A matter of practice ....daily rhythm

[Frank]

Do you have a certain rhythm/order to your practice?

For a few weeks, mine has kind of gone like this:

Awake, breakfast, wife off to work.
First sit.
Shower, housework, lunch.
Second sit.
Listen to some light music, reading/study, tea.
Prepare dinner.
Wife home, talk about her day (she's a hospice nurse so she needs to vent, unwind distress. Yesterday for example she had a death while on a home visit...needed to vent)
Dinner together, little TV, light reading.
Dishes.
Third sit
Bedtime.

How does your day roll?

Gassho
Frank
Sat Today

[Myosha]

Hello,

Eat when hungry, sleep when tired.


Gassho
Myosha sat today

[Eishuu]

Hi Frank,
I've only been doing zazen daily for a month or so but I tend to sit for 15 mins on waking and do a short sit with my husband before bed, which is really nice as in 5 years he's never meditated with me before. And then as I'm housebound and not working I may or may not have extra sits in the day depending on how I feel. Some days I am drawn to have lots of short sits. I am finding zazen quite addictive, if that's the word. I've been meditating for some 20 years but have often experienced a lot of resistance to it and struggled to sit regularly. In contrast I find myself gravitating to zazen, almost falling into it.

Gassho
Lucy
Sat today

[Frank]

Thanks Mosho, Thanks Lucy...

[Kyonin]

Hi Frank.

My days follow this pattern almost always. Sometimes I do sleep a while longer

I get up at 4:30 AM

Make a cup of coffee.

Drink coffee while I read.

Chant Hart Sutra.

Zazen for 40 minutes.

Verse of Atonement and Four Vows.

Yoga (1 hour)

Then it's work, cooking and lunch.

In the afternoon it's a little more work.

Zazen for 20 minutes or more.

And that's pretty much it.

Gassho,

Kyonin
#SatToday

[Mp]

Hey Frank,

When I wake, I move like a feather in the wind ... life sometimes has it's own rhythm. A branch that is too stiff breaks in the wind. =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

[Frank]

Thank you Kyonin..Thank you Shingen

[Jishin]

Hello,

Eat when hungry, sleep when tired.


Gassho
Myosha sat today

Fart when gassy.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Joyo]

"Having no destination, I am never lost" --Ikkyu

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

[Jundo]

Hey Frank,

When I wake, I move like a feather in the wind ... life sometimes has it's own rhythm. A branch that is too stiff breaks in the wind. =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

Resonates here.

When I am in a monastery sitting Sesshin, I might live a very scheduled life ... up at 3:30, Zazen at 4, Ceremony at 6, Oryoki Breakfast at 7 ... back to bed at 9 at night ... day after day, repeat repeat.

Also, everyone is different. Some folks do well with a firm rhythm, others float like the feather.

Perhaps it is my personality, some of it is my work as a translator (the assignments and deadlines always vary) or other responsibilities, but no two days are quite the same. I am rarely to bed or up from bed at the same time twice. I sit Zazen daily, usually before coffee (unless life emergencies delay), read a couple of pages of the old Suttas or Sutras ... and then I am off, taking it as it comes ... very irregular, never the same. Some things I do manage to accomplish every day ... translation work, a bit of Japanese study, an hour on the exercise bike, more Buddhist reading, shopping, picking the kids up from school, dinner with the family and (of course) Treeleaf ... but no fixed schedule, lengths or even order of happening. Even my Zazen periods are rarely the same length, depending on my heart that day. Once twice more, 10 minutes or 40 minutes ...

I am consistent and get er' done ... just not on the schedule.

Everyone is different, with their own personality. Neither way is better or worse for this I feel. That is why I do not recommend everyone to do as I do, and some folks may benefit more from Frank and Kyonin's order.

Gassho, J

SatToday (about 11:07 for 20 minutes I think)

[Mp]

I am consistent and get er' done ... just not on the schedule.

So true ... and of course when I want to be that feather and just float along, life needs me to be structured and scheduled, so then I be structured and scheduled. Even when I float like a feather, I too have daily routine and practices that I do ... I have just found for me is to be flexible with those structures and schedules. Like Jundo said, we each have our own groove that we groove too. =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

[Geika]

Thank you, everyone,

I think one of my biggest preoccupations in Practice is how to structure my life in a way that looks like I expect Zen Practice to be, but this is just a distraction from what really is my life as a Zen practitioner. Zen is unexcluded from the moments when I feel I am failing. That feeling of failing is just me grasping, experiencing the dukkha that arises when I have some sort of idea of what should be instead of what is, separating everything.

Gassho, sat today

[Kyotai]

Hello Frank,

My schedule is a little more all over the map. But on a day like today,

Up at 4am, breakfast, make lunch, shower and 10 minutes Zazen. Off to work for 0600. Home at 1500 hrs. Sit Zazen for 20 minutes, make supper, clean, pick up kids, dinner, playtime, swimming skating or scouts for kids, bed time and repeat all over again.

Gassho, Kyotai
Sat today

[Kakunen]

We will walk kinhin step by step.
We will sit Zazen breath by breath.

So we do not need to think about rhythm.Rhythm need 2step and more.

But before when we walk one step,we can not realize 2nd step.

Rhythm is a word that express from outside and result of our steps.

In heart sutra express about emptiness and nothingness. We do not have form.


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[Kakunen]

Schedule of Antaiji.

http://antaiji.org/en/practice/schedule/



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[Jishin]

Hi Frank,

At 5:15 I get up. I read emails, Treeleaf forum, feed the dogs and Zazen usually at 6:30 in the morning. I exercise approximately 10 to 15 minutes in the morning after Zazen. I participate in the festivities from Treeleaf on Friday evenings from time to time. I drop the kids off at school at 7:45 and I am at work by 8 AM. I see about 25 patients per day. I get home at about 6 o'clock. I usually do not have time for more than 15 minutes for lunch. When I get home I am exhausted but do the best I can to be pleasant. I am always on call as I work alone. I am always checking my emails and screening my phone calls due to possible patient emergencies. I have a copy of the Heart Sutra at work which usually sits right under my left elbow which stares at me throughout the day. I also get automatic emails with the Heart Sutra sent to me once a day. Weekend routine is a little different but I sit 30 minutes as usual. I have not to missed a day of sitting for several years.

When sitting space and time vanish. This being so, for some people 10 minutes a day may be sufficient and for others three weeks at a time might be needed. At least this is what Jundo says and he's the boss around here.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Jundo]

I came across this passage from Master Linji today, which has a poem said by some to be by Manorhita, the twenty-second Indian patriarch of Zen.

... this "activity going on right now" ... "mysterious principle" ... "accordance with the myriad circumstances" ... "going with the flow" ...

... it just seems to fit here.

“Followers of the Way, what more is there for the resolute fellow to
doubt? The activity going on right now—whose is it? Grasp and use, but
never name—this is called the ‘mysterious principle.’ Come to such understanding
as this, and there is nothing to be disliked. A man of old said:

[My] mind turns in accordance with the myriad circumstances,
And this turning, in truth, is most mysterious.
Recognizing [my] nature while according with the flow,
[I] have no more joy nor any sorrow.

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Frank]

Thanks everyone...insightful.
I like my structure now, but im.also flexible to what life brings me daily, or moment by moment. It's in those moments that I learn to let go of any structure to "go with the flow"...as in the children's movie Frozen ... Let it go. .let it go !

Gassho
Frank
Sat Today

[Frank]

Furthermore, in the past, I always found it frustrating when my expectations or plans were disrupted, and at times still do, but now, more often than not, I automatically relax, breathe, and let go of my expectations. That makes me smile that im.actually awake, and aware of that moment.

Being like a flowing river, when stones, or other obstructions block the flow, the river continues, going over, around or through... the beat, the rhythm goes on.

Thank you for all your sharing

/-\

[RichardH]

Hi Frank. The days in our home are not regular and it is hard to say how they will unfold week to week. I try to keep to a scheduled morning sitting, but if there has been a late night of work the sitting comes a bit later. There is no right or wrong state of mind going onto sitting. Whether I am feeling settled and clear, or banged up and disturbed, the sitting is an open space for whatever is going on. Sometimes things settle out, sometimes they churn. Room for all.

Gassho
Daizan
Sat today

[Risho]

Yeah I concur -- my weekdays are dominated by work; I have also begun working out again. So I usually sit in the mornings during the week, but I haven' t mastered a schedule.

Even during Ango, I usually sit in the morning and then after work; so I have weird sitting times.

I usually try to read some Buddhist book; I stick with two books at a time usually; for example, right now I'm reading "Opening the Hand of Thought" with the book club and "After Buddhism" on my own. But I love reading (primarily non-fiction). I've started getting into history too; Tony Horowitz is phenomenal. I wish he was my history teacher when I was a youngster.

Then when I have time, I will play a game, e.g. right now it's Fallout 4; what a great game, if you like that sort of thing...

Gassho,

Risho
-sattoday

[CK732]

Too much structure stresses me out. I sit twice a day, once before 7am in the morning and once in the evening. I sit instant zazen anytime in between as needed. I have my hands full waking up three hours before I need to be at work just to make sure that I'm fully awake and aware (so NOT a morning person) the only structure I have are the set number of hours that I work - my work gets done within those hours on my schedule. No two days are exactly the same - if they were I wouldn't be having fun

Gassho

Nanto Sat2Day

[Byrne]

My life's rhythm is highly arrhythmic. I sit when I can. Minimum of 15 minutes everyday, rarely more than 30. Sometimes first thing in the morning. Sometimes mid day. Sometimes before bed. When will I sit has been my daily puzzle since I started with Treeleaf and I enjoy the challenge.

Gassho

Sat Today