Zazen while travelling

[Eikyo]

Hi everyone,

I have a trip coming up this week and will be flying from the UK to California. I'm wondering if you have any tips of how to maintain your zazen practice while travelling, particularly when you are sharing a room with someone.
Apart from the jet lag and general schedule disruption, I don't know where I can find any personal space for zazen. I would feel odd sitting in my hotel room with my roommate there at the same time. So seeking any ideas for stealth zen - how do you get your meditation fix when you are on the go and surrounded by others??

Thank you,
Dee
sattoday

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[Myogan]

I guess the first question would be why does it have to be stealth? Unless they are going to be particularly distracting, just sit. But in any case, hotels have lots of places where you could sit. Hot tub Zazen is a thing, just keep it under 15 minutes.

Gassho
Sat/lah

[Jundo]

On the bus from the airport, on the toilet (pants up preferably), by the pool in a deck chair. In the elevator too, but security might come. While the room mate is watching TV, just sit in the bed and put TV and room mate out of mind. No limit.

Gassho, J

[Eikyo]

Thank you both. I think I may just need to have a chat with my travel mate and explain that they can do whatever they want but to just ignore me if I'm sitting. Maybe I should make a little sign to hang around my neck - "meditating, please do not disturb"

Jundo I like the deck chair idea, especially as I'll be in LA so the weather is likely to be lovely

Gassho,
Dee

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[Kokuu]

Hi Dee

I think having a chat with your roommate is great. It is something that will probably feel a little embarrassing the first time you do it with them around but then be normal.

The sign is good too!

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Jundo]

Yes, just hang this from your nose ...




In any case, remember that in Zazen, "disturbance" is not outside, but in the reaction between your ears.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Mp]

Hey Dee ... Zazen can be done anywhere and with anyone. I have found that, as others have said, having a chat with your travel mate is a good idea. Most people will be cool with you sitting I feel, but might feel uncomfortable because they may feel that they are bothering you. Communication is always key. Now, happy traveling. =)

Gassho
Shingen

Sat/LAH

[Jakuden]

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...t=blanket+zafu

Here's the ever-popular "making a cushion out of a blanket" thread just in case you need it :-)

On my recent trip my daughter tended to be blaring Netflix in the hotel room, so I did do most of my sitting in a pool deck chair. Just folded a pool towel and sat on it. Most hotels have both indoor and outdoor public spaces with chairs that are fine for sitting. Lots of people meditate now, I doubt anyone would think twice if you set up a yoga mat in the corner of a hotel fitness room and sat Zazen, either. There's always the Insight Timer app on the phone to be your bell. But yes I can't see why your travel mate should be uncomfortable if you sat on the bed or the floor or in the bathroom for a bit as long as you explained that you meditate. They don't need to know the details of Zazen if you don't feel comfortable explaining it. They might even be interested and want to do it with you!

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH

P.S. I have spent lots of time meditating in airports, on airplanes and trains, etc. I would think on a long trip like the one you are taking, there would be a few minutes where there is no conversation and you could Zazen in peace in your airport chair or on the plane. I usually just sit upright, I don't always mudra anymore if I think it will freak people out although sometimes I will under my blanket or sweater on the plane.

[1adam12]

This is a great thread and one that is hitting home for me right now. I’m currently traveling and I have been sitting zazen wherever and whenever I can. I sat zazen on the plane the other day, in the room I am staying in while my wife was getting ready, and just small times throughout the day whenever there is a moment that isn’t filled with family visiting.

My advice: just sit.

Thank you,

Adam

I sat today


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[Geika]

I kind of dropped stressing about practice while traveling a while ago. Sometimes I find a good moment alone, but for the most part, I just kind of meditate by being WITH the trip, and the people I'm traveling with, and I just immerse myself in that. The cushion is always there when I return. Often, I would barely find a minute to sit zazen, and I would return feeling guilty that I let practice lag. Now I drop that guilt and just try to be in the moment.

Gassho, sat today, lah

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[Jishin]

Over time I have become less neurotic when, where and how to meditate. It’s the result that counts.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Eikyo]

I kind of dropped stressing about practice while traveling a while ago. Sometimes I find a good moment alone, but for the most part, I just kind of meditate by being WITH the trip, and the people I'm traveling with, and I just immerse myself in that. The cushion is always there when I return. Often, I would barely find a minute to sit zazen, and I would return feeling guilty that I let practice lag. Now I drop that guilt and just try to be in the moment.

Gassho, sat today, lah

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Wow thank you for this advice, it's really helpful. I'm such a perfectionist that I know my tendency is to go really hard on myself / burn myself out and then if I am not "zazening" enough my standards, I'll let the practice slide completely and take ages to come back to it.... sounds like the attitude of not being perfect is something that will really help my practice while travelling.

So the theory makes sense, let's see if my perfectionist monkey brain actually can put it into action

Gassho,
Dee

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[Geika]

Glad to be able to help. Remember, the slogan here is, "All of life is our temple."

Gassho, sat today, lah

[Jundo]

I just wrote this for my new book manuscript, which I am working on. It is inspired by this conversation, and also some other student(s) from the past (they are composites of a few situations in the past we have discussed in this Sangha):

==========


Someone wrote me to ask where one can practice Zazen when out of the house, or in a noisy house where roommates keep the television always blaring. A student in a developing country wrote to ask me about Zazen in an house with paper thin walls, where neighbors can sometimes be heard fighting or having sex in other apartments, smoky buses pass, and he has even heard people firing guns outside in celebration, perhaps in anger. That is where he must live, and there is no other place. I told each and all that, although we usually think of just “disturbances,” it takes “outside” and “inside” to be disturbed. Yes, there may be a situation of factors outside your senses, but the reaction of “being disturbed” takes place between your two ears. If you don’t react emotionally or mentally to a situation, then it is not “disturbing.” In fact, Zazen is not a practice that requires one to sit only in a peaceful place (some teachers say that it should only be practiced in a peaceful and quiet setting, which really disturbs me when I hear. Ha ha.) Yes, a peaceful and quiet setting helps the beginner to find a peace and quiet in heart, so teachers generally recommend it. That is true. However, the real power of Zazen is to know the gentle way of allowing things to be, not resisting, nurturing a peace and quiet in heart no matter what is happening outside. In fact, peace and quiet of heart makes this whole world peaceful because ( get this: ) the world is just the world … and the interpretation of the world as peaceful or disturbing is a matter ultimately of the human mind's reaction.

I am not saying that this practice will allow you to sit Zazen undisturbed next to a roaring jet engine or on a battle field. Actually, it will … until the force of the motor or bombs physically blow you away, dead or deaf as a post at best. I believe that there are meditation masters who can concentrate to such depths that they might not react to even that with ordinary reactions, as if they were in a coma or anaesthetized, unaware of the scene. However, I don’t think that you need go so far for most of daily life, nor I am recommending that you sit Zazen next to jet engines. Rather, I am talking about ordinary, daily disturbances. If your roommates won’t quiet down despite a respectful request, sit with the t.v. sound but not thinking about, resisting or getting pulled into the t.v. sound. Then, the problem is no problem. Same with the buses and the neighbors’ sex. Although I hope for a world without weapons of violence (and while I am going to first jump at the sound of a shot, plus make sure that I am not sitting by any windows), one can even sit with gunfire. Yes, even on a battlefield (I advised a student, a service member seeing combat in Afghanistan, to do his best with that. He said that it actually helped.) Of course, then please get up and work for cities and a world without gun violence and war.

But in any case, my point is that you have great inner control over what is “disturbing.”


Gassho, J

STLah

[Misha]

I was visiting a friend in a nearby city recently (everything is relatively nearby here in Ireland) & I was just upfront with him that 30 mins of morning zazen is like brushing my teeth. Luckily he's forthcoming as his dad meditates. I was going to bring my seiza bench but just sat on the edge of the bed too. I don't go on & on about my practice unless someone is clearly interested or involved themselves, but it's not too much in my opinion to tell people about your routine. Of course it helps to have a separate space sometimes, but I mean...any corner or wall will do right?

I'm heading on holiday with family for two weeks in August, so we've yet to see if I'll walk the walk...or...sit the sitting

Gassho,
Mike

[Shoka]

Dee,

First I'm in LA. Welcome! Second, it's going to be hot hot hot this week so I don't recommend meditating by the pool unfortunately.

As to travel and finding a space. I agree you could be upfront with your roommate if you know them well enough. My sister and I travel together a lot and we used to end up in bed late because we are both awake but don't want to wake the other. It's pretty funny, now we both know better and just get up (unless we have the dogs, cause once you move there is a schedule for getting outside for adventure.)

Sometimes just saying hey I get up and do this in the morning don't worry about disturbing me is easier than both laying silently in bed for a hour.

Also check out your hotel for spaces that you might use. As someone else said in the fitness room it won't be odd at all for someone to do yoga and then meditate. Most people won't even bat and eye.

Also depending on where you are there are tons of zen centers, Buddhist groups and all sorts of things you might be able to find a group to sit with.

Good luck!

Gassho,

Shoka
Sattoday

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[Joyo]

On the bus from the airport, on the toilet (pants up preferably), by the pool in a deck chair. In the elevator too, but security might come. While the room mate is watching TV, just sit in the bed and put TV and room mate out of mind. No limit.

Gassho, J

This is exactly what I do when traveling. I don't have formal sitting times like I do when I'm at home.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today/lah

[Kyonin]

Hi Dee,

These past few years I have been traveling a lot more that I would have expected. So I have adapted zazen to this. Instead of playing a game on the phone, I sit zazen while waiting for the plane.

I have sat in parks, malls, bus stations, hotel rooms, living rooms of strange people and even in restrooms. The time has been from 1 minute to 1 hour.

You can sit zazen pretty much everywhere plus you can make your whole trip a zazen session. Sometimes you sit, sometimes you go sightseeing. But it is all zazen at the end.

Hope that helps.

Gassho,

Kyonin
Sat/LAH

[1adam12]

Hi Dee,

These past few years I have been traveling a lot more that I would have expected. So I have adapted zazen to this. Instead of playing a game on the phone, I sit zazen while waiting for the plane.

I have sat in parks, malls, bus stations, hotel rooms, living rooms of strange people and even in restrooms. The time has been from 1 minute to 1 hour.

You can sit zazen pretty much everywhere plus you can make your whole trip a zazen session. Sometimes you sit, sometimes you go sightseeing. But it is all zazen at the end.

Hope that helps.

Gassho,

Kyonin
Sat/LAH

So true. Thank you.





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[Tairin]

I just came back from a week of camping (not glamping). I didn’t formally sit like at home but I took the opportunities that presented themselves. Sat at the campfire at night. Sat at the beach shore. Sat at the picnic table. Sat at the river side. I didn’t stress about the amount of time each day although I tried to make sure there was at least some time each day.


Tairin
Sat this morning by the river’s edge listening to the frogs

[sjlabat]

I travel from time to time as well. For the most part, I've had a room to myself so, the roommate issue has not often came up often. I find I usually have to be more intentional about keeping to my zazen practice and not letting it 'slide' due to traveling. Overall, I've found this to be helpful - not getting 'stuck' in "right" vs. "wrong" kind of zazen but keep to the practice of it and not get to rigid about how I do zazen.

gassho
sjl
sat, lah

[Ishin]

I’m currently traveling with my family. While in our condo I sit when I can in my bedroom. Often it’s quite loud and chaotic. I see this as good practice as sometimes right now is loud and chaotic. Sometimes I sit at the beach with my very easily embarrassed teenagers around me. I don’t make a big deal of it I just sit in my chair and sit. If you didn’t know I was sitting you wouldn’t know. I’m just sitting. Why make a big deal of not making a big deal.

You can also do other things. Walk, Samu etc.

Make everything right now.

Gassho
Ishin
Sat Today/ lah

[Shinshou]

I kind of dropped stressing about practice while traveling a while ago. Sometimes I find a good moment alone, but for the most part, I just kind of meditate by being WITH the trip, and the people I'm traveling with, and I just immerse myself in that. The cushion is always there when I return. Often, I would barely find a minute to sit zazen, and I would return feeling guilty that I let practice lag. Now I drop that guilt and just try to be in the moment.

Gassho, sat today, lah

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Same here, you took the words straight out of my brain. I just returned from a week long beach vacation with my family. I think I formally sat two times, but I sat informally so many times throughout the week, it's impossible to count - while holding a five year old in the ocean, sitting with eyes closed listening to the kids play in the pool, seeing a squabble bubble up, tending to a bruised shin....I used to feel bad that I sometimes chose other meaningful activities while on vacation (or even occasionally in regular non-vacation life), but it's not a competition. No one is keeping score.

Shinshou (Daniel)
Sat Today

[Meishin]

Make everything right now.

Yes.

For whatever reason, I have no trouble waking early and doing my sit while lying in bed. Don't fall back asleep. So when we travel, I do lying-down-Buddha-sits for the most part. Sometimes I'll do sitting-down-Buddha-sits if it's workable. But Shinshou, Ishin and Geika are right. Traveling is a wonderful opportunity to be fully present.

Matter of fact, leaving soon for travels until late August.

Gassho
Meishin
Sat Today LAH