Wasting precious time...

[dharmasponge]

Hi All,

Imagine being in a concert hall. The conductor taps his batton on the stand everyone goes quiet and...........and............

........................

Well thats sort of where I am in my practice and its troubling me! It was going so well too

It feels lazy and counter productive. It feels like I am quite literally just sitting there, on my arse, staring at the floor. Nothing virtuous, nothing of any benefit or consequence. Nothing at all to do with The Dharma!

Maybe a few doors down there is another Buddhist busying away with Highest Yoga Tantra practices, still another using Anapanasati and yet another Vipassana.

But here am I gawping at the floor like a dopey dog.

How do I get around this feeling of wasting precious time?

_/|\_

[Kotei]

"It was composed in 1952, for any instrument or combination of instruments, and the score instructs the performer(s) not to play their instrument(s) during the entire duration of the piece throughout the three movements. The piece purports to consist of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed..."

from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4′33″

;-) you're not alone

Gassho,
Kotei sattoday

[Taiyo]

You might try to stop looking for any benefit or consequence... and benefits will come as a consequence

Don't consider sitting Shikantaza as a means to an end. Shikantaza itself is complete. It takes time, because we're not used to doing anything without looking for something else, but its beauty is revealed precisely when we stop looking for something else and just... sit! If there's no place to go and nothing to achieve, how could you be wasting your time?

Gassho,
Taiyo

SatToday

[dharmasponge]

You might try to stop looking for any benefit or consequence... and benefits will come as a consequence

[Seishin]

You might try to stop looking for any benefit or consequence... and benefits will come as a consequence

Don't consider sitting Shikantaza as a means to an end. Shikantaza itself is complete. It takes time, because we're not used to doing anything without looking for something else, but its beauty is revealed precisely when we stop looking for something else and just... sit! If there's no place to go and nothing to achieve, how could you be wasting your time?

Gassho,
Taiyo

SatToday

This.

I still get these feelings now and then each week and feel that I'm just sitting on my zafu. I just have to remind myself to let go and to expect nothing and find my way back to the present.

I'll just spend a few minutes on mindful breathing to bring me back to the moment and focus on both my hara and mudra. When that doesn't work I'll silently chant my cut down metta verse to the flow of my breath :

May I be happy
May I be well
May I be loving
May I be kind
May I be grateful
And filled with joy
May I be at peace
And always be true

A couple of cycles of that normally does the trick, then its back to the blue skies and clouds or heck just the clouds knowing it is what it is.

[Jishin]

Hi Toni,

You are bored.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[dharmasponge]

Hi Toni,

You are bored.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

'Tony'...

Nope, you?

Tony

[Jishin]

Hi Tony,

No reason to be defensive if the there is no reason to be defensive. I always have trouble with boredom and do very foolish things because of it.

IMG_0055.JPGIMG_0054.JPG

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[dharmasponge]

Hi Toni,

You are bored.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

Unless of course you mean when I sit....?

#Sat_today (BTW)

[Jishin]

Unless of course you mean when I sit....?

#Sat_today (BTW)

No. With life in general.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[dharmasponge]

No. With life in general.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

Far from it...busy with work, young family etc...its all fascinating!

[dharmasponge]

'Tony'...

Nope, you?

Tony

Apologies, I thought you were going to offer one of those indecipherable 'zenny' responses....

[Meian]

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Gassho
Kim
sat today

[Jishin]

Far from it...busy with work, young family etc...its all fascinating!

Not me. Busy with work, young family etc...it's all fascinating but very boring.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Jundo]

Hi Tony,

How do I get around this feeling of wasting precious time?

Where does this feeling of lack and waste exist but between your own ears? Likewise, feel between one's own ears that there is not lack and waste of time, and it is just so. The sitting itself is between all "waste" or "no waste" by human judgment. The one who defines it and flavors it is you, with your own thoughts.

There is a an aspect of Shikantaza's "Nothing to Obtain" that I can only compare to self-hypnosis, psyching oneself up, faith and trust. Sorry, but ya just have to sit feeling that Zazen is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/02/how-the-phrase-the-best-thing-since-sliced-bread-originated/252674/

People live, people sit, always chasing and feeling that something about life's experiences is lacking. This is just their feeling, your feeling. I recently posted about this very dis-Ease. It is literally up to you whether you feel this or some other way.

Read this essay ...

Shikantaza Zazen must be sat, for the time it is sat, with the student profoundly trusting deep in her bones that sitting itself is a complete and sacred act, the one and only action that need be done in the whole universe in that instant of sitting. This truth should not be thought about or voiced in so many words, but must be silently and subtly felt deep down.

...

The ability to be at rest completely, to realize the preciousness and wholeness of life in this moment is a skill we have lost in this busy world. We chase after achievements, are overwhelmed with jobs that feel undone, and feel that there are endless places to go and people to see.

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...A-EXPLANATIONS

You feel it is a waste of time because YOU are thinking "waste" and measuring "time."

Gassho, J

SatToday