TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST
Episodes
Tuesday Sep 01, 2015
August 2015 Talk - Why Zen Folks Fail - Part 6
Tuesday Sep 01, 2015
Tuesday Sep 01, 2015
We continue with Why Zen Students Fail!
One reason is because they trust the Zen Teachers too much sometimes.
Another reason is because they trust their Teacher not enough sometimes.
Sometimes they are blind to a Teacher's flaws, victims of excess devotion, faith and obedience (yes, it sometimes happens, as described HERE)
Sometimes students expect a Zen Teacher to be flawless, saintly and superhuman, and run away at the first sign of humanity.
Students should realize that the teachers are really just mentors,
"friends on the way", folks who have been around the block, guides who
have walked the path and can help point out the generally good
directions and the dangers and quicksand. Learn from the voice of
experience and the wise advice, but in the end, each student must do
their own walking.
In all cases, the student should learn to see through the Teacher to the Teaching, seeing this messy world and the Pure Land as One.
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: Why Zen Folks FAIL!! (6) - Trusting the Teacher »
Wednesday Jul 22, 2015
July 2015 Talk - Why Zen Folks Fail - Part 5
Wednesday Jul 22, 2015
Wednesday Jul 22, 2015
So many Zen students think that the longer they sit the better. They believe 10 years surpasses 10 months or 10 days, which must be better than 10 hours, which is better than 10 minutes or seconds. They treat Zazen like a taxi meter or points to rack up, the more they sit the closer they are to the goal. They equate more and more sitting with going deeper and deeper, or becoming more and more peaceful, or more and more "Buddha-like", or more and more "enlightened".
However, Zazen only truly hits the mark when all measure of time and score, goals and attainment are dropped away. Only then does a moment of sitting contain all time, only then does one realize the destination ever present. Zazen is thus very unlike many forms of meditation (not to mention very unlike our usual clock watching, tally counting, comparing and measuring, goal oriented attitude toward the rest of our busy lives) in which deeper and deeper attainments, and greater and greater achievements, add up with time. In Zazen, one attains the deepest attainment and the greatest achievement, namely, the timeless which is right in each tick of the clock, the goal ever reached again and again in each passing mile on the road across town. But one only realizes so when one sits as the still and round face of the clock which holds all time as the hands make their circles ...
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: Why Zen Folks FAIL!! (5) - Watching The Clock Rackin Up Points »
Saturday Jun 27, 2015
June 2015 Talk - Why Zen Folks Fail - Part 4
Saturday Jun 27, 2015
Saturday Jun 27, 2015
Last time in this series on "Why Zen Folks FAIL!", we looked at NOT KNOWING HOW NOT TO CHASE! Folks don't know how to be totally still. This time, the reason "Zen Folks FAIL!" is because of complacently NOT KNOWING HOW TO CHASE! Folks don't know how to keep climbing and moving!
Saying about this life and world that "there is nothing in need of change" --does not-- mean "there is nothing in need of change". Simply because all things are "perfectly complete, just as they are", that --does not-- mean that all things are "perfectly complete, just as they are". Saying so is only from one beautiful perspective. In fact, to realize profoundly that "there is nothing in need of change", we must change our human tendencies of excess desire, anger, jealously and other divisive thoughts of ignorance. There is a lot about us in need of change in order to realize that nothing was ever in need of change from the first, not a drop.
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: Why Zen Folks FAIL!! (4) - NOT CHASING ENOUGH! »
Saturday Jun 20, 2015
June 2015 Talk - Why Zen Folks Fail - Part 3
Saturday Jun 20, 2015
Saturday Jun 20, 2015
Many forms of Buddhist meditation center on seeking ... seeking benefits ranging from mystical states and insights, to simple relaxation and good health effects. These are great Practices, yet also feed the tendency so common to folks in modern, consumer societies to not know how to be truly still, content and whole ... for people in the West keep running after more, bigger, better, brighter. We want to be more focused, more peaceful, more enlightened ... We truly are hamsters on treadmills, and we do not know how to stop and turn spinning wheels into Enso!
Even many of the students and Teachers of so-called "Just Sitting" Zazen will bring a subtle greed into their sitting ... subtly and secretly demanding some profit and returns ... which robs the sitting of its greatest power. Oh, sure, they may become more peaceful, relaxed, accepting in life ... and that's something! But they are not truly "just sitting" in stillness ... rather, they are still "just demanding" even if in the backs of their minds. Modern, industrial people, it seems, find it so hard to just sit and be, whole and complete!
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: Why Zen Folks FAIL!! (3) - CHASING »
Sunday May 31, 2015
May 2015 Talk - Why Zen Folks Fail - Part 2
Sunday May 31, 2015
Sunday May 31, 2015
People fail at Zen because they think there is a place to fail. But in fact, THERE IS NO PLACE TO FAIL!
People fail at Zen because they think there is -no- place to fail. In fact, THERE ARE ENDLESS PLACES TO FAIL!
The biggest place to fail is to believe that there either is or is not places to fail. Better said, the trap is the failure to know that ONE CAN FAIL YET NOT FAIL AT ONCE!
Thursday May 21, 2015
May 2015 Talk - Why Zen Folks Fail - Part I
Thursday May 21, 2015
Thursday May 21, 2015
Zen folks fail because we're IGNORANT, DELUDED sentient beings, of course! But more specifically, because of several common mistakes and misguided assumptions among many Zen students new and old (and by so-called Zen Teachers too).
This is the first of a NEW VIDEO/AUDIO PODCAST SERIES and, over the coming weeks, I will look at many of the reasons that Zen students, Teachers, Zen groups and Buddhism in general are EPICALLY FAILING in the West (and why they are also doing quite well in so many ways, thank you!).
Join the discussion for this episode at the Treeleaf.org forum.