Solving Problems Through Meditation! | Using Personal Problems to Power Your Sits!

This is the video I am NOT supposed to make.
Because Zazen meditation is NOT supposed to be practiced for some end. It is an end in and of itself!!
Yes yes yes. Buuuuut....
In this video we unpack the delicate and highly helpful topic of meditating on difficult problems in order to solve them.
First, we discuss the fundaments of Zazen practice. Sitting and breathing; posture and breath. I've found that having a solid foundation in Zazen -- knowing, in other words, how to sit -- is necessary if I am going to use meditation to help me with my problems.
Now that I mention it, though, it's often kind of the reverse. I don't necessarily use meditation to help me with my problems: I use my problems to help me with my meditation!
Uh, say what?
In koan practice we learn to sit with the unsolvable problem, i.e. the koan, as though it's a burning hot ball of molten lead. One can do this not just with koans, but with one's everyday problems. It's a physical technique, which I talk about in this video, that energizes and focuses one's sitting practice -- in other words, brings it to life!
And, yes, I've found that this technique DOES also help me solve problems, creative and otherwise. Sitting with problems helps to bring the creative question to the doorstep of the subconscious, which is where all our deepest problems are ultimately solved. The conscious mind is always meddling and trying to solve problems, whereas its job is simply to raise and work on the problem a little bit, but not SOLVE it. The solving is a process that takes place on a much deeper level, which we talk about in today's video over on Patreon! See you there!!
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0:00 Intro
1:20 That time I used Zazen to write my "poop essay"
4:52 What Zazen Isn't!
6:00 The Fundamentals of Zazen Meditation
9:21 How to Sit with your Problems!
11:26 How Koan Practice Helped Me Learn to Solve My Personal & Creative S*** on the Cushion!
15:21 Using Your Problems to Help Your Meditation Practice!
22:09 Activating the Subconscious Problem Solver

[@ChuckBe]

Oh my goodness, well spoken sir. Thinking the thought of no thought, I sit. I don’t use meditation to solve problems, but when I sit properly, as you articulate, they solve themselves. Strikingly magical and wonderful gifts!

[@zenconfidential25]

Thank you dear friend.

[@eiko6171]

I learned meditation ages ago because I read about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy but couldn’t afford it- sitting zazen was free (and if I snot cried the whole time the nice Buddhists just said “don’t worry, your snotting is just our practice tonite” lol) Learning a modicum of control over my thinking saved my life tho- no hyperbole I just practice at unclenching the fist of my mind over and over… but hell I’ve got a few hitches in the proceedings- maybe I’ll try this belly thinking of yours ;)

[@zenconfidential25]

I know that feeling of med. saving your life, I've felt it too. Thank you.

[@macdougdoug]

intelligence unconstrained by my thoughts and beliefs, is less constrained - unbounded intelligence for the win! maybe even a selfless win? a win for the universe?

[@zenconfidential25]

Hey peeps!! Lemme know here if you've used meditation to solve YOUR problems...also, if you've used your problems to POWER your meditation??

[@nubedelluvia1884]

In fact I came to zazen by doing this kind of practice. To take the problem out of my head and bring it to the lower tantien, to hara. It is curious that with the practice my abdomen expands so much. Below the diaphragm...and you feel more free. I called it "thinking with the body"; in reality you digest it...many things happen...because the mind magnifies the problems.... The only problems that bother me are always related to other people...in the family environment.... The way relationships are...I consider that there is little talk...my role as a mother-in-law doesn't make it easy for me. Those sit-downs are my most handy medicine

[@zenconfidential25]

That's so nice, all of it. Thank you my friend, there's wisdom here.

[@dayamay8221]

Cool vid. Just what I needed, as my practice has gone sideways a bit! It's hard not going to practice with an agenda. The mind is just constantly trying to solve problems...and it sees sitting and doing nothing as exactly that - a problem! Onwards and onwards!! D❤

[@zenconfidential25]

Perfect!

[@user-ux6he6db1t]

Hey ! I’m gonna do it, thank you

[@zenconfidential25]

Did it work??

[@mattrkelly]

dealing with difficult people is always hard... but you have to die to their difficulty, and suddenly they go away or dont bother you anymore... #toreienjisbodhisattvavow

[@zenconfidential25]

Matt, I always love and appreciate your comments. Dharma brother from another mother!!

[@untler]

and all this time i thought that red hot ball was a vestigal memory of a cigarette my father smoked.

[@zenconfidential25]

Well, it’s that, too, of course!

[@frankbridges51]

Sit. Stand. Walk. Stand. Sit. Think no thought thoughts. Emptiness. A moment. The pointless point. Here. Firmly. (At least, that's my thought...😂)

[@zenconfidential25]

And I wonderful thought it is! :-)

[@user-ux6he6db1t]

You said to not do it to get anything out of it, so if I notice the benefits, and just, enjoy it, is that cool?Also should start by just going into posture doing the breath without bringing the problems into it first if I’m still a beginner basically? Thank you.

[@xlmoriarty8921]

Isn't it possible just to let thoughts go or let them be? Why do I have to do something with the breath?

[@garad123456]

Yes it's possible. I usually don't like focusing on breath. It makes me feel constricted. I guess I'm focusing wrong.

[@zenconfidential25]

I don't know if you have to "do something with the breath." Just breathing is it for me, and also leaving thoughts be or letting them go.

[@ein.toter.hippie]

Meditation is an ego-less event.

[@zenconfidential25]

Well put! And enlightenment is lightening yourself, getting lighter, lighter, till its gone!