joe..thank you as always..you are spot on...i must stand straight and i must
sit straight...yes the spam story... my only concern is that the emails i write
get to the forum and not end up in junk mail for others...enjoy your coming
weekend and keep painting...best... merle
Merle,
No "OM"-ing in Zen practice. That's some other kind of practice.
The straight back is just the most comfortable way to sit, one finds, after a
week or so of continuous sitting on retreat, or months of sitting at home. The
body makes its own chiropractic adjustment on itself and it saves one's life in
doing so.
It's so comfortable that one can then fall asleep, sitting, with one's eyes
open. This is called "Samadhi".
The body learns to strike the posture it needs to save its life.
Mike mentions the subtle sounds of crackings of vertebrae sometimes heard or
felt and noticed while sitting and while the spine adjusts itself, with no
input from any known conscious mind. ;-)
Such is the miracle of our mundane and bland Zen practice, Merle. Just *one
small* miracle of it, that is.
The main miracle is the awakening of the mind of compassion, and the way the
discursive mind and ego simply die, from neglect, in our practice, upon
awakening. You need a teacher for this, though, usually.
Of course, the ego and discursive mind come back a few months or so afterward,
but we keep practicing, and awaken again, and again, given the causes and
conditions to "do" so.
They say there's no end to it. Shall we find out?
Merle, you are right that zen practice is our Daily Life. Even on weekends.
Love to you, Cous'.
--Joe
> Merle Lester <merlewiitpom@...> wrote:
>
> Â to me the zen is practise practise..as joe says..and it's not just sitting
> cross-legged with a straight back like a wooden plank and saying oooooooo
> mmmmmmmmÂ
> it's zenning completely 24/7/365
