We aren't doing zazen - zazen is doing us : ) It's really actually quite simply and literally true that there is no separate Chris to work hard at this method to gain this result. Also, no method and no result. No doing better or doing worse.
Please, don't pick or choose on my behalf and don't act out of the perspective of samsara for the sake of me - there's not enough here to be worth the dualism. And the zen I am learning is not something that straightens anything out - rather it shows me how I try to bend life from its flow. There's no one to pour life back into practice - it is flowing across the ground most grandly without help! I'm pretty sure that if anyone thinks they know why they are drawn to something, they are fooling themselves. Sometimes one can make a guess, but in general the entire history of the universe is involved in how these body/minds got here, much less in how these body/minds prefer one Zen school over another. Thanks, --Chris ch...@austin-lane.net +1-301-270-652 <%2B1-301-270-6524>4 On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 10:22 PM, Joe <desert_woodwor...@yahoo.com> wrote: > Chris, > > Yes, well, that's the Party line as I understand it, too. ;-) > > When we practice our method of meditation, the method serves as a monitor, > as well as a method. So, if you/we are not aware of what's "doing", then > that's an indicator of just that. I'm not saying "you" personally, Chris! > Not *just* you. > > I think everyone wants to cleave to the method, in the sense of being > intimate with it, _qua_ method, and because of what it may open up in > us/for us/for all beings (the heart of compassion). > > I think everyone wants to do "better", just as we are exhorted to do by > our teacher. It may seem a difficult walk, a difficult balance!, but I > think we know when we are on the beam. Of course, being on the beam is not > the end of it. It's just being on the beam. Awakening may or may not > come. And then there's all that practice after awakening. > > The emphasis on all being fine already is fine, and true from the point of > view of Enlightenment, but from the point of view of Samsara or delusion, > it's fiction to a lot of people. These are the people I care most about, > if I were to pick and choose. > > Well, also, and as I like to say: > > The rain that > has not fallen > does the parched ground > no good. > > (I live in the desert). > > But, we practice; and that's what counts for one who values practice, > either for itself, and/or for what it may reveal. > > No matter why we practice, practice has the power to straighten us out... > if we're lucky; have a scrupulous teacher; have a life that supports > practice (& vice-versa); and we appreciate whatever comes, and pour back > into practice what it pours out. > > On the other hand, there are people who are just drawn to practice because > it seems natural to them, or else maybe they don't know *why* they are > drawn to practice. > > In the Mahayana -- such as we are -- people who are drawn to practice are > usually not drawn to it for themselves. In fact, we put off liberation, > don't we?, until Samsara is all emptied out. > > But that's another conversation. ;-) > > --Joe > > > Chris Austin-Lane <chris@...> wrote: > > > > We are in general discouraged from evaluating sitting periods as being > more > > or less satisfactory. The emphasis is more on right here, right now. > > "Just as it is." Not about the student gaining something by diligent > work > > which the teacher already had, but the teacher being with the student who > > is practicing living with the perspective that everything is fine > already: > > right now, right here. [snip] > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are > reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links > > > >
