Stage One
With palms together,
Good Afternoon Everyone,
NOTE: No Zazen this evening as we will be involved in a Membership Committee Meeting.
Last nights Zazen 101 Group was exciting. We had a total of nine people in attendance and three stayed after to continue the discussion. Our talk was on the First Ox-Herding Picture which is about beginning to seek our true self, what is referred to as the Ox in the series of paintings. We are the herder, pushing our way through the grasses of our lives, finding that what once was true is true no longer and seeking a deeper truth, a truth that was never born and never dies.
I read a piece I had written a few years ago on this stage of practice. I was struck at the time with how being wounded in Vietnam was a show=-stopper, real world-changer for me. But it does not have to something as dramatic or traumatic as combat. It can be anything that points to the reality that what we know is an illusion. A group member talked a bit about reading as that sort of gate, for example. Another thought a comment her child made did the trick. The point is this: each of us are seeking. We want to know who we are, what we are, and at the root, what our purpose is.
Often people see these questions as philosophic or religious. I see them as both and neither. Frankly, I really do not care whether they are religious, philosophical, spiritual, or any other head thing. What is most important is our attempt to address them and in Zen, we do this through our practice. The Eight Gates are practice gateways to exploring these questions in ways that are both meaningful and productive.
In our next group meeting we will explore Stage Two: Seeing the Traces or Discovering the Footprints.
Be well.
Good Afternoon Everyone,
NOTE: No Zazen this evening as we will be involved in a Membership Committee Meeting.
Last nights Zazen 101 Group was exciting. We had a total of nine people in attendance and three stayed after to continue the discussion. Our talk was on the First Ox-Herding Picture which is about beginning to seek our true self, what is referred to as the Ox in the series of paintings. We are the herder, pushing our way through the grasses of our lives, finding that what once was true is true no longer and seeking a deeper truth, a truth that was never born and never dies.
I read a piece I had written a few years ago on this stage of practice. I was struck at the time with how being wounded in Vietnam was a show=-stopper, real world-changer for me. But it does not have to something as dramatic or traumatic as combat. It can be anything that points to the reality that what we know is an illusion. A group member talked a bit about reading as that sort of gate, for example. Another thought a comment her child made did the trick. The point is this: each of us are seeking. We want to know who we are, what we are, and at the root, what our purpose is.
Often people see these questions as philosophic or religious. I see them as both and neither. Frankly, I really do not care whether they are religious, philosophical, spiritual, or any other head thing. What is most important is our attempt to address them and in Zen, we do this through our practice. The Eight Gates are practice gateways to exploring these questions in ways that are both meaningful and productive.
In our next group meeting we will explore Stage Two: Seeing the Traces or Discovering the Footprints.
Be well.
