With respect,
Good Morning Everyone,
Yesterday at Temple I spoke about seated Zen practice, about how we often think of discipline incorrectly and thus push against it. There is a source of strength deep within us. I know it is there; I have tapped it in Vietnam, on long motorcycle trips, in Sesshin, in Ango, and on long runs. The conventional wisdom to developing endurance is that we push ourselves to tap into it. Wrong. This strength resides in stillness, in the heart of our being. To push to touch it actually pushed it away.
In our struggle to achieve something, say running 26.2 miles or say, sitting in zazen for Sesshin, it is our goal and push to achieve it that forms a barrier, or resistance, to its actual achievement. Our practice is a gentle way, but a resolute way, none-the-less. Our practice is to release ourselves into our practice.
Sitting in zazen we often want to move, we want the period to be over. We say things to ourselves, we say things to the timer, and we sometimes struggle against these. What I suggest is not to surrender to the pain or the thought or the feeling, but rather to surrender the goal and touch our inner stillness. When we release ourselves and just reside in the exact moment, the exact breath, the exact feeling, it is possible to open our grip and let it go. For runners, this is stillness in motion, the “zone.” For Zensters, it is Zazen. It is the stillness of the heart/mind.:
This is discipline of a different sort. This is a discipline of self-awareness in the process of opening selflessness. This is Zen. Practice touching that strength of resolve we already possess. With every out-breath we touch our true self.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Yesterday at Temple I spoke about seated Zen practice, about how we often think of discipline incorrectly and thus push against it. There is a source of strength deep within us. I know it is there; I have tapped it in Vietnam, on long motorcycle trips, in Sesshin, in Ango, and on long runs. The conventional wisdom to developing endurance is that we push ourselves to tap into it. Wrong. This strength resides in stillness, in the heart of our being. To push to touch it actually pushed it away.
In our struggle to achieve something, say running 26.2 miles or say, sitting in zazen for Sesshin, it is our goal and push to achieve it that forms a barrier, or resistance, to its actual achievement. Our practice is a gentle way, but a resolute way, none-the-less. Our practice is to release ourselves into our practice.
Sitting in zazen we often want to move, we want the period to be over. We say things to ourselves, we say things to the timer, and we sometimes struggle against these. What I suggest is not to surrender to the pain or the thought or the feeling, but rather to surrender the goal and touch our inner stillness. When we release ourselves and just reside in the exact moment, the exact breath, the exact feeling, it is possible to open our grip and let it go. For runners, this is stillness in motion, the “zone.” For Zensters, it is Zazen. It is the stillness of the heart/mind.:
This is discipline of a different sort. This is a discipline of self-awareness in the process of opening selflessness. This is Zen. Practice touching that strength of resolve we already possess. With every out-breath we touch our true self.
Be well.
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