Indiana Jones and the Temple of Zen

Just thought I'd stop by and have a cup of tea and talk to you all about spelunking. Haha, just kidding. Though the joke is pseudo-relevant. Except instead of exploring deep and ancient caves and long abandoned mine shafts, I'm bringing up the matter of spelunking the mind shafts. It is great to dive into the myriad of concepts found in Zen Buddhism. The studying, pondering, philosophizing is good for expanding the mind. I'm speaking of the little mind here of course, not the one that's boundless (though they aren't two). But it's important to not let these complex and deep thoughts consume you to the point where it replaces or distracts practice.

Zazen is the still center of the ever turning wheel. I don't care how you do it: sitting at a Zendo, a home made monastery, in the woods, on your lawn, on the bus, while gardening, doing dishes, chopping wood... whichever. What's important is that we practice. Without that, these thoughts and revolutions of the (little) mind are like planting seeds in barren earth. Abstract thinking is a hobby of mine and I'm sure it is for many of you as well. But for a moment, let's just stop and be...

Gassho, John

John,

Your words make a lot of sense to me. I've put myself on a zen text DIET because I have too much fun intellectualizing ABOUT ZEN as opposed to DOING ZAZEN. There is a place for thinking deep thoughts, and there is a place for observing all thoughts and how they change.

Quote: ". . .let's just stop and be. . . "

(forgive me)

To be is to do. - Socrates

To do is to be. - Sartre

Do be do be doo - Sinatra


Gassho,
Edward

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lordbd

John,

Your words make a lot of sense to me. I've put myself on a zen text DIET because I have too much fun intellectualizing ABOUT ZEN as opposed to DOING ZAZEN. There is a place for thinking deep thoughts, and there is a place for observing all thoughts and how they change.

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You hit the nail on the head there! There is a time and place for everything. I do appreciate that when stray thoughts do come to me on the Zafu these days they are usually related to Buddhism, rather than what I'm going to eat for dinner that night, or how I'm going to pay off these student loans haha.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by drocloce

Do be do be doo - Sinatra

Gassho,
Edward

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I like that one the best :)

Gassho, John

Nameless,

I'm right there with you on the student loan thing. There really is no choice BUT to be zen about that situation :cool:

Haha, yes indeed! I'll only have to pay a minimum of $50 a month, so I just try to think of it like that. "Fifty bucks? That's not so bad!"

Gassho, John

Everything in good measure.
Nothing wrong about reading and you are right, zazen is always the very center of the spinning wheel. The whole Buddhist literature comes from its silence and returns to it.

You may choose to read one chapter of Shobogenzo a week, one verse of the Shodoka a day, or read at random picking up some gold nuggets and then throwing them away.

The point is to be shobogenzo.
To make fukanzazengi with skin-flesh-bones-breath-mind.

Gassho

Taigu

Thank you for that Taigu. Like you said, it's important we embody what we learn, yet not be attached to it. Rather than just dwell on the words, be Shobogenzo... beautiful.

Gassho, John