When Everything is Against You

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[@dmaz88]

"Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the guru." Charlotte Joko Beck

[@Traductorero]

Thanks Brad, for the almost daily uploads. Always listen to these after morning zazen like a teisho. We really appreciate it, especially for us folks in some places with no other zen communities.

[@windhorse23]

I feel exactly the same way.

[@aurora3655]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppfPaKatfraGjKc

[@thegline]

This was timely for me. Thank you as always.

[@osip7315]

make a donation

[@aurora3655]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppfPaKatfraGjKc

[@GARYMAR2]

"I studied Zen for 40 years and all I got was this Ghoul T-Shirt!" Not Karma -- Parma!

[@HardcoreZen]

Good one!

[@tobiwronkaqaswedfvcx]

Really enjoyed the video, the way I understood it is "when everything is against you, it because you think YOU and EVERYTHING are separate"

[@gunterappoldt3037]

Well, in certain aspects we are. That´s what the old Zen-Masters also tell us.

[@tobiwronkaqaswedfvcx]

@@gunterappoldt3037 Also good point

[@gunterappoldt3037]

@@tobiwronkaqaswedfvcx yeah, think so, when you study this old anecdotes... Thanks!

[@aurora3655]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppfPaKatfraGjKc

[@Andreas-ne3wt]

I would regard thoughts and feelings too as "circumstances" and therefore beyond being managed. That's relatively easy to understand intellectually but the important thing is to ask yourself how to put this theory into practice.

[@HardcoreZen]

Good point!

[@dr.jeffreyzacko-smith324]

VERY MUCH needed this reminder today!

[@osip7315]

its not going to cure your narcissism

[@VasiliFrankos]

​@@osip7315 kindness and compassion are all of ours to share, as are smiles and helping hands

[@aurora3655]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppfPaKatfraGjKc

[@dr.jeffreyzacko-smith324]

@@osip7315 Nor will it apparently kill yours! Why do you have to be so nasty? I wasn’t taking to you here!

[@kendallpigg5097]

Thank you so much for this. As a self-employed laborer, just yesterday I was having money issues with not one, but three of my clients. I handled the first two fine, but the third one broke me. And yet this wasn't the first time that this has happened, so I understand my role in it.

[@benhorner8430]

I was kinda excited when I saw the title of the video, and it paid off. :) Really enjoyed this one!

[@jrp4485]

Thank you Brad, this was very helpful for me to hear .

[@embee6532]

Everything seems so shrouded in mystery with Buddhism.

[@osip7315]

if you take nonsense as sense, you are going to run into difficulty

[@barence321]

Everyone knows that the sky is blue and the tree is green, but who is able to say it clearly?

[@osip7315]

@@barence321 blue skies cranberry pies clouds come striking us dumb summer leaves lost their green all returns and goes in cycles

[@laurencrane836]

So I am sitting in a car with a bunch of other folks in cars and I see it as "stuck in traffic" because that is what (in that moment, for some reason, who really cares why) I need 'the story' to be. But the liberation is knowing that is what I am probably doing and there is a POV I can shift to that does not have the suffering. The observation that it's that way because I made it that way can sound like an accusation, but it's really only a statement of fact. When I reflect in sadness on 4 dead brothers, I can recall the reflection on the brothers gives rise to sadness because that is what I want/need that reflection to be at that moment (fod whatever reason), but that's not what that reflection *must* be in and of itself..... maybe?

[@dallasdandigitalproduction393]

Yes ,there are alot of mysterious moments on this path, esp. with Zen.This is why I like Brad's approach. He has a very grounded, humorous way of sharing Buddhism with the beginner. Zen tends to use riddles to express truths in a non-linear way,which can be hard to decipher.

[@Traductorero]

Also saw this one quote by Joan Halifax Sit, Just sit Sit through it all Steadfast Upright Tender I think the tender part is important. As we sit through and beyond circumstance, it's important to remain intimate and compassionate to whatever comes up, including our "small" selves.

[@gunterappoldt3037]

Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior): "The mountain doesn´t move..." This movie transports some interesting messages about fate, social role-taking, etc.

[@gunterappoldt3037]

Should add some more Zen-relevances, I suppose, to make the point clearer: The Lotus-Seat is also, sometimes, referred to as the position--disposition of being like a mountain, and even, especially for Japanese practitioners, like Holy Mountain Fuji-san (thereby, also, implying certain correspondences between "inner" and "outer" realms, relative to the "every-mine self"). A "deistic" equivalent can also be observed, what regards the iconography/-logy, in some temples: The Mysterious King Non-Moving (jap.: Fudômyôô, kanji: 不动妙王) is presented on an extra altar for reverence by "whom it may concern".

[@osip7315]

she was as tender as shoe leather

[@manduriacu]

that last part is just great

[@osip7315]

it is so difficult to be given and pick up effective advice that we have to work out most things ourselves

[@dallasdandigitalproduction393]

Love it. So much to absorb here. Alot of this speaks to me atm. "People are not even aware of you"😆that was my favorite. Remind s me to not take life SO serious and personal.

[@goatsplitter]

"You've wanted this situation" - I've tried talking about this to friends and family except very very poorly lol. Like you say, people's dander gets right up with that kind of talk but man I'm some way it's so true!!

[@citybuddha]

Cool it with the boom booms, Brad

[@themartyoconnor]

Holy Parma, that's a cool shirt! Also a great discussion.

[@HardcoreZen]

Thanks! Someone noticed!

[@themartyoconnor]

@@HardcoreZen hello from Ohio! But seriously, this is a fantastic video.

[@HardcoreZen]

@@themartyoconnor Thanks!!

[@JimTempleman]

"after enlightenment you do not perceive anything as separate from your own self-nature. There are no sentient beings other than self-nature, no vexations other than self-nature, no Dharma other than self-nature, and no Buddhahood other than self-nature; and, of course, self-nature is empty. " - Yen, Master Sheng. Subtle Wisdom: Understanding Suffering, Cultivating Compassion Through Ch'an Buddhism (p. 98). Potter/TenSpeed/Harmony. Kindle Ed.

[@bigd4157]

First Noble Truth

[@ronmcbee4743]

I agree that if you look hard at were you are it’s bc that’s is really what you wanted and you have to accept responsibility for it. I get this from Existentialism as well as from Zen. Good talk!

[@emptywig]

Nothing wrong with puppy chow. Great talk. Thank you.

[@ruairi_]

great video!

[@danielpinojr.8312]

When everything is against you and everything is pissing you off, it's time to "sit down and shut up"! Or eat something. 😆

[@Tsotha]

Useful advice.

[@pierrehalte3473]

Hi Brad ! Maybe someone can help me with that question, which may seem stupid, but oh well... What i wonder is how the thought or the experience that we are alone in the universe is comforting. Yet you seem to present it this way. How is it comforting that i'm all alone and making all this crap ? Seems pretty scary to me, and not comforting at all, yet buddhism is supposed to alleviate suffering, right ? One idea i have is it's because if that is the case, changing and working on myself to be more compassionate towards everything may change everything around me as well ? Thanks for your answer and all the content you produce, Regards, Pierre

[@HardcoreZen]

If you made it, how can it hurt you?

[@osip7315]

there are limitations on the solipsist idea that "you made it all" it is in effect an analogy of sorts and all analogies fail because they are not what they analogise however there is a sense in "being all alone" given the world necessarily does not understand, humans are social animals and rejection hurts and it takes a lot of development to be able to handle this dissonance

[@houseson]

Good talk.

[@markbrad123]

Crash in the waves or rise and ride above/through the surf.

[@semiotik]

Hey Brad / fellow Shaveling (...?). Wondering if you could do a video on your writing process, how you write your books, and what relationship the craft has to your Zen practice. I know the novelist George Saunders is a (Tibetan...?) Buddhist, and Peter Mathiesson was an ordained Zen priest, so there's clearly some fertile ground there, re: writing and Zen.

[@jimheron4660]

Good evening, Brad! Another wonderful vid. Might I ask for a bit of elaboration on the suggestion that a person might subtley want their parent to be unwell? It seems understandable to me that some people get angry hearing this. Given a complete absence of any demonstrable connection, is it not conflation to suggest wanting to deal mindfully with such situations is basically the same as wanting it to happen ?

[@HardcoreZen]

Did I suggest that someone might subtly want their parent to be unwell? Oh boy. I don't recall saying that and I'm too lazy to listen to the whole video again. I do think we all have a lot of unacknowledged desires. I know I do. There's a lot of ugly stuff buried in my psyche and it has often come to my attention during Zen practice. At first it' was scary to see that I apparently desired such nasty things. But then I noticed that there was no "I" who desired these things. There were only the desires themselves, unattached to any "I" that produced or owned them. No action needed to be taken. I didn't need to act on those desires, nor did I need to destroy those desires in order to purify myself of them, since there was no self involved in the first place!

[@jimheron4660]

No, you didn't say that a person might want their parent to be unwell. The ideas discussed in this video are very interesting, and I'd like to learn more. Which of your books would you suggest would be most best to the ideas you've just explained?

[@dbuck1964]

Sword 🗡️ of Damocles is exactly right!

[@JCatt-me5yd]

I know a person who was systematically raped by her uncle from the ages of 3 - 12. This is a heavy question, but it always arises for me whenever I hear teachings like the one in this videos: Could you look my friend in the eye and tell her "This is all of your own making - somewhere deep down you really wanted to be raped when you were a child, and you made that reality"? It just doesn't sit well with me. Zen has brought so much to my life, but I can't get past this line in the worldview of certain Eastern philosophies. Brad, I'd appreciate any insight you might provide into how some of these "mind-only" teachings aren't just shitty victim blaming. Thanks for all your work.

[@HardcoreZen]

I would never say that to such a person. I think teachings like karma and this aspect of "mind-only" must ONLY ever be applied to oneself and never to anyone else. It's like a dangerous weapon. You never aim it at another person. I would be very careful about what I said to someone with a backstory like you describe. I know how I'd have felt if, early in my practice, someone had told me that my mother's death from Huntington's Disease is something I wanted. I would never have gone back to that person. It took me many, many years to start to see it that way. It was not an easy journey. This is why I tell people that meditation is not something to be toyed with. It's serious business.

[@reservordawg]

There are horrible things in the world that it seems could not be resolved by meditation. Police brutality is one it seems. There are many... Political witch hunts... Things you can't control.... Not all suffering can be stopped by avoiding craving.

[@aurora3655]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppfPaKatfraGjKc

[@johnwise1944]

What is the spelling on Nisgata Mahragina?

[@HardcoreZen]

Nisargadatta Maharaj

[@tomdebevoise]

The barista didn't bother to put a pattern in my foam!

[@gunterappoldt3037]

Didn`t the kid, later becoming Master Dôgen, heed the wish of his late mother and "enter the stream"? Didn´t the monk "Dao-origin" dispute religio-philosophical basics on Mount Hiei? Didn´t the same monk venture into the Land of the Dragon? Didn´t new Master Dôgen challenge the established schools? Didn´t he, who hoped for the far, found a new school, later called Sôtô-shu? Didn´t he move into a "barbarian" province to establish an own head-quarter for his "evangelical-puritanist" or "back to the roots" movement? Didn´t he untiringly teach clerics and lay-people alike? Didn´t he exhort them to, again and again, "reflect deep" on the words he presented? Didn´t he show harsh manners, when denying to accept the court-offer of the purple robe? Doesn´t he still communicate today with his fellow humans?

[@osip7315]

you have no idea what its like to slowly die of TB read a bit about him, he's not what you project

[@aurora3655]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppfPaKatfraGjKc

[@darrensatoru6634]

Most are fabrications but not all

[@intpete]

What do you do if you are a Jew in Europe in 1940 and the Gestapo comes for your family?

[@HardcoreZen]

I have no idea.

[@intpete]

@@HardcoreZen Thanks, Brad. There is no answer.

[@teresadewi2144]

Koans are difficult to understand. There are word-plays involved. In the koan of master seshoku, he answers "no-one is even aware of you". If I'm not mistaken, "no-one" can also refer to arahants or bodhisattvas who have achieved the state of "non-being". Master seshoku was very subtly telling his student that master seshoku has achieved that state of "non-being" and that master seshoku accepts and is aware of that student. Because an arahant may not publicly say that he himself is an arahant, master seshoku has to say it indirectly.

[@teresadewi2144]

*Sekisou. Sorry. Wrong name.

[@osip7315]

@@teresadewi2144 what does it matter, it is all bad fiction

[@aurora3655]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppfPaKatfraGjKc

[@angelikah.305]

🙏🧘‍♀️👍

[@darrensatoru6634]

stoicism

[@bokidimi5215]

a teacher and a student see two crows fighting about a dry, dead frog....and... the student asks:" why is it coming to this??"... teacher: " it is all for you , Saint."

[@bokidimi5215]

hmm...some good words..ok...but look as this, will you?