Zazen and the 3 poisons

[JohnS]

How does zazen help eliminate the 3 poisons from one's mind?

Gassho

John

SatToday

[Nengei]

Please excuse any unintended appearance that I am trying to teach or explain anything. I am a novice priest, and have no depth of knowledge or qualifications for teaching Zen.

Simply put, it won't. What zazen can do is help you to not feed the snake (hatred), the pig (delusion), and the rooster (greed). Much of what grows them is the choices you make, off the mat. What are the things you do in your life that help the snake, the pig, and the rooster to grow? I can name a lot of things that grow the three poisons in me. Zazen helps me choose to avoid fattening up those guys. For Nengei, it is more sitting, more liturgy, more metta, and other parts of practice. It is less social media, less screen time, and avoiding violence in all its forms. It is gratitude, appreciation for our Sangha, eating well, exercising, studying the Dharma, and having some fun.

Gassho,
遜道念芸 Nengei
Sat today. LAH.

[Kokuu]

Simply put, it won't. What zazen can do is help you to not feed the snake (hatred), the pig (delusion), and the rooster (greed). Much of what grows them is the choices you make, off the mat. What are the things you do in your life that help the snake, the pig, and the rooster to grow? I can name a lot of things that grow the three poisons in me. Zazen helps me choose to avoid fattening up those guys. For Nengei, it is more sitting, more liturgy, more metta, and other parts of practice. It is less social media, less screen time, and avoiding violence in all its forms. It is gratitude, appreciation for our Sangha, eating well, exercising, studying the Dharma, and having some fun

[Jundo]

I believe that Zazen most certainly helps to free us from the three poisons (excess desires and clutching, anger and hate, divided thinking which leads to jealousy and other such harmful behavior). In Zazen, the self softens, becomes more equanimeous and satisfied, less in friction with life, less prone to imprisonment by goals and judgements, more prone to encounter the world in wholeness free of divisions. I do not believe that we can ever be totally free of such proclivities while alive in a human brain and body, with its desires and emotions, its need to judge to survive, its need to function as a separate being. However, we can certainly untangle from the extremes of the "three poisons" through Zazen.

That said, I fully agree with what was written above: Our practice does not end on the sitting cushion, and the choices and habits we make and develop all through life are just as vital. Remove yourself from triggers and ways of thinking that throw you into the poisons. Live gently, with greater satisfaction about life. Do as Nengei advices. It is something to be nurtured, and habits to be developed, in our acts, words and thoughts. The Zen attitude of less clutching to excess desires, and greater equanimity, can be applied throughout daily life.

Gassho, J

STLah

Sorry to run long