what do you experience during Zazen?

[Keishin]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

I don't know if this is helpful, ultimately.
I think it's like kids asking around about what sex is like.
There is the question am I 'doing it right.' There is curiosity.
Yes, I can share descriptions of my different experiences, but we can never really know another's experience and their experience really doesn't mean anything with regard to my own.
It's a phase: this comparison stuff, not to worry, it will pass.
Is it helpful? So is sitting with questions unasked. So is sitting with questions the answers to which make no sense.
There just is no point in comparing any part of your life with anyone else's.
That doesn't stop us!

[will]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

[Dojin]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

The thing is Zen. Is it "YOU" that is experiencing it?

Gassho Will

good question

I dont know!

[will]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

The thing is Zen. Is it "YOU" that is experiencing it?

Gassho Will

[Dojin]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

i noticed that all the answers are so different yet are actually all the same...
i guess it doesnt matter what you feel or experience, since it is all the same. you fell what you feel and it is just that....
there is no difference between everything and nothing and anything at all

[Aswini]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

It varies. Sometimes there's anxiety, worry, planning for the future or going over the past. Often there's a voice in my head making imaginary speaches to people who aren't really there about how well I did this or why I did that or why they should do or have done the other, and sometimes it just talks about how well I'm sitting zazen. Somtimes, I just experience the room I'm sitting in. Sometimes the room just experiences me. Like I say, it varies and on the whole I'm ok with that.

Gassho

Martin

Same with me.

Other times I feel I get to glimpse how "I" operate, my feelings and just what this whole universe is all about. Other times still my mind is anxious and constantly making crazy statements defending "me" and my position (like last night).

Mettha.

[Martin]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

It varies. Sometimes there's anxiety, worry, planning for the future or going over the past. Often there's a voice in my head making imaginary speaches to people who aren't really there about how well I did this or why I did that or why they should do or have done the other, and sometimes it just talks about how well I'm sitting zazen. Somtimes, I just experience the room I'm sitting in. Sometimes the room just experiences me. Like I say, it varies and on the whole I'm ok with that.

Gassho

Martin

[will]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

Let's see. Today the sun's shining. Temperature is moderate. Birds and stuff. Cooked supper. Had a strawberry gum (that was good). Guess I should do the dishes now :roll:

G,W

[Shui_Di]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

Hi....

In my experience, some imes when I sit, there are a lot of thought in my mind, sometimes not.

Sometimes my mind is so noisy, sometimes my mind is calm
Sometimes it's full of anger, but some times it's in peace.
Sometimes my body feels comfortable, sometimes full of pain...

But, I just don't care about that... :wink:

I just accept those as what they are...

if noisy, just noisy.
If calm, just calm...

I just sit. Beside that, I don't care.... :wink:

Gassho, Shui Di

[Bansho]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

Hi,

I don’t think it’s possible to accurately convey what we experience in Zazen. This is not primarily due to the limitations of language (although this is clearly an issue), but rather due to the fact that we practice Zazen with our complete body and mind, that is, body, feelings, perception, mental formations and consciousness. Zazen encompasses our whole being. When we practice Zazen, there is nothing but Zazen. When we are then confronted with the question of what we experience, we can only attempt to retrospectively intellectualize that which is inherently non-intellectual. It’s like asking what color tastes best to you? What fragrance is music to your ears? Also, our recollection of what we experience is fragmental, what we mean to have experienced is not that which we have experienced as a whole, but rather only certain aspects which we happen to think about at any given moment. Heat, cold, bliss, dispair, pain, peace, boredom, thinking, non-thinking, sleepiness, delusion, enlightenment... It’s like trying to take in the whole beauty of a vast landscape by looking through a pinhole in a piece of cardboard.

Gassho
Ken

[Ryumon]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

Yes, I agree with what several people have said that after ten minutes or so, regardless of what I do, my mind quiets itself. Generally, I just float with my thoughts for a few minutes, then do something I figured out recently: I "turn off" discursive thought (words), leaving only images, which, when they go away, leave profound "emptiness".

I, too, have leg and back pain, and sometimes have to move when sitting long periods (more than 20 min or so).

Kirk

[Shindo]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

Well my experiences are more mundane & I don't experience bliss (maybe fleeting well being if I am lucky ). I have given up conciously calming my mind & these days after 15 minutes or so it seems to happen naturally. Often, I sit & wonder what on earth I am doing - but then during the day I will catch a glimpse of perspective, balance & equanimity - then I know why.

Kind regards

Jools

ps - I also experience leg going to sleep & bachache :lol:

[will]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

BTw Just to let "whoever" know. My posts are usually just general statements unless otherwise indicated.

G,W

[Dojin]

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

thanks for the contributions.

actually i totally agree with will, it is something for poets to write about
mostly i realize that zazen could not be summed up in words, nor could it ever be expressed in anything but zazen.
zazen is its own explanation, manifestation.
it is like a finger pointing to itself without a mirror. just be. just sit.
words are lacking to express most of what needs to be conveyed, it is such a basic crude tool. in silence and sitting we express what we are, what the world around us is, what we become, we break the barriers of self and no self.
we are part of the world, we are the world.

it seems that no matter how much i try i could not say what i mean... i feel like Alice in wonder land

i think the only way to explain it all is to just sit zazen

Re: what do you experience during Zazen?

I should add that in the past zazen was very painful and difficult for me and sometimes still is. You can't hide anything from yourself in zazen if you are sitting with honest and wholehearted commitment to waking up to the truth. And some pretty dark and gnarly stuff can rain down on you if it is something you carry with you.