Why Do Zazen?

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[@jonwesick2844]

"[zazen] takes you out of the world of loss and gain." Love that!

[@dr.jeffreyzacko-smith324]

It’s brilliant stuff!

[@osip7315]

love is gain

[@osip7315]

@@reedlibros9636 yes

[@osip7315]

@@reedlibros9636 rubbish

[@reedlibros9636]

@@osip7315maybe flawed expressions I use . You're entitled to your opinion. . No problems. Have a great day.

[@Scott.Jones608]

10:02 Ziggy heard that sitting is good for nothing & got up.

[@HardcoreZen]

True!

[@martinolsen5040]

If you have a pure mind you turn the wheel. If you have an impure mind the wheel turns you.

[@windhorse23]

I’m relieved that zazen has no goal! That’s what I’ve been experiencing.

[@wsmithies2318]

Stumbling across your videos got me interested in 'switching to the dark side' from Vipassana, but it was Okomuru Roshi's "Zazen is good for nothing" clip and the way he talked about his younger self that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and sealed the deal for me. It came across as oddly punk the way he put it. Thank you both either way.

[@HardcoreZen]

Thanks!

[@sirius3531]

@ w smithies Please excuse my ignorance. Would you please tell me the difference between Vipassana and Zazen ?

[@naturestillness]

Physiologically, I wonder if the act of softly gazing at a neutral point recalibrates the emotional responsiveness to what is seen toward neutrality. As my practice expands to morning and evening times consistently for a change, I notice when I and other people have an automaticity look in their eyes. A look of being on script for whatever “previously” encountered situation they are in. That alone, is worth it to me. To see my perceptions change in that way. To find more life where previously I had the fast forward button on and just didn’t realize.

[@gregjustsitting]

Nothing, no-thing, no-thing-ness is beyond conventional value. It is priceless.

[@EvanBerry.]

The "X" flying away leaves no trace. I wonder if Ziggy realizes how lucky he is. What a wonderful life he seems to have.

[@Teller3448]

Same thing happened with Buddha...he didn't realize how lucky he was growing up in a palace. Until he stepped outside. The difference between him and a dog is that Buddha didn't run back inside. Why?

[@osip7315]

its crazy to take fiction as historical truth, but the world is full of the ignorant dumb

[@zfid]

Thank you Brad 🙏

[@danielpinojr.8312]

I love the Great Gazoo t-shirt! "Hello, Dum Dums" 😆

[@Teller3448]

"Just as a man whose clothing or hair is on fire will, to extinguish the fire, with strong resolve, apply all his effort, vigor and exertion, mindfulness and clear comprehension; even so should that monk resolutely apply all his effort... for discarding his evil and unwholesome qualities. But if, on reflection, that monk realizes there are in him no such evil and unwholesome qualities that might be a hindrance to him if he were to die tonight or during the day, then he may well feel gladness and joy. By day and night he should train himself in everything that is beneficial. If, monks, mindfulness of death is cultivated in that way, and is frequently practiced, it will bring great fruit, great benefit, and it will merge in the Deathless, will end in the Deathless." -From the Anguttara Nikaya I'm always intrigued about this passage. Buddha is describing the importance of aspiration towards a great fruition, great benefit...but the benefit is to merge in the deathless.

[@gunterappoldt3037]

The classic Buddhist "system" (somehow extractable from the Tripitaka, following the analytic path of the Abidharma) points to metaphysics, which try to neutralize the "negatively" valued positive-matter (ruled by the anonymous Law of Karma) via "positively" valued negative-matter or anti-matter. What lies behind or beyond this "general horizon" of the Buddhist "soteriology without soter" (if one radically holds to the anâtman-doctrine)? Well, at least, "it" doesn´t seem to be any Paradise, because even the "Western" Utopia of Amithaba is labled as "preliminary", or as "not the last step" (heading towards what or what not: to "nobody, never, nowhere" ...?). What has (Za-)Zen to do with this: Is it more fullfillment or aberration (radically shifting paradigms)? Is it more Buddhist (core-design: other-worldly, "totaliter aliter") or more Daoist (core-design: this-worldly, yet explicitly including "transcendencies")? So far, some exegesis from my side.

[@Teller3448]

@@gunterappoldt3037 "try to neutralize the "negatively" valued positive-matter (ruled by the anonymous Law of Karma)" Good line Gunter... this anonymity is unique to Buddhism. There's an abundance of missing nouns in the teaching...nobody, never, nowhere.

[@Teller3448]

@@gunterappoldt3037 (core-design: this-worldly, yet explicitly including "transcendencies") I believe that's called Panentheism....as opposed to Pantheism.

[@gunterappoldt3037]

@@Teller3448, thanks for the reply. In fact, my primary reference was the general "topographic" taxonomy (intention: reconstruct common features of world-design based on higher-predicative concepts of "spacing" across cultures) that the "classic" sociologist Max Weber used in his (still influential and inspirational, albeit in parts now obsolete) comparative studies on religion as an heuristic device, to help outline (often hidden) common transcultural grounds.

[@Teller3448]

@@gunterappoldt3037 By 'obsolete' do you mean inaccurate? If so, in what way?

[@jakubbanasiak5563]

Yesterday I read this book. Sawaki was a great teacher.

[@vanarchism]

I always enjoy your videos but I particularly enjoyed this one.

[@benhorner8430]

Thanks Brad! :)

[@Teller3448]

Did Dogen believe Zazen is good for nothing? Here is a different translation of Bendowa's first paragraph by Anzan Hoshin Roshi. "The Buddhas and Thus Come Ones have all simply transmitted an unfabricated wondrous means of realizing complete and utter Awakening, the teaching of wonder. In transmitting it from a Buddha to a Buddha, its standard is self-enjoyment harmonization. To enter this through sitting up straight in zazen is the main gate. This Dharma is present in abundance in each person, but it is not actualized without practice or lived without realization. When you let it go, it fills your hands; it transcends the one and many. When you speak, it fills your mouth; it is beyond horizontal or vertical. All Buddhas continually abide here without fragmented perceptions. When all beings are active here then perceptions and recognitions are without fixation. The practice of exertion that I will now teach manifests the ten thousand events and experiences in original Awakening and actualizes the singleness of reality as the path which leads out. When you clear all barriers and release all limitations, why pick at sections of bamboo?"

[@HardcoreZen]

Great quote! Did you watch my pearlier video on this? kzbin.info/www/bejne/rHq4gGB_j6imp68

[@booknikYT]

Why do Zazen after enlightenment... A question none of us need an answer for 🤪✌️

[@cbysmith]

No project or projection. Sometimes its called mental elaboration.

[@Darkgod777]

For super powers of course.

[@hawtsauce2471]

I have come to a realization that i can do almost anything, things have stopped being hard to do, to a certain degree. But now I am absolutely unsure on what to do, I'm not confused because I have a feeling that it's all the same, but still what to do?

[@macdougdoug]

Just let it be, as if it was just more thoughts and emotions (which it is) - the past keeps arising, let it go

[@HardcoreZen]

Do whatever you want.

[@flashrobbie]

Personally, I'm less of a jerk when I Zazen. Culturally, to mine which has very strict protocols on the types of energy we should expose ourselves to, it's a safe way to slowly sip the type of energy which causes us damage if we gulp it down.

[@josephswafford7578]

A way to escape legal fiction?

[@socraticproblem86]

I don’t like it when you call yourself boring!

[@Teller3448]

Which is worse...a teacher who is wrong, or just plain boring?

[@belaji]

Have you read Collision with the Infinite by Suzanne Segal and her experience of noself? It's a must read!

[@Teller3448]

No self? In that case there would be no experience. What she describes instead is an expansion of self.

[@belaji]

There is a person to experience. There is no self, large or small. You must be talking about the Advaita Self, which also is not.

[@Teller3448]

@@belaji What is the difference between person and self?

[@belaji]

@@Teller3448 Take a dog (or a cat) for example. If you have ever had one or multiple, you'll know that they all have different personalities. Same with humans. The person is the living human with personality. Self is usually considered to be like soul, some personal enduring entity.

[@Teller3448]

@@belaji What is it that experiences? Where does personality come from...the brain? If that's the case your definition of a 'person' is a meat-puppet with a brain inside that makes it walk and talk and act. When Suzanne writes: "When asked who I am, the only possible answer is...I am the infinite, the vastness that is the substance of all things." Does that sound like she's talking about her body or brain?

[@josephswafford7578]

Try not to be rough on your students.. congratulations on your job..

[@GARYMAR2]

I don't get why Sawaki says the first character "ben" stands for "power/energy". It means speech or dialect. In my line of work, it means a "valve". An actual, physical valve. And a bento is a Japanese box lunch!

[@cbysmith]

The voice is an energetic manifestation of dharmakaya, the samboghakaya. Body, speech, mind, indivisible, dharmakaya, samboghakaya, nirmanakaya, indivisible. This is my guess as to why its translated thus.

[@gunterappoldt3037]

The "bendouwa" (hp.: biàndàohuà/变道话[?]) literally means, I would say, something like "Discussing paths of metamorphosis/transformation/change". Some confusion may come in through the use of abbreviated characters in modern Japanese, which reduce the "semantic differential" by lumping together even more different meanings, as in the case of "弁".

[@ossy43]

Wasn't that Dogen's question and the reason why he went to China? -Why we have to do zazen if we are already enlighten?

[@Teller3448]

This is an idea originating in the Tathagatagarbha Sutra. But it doesn't indicate beings are already enlightened. It states that enlightenment is obscured...like the sun by clouds. Other similes are... Honey protected by bees, Kernels enclosed by their husks, a gold nugget in excrement, a hidden treasure beneath the house, a sprout in the seed becoming a huge tree, a tathāgata image wrapped in rotten rags, a golden figure within a burned clay mold.

[@petergaal6489]

Do you dye your hair?

[@edgepixel8467]

I don’t think dying would fit his character

[@HardcoreZen]

Nope. I bought some beard dye once, though, but I couldn't figure out how to use it.

[@edgepixel8467]

@@HardcoreZen 1. Open the box 2. Rub it on your beard 3. Done 4. I never used beard dye

[@cyrilgcoombsiii]

this reminds me of tge koan where a monk asks Joshu for the meaning of practice and Joshu responds: “do you dye your hair?” 🤣 much funnier in my mind

[@Teller3448]

"You are always trapped in the past and future" People with advanced Alzheimer's are outstanding at maintaining the 'just-now' mind. They have been known to flip through an entire magazine, page after page til the end...and then start all over.

[@wk801]

What do Zazen?

[@agatagoralczyk8690]

Who‘s the guy on the t-shirt?

[@macdougdoug]

The Great Gazoo - a crazy alien with a huge karmic burden

[@brendancasey5951]

Thanks Brad for your videos. Good Kamma all the way. Bro🙏🌞🕉️

[@Teller3448]

@@macdougdoug Is that what the huge helmet is for...karmic burden?

[@edgepixel8467]

@@Teller3448 No the huge helmet is for comic relief. It can sometimes look pretty similar to karmic burden, but they are not the same.

[@jonkomatsu8192]

The Great Gazoo! Fred Flintstone's "Ancient Alien" buddy. Oh my gravy! I guess Giorgio Tsoukalos was right! It *WAS*aliens! Hah!

[@marymidkiff7846]

🌮🌮🌮🌮🌮🌮🌮🌮🌮🌮😊

[@MantrinDharmananda]

Buddha continued his meditation practice after enlightenment...he was nothing to do.

[@Teller3448]

Was silent sitting a 'practice' after enlightenment...or just his natural state of equanimity?

[@MantrinDharmananda]

@@Teller3448 More like providing disciples with an example of practice. I don't think there is difference between meditation and post-meditation after full enlightenment.

[@osip7315]

the problem i have with "zazen" and "prayer" is this notion of "method" to infinity or god what method can there be ? to what ? if you say there is no method, then what are you doing ?

[@osip7315]

@Pj Bo what is the "shape" ?

[@osip7315]

@Pj Bo you have suffered the usual fate, become quite crazy

[@osip7315]

@Pj Bo that's for you to work out