Bill!,l<br/><br/>I just found this from Gil Fronsdal who is both a Zen and
Vipassana teacher.<br/><br/>"How was it to practice Vipassana after years of
Zen training?<br/>The core of Vipassana is mindfulness, or the practice of
being clearly present to what is happening in the present. In a sense it is a
tool that can be practiced within a variety of practice approaches. The context
for the Vipassana teaching I encountered in Asia was one of being
goal-oriented. U Pandita, my Burmese teacher, was adamant about striving for
nirvana, for deep insights and attainments. If I had been a new meditator, I
wouldn’t have survived in that kind of environment. I would’ve gotten tied up
in ambition and self-judgment. But in my Zen practice I had been practicing a
radical acceptance of the present moment for many years. I was pretty resilient
and not easily discouraged. While I tried to follow the Vipassana instructions
as best I could, at the same time I saw how
helpful they were for me to be more thorough in the Zen practice of
shikautaza-just sitting.<br/><br/>Did working within the two different
traditions bring up any conflicts for you?<br/>I struggled a fair amount,
trying to reconcile goal-less Zen practice-in which practice and realization
are thought to occur together-with the goal-oriented Theravada tradition, in
which you work toward later realization. Eventually I came to understand that
these approaches not only complemented each other but could be seen as two
sides of the same coin. Soto Zen taught me to emphasize the purity of the
moment-to-moment process of sitting in meditation; Vipassana taught me how that
process opens to greater freedom even when we don’t fixate on freedom as a
goal. My Vipassana practice taught me that the radical acceptance of myself and
of things-as-they-are that I learned in Zen included an innate, natural impulse
toward liberation. I didn’t have to be goal-oriented
as much as I needed to let go of any obstacles to this innate impulse. One of
the hindrances I had faced in Zen practice was complacency-a comfort-able,
lightweight acceptance-in which I lacked the motivation to see the ways in
which I was still subtly attached or resistant to reality. Vipassana,
especially with its emphasis on seeing clearly what is happening in the
present, helped break me out of my complacent state.<br/><br/>Do you bring Zen
elements into your Vipassana teachings?<br/>From the Zen tradition I emphasize
that each moment of sincere mindfulness practice is complete and satisfying in
and of itself. I encourage practitioners to investigate what gets in the way of
realizing this. I teach that the goal should be reflected in the means, in the
practice. If the goal is to be at peace, some form of peacefulness should be a
part of the practice. To become compassionate, practice compassion. To be
generous, practice generosity. To be free,
don’t let the practice or attainments be objects of grasping."<br/><br/>This
is only part of a larger blog you can find at:
insightmeditationcenter.org/books<br/><br/>Mike<br/><br/><br/>Sent from Yahoo!
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