Thank you Mike
________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>; zen group <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, April 15, 2013 12:01:02 AM Subject: Re: [Zen] Types of Meditation Bill!,l I just found this from Gil Fronsdal who is both a Zen and Vipassana teacher. "How was it to practice Vipassana after years of Zen training? 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. Did working within the two different traditions bring up any conflicts for you? 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. Do you bring Zen elements into your Vipassana teachings? >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." This is only part of a larger blog you can find at: insightmeditationcenter.org/books Mike Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPhone ________________________________ From: Bill! <[email protected]>; To: <[email protected]>; Subject: Re: [Zen] Types of Meditation Sent: Mon, Apr 15, 2013 1:07:16 AM Mike, The only things I know about Vipassana meditation are what you've written on this forum. It doesn't sound like shikantaza to me. It does sound a little like some activities done in zazen to prepare you for shikantaza, except from what you described it doesn't sound like it's for that purpose. It sounds like the activities in Vipassana mediation are thought to be an end into themselves. ...Bill! --- In [email protected], uerusuboyo@... wrote: > > Bill!,<br/><br/>There are differences, but only in the same way that heads > and >tails are different yet make up the coin. ><br/><br/>Mike<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPhone >
