Best Of
Styles of Zen
What I've learnt from not meditating and breaking precepts is that my life because muddy and the noise my mind generates indoors usually meets its counterpart outdoors.
Reacting, responding, demanding. How unfortunate. I have discovered a secret probably known to all of you, but I find worth sharing nevertheless...
True practice begins when you sit everyday, especially when you do not want to. Following precepts and some guidance is essential too of course. It helps a lot to avoid just sitting and thinking, feeding delusions. ¿"Gendo zen"?
" Gedo zen is an intoxication. It is like alcohol or drugs, transporting you out of your own experience and life into a temporary state of ease."
I really liked this excerpt from the book "Begin Here: Five Styles of Zen" by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi Zazen-ji (1989) where these styles are described.
I feel like most Western audiences would probably engage in Zen or Buddhism from the perspective of therapy or even taking it as a science of the mind (Bompu zen). Then perhaps it could advance to a deeper practice. By the way, bompu zen basically is to practice for your the sake of your well-being.
Maybe a taste of bompu zen is the way to go?
Kotishka
Re: The limits of the mind’s understanding
If a beginner stays for too long in rigpa, it can become blank and vacant. That is why it is best to train in rigpa for short moments repeated many times.
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulku_Urgyen_Rinpoche
I knew it!
Too much mindfulness requires breaks not brokenness ... 
lobster
Losing or Lost Hope can be Freedom
Hope has a dark side in the way that it impacts the mind.
It’s an intense yearning for something to happen: You hope to conquer anxiety or depression. You hope to get into your favorite college. You hope to find love one day. You hope to overcome the pesky problem that’s weighing you down. You hope the Detroit Lions will (please) just win one Super Bowl.
Hope can become an ironic mental prison by its mere intensity and dominance of your thoughts.
Letting go of whatever dominates your mind (including hope) instantly frees it to think of other things such as warm breezes, the beauty of friendship, and the simplicity of enjoying a meal. We lose out on these small joys of life when our big problems take more than their deserved mindshare.
But there’s still the issue of hope. Why would letting go of hope—something seen as positive—bring freedom and not darkness?
This a good read…..
https://tinybuddha.com/blog/how-losing-all-hope-can-be-freedom/
I’ve accepted some things can’t be beaten….only let go of….or otherwise dealt with.
Vastmind
Re: Losing or Lost Hope can be Freedom
It is the weight given to thunking (thinking with extra clunck) that needs to wait a passing ...
Thoughts pass, importance as mentioned is not so set in cement. Soon we will join ye olde and wiser, the dead and the falling leaves of the forest ... 
lobster
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
Our Zoomed meditation this morning was punctuated with the barking of Steller Sea lions greeting the dawn from Trial Island, 2 miles away from this computer's microphone.
how
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
I ate escargot today… very small ones in puff pastry… without knowing it. It was very filling.
Jeroen
Re: Losing or Lost Hope can be Freedom
This reminds me of a discussion I had with my Dad some weeks ago about the news. He watches quite a bit of news you see, while I’ve taken to just reading the front page of the Dutch national news service once a day.
For him it is about staying up to date with current affairs, while for me it’s acknowledging that news is largely driven by propaganda value for the materialist society and is far from impartial. I learn more from YouTube most weeks than I do from the regular news, and find my mind is far more quiet and peaceful for it.
The thing is, the vast majority of things on the news do not benefit us at all to know them. They happened in the past, or are far away, or are in another way beyond our power to influence. You are better off letting go of these things.
Jeroen
Re: Losing or Lost Hope can be Freedom
Reminds me of Janis Joplin--"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose".
zorro
Re: The limits of the mind’s understanding
Although @Shoshin1 I do think that is a beautiful vision, it presents a different view on the mind than I have gathered…
I often read that the mind obscures our experience of the real world. That the imaginings and delusions and desires that it generates keep us entrapped in samsara. That a key goal of meditation is to let the mind become quiet.
I like Bodhidharma’s quote, and I agree with him that beholding the mind is key. But I do not see the mind as a wholly positive influence. Much of what the mind does is not beneficial.
You don’t want to make the mind into an enemy, but you want to be aware of not getting caught up in it. The mind is a good servant but a poor master, it has been said.
Jeroen
Re: Losing or Lost Hope can be Freedom
@Vastmind said:
Disappointment is when your mind made an appointment and reality dissed it.
100%
