Secular Buddhism

[danny la rouge]

This is where I do my walking meditation.

 

[danny la rouge]

I like this one. Less than 90 secs. The audio is not broken.

 

[danny la rouge]

I’m finding my zen practice very helpful. The more I do it, the more I get from it. It’s like a subtly self-reinforcing process. Not a one-off instant fix, but a tool that you find more and more uses for. A tool that you look at and think, “it looks so simple, but it has so many applications!”.

 

[danny la rouge]

So you should view this fleeting world—

A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,

A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.

 

[JimW]

I’m finding my zen practice very helpful. The more I do it, the more I get from it. It’s like a subtly self-reinforcing process. Not a one-off instant fix, but a tool that you find more and more uses for. A tool that you look at and think, “it looks so simple, but it has so many applications!”.

Sueng Sahn:

Zen practice … requires great faith, great courage, and great questioning.

What is great faith? Great faith means that at all times you keep the mind which decided to practice, no matter what. It is like a hen sitting on her eggs. She sits on them constantly, caring for them and giving them warmth, so that they will hatch. If she becomes careless or negligent, the eggs will not hatch and become chicks. So Zen mind means always and everywhere believing in myself…

Great courage … means bringing all your energy to one point. It is like a cat hunting a mouse. The mouse has retreated into its hole, but the cat waits outside the hole for hours on end without the slightest movement. It is totally concentrated on the mouse-hole. This is Zen mind — cutting off all thinking and directing all your energy to one point.

Next — great questioning… If you question with great sincerity, there will only be don’t-know mind.

 

[BigMoaner]

I’m finding my zen practice very helpful. The more I do it, the more I get from it. It’s like a subtly self-reinforcing process. Not a one-off instant fix, but a tool that you find more and more uses for. A tool that you look at and think, “it looks so simple, but it has so many applications!”.

zen is my buddhist home for sure.

 

[danny la rouge]

 

[danny la rouge]

I'd like to share my morning meditation routine with you.

I use the Plum Village App. (It has a lot in there and if you're ADHDy like me, you'll probably want an introductory map or it can be a bit overwhelming. I'll maybe do that post later).

There's a tab called "Silent meditations". The one I use isn't exactly silent as there's an introductory chant, which I like to get me into the zone. I use "20 mins silent meditation with morning chant".

After the chant and responses, there's a bell.

Then I go through this routine. Each numbered point is a recitation. In parenthesis the explanation of the process I go though:

1. Breathing in, I am aware of my in breath, breathing out I am aware of my out breath. In. Out.

(I focus on the sensation of cool air entering my nostrils and the warm air leaving them).

I then allow around 10 in and out breaths to focus on this. Before reciting step two inwardly.

2. Breathing in, I am aware of each breath from start to finish.

(I focus on each breath's journey from outside my body, into the nostrils, then pouring into my lungs. I picture the journey of the oxygen from the lungs into the bloodstream and around my body. I am aware of the organisms that create the oxygen in the atmosphere: plants and trees and bacteria on the land, phytoplankton and other organisms in the oceans. Each breath a lesson in Interbeing: our connection to everything else).

Around 10 breaths after reminding myself of all this, I move to:

3. Breathing in I am aware of my body, breathing out I am aware of my body. In: body. Out: body.

(I do a brief body scan, getting in touch with the sensations in my body from my feet to my scalp. The feet touching the floor, calves resting against my chair, etc.)

Leaving 10 more breaths I move on to:

4. Breathing in I calm my body. Breathing out I calm my body.

(I focus on the areas I can hold tension in my body and allow the tension to drop out: the muscles around my eyes, my jaw, my shoulders, my brow).

10 breaths.

5. Breathing in, I am aware of the seeds of joy in my store consciousness. Breathing out I am aware of the seeds of joy. I allow a smile onto my lips. In: joy. Out: joy.

(We may not feel joy in this moment. But the emotion is in our repertoire. We can remind ourselves of that. Smiling will help that memory. The Buddhist terminology distinguishes between joy and happiness. Joy involves a degree of excitement and maybe anticipated relief. Like someone who is thirsty in the desert who sees an oasis ahead).

10 breaths.

6. Breathing in I am aware of happiness in my store consciousness. Breathing out I aware of happiness. In: happy. Out: happy.

(Again, I may not feel happy, but I am capable of feeling happy. We all are. In this case, Buddhism says happiness is like someone who has arrived at the oasis. They have drunk enough water and are resting under a tree, shaded from the strong sun. They can drink when they need to. They can enjoy the shade.

I think of the conditions that exist in this moment for happiness: I have shelter. I have a chair to sit on. If I'm at my sangha session, I have sangha members around me to meditate with. In this moment I can achieve happiness).

10 breaths.

7. Breathing in I am aware of my mental formations. Breathing out I am aware of my mental formations.

(Mental formations are broadly thoughts. I look at the thoughts that are coming up for me. I label them and note their presence: anger, pain, whatever it may be. Perhaps I'm obsessing over a plan. Or going over a disagreement. I note this without getting drawn in).

10 breaths.

8. Breathing in I calm my mental formations. Breathing out I calm my mental formations.

(In this step I remind myself that these feelings and thoughts are like the weather. They are clouds that cross the sky, and pass. I might ask myself "I wonder what my next thought will be?". The mind calms).

10 breaths. If the ending bell hasn’t rung, I return to one of the steps and redo it. Sometimes I might add a little meta meditation here. (Look it up).

And that's it.

 

[danny la rouge]

Oh yeah:

‎Plum Village: Zen Meditation

‎Looking to touch peace, calm and ease in today’s frantic and often stressful world? The Plum Village practices are an invaluable support. Use mindfulness meditation techniques taught by a renowned Zen Buddhist Master to connect deeply with the present moment, soothe anxiety, experience more...

apps.apple.com

 

[BigMoaner]

An old zen phrase that Tenabe Hajime turned me onto recently and has blown my mind ever since and has opened up so much thinking for me: “Neither dead nor alive”.

The collapsing of the biggest duality of them all.

 

[8ball]

An old zen phrase that Tenabe Hajime turned me onto recently and has blown my mind ever since and has opened up so much thinking for me: “Neither dead nor alive”.

The collapsing of the biggest duality of them all.

Doesn’t that cover pretty much all matter in the universe?

 

[danny la rouge]

I love this short films Plum Village do based on extracts of talks by TNH. This one teaches how stopping, truly stopping, can bring the peace that is the literal serenity that religious metaphors point us towards.

 

[danny la rouge]

Doesn’t that cover pretty much all matter in the universe?

Well, yes. This is touched on by TNH in the video I just posted. “There is no birth. There is no death”.

That’s humans with their need to categorise. We put things into categories then imagine the categories are themselves reality rather than a way of describing and understanding it.

The atoms that constitute us were forged in the furnaces of stars, and do not cease to exist after our death. They recombine and recycle. Even the meagre heat we emit goes into the atmosphere. Nothing is created or destroyed.

 

[BigMoaner]

Well, yes. This is touched on by TNH in the video I just posted. “There is no birth. There is no death”.

That’s humans with their need to categorise. We put things into categories then imagine the categories are themselves reality rather than a way of describing and understanding it.

The atoms that constitute us were forged in the furnaces of stars, and do not cease to exist after our death. They recombine and recycle. Even the meagre heat we emit goes into the atmosphere. Nothing is created or destroyed.

yes, and not only that - what context do the atoms exist in? it's like looking down a microscope, the scientist will assume truth, rightly so on a "relative" level, however forgetting the context in which scientist and microscope and what he's looking at exists within.

there is also the major Kantian problem - that all that we feel, percieve, think, touch is filtered through the senses, nervous system, and brains. there are many many filters before it appears in our brains, within conciousness, which is also another filter. so you can never really say for sure that what you experience as perception and life itself is "out there" and "as it appears" at all.

in buddhist terms this is the void. the great doubt. the great death. the point, in my view, and i believe the general mahayanna view, is the collapsing of catagories (and even, finally, that one). you return to where you are, fully, imminant, embodied. and then you forget and worry about council tax rises or car MOTs again, but the point is you've been on a voyrage and you've come back, i.e the Bodhisattva path. a lot of buddhism, in my view, is a simple remembering.

 

[BigMoaner]

…and I would also say it’s fully worth it, fully worthwhile. It is the door that can always be opened, no matter where or what you are going through. It’s not “sufficient” (but then who truly would want it to be - being “above it all” is horrendous and boring) but it’s a source of wonder and beauty and, often, peace. Heidegger who I believe was deep into this, perhaps deeper than most Buddhists, said he lives in almost “constant amazement”, it’s not because he’s found all the answers rather he lives hand in hand with the great mystery, the Void. Peace out!

 

[BigMoaner]

it always been seen as cheesy, and in some sense it is, but the bag scene of american beauty gets close. i would replace "incredibly benelovent force" though with Sunyata - emptiness. He ascribes concepts ("wants me to understand there's no reason to be afraid") to the force, where as Zen would avoid this, Zen would say don't flinch, don't escape into concepts which just creates more duality. but close it does get. Especially the remembering part.

 

[8ball]

yes, and not only that - what context do the atoms exist in? it's like looking down a microscope, the scientist will assume truth, rightly so on a "relative" level, however forgetting the context in which scientist and microscope and what he's looking at exists within.

there is also the major Kantian problem - that all that we feel, percieve, think, touch is filtered through the senses, nervous system, and brains. there are many many filters before it appears in our brains, within conciousness, which is also another filter. so you can never really say for sure that what you experience as perception and life itself is "out there" and "as it appears" at all.

in buddhist terms this is the void. the great doubt. the great death. the point, in my view, and i believe the general mahayanna view, is the collapsing of catagories (and even, finally, that one). you return to where you are, fully, imminant, embodied. and then you forget and worry about council tax rises or car MOTs again, but the point is you've been on a voyrage and you've come back, i.e the Bodhisattva path. a lot of buddhism, in my view, is a simple remembering.

Great responses, but I really did just mean it in the boring factual sense.

 

[danny la rouge]

A four minute film on moving mindfully from Plum Village.

 

[BigMoaner]

for those who are interested in critical theory/post modern philosophy and buddhism, the wonderful Glen Wallis has turned his Speculative Non-Buddhism blog into handy PDFs. for those committed practioners it can make very uncomfortable reading but, imv, worth it in the end.

SNB Magazin

Click number below images for pdf file. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19&n…

speculativenonbuddhism.com

 

[krtek a houby]

Anyone seen the Journey into Buddhism series by John Bush? Aka; The Yatra Trilogy.

Have slipped into a pleasant state of mind watching the PBS films on YouTube. They are more of a mood than documentaries, but there's something quite relaxing and lovely about them.

That said, I always wondered about the camera close ups on various monks, nuns, adherents... how they might feel about westerner with a crew in their face. Is it documenting them or being intrusive?

 

[danny la rouge]

Anyone seen the Journey into Buddhism series by John Bush? Aka; The Yatra Trilogy.

Have slipped into a pleasant state of mind watching the PBS films on YouTube. They are more of a mood than documentaries, but there's something quite relaxing and lovely about them.

That said, I always wondered about the camera close ups on various monks, nuns, adherents... how they might feel about westerner with a crew in their face. Is it documenting them or being intrusive?

Not seen them. Might have a look, thanks.

 

[danny la rouge]

Another beautiful Plum Village short video.