Sunday, September 19, 2004

Sunday Zen

I went to the zendo today. I didn't go last week and I almost didn't go today. Why is it so hard? My mediations was mostly sitting and thinking about stuff. I had a few moments of actually doing the work but that was it. I definitely felt more focused during the nitensoji (short cleaning period during formal practice), sweeping the brick path, than I had during zazen. Maybe I need more activity and less sitting in front of this computer? I had a slight headache the whole morning and I began to contemplate the pain and how it kept me in my body and mind. Perhaps that's why we hold on to pain? To stay with the ego self? The discussion with our teacher was wonderful as usual. He was reading one of Roshi's teishos and in was a line about being one with everyone, and everyone being no other than myself. Therefore when I injure someone, I am injuring myself. For some reason, this made me cry. It wasn't a very strong cry, since I was with the group and supposed to be listening and participating in the discussion, but it was good because some of the debris of the last two weeks was washed away, some of the tightness was loosened, and some of the agitation was released. A small bit of peace could seep into me. And that felt very good indeed.

4 comments:

Dale said...

It's all doing the work, Tinne!

The only thing you can do wrong is not go straight back to work when you realize you're distracted. *Being* distracted isn't something you have any control over. Happens to all of us, all the time.

And if you're distracted for the whole session, well, then the work for that session was to realize "I can be swept away by distraction for an entire session of zazen, and never realize it!"

It can be awfully discouraging, I know. But meditation isn't about being undistracted. It's really about observing what happens when you try to be undistracted -- & about the discipline of bringing your mind back *immediately* when you realize it's gone. If that means you have to bring it back a hundred times, that's fine. If it means you never even realize it, that's fine too (I've never actually had that happen, though, and I bet you won't, either).

It's so hard because -- it's hard. Meditation is hard. It's strenuous work. There's often no immediate reward but realizing: "my God, it's even more of a mess in there than I thought!"

But don't use that as a measure for how fruitful your practice is!

Holly Miller said...

Thanks Dale. You are right, I know it. It's just that I felt like I was making progress for a while and then it all slipped away. I did bring myself back a few times. One thing is for sure, next session of zazen will be different than this one ;)

Anonymous said...

I definitely think that pain during sitting practice is, in part, a distraction or, in other words, a way to keep from experiencing the present moment. Or, maybe, it has to do with how you are reacting to the pain? Well, certainly fruit for discussion.

(I've made a typo that you made here: mediations when you mean meditations. It's led me to start pondering the relationship between the two words, although I haven't gotten very far with it--the pondering--yet.)

Anonymous said...

Oops! That last comment was from me.