March 31st-April 1st, 2017 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! (NOT APRIL FOOLS!)

[Sekishi]

Thank you all.

The talk is up as a podcast now.

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Mp]

The talk is up as a podcast now.

Excellent, thank you sir. =)

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

[Matt]

Will be sitting this one tonight.

Gassho
Matt

[Byokan]

Thank you so much, dear Sangha.

Gassho
Byōkan
sat today

[Jundo]

I think a question was asked at the end about how to avoid the "lizard brain" and our instincts such as primal fear. I said Zazen as I did not hear the question fully. Actually, in my opinion, some primal fear and like emotions are so hard wired into that part of us that they are always there to some degree. If a tiger chases the Dalai Lama, I feel he is going to react in fight or flight mode. It is just millions of years of evolution.

However, this Practice mitigates the worst of it, channels all into moderation and more self control. It will always be there, but may not imprison us as much as before. I sometimes say that beccause some degree of fear and stress is hard wired into us, I believe it impossible to get away from it completely so long as we are alive in these human bodies (until we are all someday perfect Buddhas anyway!) I think that most folks ... even Buddhist folks ... are still going to feel fear at times when life's tigers jump out at us from a tree! On one level, we may be completely beyond a sense of "self" to be eaten by a tiger ... but so long as we are flesh and blood, part of us is afraid of being lunch for the tiger! Fear and trepidation are hard wired into the most primitive parts of our mammal brains. (In fact, it is part of our survival mechanisms, without which our ancestors might not even have bothered to get out of the way of real tigers!)

There are parts of us (beyond "us") that can pierce "no life/no death" ... there are other parts of the us that get very scared, whimper like a baby in the face of a hungry tiger. All can happen, and be part of our humanity, at once. Even though I no longer "fear death" in some ways ... my knees will shake at appropriate times too.

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Mp]

Thank you for that explaination Jundo. =)

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

[Seishin]

Many thanks for this teaching. Sat on demand and listened to the audio podcast, which I'll revisit again........frequently. Thought the Frontal Lobe chant lines were great but yes it might be a while before they catch on

[Washin]

Thank you Jundo, Shingen and all who sat and will sit

Gassho
Washin
sat

[Jakuden]

Finally sat the rest of this, thank you Jundo and everyone!
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk