In the article, the "difference" between monastic practice and lay practice is
emphasized.
The difference does not have to be a difference, however (and, indeed, I *do*
take the article referenced with a grain of salt).
As lay students, we still have the opportunity to attend several sesshin, or
intensive retreats, per year with our teacher and our sangha.
The important thing about zazen is to practice it, not to imagine how it might
be different if we were monks or nuns. We'd still have to practice... .
Physical practice is also important, to support sitting meditation, and to
improve our health. Chinese Ch'an teachers emphasize this more than Japanese
teachers or their Western successors, and so the Ch'an teachers are my heroes,
and my favorite Bodhisattvas.
Yoga is a fine adjunct to zazen. The recently so-called "Yin-Yoga", deep and
prolonged holding of relaxed poses in order to treat the connective tissue, is
the most useful to my practice. Aerobic exercise is a great adjunct to
influence the diaphragm (muscles), and to enable the deepest relaxation in
zazen, and the smoothest breathing, there; Samadhi practice becomes possible.
Although lay practice and monastic practice seem different, we can still
benefit from the encouragement of the Chinese Ch'an monastic
teacher, who, in the Golden Age of Ch'an in China, taught that "A day without
work is a day without eating."
The "work" is not desk-work, or cubicle work, but physical work.
To add Yoga to this is even better.
Strong practice, all,
--Joe / Sonoran Desert / Arizona
> Interesting but take with a grain of salt.... Edgar
> > Stanford scholar tracks meditation's migration from ancient monasteries to
> > modern yoga
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