Re: TRUE SHIKANTAZA by Jundo
Gassho.
How can one attend to this moment if one is always trying to attain something?
I dreaded coming in to work today. I think I'm now getting to the point where I'm not trying to NOT dread coming to work - nor judging myself for dreading going to work. Not to resist even one's resistance - that seems appropriate.
Chet
Re: TRUE SHIKANTAZA by Jundo
Quote:
In that way, the "self" is put out of a job, loses its functions, is rendered mute. For the normal work of the "self" is desiring, complaining, contrasting & dividing, wishing, regretting, remembering, anticipating, fearing etc. etc. ...
Is it not also the normal work of the self to love, create, contemplate, have compassion, enjoy, learn, etc... ? Do we lose a connection to those when the self goes POOF?
Re: TRUE SHIKANTAZA by Jundo
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tobiah
Quote:
In that way, the "self" is put out of a job, loses its functions, is rendered mute. For the normal work of the "self" is desiring, complaining, contrasting & dividing, wishing, regretting, remembering, anticipating, fearing etc. etc. ...
Is it not also the normal work of the self to love, create, contemplate, have compassion, enjoy, learn, etc... ? Do we lose a connection to those when the self goes POOF?
The self doesn't go 'poof' - in reality, it just never existed the way you thought it did. Nothing is lost, how could it be?
Chet
Re: TRUE SHIKANTAZA by Jundo
There is no shikantaza...
Confuse?
Than back to your seat...
For Jundo: nice posting :wink:
Gassho, Mujo
Re: TRUE SHIKANTAZA by Jundo
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shui_Di
There is no shikantaza...
Confuse?
Than back to your seat...
For Jundo: nice posting :wink:
Gassho, Mujo
Shui Di! I am glad that posting brought you out of hiding! :D I miss you when you are not around.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tobiah
Quote:
In that way, the "self" is put out of a job, loses its functions, is rendered mute. For the normal work of the "self" is desiring, complaining, contrasting & dividing, wishing, regretting, remembering, anticipating, fearing etc. etc. ...
Is it not also the normal work of the self to love, create, contemplate, have compassion, enjoy, learn, etc... ? Do we lose a connection to those when the self goes POOF?
Hi Tobiah,
The wonderful thing about our Zen practice is that it is always a "have our cake and eat it too ... anyway, be 'at one' with the cake" practice.
So, in this practice ... we keep our self, cherish our little self ... and lose it too. Depends on the time and place (or timelessness and placelessness). 8)
In a nutshell ... keep and nurture the positive, healthful emotions and actions ... such as to love, create, contemplate, have compassion, enjoy, learn. Perhaps sometimes we should remember moderation even there ... for like oxygen and water, even good things can sometimes be harmful in excess. But, otherwise, live ... and dance, enjoy, love! :D
On the other hand, do as you can to drop or temper the harmful thoughts, emotions, acts ... hate, greed, pettiness, jealousy, etc. etc.
There are times we remember and nourish our little self ... times to see our self in other ways, as the grass and trees and stars. Back and forth, back and forth.
How's that?
Gassho, J
Re: TRUE SHIKANTAZA by Jundo
yeah, ok... why do I have to see the same advice over and over, and still not get it? :roll:
(rhetorical)
gassho
Re: TRUE SHIKANTAZA by Jundo
I greatly enjoyed this post, Jundo. Thanks.
I love the bit about allowing samsara to be samsara -- because it seems to me samsara IS going to be samsara, whether I "allow" it or not. I might as well just recognize that and keep going.
I like your advice about compassion and love and joy and all that, too. I have tried to explain to a friend that "losing the self" doesn't really mean falling into a hole and avoiding life, and that "non-attachment" does not mean not caring. (I don't prosletyze zen to my friends, by the way ... I just try to answer questions when asked). Anyway, the post that started this thread might help me answer such questions down the road.
One thought non-attachment and being in love: I see "non-attachment" here as meaning I don't cling to some idealized version of my wife. I recognize she grows and changes, and she always will, and that she is not today the same girl I married (she's even better!) I also see "non-attachment" as meaning I don't try to make my wife the answer for everything, or somehow make her responsible for my actions or happiness or whatever. I'm happy to share my life with her and thrilled she wants to share hers with me, but I can't be so dependent on her that she becomes the "be all" of my life ... if that makes any sense.
Sorry if I hijacked the thread a bit or strayed from the point. I just had these thoughts in response to Jundo's post.
Re: TRUE SHIKANTAZA by Jundo
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZenYen
I love the bit about allowing samsara to be samsara -- because it seems to me samsara IS going to be samsara, whether I "allow" it or not. I might as well just recognize that and keep going.
Is there anything more insane than saying 'no' to what is already happening?
Chet
Re: TRUE SHIKANTAZA by Jundo
Quote:
Is there anything more insane than saying 'no' to what is already happening?
Chet
According to an old colloquial definition, saying 'no' over an over and expecting a different result every time would be the most insane. :wink:
Re: TRUE SHIKANTAZA by Jundo
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jundo
By foresaking all need for peace and happiness in one's day-to-day ... one finds the Happiness of one's day to day just-as-it-is, at home where one stands ... standing everyplace and no place in particular (a "Happiness" that does not even require one to feel "happy" all the time! ) ... and a Peace that washes away and holds all reactions to peace or disturbance (thus forsaking even the demand on life that it cause us to feel "peaceful" Now THAT's Peaceful!).
Bingo! We have a winner!
Many thanks, Jundo. It seems that I can't be reminded of this basic stance often enough.
Gassho,
Bill