What is your concept of Zen's ''Just Be Ordinary'' ?

zenmyste

I would like to know what 'your' concept is..

Just be Ordinary....

federica

i would think 'ordinary' is the same as 'normal'.

The question then follows - define 'normal'.....?

seeker242

Eating a Banana.

Jeffrey

Everything is a body feeling or else it is between the ears and anxious.

federica

Everything originates between the ears and anxious. THEN it transforms into a body feeling.

taiyaki

Let life live.

Sabre

Working in the garden is working in the garden, not working in the mind.

RichardH

I would like to know what 'your' concept is..

Just be Ordinary....

Anything but ordinary...

"ordinary" in the ordinary sense.. is immersion, without a clue, in a storyline with "me" as the actor. Where every action... even "zen" "just doing" is a self-conscious production where "I" am both the performer and the audience.

zenmyste

i would think 'ordinary' is the same as 'normal'.

The question then follows - define 'normal'.....?

Is practising Buddhism Normal?

Or were we normal 'before' we started our spiritual path?

zenmyste

Let life live.

as it is?

Then why practice Buddhism? Why not just 'let life live' as it is..?

taiyaki

Buddhism is practiced as an antidote to suffering. Or aversion, attachment and ignorance.

If one has any of those conditions then they practice buddhism.

If those conditions are not there what use is buddhism?

zenmyste

Buddhism is practiced as an antidote to suffering. Or aversion, attachment and ignorance.

If one has any of those conditions then they practice buddhism.

If those conditions are not there what use is buddhism?

How can someone be 'ordinary' in life, but at the same time have a practice (buddhism) to 'Become a certain way' in Life?

taiyaki

Buddhism is practiced as an antidote to suffering. Or aversion, attachment and ignorance.

If one has any of those conditions then they practice buddhism.

If those conditions are not there what use is buddhism?

How can someone be 'ordinary' in life, but at the same time have a practice (buddhism) to 'Become a certain way' in Life?

impossible to say.

but certainly possible to live and realize through experience.

Tosh

Ah, we have something like this in A.A.

"Stay in the middle of the pack!"

It means not to strive to be the best 'most recovered' alcoholic in the room; don't strive to be the 'poster boy/girl' for A.A., because it'll lead to trouble (suffering).

And obviously, don't be the worst one either.

Doesn't that Zen Roshi Suzuki guy talk about the four different horses and how the best horse isn't always the best, but sometimes the worst horse is the best? I can't remember all the ins and outs, but maybe it's applicable here.

zenmyste

Ah, we have something like this in A.A.

"Stay in the middle of the pack!"

It means not to strive to be the best 'most recovered' alcoholic in the room; don't strive to be the 'poster boy/girl' for A.A., because it'll lead to trouble (suffering).

And obviously, don't be the worst one either.

Doesn't that Zen Roshi Suzuki guy talk about the four different horses and how the best horse isn't always the best, but sometimes the worst horse is the best? I can't remember all the ins and outs, but maybe it's applicable here.

:-)

ozen

It mean's don't be special.

person

To me this kind of "ordinary" is anything but. Ordinarily we are led around by our attachments, cravings, anger, what have you, its ordinary to be a deluded, suffering being. I highly doubt that is what is meant by being ordinary in this context. I think its more about seeing through our projections of the world and touching in with the world as it is, unfiltered, nothing space-age, just plain, but far from average.

driedleaf

I think it's about clear-seeing and non-deluded thought. The more ordinary we are the more clearer we can see things and the more vivid natural things appear to us.

zenff

There’s this thing called “spiritual materialism” (as Trungpa coined in the title of his book Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism).

We want to get something glorious out of our practice; bliss, superpowers, or just eternal peace of mind.
And probably we will experience some bliss and peace of mind along the way (I have doubts about the superpowers though.) But when we do, we move on and practice some more.

In my understanding; ultimately we find out that what we were looking for – our true nature - was here all the time; we never really got away from it (that would even be impossible.)

There’s a story I can’t find right now about a beggar with jewels sewn in the hem of his coat. This other story is based on the same idea.
http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/teachingstories.html#anchor_14850

So I think being ordinary refers to “cutting through spiritual materialism” and to finding what we never lost in the first place.

Floating_Abu

It takes a lot of effort to be genuinely ordinary.

SattvaPaul

@Zenff summedit up well. As it happens, I've just finished reading "Ending the pursuit of hapiness" by Barry Magid (a Dharma heir of Joko Beck) which is precisely about this. We can end up using Dharma practice as yet another "happiness project" to escape from the ordinary life, here and now.

I'm not saying I understand this. In fact, I'm experiencing some major conflict around this and I'll start another thread to see what you guys think.

how

I would like to know what 'your' concept is..

Just be Ordinary....

Zen's ordinary is no different than Zen's acceptance. When one is not trying to be something, little remains but freedom.....or acceptance.

PrairieGhost

It means ordinary life, accepted and embraced, is better than anything the mind could dream of.

And that the vehicles and their teachings are expressed through living ordinary life, not exhalted as if they, and therefore their followers, were extraordinary.