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Thread: SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: WHAT's NEXT!?!

  1. #1

    SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: WHAT's NEXT!?!

    Almost each week someone asks me, "What comes next in my practice? How do I deepen it? What should I do now? What book should I read with all the secrets? I feel like something is still missing and that I must do more."

    But how can I respond to such a question when the very heart of this Path is learning to live and be this life radically FREE OF THE NEED FOR 'WHAT'S NEXT', LIBERATED OF 'SOMETHING MORE THAT NEED BE DONE', FULFILLED OF 'ANYTHING MISSING'!

    Oh, don't misunderstand. I typically respond that, together with daily sitting, there are some 'this and thats' that we can do to deepen our practice ... such as another 'Zen Book' to read or 'Zen Talk' to hear, studying a bit more of Buddhist and Zen teachings, attending more retreats, adding more practices such as Samu, Bowing, Chanting, Sewing, studying the Precepts or undertaking a Jukai, learning to bring 'Zazen' off the Zafu and to all aspects of life ... ALL ENRICHING WAYS TO DEEPEN THIS PRACTICE!

    And, though there is "nothing ever missing or in need of adding and doing" ... that does not mean that there are not things to lose, gain or do! Learning to be free of the "need for change" is a REVOLUTIONARY CHANGE ... a change helped along by things we need to do and change, such as learning to be less driven by GREED, ANGER and IGNORANCE! In this crazy-sane practice, we master how to live 'without need for change' by changing some things about us ... including the view that anything is ever in need of change ... thus bringing about an EARTHSHAKING CHANGE in how life is encountered! Oh, a CRAZY-SANE KARMIC KATCH-22!

    However, the fundamental Heart of this Path must remain learning to be so intimately At Home, At One with life ... that there is no need for "what's next" ... no hole to fill as "something missing". Our way to do so is simply to sit Shikantaza, dropping all thought and desire for "what's next" ... all while welcoming and embracing whatever comes next.

    So, please learn ... in one's heart of hearts ... that "what's next" is learning to live freer and freer of "asking and needing, running after or away from 'what's next'"

    I sometimes hear other teachers speak of flavors of Buddhism that promise to liberate us from this world, to encounter states of mind-and-body free of time and space! Many promise to take us from this world or ordinary being to another world or state of being. They seek for such states as "what needs to be done" and (hopefully, if the practice works out) "what's next". I don't much care for such Buddhism.

    That's because this Way of Shikantaza, if properly mastered, liberates us from this world right in this world. Time and space are fully realized, dropped away and found again, in each instant of time and inch of space. Our way takes us from this world of ordinary being ... and leaves us squarely right back in this world of ordinary being ... NOW REVEALED AS ANYTHING BUT 'ORDINARY' ALL ALONG.

    As the Buddha sat under the Bodhi Tree, and experienced the morning star after his long search and struggles, it was as simple as so.

    All that, simply by dropping to the marrow 'what's next'.

    'What's next' then turns out to be ...



    'NOTHING ELSE IS NEXT,' THUS EVERYTHING IS NEXT!



    Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows at this link. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 15 to 35 minutes is recommended

    Last edited by Jundo; 05-09-2019 at 12:42 AM.

  2. #2

    SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: WHAT'S NEXT!?!

    Wonderful. Thank you.

    I'm still a junkie for special experiences. I would be lying if I said otherwise. It's crazy to be looking for the special, when I know in my heart that the ordinary is the most special thing in the world, when seen as such. Still there is a little bit of doubt deep inside, that keeps me from realizing it in the marrow of my bones. Can it be this easy? Yes, it can! I'm sure of it! I know how effortless it can be! Funny how the mind works...

    Gassho,
    /Pontus

  3. #3

    Re: SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: WHAT'S NEXT!?!

    Thank you Jundo. Just what I needed to hear.

    It is so easy to ignore whats right in front of us to seek for that special "place". Yet, in our looking elsewhere we miss the special place right within our grasp. Always present.

    Thank you again.....

  4. #4

    Re: SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: WHAT'S NEXT!?!

    Thanks Jundo - I appreciated this talk - though as Hoyu says - not really craving a magic carpet ride,
    if that was the focus it would put me off.

    Gassho

    Willow

  5. #5

    Re: SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: WHAT'S NEXT!?!

    Thank you Jundo, your talk reminds me of the number of times I rode on the Yamanote line and looked up at the sign at the end of the car to see ? ?(tsugi wa / next up.) It always made me wonder why we are always in such a hurry to get to the next event-place-chapter-experience. Yes, by all means, let us all endeavor to just sit as thus 8)

  6. #6

    Re: SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: WHAT'S NEXT!?!

    NOTHING ELSE IS NEXT, THUS EVERYTHING IS NEXT!
    Thank you Jundo.
    This allows us to have time for everything!.... and to allow, as Ecclesiastes says, a time to live and a time to die etc.

    Gassho.

  7. #7

    Re: SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: WHAT'S NEXT!?!

    What comes next? This is always, always an ever present question in my life. I don't mean in terms of just practice on the cushion, I mean in my daily life. And it is a source of anxiety; in fact, I think this is the greatest barrier to my practice. Simultaneously, it is also a great source from which my practice comes to life... it supports my practice. When I first encountered this anxiety I ran from practice. But now I just try to sit with it.

    I remember on the suggested books thread you mention that "What the Buddha Taught" is a good book, but it has a Theravedan slant. I didn't know what you meant at first, but now I think I get it. In Mahayana, dukkha, this what is next, is really the entry point to practice isn't it? This practice is moment to moment. As everything changes, we meet that dukkha again, anew and then resist the urge to block it out or add to it.. we just sit and practice. Sorry for the rambling.

    Thank you for this teaching.

    Gassho,

    Risho

  8. #8

    Re: SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: WHAT'S NEXT!?!

    Thank you, Jundo.

    Somehow my mind made a connection between this teaching and the Heart Sutra. I shall sit on this

  9. #9

    Re: SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: WHAT'S NEXT!?!

    Ah, what's next huh? The hermitage teaches me to not have expectations for what is next, but roll with that which is next as if it doesn't matter since then the next becomes a wonderful string of always now. Some days seem the same. Was that just Tuesday, or was it Thursday? Did Winter pass and is it now Spring. Ah, look the daffodils have sprung up overnight, or was it last week I saw them.

    Gassho,

    Seishin Kyrill

  10. #10

    Re: SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: WHAT'S NEXT!?!

    Kyrillos wrote;
    Was that just Tuesday, or was it Thursday?
    We had green jello last night so it must be Thursday.

  11. #11
    This is a teaching I have to always remind myself.
    Thank you Jundo!
    Gassho
    Lee

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by dharma7154 View Post
    This is a teaching I have to always remind myself.
    Thank you Jundo!
    Gassho
    Lee
    There is no "what's next" ... no place to go and nothing to attain.

    And thus we keep moving forward, each day, diligently toward our goals.

    It is not an either/or thing.

    Gassho, J
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  13. #13
    Thanks Jundo!

  14. #14
    Jundo, Thanks loved this. Just what I needed as I reboot my practice.
    Jukai '09 Dharma Name: Shinko 慎重(Prudent Calm)

  15. #15
    Thanks very much Jundo!!

  16. #16
    With gratitude for lesson.

    Gassho,
    Edward
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  17. #17
    Thanks, Jundo I am a senior and at my age and being a junior member, I am relieved to know I just am, I don't need to seek change, and I can learn at my own speed, and in my own way. Certainly I am still growing at my speed, and that's okay. Thanks for the lesson. Elgwyn.
    Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆

  18. #18
    Remember, the answer to the question, "What's new ?" Is always, "Everthing !"

  19. #19
    Kyotai
    Guest
    I watch this talk every now and again when I find myself searching for whats next.

    Thank you

    Gassho, Kyotai
    sat today

  20. #20
    Thank you.

    Still have to learn this lesson inside and outside the zendo.

    Gassho,
    Ralf sattoday.

    義道 冴庭 / Gidō Kotei.
    Being a novice priest doesn't mean my writing about the Dharma is more substantial than yours. Actually, it might well be the other way round.

  21. #21
    Thank you Jundo

    Gassho
    Lisa
    sat today

  22. #22
    Thank you, Jundo, for this talk and for sharing this practice through Treeleaf.

    Gassho,
    Onkai
    SatToday

  23. #23
    Just watched this for the first time. Wonderful talk
    Thank you.
    Gassho,
    Enjaku
    Sat
    援若

  24. #24
    Thank you for this. It reminds me of this story: A student struggling with his meditation went to his teacher and said "My practice! Every time I sit it's miserable and I can't calm my mind!" The teacher smiled and said "Keep meditating. It will pass". And it did. After a time he began to experience deep concentration and even rapture when he sat. One day, no longer able to contain his joy, he went to his teacher and exclaimed "My practice! It's so wonderful I've never felt such bliss". Again, the teacher smiled and said "Keep meditating. It will pass."

    What's next? More of the same. We grow old, get sick, and die. We experience an entire spectrum of emotion and create whole worlds of identity that we populate with very specific and inflexible models of self. I forget (oh how I try to forget!) that life on its own terms is messy and unsatisfactory. It is only my clinging to the hope that it could be otherwise that causes me suffering.

    Thank you again for the reminder, Jundo.

    Steve
    Sat today (and oh the suffering!!!)

  25. #25
    Jundo,

    Thanks. I love the teaching. It's very refreshing. But I'm confused (like it's the first time its ever happened to a Zen student.)

    In sitting, and stillness, and the fog, maybe smog that comes up, you see all sorts of things and the way you've done things that aren'tin line with the precepts. Just living with those things seems to offer up a daily laundry list of things that need changing. You know, greed, aversion, fear, grasping, selfishness, all that Mara stuff.

    I guess the take home message is don't cling to the Mara stuff? Watch it and let it go? But you need to actively do things sometime and make specific changes, mostly to personal habits. Isn't that change?

    Tom
    Sat
    Last edited by Tom; 04-11-2017 at 04:17 AM.

  26. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom View Post
    Jundo,

    Thanks. I love the teaching. It's very refreshing. But I'm confused (like it's the first time its ever happened to a Zen student.)

    In sitting, and stillness, and the fog, maybe smog that comes up, you see all sorts of things and the way you've done things that aren'tin line with the precepts. Just living with those things seems to offer up a daily laundry list of things that need changing. You know, greed, aversion, fear, grasping, selfishness, all that Mara stuff.

    I guess the take home message is don't cling to the Mara stuff? Watch it and let it go? But you need to actively do things sometime and make specific changes, mostly to personal habits. Isn't that change?

    Tom
    Sat
    Hi Tom,

    Yes, just because "there is nothing to change" about us does --not-- mean that we may not have to change some things about us to realize this "nothing to change."

    Look at this talk and see if it helps ...

    Soto Zen folks say that every moment of Zazen is complete, sacred, a perfect action, with not one thing to add, not one thing to take away. When we sit Zazen, we are a Buddha sitting. In such way, we come to taste all of this life and world as sacred, a jewel, with not one thing to add, not one thing to take away from it. Perfectly just-what-it-is.

    But we have to be very cautious here, not misunderstand:

    ... Saying “we are already Buddha” is not enough if we don’t realize that, act like so!

    Simple, exaggerated example …

    Perhaps a fellow sits down to Zazen for the first time who is a violent man, a thief and alcoholic. He hears that “all is Buddha just as it is“, so thinks that Zen practice means “all is a jewel just as it is, so thus maybe I can simply stay that way, just drink and beat my wife and rob strangers“. Well, no, because while a thief and wife-beater is just that … a thief and wife-beater, yet a Buddha nonetheless … still, someone filled with such anger and greed and empty holes to fill in their psyche is not really “at peace with how things are” (or he would not beat and steal and need to self-medicate). In other words, he takes and craves and acts from anger and frustration because he does not truly understand “peace with this life as it is” … because if he did, he would not need to be those violent, punishing ways.

    If the angry, violent fellow truly knew “completeness“, truly had “no hole in need of filling“, “nothing lacking” everything “complete just as it is” … well, he simply would not have need to do violence, stealing and take drugs to cover his inner pain.

    This is a non-self-fulfilling Catch-22.
    http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...nners-%2818%29

    The excess desire, anger, jealousy, divided thinking is precisely what keeps the person from experiencing and realizing such completeness and "nothing to change."

    As I posted elsewhere today: Remember that Dogen not only said that, in Practice, there is "no place to go and nothing to attain."

    He also said "Practice never ends" and is in each moment, of endless depths. A Koan.

    Gassho, J

    SatToday
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  27. #27
    Many thanks. This'll be my koan for the evening walk: "This is a non-self-fulfilling Catch-22."

  28. #28
    "Nothing in need of changing," does not mean, "don't change what you want to change." Another aspect of practice is seeing in the moment what needs to be done.

    Gassho, sat today
    求道芸化 Kyūdō Geika
    I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.

  29. #29
    I wonder, reading this, if trying to literally answer the question could not be a remedy to the question. Like : "what is next" ? I mean, what is it really, what does next mean ?

    Gassho,

    Uggy,

    Sat today

  30. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by Ugrok View Post
    I wonder, reading this, if trying to literally answer the question could not be a remedy to the question. Like : "what is next" ? I mean, what is it really, what does next mean ?

    Gassho,

    Uggy,

    Sat today
    Even thinking about that. huh? What does all your thinking about stuff, such as "what is 'what is next''' mean?

    Gassho, J

    SatTodayLAH
    Last edited by Jundo; 06-23-2017 at 03:27 PM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  31. #31
    Hahahah damned, you are even crazier than i am !

    Deep bows,

    Gassho,

    Uggy

    Sat today, LAH

  32. #32
    Great thread! I recently finished the beginners series and was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of content here... and was actually getting ready to post a question of "what is next?" And "where to focus?"

    After seeing this video... I understand and I feel more at ease with my not knowing.

    Thank you!

    Gassho,
    Kevin

    Sat today

  33. #33
    Thank you Jundo.

    Gassho

    Myoho
    Mu

  34. #34
    When expression is uttered, non expression is uttered. If you recognize the expression is uttered in fullness, and yet do not experimentally penetrate non expression as non expression as non expression, you are still short of attaining the original face and marrow bones of the Buddhas and ancestors.

    Eihei Dogen in Eihei Dogen: Mystical Realist

    Found by Tai Shi
    sat
    Gassho
    Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆

  35. #35
    Wonderful Jundo.

    What I needed.

    Gassho, ST Jakugan.

  36. #36
    Member Getchi's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Between Sea and Sky, Australia.

    Aotocorrect is dubious.

    Perfect.

    I once asked if the birds circle Left or Right around the Central Mountain Meru.

    Jundo said "they know where to go".
    Perfect.


    LaH
    SatToday


    -geoff.
    Last edited by Getchi; 08-23-2020 at 10:38 AM. Reason: Aoticorrrct makes Jundo "Hindi", not an insult.
    Nothing to do? Why not Sit?

  37. #37


    Thank you Jundo.

    Gassho/SatToday
    流道
    Ryū Dou

  38. #38
    „This practice is a revolution.“ (…)

    Thank you, Jundo, for the teaching.

    Gassho
    Teiro

    Sat
    Teiro

  39. #39
    Truly driving the point home that there's "no where to go and nothing to attain". Thank you for this teaching.

    Gassho,
    SatLah
    Kelly

  40. #40
    A Jundo classic. Thank you Kelly for refreshing this thread


    Tairin
    Sat today and lah

  41. #41


    Gassho,
    Anchi
    Life itself is the only teacher.
    一 Joko Beck


    STLah
    安知 Anchi

  42. #42
    Thank you Jundo.
    Gassho
    Susan
    Sat today.

  43. #43
    I admit that this is also one of my personal favorite lessons for myself, and we all need the reminder sometimes.

    A crazy practice that is greatly centered on dropping the constant hunger for "what's next? what's next? what's next?" ...

    ... even as we keep on moving on in life, doing and facing whatever come's next. I need to remind myself too sometimes.

    Gassho, J

    STLah
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  44. #44
    Sensei
    I just wanted to express what satisfaction this video leaves me with. It resonates deeply with something I cant think or express in words. A joy - like opening a window on an early summer morning.


    Thanks Seijin

    I sat, I lent a hand and I hope I will accept a hand when I need one.

  45. #45
    This lesson and the one that uses the blender are my all time favorites from Jundo.

    Gassho, Jishin, ST, LAH

  46. #46
    Quote Originally Posted by Jishin View Post
    This lesson and the one that uses the blender are my all time favorites from Jundo.

    Gassho, Jishin, ST, LAH
    Truthfully, this is the one that even I come back to from time to time. Even I need reminding sometimes.

    Gassho, J

    stlah
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

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