When Everything is Against You 

"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

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.

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

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

This was timely for me. Thank you as always.

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

"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!!

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.

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

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.

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

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.

"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.

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

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.

Everything seems so shrouded in mystery with Buddhism.

great video!

VERY MUCH needed this reminder today!

Useful advice.

Cool it with the boom booms, Brad

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!

Good talk.

Sword 🗡️ of Damocles is exactly right!

First Noble Truth

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

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.

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

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

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 ?

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

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.

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."

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.

What is the spelling on Nisgata Mahragina?

🙏🧘‍♀️👍

Most are fabrications but not all

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?

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.

stoicism

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