Shepherdspie, I'd say that practices are mutable within us, or that we are.
Some methods will not "work" at all for years, until suddenly they do. ;-) Do you see what I'm getting at? Also, methods of playing the 'cello masterfully take a while to work, too. ;-) The key thing with a practice is to learn it correctly from a reliable source, and then to practice it over a pretty long while. The practice will change us. The practice may still remain suitable, or might open us to the better effects or ease of some other method. A teacher is useful here to "prescribe" various modifications or outright swap-outs as things change with us. If you practice formally, you will be taught from a panoply of methods. This is the ideal way to practice, and to begin practice. There are physical methods (chanting, bowing, working, walking, exercising, eating), as well as Zen's famous meditation methods and variations of Zazen. Formal practice with a teacher and sangha is a good way to go if it suits the current conditions of your life. Even if it doesn't suit, it could be good to exert an effort to begin it. You'll take some of the formal practices home with you, in any case, having learned the methods correctly with the teacher and sangha. I would emphasize the value of formal, traditional, practice. That is the way of teaching and learning in our sect/school/way. I wonder if you are practicing that way now, already. I gather not, from your questions. A few minutes consultation with a teacher can get you firmly familiar with a method to use, and the teacher can anytime answer your questions which arise after you've used it a while ...even answering by telephone these days, if need be. In the Zen sect's practice, there is no mantra, and when a koan is used, there is no repeating. I think koans are handy to use only in the presence of a teacher: koan study is really a study between a teacher and a student anyway, not to be done on one's own (unless one has begun it with a teacher, and the teacher suggests you continue it on your own while you are separated from the teacher by distance, or inability to travel, or to reside at or near the teacher's place). Some thoughts from a practitioner who learned formally and practiced formally, Shep. Best wishes, --Joe --- In [email protected], "shepherdspie1962" <shepherdspie1962@...> wrote: > > Hi: > I've read several books on Zen. My favorite being "the teachings of zen > master huang po". In it he says that the cause of our delusion is our > analytical thinking, i.e., always judging things as good/bad, right/wrong, > etc. From his perspective the point of practice seems to be to discipline our > minds so that we can stop this kind of thinking. But I wonder if there are > different techniques that work sufficiently well or, if some techniques might > work for one person while another technique works for someone else [for > example: chanting versus silent meditation]. Also when sitting I'm not sure > if I should be trying not to think at all, or if I should be repeating a > mantra, or repeating a koan, or just sitting and letting my mind do whatever > it does...feedback appreciated. thanks. > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
