Ok by Zen masters in this case I am referring to my daughters, and here particularly I am talking about Zen Master Hannah, who joins me pretty much every morning for sitting.
This is just a personal observation I have had not sure if there is anything to be gained by it or not. Just what I have experienced, exemplified by my sitting on Tuesday evening which was alone.
So here is the set up. I got home a bit late from work and as a result was not able to attend Hannah’s Karate class. This left me home alone so I decided to take the time to get my zen on so to speak with an extra sitting. The thing is I could not really get into, well, body and mind dropping off. This is weird. Because I usually can get into this really easily even with distractions when sitting with my daughter; while before she started sitting with me it would take a lot of sitting to get to that state.
Now I do recognize that there are other elements at play here, for example sitting first thing in the morning vs right after coming home from work, but I just kind of noticed this other night, and now am kind of stewing over it. Yes, I know, attachment and all… But this is the kind of thing that normally only happens for me on a retreat I know a lot of people don’t really like to talk about what goes on in their sitting but I guess I am curious if anyone else has had a similar experience and if they would be bold enough to share.
5 comments:
Generally speaking, my subjective experience while sitting could not be more chaotic. It's been like that for 20 years and continue like that until I die. But now I know that my mind is chaotic and I can watch the chaos without too much engagement, mostly.
Jordan,
The Friends in Tea Conference I attended was held at Daibosatsu Zendo in New York. For the first time since I returned from Japan, I sat for four days in a row. Now, I am not a good sitter, I am a better cleaner, but sitting with others helped me get through it and even motivated me to do it every morning at that ungodly hour. And of course, Eido Roshi was thoroughly charming at drinking the tea that I made so I thought it polite to sit with him.
Margie
Barry,
For some reason your post made me think of playing solitaire. Shuffle the deck mix all the cards up then struggle to put them all in suits again, stacking order against chaos. I suppose that’s one way to pass the time.
Margie,
Glad you made it home safely! I don’t know if I am a good sitter. I would say a dedicated one. But not so dedicated to cleaning anymore. I may have completely surrendered on that front until the kids are out of the house.
Jordan,
By good sitter, I meant sitting regularly. Though now I have started, I am attempting to do it every morning again. (Though not at 4:30 am as we did in the zendo).
That's great Margie! The world could do with some more dedicated sitters.
Thanks for your practice!
Jordan
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