Search found 12 matches

by James418
Tue May 31, 2011 9:31 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Zen Training
Replies: 17
Views: 4254

Re: What should you do when you don't have a Zen teacher yet?

Unconscious emotional upsurges? I've never heard of such things in either Zen literature or Buddhism. You have never heard the story of the frog sitting peacefully on a stone in Zazen, behind him a coiled snake poised to strike - so he needs to watch it? Really?? Well you don't know much, then. Wha...
by James418
Tue May 31, 2011 8:10 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Zen Training
Replies: 17
Views: 4254

Re: What should you do when you don't have a Zen teacher yet?

That's somewhat of a Japanese approach to monastic life that I've never agreed with. Some like the idea of torturing newbies as it supposedly fosters humility. I didn't say that. Please stop putting words in my mouth. It has nothing to do with torturing. They are always looking out for the new monk...
by James418
Tue May 31, 2011 3:31 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Zen Training
Replies: 17
Views: 4254

Re: Zen Training

If you live with 10 people at close quarters for 6 months with few distractions, you will see some real fireworks. Like I said, it is a pressure cooker - all monasteries are. And there are monasteries with hundreds of monks, a range of departments to organise publications, ceremonies, charities and...
by James418
Tue May 31, 2011 1:17 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Zen Training
Replies: 17
Views: 4254

Re: Zen Training

OK, lets then clarify things here. What monastic training you mean? Japanese, Korean, Chinese or Western? If Japanese, what school? If it is Western Buddhist, which monastery? Generalisation would be very misleading here. I know that some Japanese Zen temples do it in a very tough fashion, but thos...
by James418
Tue May 31, 2011 11:56 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: Zen Training
Replies: 17
Views: 4254

Re: What should you do when you don't have a Zen teacher yet?

Without a teacher the training cuts no ice. You just cannot get around it. Meditation doesn't mean jack unless you are being confronted with your fears and put through the wringer on a daily basis. Sure, life puts you on the precipice a couple of times, but a good teacher will put you through it fa...
by James418
Tue May 31, 2011 1:16 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: Zen Training
Replies: 17
Views: 4254

Zen Training

Practicing without a teacher is stumbling around in the dark. What is it specifically that only a living teacher can tell but not scriptures? Also, what makes a teacher? Suppose my friend's brother learnt sitting meditation in an Austrian zendo and then from him my friend learnt it from him and fro...
by James418
Sun May 08, 2011 7:52 pm
Forum: Lounge
Topic: Time Magazine "Bad Buddhists"
Replies: 10
Views: 2520

Re: Time Magazine "Bad Buddhists"

Huseng, Are you saying that cheap practices like fortune telling and house blessings were/are not everyday practices in Theravada countries? I think they generally are. And even today many conceive Buddhism as something pure and otherworldly thus seeing such things can be shocking. I don't know if ...
by James418
Mon May 02, 2011 11:33 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: What should you do when you don't have a Zen teacher yet?
Replies: 43
Views: 11253

Re: What should you do when you don't have a Zen teacher yet?

Training is available from / via the Buddhist Society in the UK. They have teachers of Rinzai, Therevada and Tibetan, and they have put together some possibilities for training including various Buddhist courses from introductory to advanced. They jointly run retreats with visiting teachers from The...
by James418
Mon May 02, 2011 12:45 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Meditation for Beginners by Nyogen Senzaki
Replies: 21
Views: 5258

Re: Meditation for Beginners by Nyogen Senzaki

Yes, in the Platform Sutra we are told that Huineng was illiterate. Those who made up the story were obviously literate people, not to mention that the Platform Sutra itself warns people in chapter 10: "You must not revile the sutras, which is a transgression immeasurable." Also, consider...
by James418
Mon May 02, 2011 3:26 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: Meditation for Beginners by Nyogen Senzaki
Replies: 21
Views: 5258

Re: Meditation for Beginners by Nyogen Senzaki

Nyigen Senzaki's remarks seem pretty straight forward. One needs to distinguish between the ordinary sense of meditation by removing thoughts and the true sense of meditation which is seeing the empty nature of thoughts. What seem like contradictions are instructions aimed at different people. Medi...
by James418
Mon May 02, 2011 12:37 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: Meditation for Beginners by Nyogen Senzaki
Replies: 21
Views: 5258

Re: Meditation for Beginners by Nyogen Senzaki

"A firm understanding of the Buddhist teachings is assumed prior to entry to a sodo." I seriously doubt people who go to any Western Zen group have studied Buddhism to the point they can understand clearly what the Awakening Mahayana Faith, as a primary text of East Asian Buddhism, talks ...
by James418
Sun May 01, 2011 11:40 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: Meditation for Beginners by Nyogen Senzaki
Replies: 21
Views: 5258

Re: Meditation for Beginners by Nyogen Senzaki

Now, to rattle the discussion :ugeek: , I'll say this: I wonder if the way high profile Zen teachers placed themselves regarding Japan's involvement in WWII it isn't a result of plain bad practice resulting of the lack of clear instructions, Zsolt. If those were their best la creme de la creme of Z...

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