bones-breath-mind.

              Gassho

              Taigu

              Comment

              • Nameless
                Member
                • Apr 2013
                • 461

                #8
                Thank you for that Taigu. Like you said, it's important we embody what we learn, yet not be attached to it. Rather than just dwell on the words, be Shobogenzo... beautiful.

                Gassho, John

                Comment

                Working...