When the bell sounds.

[Jundo]

Hi,

I find all these descriptions to be so far from what I experience. Theoretically, I may have some idea. But ultimately, theory is worth nothing if it can't be put to use.

Anyway, when I sit.... sometimes it's really boring and I don't feel anything. Actually most days happen like this. I find it immensely boring. I can't wait to just jump off the cushion and go back to my usual routine. There's no oneness, there's no ecstatic transcendental feeling, no nothing. Just boring old sitting. Occasionally, sure, but mostly no. It's just the same old life I've led, nothing special. There must be something here if I keep pushing.... without actually pushing (?) how does that work? I dunno. This is my koan right now.

Gassho,
Ben

Ah, boring is good! You are making progress!

Now, ask yourself right this moment ... WHO is feeling boring or excited? WHO is deciding what is "ordinary" and what is "wondrous"? WHO but you has to the power to see that the most mundane and ordinary as whole and shining? It is the little self, never satisfied or at home, that wants to be entertained, to jump off the cushion and "get something to tickle its fancy".

Yes, "nothing special" ... ecstatic experiences or no ecstatic experiences ... all Wondrous, all One! "Nothing special" is Everything So Special in a Buddha Eye! When Sitting, Just Sit ... right through boring, right through ecstatic, right through and through everything to the Wholly Holy Whole that is each and all such.

One of the best books on Zen has just that title ... "Nothing Special" ...

http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Special-Charlotte-J-Beck/dp/0062511173

Gassho, J

[Tiwala]

Thank you, Jundo, for the words of advice. I'll try to apply them.

I think I'll still need to sit through hell before I really get it though. Then there are a thousand other hells I have to sit through. Who's sitting.... WHO'S SITTING!?!

Gassho,
Ben

[Seiryu]

I like what Jundo wrote. "Boring is good. You are making progress."

You don't need to sit through hell, you just need to sit. And in just sitting, the mind will create hells and heavens and it will throw everything at you, just to distract itself. Or in a sense to try to protect itself. The mind has had a hold on our short hairs for lifetimes after lifetimes. It doesn't want to let us go so easily.

So when feelings of boring come. we sit. When feelings of bliss and enlightenment comes. We sit. Before anything appears. After everything disappears. There we are. Just sitting. Not boring. Not not boring. Just this. Before we add and comment on our situation, before we compare and try to assess the situation,
how was it?
Before we bring ourselves into the situation, how is it? How is it different from now?


Forgive my words. As I do not know what I am talking about.

In Gassho

[Heisoku]

Wonderful post Seiryu. Gassho.