Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Buddha Zone
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Being 'in the zone' is both a secular and dharma trait. One of the perks of relaxed mindfulness.
Are you there yet? I like to visit daily and take any stray minds along for the ride 
2
Comments
in the zone ,ahh sometimes.experience,and practice helps,thats our dharma.be present,calm focus or concentration,and do.ive heard everything is zen.i don't know,my zen.any activity that's new or a struggle,i lean towards dao for luck.
i dont know....feeling chatty today.there are some christian-buddhist .another angle aspect of in the zone,is from the gospel of thomas,rest and motion.to associate with dharma,rest is the ease within as we go about our everyday life.is that zen?i don't know,my zen practice .
i dont know why i like zen? it's got to be the anime,like ghost in the shell movie,or macross plus,an aspect of being in the zone.
the earth,the ground is perhaps my zen training.i got lucky being a landscaper.inherited from my dad.thanks dao which led me to zen,unbeknowns to me?sometimes,in the zone landscaping.still learning....that's life.
I'm almost there today. I'm home from work today with a 24 hr heart monitor on ? It's cumbersome but necessary. I've been using Insight Timer daily for the past ten days each night before bed to do Mindfulness meditation and some guided meditations. I'm finding it helps a lot. I keep waking between 3-4am though, so after faffing around online for about ten mins, I try free form meditation and then usually sleep through till 5:30am ok.
That's about as in the zone as I've gotten for months.
Hope things improve for you @dhammachick
Metta
Thanks @Shoshin . I got my monitor off 45 mins ago so yay for that
"Praying" for you, @dhammachick .
I have, being somewhat of an insomniac myself, read a couple of interesting articles on the subject, which seem to imply that insomnia is actually more natural for us, than a solid period of sleep. Other animals doze periodically; we, as humans, seem to be the only ones to have crammed it all into one go, and organised our lives according to a calendar/diary, rather than relying on natural biorhythms to take effect.
Wonderful idea in theory, to revert back to Mother Nature's idea of 'order'.
If only we could.
IF (big word, that, 'if'....)
The mind stiller, the body slowed, the emotions settled is one way. Intense overstimulation such as in 'sport samadhi' can also be interpreted as 'the flow' or the zone. These are about concentrated but also relaxed awareness.
Of course as in all fields, fake gurus, pretend therapists, new age consultants etc. also peddle their Buddha Zone ...
Not everything or everyone that convinces themself or others is in the zone and may even be detrimental to peoples well being ...
It's easy to find guru ranking sites on the internet, some of whom say one thing and others which say another. Similarly any controversial figure is going to stir up a few "Exposed!" video's.
But Osho was not a Buddhist, and he was very much in favour of luxury in his commune. The mall was very nice, there was an airstrip, and so on. There were no precepts though the diet was vegetarian with eggs and dairy. He had a unique view on the world.
I would say, there is a great deal of interest to find in Buddhism. Similarly there is a lot of beauty to find in Osho. The two complement eachother quite well, though as always, test the teachings.
http://www.oshonews.com/2016/01/20/a-letter-to-christopher-hitchens/
After having been around Lamas for 15+ years, I've noticed that the more they seem to have "gotten there" (as per observed reactions to stress, and degree of calm compassion they exhibit), the less they talk about themselves. Especially about where they "are". In fact, such cognitions/self-evaluations are the antithesis of getting somewhere in Buddhism.
All I CAN say is that I'm not where I was 17 years ago, but I certainly am not "there".
As for evaluating your teacher, the teachings advise us to take 5 years observing the individual. But always remember that until enlightenment, we are all flawed ... and that includes the majority of our teachers (they are just less-flawed than we are). Please don't expect perfection from them.
It takes a pretty skilled Buddhist to attract a teacher who is enlightened, and few of us (myself included) will do so. Fortunately, all we need is someone who is further along the path than we are, who can beckon to us and show the way.
Indeed.
Like calls to like. Future Buddha calls us to the Path and wills us to abandon the false in ourselves and others. Truth after all is the Way.
As @FoibleFull mentions change has occurred and the capacity to recognise genuine interior awakening or at least harmonisation with Rolls Royce aquisition our impeding non-existence, the Buddhas Way becomes our inspiration ...
Genuine and more importantly effective teachers are no where near as important as good students, who will inspire and transform us as we keep company with them.
Here is how desperate people become zoned out ...
Meanwhile ... who has been in the zone? In a mindful samadhi, many here no doubt. No?
I'll have you know that my dad contributed to Osho's Rolls Royce fund, which was managed as a proper investment fund, and on leaving the commune was repaid his inlay with a small profit after the rolls royces were liquidated... he actually made money on that investment, haha.