Sit-a-Long with Jundo: Zazen for Beginners (Part XI)

[Jundo]

What’s the most important thing to remember about ‘breathing‘ during Zazen?

DON’T STOP!

Last time, I spoke about how there is no “bad” Zazen, even on those days when the mind is very cloudy with thoughts and emotions. But in fact, there are a couple of things we can do to settle down when the mind is really, really, really, stirred up with tangled thoughts, wild emotions and confusion.

We can count the breaths, for example, counting from 1 to 10 at each inhalation and exhalation, then coming back to one and starting all over when we reach ten (which we rarely do) or lose track. Or we can simply follow the breath without counting, for example, observing effortlessly as it enters and exits the nose. These are excellent practices, and will calm the mind (itself a form of Shikantaza that some people pursue, even for a lifetime!). HOWEVER, for reasons I will discuss, I recommend such practices only as temporary measures for true beginners with no experience of how to let the mind calm at all, or others on those sometime days when the mind really, really, really is upset and disturbed. AS SOON AS the mind settles a bit, I advise the we return our attention to “the clear, blue, spacious sky that holds all“, letting clouds of thought and emotion drift from mind, focused on what can be called “everything, and nothing at all” or “no place and everyplace at once.” I will explain why in today’s talk.

One we return to sitting focused on “everything, and nothing at all,” letting all things “just be” … we let the breath “just be” and give it no mind, too. We do not try to do anything artificial with the breath, and just let “long breaths be long, and short breaths be short,” the breath finding its natural rhythm. Pay the breath no mind, give it no thought, and even (as Master Dogen advises) drop all thought of “long” or “short”! In doing so, as we calm, the breath will calm as well … finding a natural rhythm.

We may even come to experience that there is really no separate “I” breathing, no separate air being breathed, no separate world to receive our cast out breaths … and we experience breathing as as boundless as that vast, open sky. Thus Dogen’s teacher Master Tendo said, “it is not that this breath comes from somewhere … it is not possible to say where this breath goes. For that reason, it is neither long nor short.”

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi once said this about the breath …

If you think, “I breathe,” the “I” is extra. There is no you to say “I.” What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no “I,” no world, no mind nor body: just a swinging door.

We might say that the breath, too, is “no place and everyplace at once.”

CLICK HERE for today’s Sit-A-Long video.



Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 15 to 35 minutes is recommended.

[Shokai]

Jundo-oso;

Thank you for bringing us back to basics; just like he immortal Vince Lombardi ( re; "This is a football"). When I sat with the Shoukoji group for five years, we would chant Dogen's Fukanzazengi in Japanese at least two or three times a month. Since then, I try to read it in English (and Japanese) once a month just to bring back the feeling of the group chanting together( as I do every day with the Hannyashingyo ). I suppose it does a lot of deep spiritual stuff to my being as well. And, as I told you, once in a while I gratefully receive inklings of stillness. Just sitting with Billie the cat purring before me, the clock ticking away the man-made concept of time and the computer cooling fan whirring softly, the wind stirring the tree branches outside the window and a cardinal ( the bird kind, not those found in the Vatican) that seems to think he needs to assure us of the coming daylight, pretty much sums up the zazen experience for me.

gassho,

[Hoyu]

Thank you Jundo Sensei _/_

How is this for a Zennie idea...
I remember Carl Sagan once mentioned that it has been calculated that the air we breath in has some of the same molecules breathed out by countless others. You can pick just about anyone throughout history. At this very moment know, that on a molecular level, you are quite literally breathing the same air which has entered and exited their lungs.
Interconnection!

Gassho,
Hoyu(John)

[kalesi]

Thanks Jundo,

I am really going to try to keep my eyes partially open as you mentioned. I find that I am struggling with the eyelid muscles as my concentration wants to naturally (or unnaturally) fixate on that area.

[Dosho]

Thanks Jundo,

I am really going to try to keep my eyes partially open as you mentioned. I find that I am struggling with the eyelid muscles as my concentration wants to naturally (or unnaturally) fixate on that area.

I found it very difficult at first and still do if I'm tired, but it does get easier over time.

Gassho,
Dosho

[markkemark]

Thank you, Jundo!

[jtevans70]

Amitoufo, Shifu!

[framelius]

thank you for your dharma talk, today i sat with you ,
gassho

[Amelia]

Thank you Jundo Sensei _/_

How is this for a Zennie idea...
I remember Carl Sagan once mentioned that it has been calculated that the air we breath in has some of the same molecules breathed out by countless others. You can pick just about anyone throughout history. At this very moment know, that on a molecular level, you are quite literally breathing the same air which has entered and exited their lungs.
Interconnection!

Gassho,
Hoyu(John)

This is kind of an old post to drag up but, you just blew my mind, maaan. Hehe, never thought about it that way.

[Shokai]

Originally posted by Geika;

you just blew my mind, maaan.

Similarly, there is a concept which states that everyone is our mother
gassho, Shokai

[Amelia]

Originally posted by Geika;
Similarly, there is a concept which states that everyone is our mother
gassho, Shokai

No mind left to blow.