AMA

Why do an AMA? To test myself.

1) Where have you just come from? What are the teachings of your lineage, the content of its practice, and a record that attests to it? What is fundamental to understand this teaching?

I honestly don't know what my lineage is. It's been brought up before but I don't have a talent for remembering things like that. I take inspiration from all sources, including places that are not typically seen as "Zen". My first exposure to the core concepts of Zen come from a cult known as the Church of the Subgenius, which I encountered as a teenager over 20 years ago. I had absolutely no idea what "slack" was, but I knew they had it and I didn't. Fast forward to today and I currently practice under the guidance of a Chan sangha, but I still find the most inspiration from nature and daily living. I've ready many books in the Chan tradition but I do not consider myself a Buddhist. Buddha was a Zen master who warned us not to fall prey to religious ideology, so the irony of Buddhism becoming a religion is not lost on me. I find the restrictions attached to Buddhism and the visions of the practitioners to be suffocating. It's like they don't even see they are bound to the very views they were told not to bind themselves to! Yet, I practice with Buddhists and find value in many of their teachings. Plus, my sangha is pretty cool people.

2) What's your text? What text, personal experience, quote from a master, or story from zen lore best reflects your understanding of the essence of zen?

Most recently I've read "Instant Zen". I would say that the best summary of my understanding so far is when Foyan speaks of the sermon in the rain and declares that "the sound of the rain is you giving a sermon." I think this is the perfect summation of what Zen represents, but I'm just a beginner. I've literally been practicing and studying Zen in the traditional sense for less than a year.

To me this statement of the rain being "you giving a sermon" is Foyan's way of telling us that when we unify our mind on a single object of focus that absorption is Zen. It doesn't matter which moment or object we become absorbed in, it's the unification of mind being directed away from the sense of a separate entity and fully taking in all there is to experience with that moment. Past, present, future. Objects, others, the self. It doesn't matter. What matters is the all-encompassing penetration of focus on the singular. Feel the rain, hear the rain, perceive the rain. If you can do this then you are not other than the rain. In other words, it dissolves the barrier between self and experience.

Time lasts as long as focus remains. Life is long if used in this way, and if mind can be directed in this manner in all our daily activities then there will be no room for the rise of angst.

Plus, the sound of rain is quite majestic so if you are going to give a sermon it might as well be a beautiful one.

3) Dharma low tides? What do you suggest as a course of action for a student wading through a "dharma low-tide"? What do you do when it's like pulling teeth to read, bow, chant, sit, or post on r/zen?

Ask yourself why you feel repelled from the practice. Does this repulsion manifest itself as a physical feeling of mental exhaustion? If so, why? Do you still find yourself engaging in other intellectual pursuits? If you are so exhausted with reading and analyzing Zen then how can you find the energy to study these other things? What is the difference?

In my experience it's easier to do this by diving into the feeling, whether it is a physical sensation of mental fatigue or this sense of emptiness and lack of motivation to do the physical elements. I have found that placing awareness on the sensations and just sitting with it and being ok with it has a sense of power of recovery in itself. The mental stress fades away as if the body and mind knows what to do with it when focus is on it and sitting still in that moment is allowed. This can occur quite quickly, often after just a few seconds.

If you don't find value in the practice, then stop. Take a break, walk way. Reflect on why you practice and see what happens when you don't. Life is Zen. Daily living is practice. If reading the masters isn't filling you with joy and understanding then learn to embrace the confusion. If confusion is too confusing to enjoy then put it down. What's the point in muddling through if you haven't understood why you should?

Submitted April 23, 2023 at 10:04AM by Automatic_Employ_545 https://ift.tt/I7OvtTj