Comments on: laying down a path in walking http://108zenbooks.com/2010/02/09/laying-down-a-path-in-walking/ Sat, 19 May 2012 18:03:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Genju http://108zenbooks.com/2010/02/09/laying-down-a-path-in-walking/#comment-337 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:48:25 +0000 http://108zenbooks.com/?p=1566#comment-337 And thank you for helping me by offering the talk by Jiryu. I offered it to my sangha and listened to it on the drive to work. How fabulous! Yes, the office chair is not my zafu but offers as profound a meditation! And I would love to trade in the oppositional people in my life for better oppositional people with better oppositions! Hah! ;-)

]]> By: Barry Briggs http://108zenbooks.com/2010/02/09/laying-down-a-path-in-walking/#comment-334 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:02:02 +0000 http://108zenbooks.com/?p=1566#comment-334 Thanks for sharing the Clark Strand teaching, Genju.

Funny how we have to say the same things, over and over. It’s like talking with someone who only understands a few words of a language. Go slow. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Maybe they’ll get it, if we can remain helpful.

]]> By: Genju http://108zenbooks.com/2010/02/09/laying-down-a-path-in-walking/#comment-333 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:53:04 +0000 http://108zenbooks.com/?p=1566#comment-333 Thanks for the talk, Barry! I had a chance to listen to a portion before sangha tonight. I’ll finish it tomorrow on my long drive to work outside the city!

Beautiful how he starts with “how often do we have to say this?” It reminds me of Thich Nhat Hanh saying that teaching the dharma is like being the airline steward who goes over the same thing at the beginning of every flight: how to put on the seatbelt, how to use to oxygen mask, where the exits are… No matter how often we hear it, there is always that one time we need to really hear it or that one person who has never heard it before!

Your comment also reminded me of Clark Strand’s words: Where you meditate has everything to do with how useful your meditation will be. But by where, I don’t necessarily mean in which room of the house, or whether you live in a quiet spot or not. I simply mean that you should meditate inside the life you have. If you are an accountant, meditate inside an accountant’s life. If you are a policeman, meditate inside of that. Wherever you want to illuminate your life, meditate precisely in that spot. (The Wooden Bowl by Clark Strand) (from my post “2 wooden bowls” on Sept 30/09)

And here we are saying it again! ;-)

I think Evan’s point about laying down the path by walking digs deeper too. There is only that moment of practice. There are no rituals, forms, magic movements that lead to enlightenment; this very step is already it.

At the same time, all those rituals etc have their usefulness – just as having practiced falling down for many decades came in handy when I hit that ice patch! The falling was the path and the practice since childhood made it easy! :-D

]]> By: Barry Briggs http://108zenbooks.com/2010/02/09/laying-down-a-path-in-walking/#comment-332 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:06:31 +0000 http://108zenbooks.com/?p=1566#comment-332 I hope that both your back and the ice survived the, uh, interaction!

As I read this post today, Genju, I was also listening to this talk by Jiryu Mark, a teacher at San Francisco Zen Center. It’s one of those things – he was talking about exactly the same thing – of experiencing the life we actually have, in this moment.

I found this talk via Monkey Mind – very nice listening:
http://shoresofzen.com/jiryumark/PracticewiththeLifeYouHave.mp3

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