Hi Andre Andre: Serious question: How important is technique in zazen? I cannot get into 'lotus' sit (my knees [operated on] can't bend well) and I have had a hernia operation (bad one) so this also remains a weak spot in my back. In truth, I am a walking wreck. Is there hope for me yet???
Khoo: I don't think I can help with the advice on some "women" (still on your shoulders?) As for the other serious question, the point of sitting still in a lotus position is to facilitate "a process" that deobjectifies one's surroundings and to get into a state of mindfulness. Practitioners who constantly do so have adjusted to the muscular rigours of doing so, but for those who cant, approximations will do interspersed with walking and other exercises to break the strain. Looks like your body have been through a lot, but you need to get advice from a meditation master who can best guide you along. I would like to share where I think "the process" goes though as a complement to the discussions going on in this and other threads: One begins by walking meditation; which is a slow steady pacing back and forth for some time. The idea is to slow the mind down. Thoughts appear constantly in our minds. The six sense doors constantly create objects as rapidly a we "sense" them: odours, tastes, touch, colours and sounds and of course springing from the mind; concepts, memories and ideas. Being aware of their appearance, brought about by stimuli, one at a time helps. Our brain is a massive engine of reflexively created sensations and thoughts, all the time arising as long as there is stimuli. The universe of "objects" created around us by this massive autonomously run engine leads to the conception that this aggregation of the six sense doors that is the "me" is collectively a subject observing all the objects around us. I can "intellectually" explain this to another. But its better for the other to experience this. And no prosthetic is a requirement for this experience. Walking or pacing, the "process" involves being aware of the particular motions that make up the step, the falling of the foot, its ball touching the floor, the resting of the heel on the floor, the shifting of the weight on the whole sole and then the lifting of the foot as the other foot begins and ends the motion. When we are ready we can adjust to being aware of our breathing - inhalation and exhalation and can get to the lotus position to minimise the inputs into our mind operating systems, minimising too the outputs, which are objects in this case. Narrowing the mind to sensations that you can control by an activity such as walking allows us to observe incoming stimuli and object creation as they occur. As the mind slows its rate of 'sensation creation" of objectification of the surrounding universe, we begin to be able to bring down our awareness and thought process to one at a time. Doing so brings our awareness of time to a standstill. A second ticks away, buts its the analogue of a watch hand or the image of an liquid crystal display changing. The leaves rustle, the clouds drift overhead and the door bell rings. Each observation is time moving ahead. But getting here is the beginings of the insight process. Sometimes momentarily. Sometimes in a flash, sometimes for a while; but its a state of mind. And undisturbed mind. (In this sense. the default human condition is the disturbed mind). Getting to this point is a function of many aspects of one' s conditions; among which is how intellectually brain barnacled one is. Once we can "see" this and the mind is stilled; the universe of objects clarifies their true nature; each of the objects, arising and disappearing as patterns would in an ocean of ripples and waves in a lattice of interactions. Our rapidly reflexively driven minds, like the perception of a moving object (moving at the same speed) from a train, gives one the illusion of the object being stationary. If we are constantly manifesting objects we perceive, we imagine permanance in the pattern. If the train comes to a sudden halt the illusion is broken. By slowing down the creation of objects to one at a time and to ultimately none at all, we experience nothing at all, and everything at the same time, vastly interrelated in the universal web of existence; that as the ultimate end of the process. The "process" is an all consuming one. I can still feel the pain in your knees as they try to bend and then to stretch them for comfort, Now I feel the nudge of the your ache in the lower back. And the mind is on the thought of getting back to Holland now. What was that again? The crick in the neck. All this talk on the MD; distracting intellectualisations about the DQ/SQ or SOM/MOQ split; why all the differentiations. Hey wait. Inhalation. Exhalation. The crick in the neck again. And the ache in the back. Inhalation. Exhalation. The thought process can be broken down to its arising and its formation and its disappearance. A chain of sensory perception and objectification. Its all a series of interactions. Machine code. Energy patterns. Inhalation. Exhalation. If the knees ache now, slowly get up and be mindful of each and every movement. Stand up and walk again. The liff of the left foot and the co-ordinated falling of the right foot. In their undifferentiated form objects disappear into their underlying energies and patterns. And thats the essense of original insight. There is Value in seeing the world differently. The conditioned mind, collectives of mind see the world in the conventional way. premised by the deduction from first principles. Change any one of the first principles and the world is no longer conventional. Its the possibility of the alternate universe and from that an alternate view. The world of our current Subject Object Metaphysics will look radically different if we but just change one parameter to another. The artist looks at the world and sees it differently. Incredibly the Value is in seeing it differently. That is why countless lifes and their lifetimes may not seem to matter. But each viewpoint can be of the highest importance. Inhalation and Exhalation. The knee hurts again. I acknowledge that. Taking a deep breath. Arrest yet another object formation on its way. Lest we judge those that are different from us as being any less than us, it might be good to reflect on how in valuing individuality we seem to let the ego genie out of the bottle too often. The "process" - some call it zazen, some call it vipassana, meditation, mindfulness. Its to de-reflex the condition programming of our minds and to allow it to rest on its default core - where no object is created autonomously and no subject exists as a entity. The whole universe swirls about ceaselessly but from its centre; thats you now, Andre, its rather elemental to know what is good and what is not. what is right and what is wrong. Ah the knee still hurts, a momentary ache and then its gone. Best Khoo Hock Aun Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
