Sunday, October 4, 2020

October 4, 2020

 South China Morning Post:  Article by Randy Komisar, Pt. 2


5. To start, find a cushion or a chair where you can place your feet flat on the ground. If you are using a cushion, cross your legs in front of you with your knees spread to provide support - forming a triangle of your two knees and butt to give you stability. Assume a straight posture, with your chin pulled in and your head extended toward the sky like a lotus emerging from a muddy pond. Place your hands softly on your lap, with your left palm below cupping your right hand and your thumbs lightly touching above.  If that is uncomfortable, then lay your hands on your knees with your palms up and each thumb and forefinger lightly touching. Posture is very important to meditation.  Too little and your energy escapes into the cushion, too much and you are impervious to the world around you.

 6. Close your eyes halfway.  Not completely, this is not an excuse to dream.  It is a time to shut out the distractions while awakening to this world. Now breath.  Not deeply, but naturally.  Through your nose.  Quietly. Feeling the air enter your body and circulate through you until you exhale it back into the world.  Feel and understand the lack of separation between you and every molecule that has found its way through millenia into the air you breathe. Some people count their breaths, to ten repeatedly, to focus the mind and reduce the chatter. But when the chatter falls away, stop counting.  It will only get in your way. 

 7. Thoughts will endlessly try to fill the space your meditation is creating.  If you fight them you will miss the moments that arise. Instead, accept them for what they are - the random bodily function of the mind - and but don't hold on to them. Don't get stuck.  Let them move across your mind like clouds.  Eventually they will slow down and create openings for your awareness to shine through. These may be fleeting at first, but relish them.  This is what enlightenment looks like. 

 8. How long should you meditate?  As long as you can.  Most committed meditators try to meditate for 30-45 minutes a sitting.  But 5 minutes will do.  Or even 1 minute.  Sure, the longer you sit the more the chatter dissipates and the deeper you will plumb the truths of this existence. But I believe it is better to give yourself even 1 minute of quiet breathing and centering a day than it is to put it off until you can spend 30 minutes or more. A regular daily practice is more important than a long sitting.  And like a tasty sweet, 1 minute most often leads to 2, and 2 then to 3, etc. 

 9. It is easy to get discouraged at first. So find a group of like-minded meditators and sit with them to encourage each other.  Find a teacher who will help you navigate the journey and point out the gold along the way.  Yes there are apps for meditation too, and if that helps use them.  But don't think meditation can be delivered in an app.  It is just like counting breaths, simply a tool to get you on your way.

 10. There is no finish line.  There is no state of nirvana we can reside in. There is only the moment.  And that moment is always coming and going. So meditation is like exercising, you do it everyday to be fit knowing that if you stop you will lose your wellbeing.  I meditate every day to clear myself of the delusions that characterize our daily routine. To let go of my self-centered view of the world and the things happening around me.  Of my desires and frustrations in not achieving them.  Of my emotions, anger and greed, that color my perception of things.  Of my ideas that keep me from seeing the world for what it is.  I eat, I sleep, I meditate, because those things are essential to living a full and satisfying life.

Photo contributed by Pixie Couch

(To be continued tomorrow...)

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Our ZHS on-line schedule

  • Mondays: 7-8:30pm - zazen, short service, lecture/discussion
  • Tuesdays-Fridays: 5:30-6:10pm - zazen, offering of merit/bows
  • M-F: 7-7:30am - zazen
  • Saturdays: 8:00-10:15am - zazen, short service, tea, discussion/study
  • For more information:  www.zenheartsangha.org) 
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Special bows for today: 
  • Please offer bows for dharma brother, David Shaw, who suffered a stroke on 9/30/20
  • Please offer bows for all those families who have lost their lives or their homes in the recent fires in Oregon, California, and Washington
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for:   
    • Charles Kennicott Leech, Nancy's father who is in the hospita
    • Chief Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died 9/18/2020
    • Takiko Kawakami, Fumiko Arao's mother who died 9/2/2020
    • Phyllis Merrill, Misha's mother, who is dying
    • Rev. Les Kaye, Misha’s Zen teacher, who is recovering at home undergoing chemotherapy
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Wonderful links shared by sangha members and friends:
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