I used to meditate everyday, these days it is closer to 3, but often in the car I slip into the concept of being in touch with the working surfaces of the tyres on the road.
We meet once a week to meditate in our local hall. That is about it guys, like Joe? said, meditation is a part of it, an important part to my mind, but a part all the same. My concern with meditation is the speed at which I get swept away by it and samadhi takes over, from that point 'I' start to disappear and the immensity becomes evident. From there it seems to point to a monastery. Luckily I am not at that point again and I can write this rubbish. If I am at that point again you will most probably not hear from me. Unfortunately or fortunately, the red thread holds me here. Regarding meditation in the zen tradition Bodhidharma was primarily a meditation teacher. If you look for it, it is not there. If you don't look for it, it doesn't exist. This is where meditation comes in and the rest starts to move out. The only thing moving is the mind (to quote the well worn flag story). Bob This is poem I wrote about it: Stars in my Head like Rocks in a Pool I'm digging down so deep, in life's walk of sleep. To get to the end of a lost road, descend. Staring ahead is opaque at best. Dodging barbed wire, the odd screeching tyre. Suddenly nothing, fear grabs my heart. Teetering life on a black painted cliff. No road behind me, I cannot go back. Nothing before me, just death at one step. My hearts beating so fast, no thoughts what to do. Step over the cliff edge, my god! What a view. Into deaths clutches, I enter myself. All of a sudden, life slows right down. Explosions in my head, "have I hit the ground". The stars all before me completely confound. The rock pool of life, points and laughs at the sound, of the stars in my cranium banging around. My eyes see the sky, my heart feels the light. The stars in my head are just perfect tonight. Bob Thomas 24-8-05 --- In [email protected], "Bill!" wrote: > > Joe, Edgar and Everyone, > > I sit (zazen) almost every day. I actually intend to sit every day but some days that schedule is interrupted. When I sit it is usually in the morning shortly after I wake and take a shower but BEFORE breakfast or any stimulants like a cup of tea. When I sit I sit for 20 minutes and then get up and walk around about 5 minutes to stretch my legs. I like to repeat this two more times for a total of 3 sessions of sitting. Sometimes I substitute bowing or chanting for sitting or for one of the sessions. Sometimes I only sit 1 or 2 sessions, and sometimes like I said not at all. > > What are your practices vis-a-vis zazen or some other form of meditation? > > ...Bill! > > --- In [email protected], "Joe" desert_woodworker@ wrote: > > > > Edgar, > > > > When I sit, I sit in the world of forms. Granted, I stay with my method of meditation. Except when I don't. And then I come back to it. This is Practice, and keeping and putting-in-a-foundation. It's not to be neglected, and neither has it ever been deprecated by the Old Masters, nor even our quite young, recent, master teachers. > > > > To my mind, Zazen is the indispensable 1/13th part of Zen practice. > > > > We all know too how little Bill! needs to sit, because he revealed it here. Howdy!, and kudos, Bill!(!). > > > > So, Edgar: Start a point, please, because ...so far you have none. > > > > --Joe > > > > PS If you were ever really one of their students, you'd have done more than *hear* about sitting from those traditional Zen masters you don't name. And you would definitely have heard about it, and not "almost never". Neither Dogen nor Hongzi mentioned it? Well, it's in their writings: As contemporaries, they were both 13th Century C.E. figures; their vocalizations have faded. > > > > > Edgar Owen wrote: > > > > > > Joe and Bill, > > > > > > It is true that sitting is almost never mentioned in the words of the traditional Zen masters. Enlightenment Zen experience is almost always the result of actions IN THE WORLD OF FORMS and consists of seeing the true nature of the world of forms. > > > > > > You two are totally outside of and go against Zen tradition by the exclusive emphasis you put on sitting.... > > >
