People are being distracted by a tiny mouse cursor sitting still in the middle of the screen. Usually, a mouse cursor is moving around searching what to click next. Be like the mouse cursor. "Seek nothing, just sit." Or let it be proof that you are easily distracted by the smallest of things.
You don't need to be in a monastery to live like this, though I suspect it must be fun! Simple living and minimalism make life more contemplative as well. I like 4am the dead of night!
From my experience, meditating helps that the body does not interfere. The body has to feel good, otherwise you keep thinking about how to suppress the disorder. So I didn't meditate sitting, with a strained back, but in a semi-recumbent position in bed. I have several pillows (pillows 40 x 60 cm) on my back and one pillow under each of my arms, which are next to the body, so it's comfortable and I cover myself with the duvet, so it's warm. So the body feels good and does not disturb. I keep my eyes closed. Now only the thoughts are there. Thoughts calm down best if you leave them as they are, but don't think actively, just observe. Some topics are so urgent that you actively think about them. That's OK then. What is decisive, however, is the inactive observation of the thoughts. Once the most pressing problems have been thought through, thinking calms down and a void sets in, which proves to be very restful after meditation. One is no longer driven by constant thinking, one has taken a vacation from thinking, so to speak. And you come into contact with spirits and get to know the magical possibilities of the spirit world.
I also recline. We in the west are not used to sitting on the floor in any form of crossed legged. We're used to backsupport of some kind. Most teachers will say its fine. That to just be aware that it can be harder to stay awake and aware and not give into torpor. That one might have to raise energy to stay fully awake. That sitting upright can make that part easier. But, if you're not used to it or have physical issues and are trying to sit upright well then that can become a LARGER issue. Meditation is not one size / style fits all. The local Zen center near me even has places for you to lay down. (And like 10 different types of cushions, some benches and I think some backjacks. ... and chairs)
@@OgdenM Staying awake is not necessary. If the body wants to sleep, then it should be allowed to do so. The body then needs sleep. This sleep is helpful for the meditation process. You should allow yourself time to sleep. For me, dreams were important while I was sleeping and were important for the development of my consciousness. Even if you think of something to do during meditation, you should do it immediately because then it will disappear from your thoughts and you can continue the meditation in a relaxed manner.
@@mat.se57 , that comes from a huge misunderstanding of what "not self / no self" is. There is indeed a self, that self is the moment by moment awareness of everything constantly changing and even that awareness itself is constantly changing. No self simply states that because the sense of self / awareness is constantly changing it can not be a "self" and therefor is not worth grasping a hold of. If you have practiced any form of meditation enough (even mindfulness / something secular) you can get into moment by moment awareness at some level. The more you practice, the shorter the moments become. It's all just a lesson, a tool to teach you to let got and be at peace. It's not worth grasping, nothing is.
People take robes to find happiness. People disrobe to find happiness. There is nothing to find, stop chasing. Wherever you go you will find conditions you do not like and that will not like you.
I WAS 30 YEARS IN ZEN PRACTISE......WONDERFUL .....BUT FOR ME WASH NOT ENOUGHT.......IN A VERY INCREDIBLE WAY I AM BACK TO CATHOLIC CHURCH.. AS FOR ME I AM IN THE PLACE I MUST BE...MY HUSBAND IS JAPANESE.....WE HAVE MIX MARRIAGE... ZEN HELP ME IN MY CATHOLIC PRAYERS...❤❤❤ .
It reminded me Ramana Maharshi 😂 “The mind of one meditating on a single object becomes one-pointed. And one-pointedness of mind leads to abidance in the Self.”
in past i haven’t understood that, because I was full. Now I know, that was o.k and it was not to change, by doing nothing. I had to go threw things, to understand. Now I understand just be and seek nothing. But thats not forever and not always. Thats a part of being, a good part, same as the other.
Look not in the past nor in the future. Search not for ideas and you liberate the mind from thoughts. This process of being aware during any activity at the present moment has a deeper meaning than seeking attainment or the end result. Not clinging to any idea is Zen practice. No worries. No ambition. A heart that is thankful and detached, and a mind that is quiet and calm is the key to Zazen.
Thanks NHK World! The Zen essence is Zazen. ''Seek nothing, just sit'' so we can know ourselves better and develop our wisdom or a Certain Art of Living (happier &healthier 1%) 🧘🧘♂
You can see a solidity within Myogen's answer at the end of the video. That's the Hallmark of a true spiritual seeker. Even though I'm not a monk, I too have been forced to practice meditation to lessen my own mental torment. Sometime it becomes too much. But then I remember that enduring life's suffering is actually the fast track of spiritual growth. And then I feel better.
Watching at the beginning, I think you have found a place in it, meaning you love the work, from farming, to cleaning, to nature and observing .. I think it has made a master out of you!! ; ) seriously the same stuff that I learn from my brother , the discipline part , I think you have discovered that.. the other part is human, people, you can get along with someone one minute and the next they back to their nature and you back to yours, like me I’m very lazy and relax ^ ^ so if you are with me and you are not like that you will be stirred up!! ^ ^ the other part is nature and the zen part .. which is “you,” I cannot find it ,, I’m always attached to melancholy, sadness in some ways.. if I do observe nature and find things .
To have a quiet, peaceful, orderly, and good life, isn't that enough? A life with few wordly cares, few wordly possessions, no drama, no egoic battles with anyone, not daily being projected upon by someone who can't cope with their issues, isn't that enough? If you can watch the insanity and not be consumed by it, isn't that enough? While I feel the pull of seeking, chasing, desiring like anyone else, but when I step outside of that and look clearly, such a life free from that is a blessing and he who has it is fortunate.
Stop looking for answers. Just sit and let go of any seeking, any grasping, anger, desire etc, peace will come. The water will clear. From that peace will come. The important questions and along with them the answers will come from that peace. Any answer that does not bring you more peace or leads you to more grasping or anger etc etc is incorrect. Let go more. It's simple really, just hard for some and easy for others. It might be easier for you then you think it will be. Or it might be harder and that is also ok. Don't expect it to be either hard or easy. Just take the action of letting go. Most wise people do this; even the scientists that are so famous do it. They became peaceful and just observed. From that came the questions and the answers and the experiments that brought more answers. You can of course also learn to actually actively ask questions; but without great skill you will muddy the waters again. You have to have the right size pebble and toss it in the water at the right speed OR be able to stabilize the water and the sediment to be able to actually ask questions without muddying the water. (Which then muddy water just gives you horrid answers that will lead to suffering.) But really, all actively asking questions is going to teach you is to stop seeking and asking questions. Ergo, to stop seeking. Granted, being able to stabilize the mind through super complex situations can be useful and even fun. Imagine being able to toss a giant boulder (or have one tossed) into a pond and not even have the water ripple, to have no murky cloud bellow up from the mud at the bottom. For the pond to still be at peace. That pond is of course your mind. I'm not saying I can do all of this.. I'm just saying it's possible. Seeking just brings suffering. Letting should feel good and if it doesn't, let go of the pain, the fear or whatever comes up. It's only for the moment, you can pick things back up if you need to. (All though really, picking things back up isn't an action we do, it is just something that happens because of our prior habits of how we live life. It's amazing watching this process happen honestly.. and scary and bothersome.. as it should be.
@@tonyhill2318 , oh I don't like Zen myself... thats just the sort of stuff they say. I prefer the Thai Forest tradition in the Theravada school. And the Suttas from the Pali Canon It's thousands of times more simple yet utterly hardcore compared to everything else. Basically, it says craving, desire, anger and a few other things are always the issue, uproot them and you'll be happy sitting around doing nothing and being at peace. No Koans, no specific way to walk meditation beyond looking at the ground 6 feet in front of you to keep yourself from engaging in sense pleasure. No worries really about what reality is even. It's all about just letting go.
"the more we push them away, the more aggressively they come back" - I wonder what he's running away from, and whether he needs to run away from it at all. Mindfulness isn't about pushing things away, but about being present and accepting thoughts as cloud. Also, human nature has needs that are natural and expected. For the father trying to be a monk, that's a tough one because if he has no kids, it'd be easy, but those kids did not ask to be born. They deserve the love and support of a father. Even Buddha went from home life to homelessness, but that still doesn't negate the missing needs of the children.
So much yes to things coming back more aggressively if you push them away. I've had those things literally start yelling at me in my mind because I had pushed them away. It was very scary suddenly seriously hearing a voice screaming in my mind that I KNEW was my extremely pissed off, frustrated, scared and desperate voice. .. now my mind does random stuff like go, "PSST! Over here!!" in a kinda playful voice when I'm meditating. .. that seriously happened a few weeks ago. I managed to stay in mediation for like 3-4 mins after it which I'm pretty proud of. or my mind also likes to tell me jokes that are really very cutting and useful advice. (Also it sometimes just laughs at me in loving kindness when I'm taking things to seriously.) I had to have a long conversation with it about the jokes to understand what it was doing and to ask it to take it easy with the knife. Things were getting a bit to bloody and moving to fast for me to be able to feasibly make changes. ---it just laughed in loving kindness and said, "Ok" Then I got frustrated things were not moving fast enough any more after awhile.. .hahahhah! Silly me seeking things.
I think he says that he had to face the things he used to push away with mindfulness. He did not say that mindfulness was a way to push things away. For the father, yes hus children need a father, but a good one. Maybe he was not a good one.
@@Mingwingz I get that, but it sounds like whatever it is he's trying to push away (or confront), it's unresolved...curious about what it is. He's a troubled young soul looking for answer and peace.
If you are able to sit, that's an accomplishment, because the majority are simply exhausting themselves by endless seeking and achieving what only lasts for a few moments and beginning a gain. Worse, you get to the end of your life and see all the time that you squandered as my father did.
Existence is one. Only the view in a perception parts from a viewpoint in it. That viewpoint is taken for the self. The self is taken for a viewpoint in existence.
honest question, I live in Japan as foreign student. Does someone know if it is possible to join a monastery and practice meditation on weekends? Or for a a couple weeks like during vacations? Appreciate the comments.
Hi everybody. When I just sit and just asking Who I am, I can go very deep, my person picture is erasing, and strange visions and feelings come. And noting I can get such special vision, I feel a possession of desire of superpowers, I feel they are exactly close as touch of my fingers. And I can not overcome that posession 🤔 hovever I understand, that khowing Who I really am is much more valuable then superpowers.
@@MuhoZen I think it may be somewhere in Shobogenzo. I feel it relates to, 'Nothing further to seek.' by Bodhidharma or, 'This is it!' used by Alan Watts.
People are programmed robot slaves of the system thinking happyness starts with extern factors like status, money, material things that means nothing and its relativ and an illusion create by society. If your happyness depend on extern factors you will never be because extern factors are endless. Thats why a lot of people buy stuff or look a certain way to create an illusion for the outside world out of emptyness. Happyness starts inside you. The more people around you, the more expectations, talk about others, lying, frustrations, negativity, jealousy, hate, double standards, own benefits, judge, comparing etc..... reflection of their broken souls. Alone or in solitude you have more strength, peace, power, happyness, freedom and time to reflect on yourself. No, not feeling superior or better then others but more be carefully and awake. Be the light in your own life. The here and now is where the magic happens
You know those Staples commercials with the Easy Button? The reality is that there is a happiness button that is much easier then that annoying easy button. Want to be happy? Be happy. --course it's not that easy for a lot of people, maybe most because you indeed have to learn that happiness starts with internal factors. One way to do this is to learn to extend the length of time something external "makes" you happy. This for me really kicked the process of decoupling my happiness from external things in to high gear. 20 years before that it was realizing that I could almost make myself feel like I had done drugs without doing the drugs.... and that it was actually better in SO many ways then the drugs. ---if only I hadn't gotten lost in the weeds for the next 20 years sigh, I would probably have been a monk 15 years ago. Also for sure to not feeling superior or better and feeling more careful and awake. I've dabbled with the superiority with this stuff and all it did was make me sad , depressed and suffering. Mind you, I didn't mean to feel superior, it was just that I wasn't around anyone who had felt / seen / realized the things I did so it kinda just happened. Once I started finding people that had or were wiser then me that started to change. (And I briefly felt like dirt then hah!) Anyone who thinks they are superior has an internal aspect that knows they aren't and that brings about suffering.
Has anyone else noticed there is a mouse cursor in the middle of the screen. Extremely distracting when you notice it. It makes the video unwatchable so better not to notice it.
THE ONE WHO HAS TWO CHILDREN...HE HAS RESPONSABILITIES HE IS A FATHER AND HUSBAND THAT IS HIS PATH......HE WILL BE UNHAPPY IF HE DOES OTHERWISE....SAD SAD.
unfortunately i know nothing about zen practices. what i do know is that when we know that we're part of god's creation then we know that we have value.
This is not just an issue in Zen. It's an issue in all wisdom practices. The reasons behind it are multifold. It could be a bad teacher. It could be lack of a teacher. It could be the person is sitting for the wrong reasons. It could be that they are grasping on to things. It could be that they don't understand the goal is peace (for lack of a better word as a Thai Forest teacher just told me today.) It could be that they don't understand the the only real action you have to take is to let go and then sit. And that if you are asking what you're suppose to let go of, you're grasping. Whatever your senses show you, let it go. Don't process it, not make meaning of it. Let the sense contact go. There are things like desires etc to let go of... later or before. There order of these things doesn't matter much. All that is important is the result, that they bring peace and renunciation of worldly desires. Discovering the "Happiness button" is a useful tool for some. Learn to extend the amount of time you "get" joy from some external thing. It starts to decouple your sense of joy and help you understand that joy is caused by internal circumstances. I'm not sure Zen really deals with joy though honestly.... they seem pretty much the dry approach. Or perhaps more aptly, the sand paper approach. I'm more a fan of Theravada and specifically the Thai forest tradition. They openly say that joy from mediation is to be sought after because it can help you let go of the world.. and that even that joy should eventually be let go also of course.
@@robertjsmithyes but it's no so simple. I,ve practicing for 40 years or more. If some one would have told me that when I started I would never had believed that. In my case I practiced with the koan Mu. You may get kensho rather quick when you practice a koan (or you may not). When you get kensho you know by yourself that there IS nothing to get but before that it's non sense.
We look at plants and animals we see them live so freely, of course animals they kill to survive , but don’t we wish to be like that .. here in our daily lives when we get to a place of right and wrong it feels like drops of poison in your body it just sinks in and kill you.. why is there has to be a place of right and wrong, i think it’s love, love is righteous..in the Bible, the thief even he said that he is wrong, he admits himself, and that was it.. .i guess in the Bible it holds certain things so sacred so holy that’s why the Bible looks at certain things as Sin.. I think in Zen we explore more room to give to each other .. if one day you able to see forgiveness is a place that completes you.. would you want to share it with another person? Want to share just want to share , or truly want to share?
Thank you for your comment! "The bird’s singing and the flower’s laughter appear naturally, completely independent from the person sitting in zazen at the foot of the cliff." The bird doesn’t sing in honor of the person in zazen. The flower doesn’t blossom to amaze the person with her beauty. In exactly the same way, the person doesn’t sit in zazen in order to get satori. Every single being simply realizes the self, through the self, for the self. (Kodo Sawaki)
In the Bible why question why it has to be righteousness? I guess it’s a place of genuineness, earnest,, means you wouldn’t do it just out of your convenience or just a nice gesture but it’s a place you do it consistently, and you wouldn’t want others to do that way to you , something just a fly by, because deep down it’s not respectful.. but it is a place of earnest , earnest in seeking .. meaning all of you is earnest.. you wouldn’t have good judgement but go out and break the law.. so in earnest seeking, it is God ways , or to have godly character .. it’s actually a place of perfection even if you are Not perfect .. .. maybe that’s why He said like your father in heaven .. live and witness ..
zen enlightenment is the realization of the Orginal Face as ajata in the beyond the beyond..if you perfect your technique the everything and the nothing will vanish and It will pop up..its alwasy been there..your teacher should explain that to you
It has nothing to do with " loosing one's way" and everything to do with tolerating the blatant constant absurdity of life...which is what it is meant to be. Study NDEs. We are here to experience the idiocy and pain that we do not experience where we are all from. This place is temporary and supposed to be fucked up to make decisions concerning love....NOTHING MORE. ACCOMPLISHMENTS MEAN NOTHING....ASPECTS OF LOVE IS EVERYTHING.
Looks like you do yes. I prefer Theravada (And the Thai forest tradition) for many reasons and the lack of having to pay is one of them. Everything is "dana" based. Ergo, pay if you feel you were helped and pay within you means. All without any real pressure. It's like this even if you go stay at a monastery for a month or longer or go on a week (or longer) retreat. I've felt for years that if a spiritual teaching is good enough they will not have to ask for money. Just provide the opportunity to give money via a box or bowl or venmo/ paypal or whatever link. Zen is great for a lot of people though so. ... just not me.
I am sorry but they are missing one basic point ... to reach to a point where you seek nothing , first you have declutter and deprogram yourself of lifetime of teachings and other stuff that world has put you through and for that , seeking is necessary .
"Isn't desiring not to desire still desire?" Alan Watts Yes, of course. Part of the paradox is to get you to see the trap. The trap is desire. The trap is thinking that you can stop desiring. All because a consciousness is only ever the AWARENESS of thought/feeling/implication. You can't choose what thought comes into your head next. You can't choose what's valuable to you and what isn't. Maybe your desires and values will change over time, but it's never 'up to' consciousness. You can't tighten your stomach and 'force' a thought or belief into your head. In fact you'll realize that even the act of 'tightening your stomach wasn't 'up to you.' All because consciousness only ever experiences what it's thinking and doing. We judge all the time, and that's not up to us. We see the implications of things and we judge them (we can't help but feel meaning in every moment). We never outrun our conscience, even if it's wrong or misguided sometimes. But the judging - we can't escape that. We learn, thank god. So there's hope. But that's not up to us either. So the 'seeking' allows us to see the futility, and ALSO the fact that we can't stop seeking. This is one aspect of 'surrendering to God's will,' that Christians talk about (but mostly don't understand). And the 'nothing' being sought - that's a little riddle too. Firstly, we have to realize that 'ideas' are essentially little boxes we put around the world. 'Events' have a start and stop time, 'places' have physical locations that start and stop at some point, ideas about people 'describe' them - what they are and what they aren't. But all these ideas (things) fall short in describing what 'the thing' really is. No words can really describe romantic love, or how you feel about the person you love. Did XYZ 'event' really start then, or were there lots of actions that preceded it? Is that color really green? What is green? And so we start to see that the ideas and words we use (we can't help but use) to describe and manipulate the world are yes, incredibly useful, but never actually sufficient, and that the real world isn't actually broken up by these ideas. Even what we are at the molecular level - all our molecules in our body change over the course of seven (?) years or so. Like, we're completely different atoms than we were, and we do that over and over. So seeking 'nothing' means seeking 'no thing,' or the realization that life isn't actually broken up into 'things' the way our brains do it. But also. Nothing is what we are. Nothing is what everything is. And this time I mean it literally. You know how atoms aren't really atoms, but actually protons and neutrons and electrons? There's no atom 'shell' and then particles inside, it's just the particles inside buzzing around making the appearance of the atom shape. Except the protons (and neutrons and electrons), there's no shell to those either, it's just the inner particles buzzing around (or waves of 'energy). Aka, at whatever level we're looking there's form that we can see (pattern), but there's never any actual 'stuff' that the form is made of, because then that 'stuff' itself must be a pattern made up of other 'stuff,' except we keep going down and down and down and there's always pattern and yet there's never any stuff. Think of a napkin laid flat on a table. Now, pinch the napkin somewhere so it sticks up like a nipple. You can see the nipple and call it a 'nipple,' but you know it's really the napkin, scrunched. Ok, now imagine that 'space' (aka, nothing) is the napkin, and that 'things' (forms, patterns, the 'stuff' that seeming never has any 'stuff' at the bottom), those things are 'the nipple,' or scrunched portions of space (the thing). Aka, everything is the same invisible thing (God), but we only can see/interact with portions of space/the napkin where it's scrunched (or energized, or interactive, or whatever it is that makes nothingness become formed nothingness). Crazy, right? Because 'things' are actually ideas-about-reality, and because 'stuff' doesn't exist (it's just form all the way down, never any 'stuff'- just sit and think about it logically), it finally hit me that THIS THING IS ALL GOD DOING ITS THING, and none of that is in 'control.' And yet it follows patterns we recognize and desire to improve upon, and that desire is part of the pattern, and whether you experience satori or not is completely not up to 'you,' since there's no 'chooser,' there's no 'you that chooses your will' - you are the will. And you don't know what that will will be next. Maybe it will be satori.
Ohne danach zu suchen, wird Dir im Zen klar gemacht, dass Du schuldig bist schlimmste Untaten verübt zu haben - Du kannst dem nur zustimmen. Wenn Du eine Lösung dafür findest, bewegst Du Dich auf dem Zen-Weg.
