Shane, Take Joe's comments with a grain of salt. True Zen needs no teacher, no 'sitting', no temple. These may help especially those who tend to not have the personality to do things on their own, but they are not essential. After all Buddha himself had none of these. True Zen has nothing to do with any of this. It is simply the realization of the true nature of what is always right around us including ourselves...
Edgar On Mar 27, 2013, at 11:58 AM, Joe wrote: > Shane, > > Good to meet you here. > > "Who am I" is a famous method of practice. Whether we call it a koan or not > is not too important. > > Koans are usually cases or incidents from the doings of famous Ch'an or Zen > masters. The student is asked to "bore into" the koan, and be changed by it, > so as to become it, and to be able to demonstrate the spirit or "content" of > the koan to the teacher, when asked to do so. > > When working on "Who am I", I think one can sit down and just intensely > desire to know the answer to this, without letting anything else seep in > around the corners while we inquire. One need not repeat anything in the > imagination or to the mind's ear. Just inquire intensely, while we relax > *deeply*. > > Another classic way to practice WITH this is instead as a "hua-tou", Chinese > for "head of a word". By "head" is meant the very beginning, before it > becomes a word. So, to turn "Who am I" into a hua-tou, one uses just the > "Who", or, better, the first sound that the word "Who" begins with: "wh", > which is like "h", but it sounds perhaps like "ha", or a choked-off syllable > before the word can get said and be recognized as a word. This "wh" can fill > your whole meditation, if one does not separate oneself from it. If you find > you are separated, it's EASY to return immediately to "wh". In this way, one > thought, or one mind-intention, can last for many minutes or longer. > > Hua-tou and koan are just a couple ways of practice, though. There are many. > Usually we stick with just one for some while: months, years, etc., and > become intimate with it. The methods bring us closer to our original mind. > Sometimes the original mind SUDDENLY manifests itself as everything else > drops away. This is the famous "Awakening" of Zen. It is nothing special, but > what a shake-up it causes! Some say it is just coming back to our true home. > And I agree. > > I hope you have a teacher and sangha to practice with, as well as practice at > home. A teacher and sangha are essential to learn the methods correctly, and > there is no alternative to this that really works and is safe. Some people > mistakenly think that they can teach themselves. That doesn't work. > > --Joe > > > "shepherdspie1962" <shepherdspie1962@...> wrote: > > > > In general 'shepherds pies' are gender neutral, but in this case it is a > > 'he'...and his name is not stephen...haha...thanks again for the thoughtful > > replies...I will try to practice more and create concepts less...BTW, > > someone mentioned koans...the priest of the zen group I went to recently > > said he repeats the phrase "who am I" as a form of koan/mantra while > > sitting...hmmm...not sure that really made sense to me as one could > > probably just repeat an actual mantra...and not sure if "who am I" is > > really a Koan either...but to each his own...i suppose the answer is always > > more doing and less thinking...shane > > > >
