Commentaries on Meditation, Zen, Buddhism, and Mindfulness
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Sitting is hard. Sometimes you feel good, but often you feel a little stiff or sore. You don’t notice how it affects your life. You get busy. Stuff comes up. Somehow daily sitting becomes less of a priority. Somewhere along the line you pick up the saying that “a few moments of mindfulness each day is good enough”. “Good Enough” is different to “Good”. We need to Keep Sitting.
Recently I took the opportunity to go on a personal retreat for a few days. I went down to, Kiama, a very lovely place. For my retreat I packed a few books, my laptop, my camera, some incense, my Zafu and Zabuton, and in a last minute dash, I picked up my Kannon, purchased from the markets in Mount Tremper, near Zen Mountain Monastery. Continue reading ‘The Breaking of Compassion’
Malas can be a rewarding form of meditation. I remember back to this time last year when I was investigating using a Mala in my practice. Now, after a year of active use, I feel able to give feedback from my experience. The short answer? Get one!
Humans are very adaptable. We quickly and deeply form habits and fall into routine. This comes about through the mind’s ability to ‘get by’ and it’s conservation of mental energy. Once we form a habit, they can be very hard to break. However, It’s only when breaking a habit we see its strength and hold on us. We need to live presently, consciously, turn down the auto pilot, to “Step out of the bureaucracy of ego” as Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa counsels (After the Ecstasy, the Laundry(aff)).
Often we mistake ideas as reality. As Michael McAlister reminds us, “The map is not the territory”. Through a practice such as meditation, when our mind becomes still, ideas become visible. We see outside of them, and their grip loosens. It’s at this place that we gain access to reality. There we realise our ideas are just that. Ideas. They are not facts or certainty, just one possible path. When we let go of ideas and concepts, we live in the moment and the world opens.
I would like your help. I would like to tap into each of your personal experiences, your wisdom. In a few weeks I will be presentation a talk on Meditation to a room full of smart people who most probably haven’t thought about meditating before. I would like your help with what questions should I be trying to answer? What questions, did you have before/when you started meditating?
To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universeHow does this work? Studying the self is to forget the self? This quote is one of the most common Dogen, and Zen quotes. But what does it mean? What is it saying? What’s it pointing to? Continue reading ‘Studying the Self’
What are you holding onto? Where are you stuck? What’s keeping you from moving forwards? These questions continually help me find out what’s going on, and break through. It may seem a bit odd asking yourself questions, but funnily enough, you know what you need deep down, and the answer is usually pretty surprising.
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