The one thing I enjoyed the most about this chapter was her openness, her acknowledgement that life is sometimes really hard and in those times it can be/seem almost impossible to continue with the "traditional" Zen practice. And that it's OK to adapt the practice a bit in order to navigate those difficult times, no need to make a problem out of it if it's not "strictly Zen".
My first contact with Zazen was in a Zen Dojo that follows the Sawaki-Deshimaru-Kosen lineage, long sitting periods in full lotus with a little kinhin in the middle, 90 minutes total each time, longer in sesshins. I loved it, I needed that at the time, but then because of a knee issue I have, full lotus wasn't a smart thing to practice for me for 90 minutes regularly. I switched to half lotus or burmese, but according to that lineage (this was said by Master Kosen in person) "if it's not full lotus, it's not Zazen, you can call it whatever you want, but not Zazen".
I continued to sit in burmese because I don't want to live with knee pain (or worse) if I can prevent it, but all the time I felt a bit bad, like I can't really practice because of my knees, and it felt a bit unfair too...
Then life changed course and I moved to a different city, and a few years later to a different country, and I simply didn't have a Dojo nearby anymore, so I continued sitting on my own, in burmese, feeling a bit inadequate. Then my kids were born and finding time to sit became really hard, and that's when I had to adapt my practice to my reality, I started chanting mantras for a few minutes, started practicing pranayama at the start of my Zazen period because it simply had to be so short that my mind didn't really had time to settle otherwise, and I kept calling it Zazen, because that's what it was for me, as best as I could. I explored other buddhist traditions and found that Zen is my way, so I felt that I was sort of fighting a battle that I couldn't win. And then I found Treeleaf, and then this book, and now this chapter, and I'm so happy and so relieved, delighted really, to know that my efforts to continue the practice were OK all along.
So THANK YOU for this book club, and THANK YOU for making this Sangha possible for all those of us with real lives that don't fit into the "traditional" Zen structure.
Gassho
Alina
ST