Good Morning, Rather than going to a Buddhist temple, you might try a regular bookstore or order online. "Just Sitting" is published by Wsidom Publications, www.wisdompubs.org
> Well, I think my level of Zen learning right now is indeed focusing on humanity and personal sense and how Zen attitude can influence our attitude and behaviors toward our relationships with others and the environment. I challenge myself "How can I move on to the next Zen level if I couldn't complete the basic level first? In the US, zazen is considered the basic level. Correctly learning and practicing zazen naturally gives rise to expression, without thinking... I am practicing Zen attitude or philosophy. > Thank you for helping me to know his name correctly, Not correct, just different, like my name would be different in China. > Personally I am more inspired by another Chinese figure, Ji Kun. Often people call him "Crazy Monk", but he is a very wise man. He always wore a dirty and dragging cloth, he drank wine and eat meat so people said he's crazy, but his message then was "why wasting?". There are lots of stories about him. When look at his facial expression, there are different looks from different angles, one side is laughing, one side is sad and the other one actually mixes these two emotions together. One of his famous message he taught us is "Don't get angry". Even though he was a monk from Buddhism but he is also widely respected in Taoism. Never heard of this guy, he sounds interesting. I'm going to ask a friend of mine who's a long time Taoist if he's heard of him and maybe has a picture. > It's my understanding that in Buddhism, people have to learn how to control our desires with a pure heart and mind. I get what you are saying, but I'd put it a little different. More like we restrain our desires in order to allow our pure heart-mind to manifest. > There are commandments towards few specific categories, e.g. we should be very careful about food we eat, things we see, words we hear, words we speak, feeling we feel, and the most challenging one is to pure our thought. These areas should be what are vigilance focus on. That's what I thought you meant by vigilance. This is indeed part of our training, but it is not what is meant by non-conceptual awareness. Not at all. > First of all, I am not a Buddhist. I chose Catholic as my religion but Zen study as my living philosophy, so I am really a fresh student in Buddhism or Taoism. In Taiwan, the vegetarian restaurants can make dishes with the name of vege-chicken, vege-fish.... I also like to joke with my friends, who are either Buddhists or Taoists,that they still can not go over the 'thought' part, because the use of word like chicken/fish/duck... still assemble thought in 'meat', perhaps not in real form but still in their thought. I don't know whether this interpretation is correct or wrong, kindly enlight me with further thoughts. LOL... Well, you're absolutely right about all the thinking around meat. Vegetarianism is not a requirement of Buddhism, althought many practitioners are. Buddha himself ate meat... his practice was to eat whatever was offered. I have heard friendly dispute about whether or not Mahakashyapa (the greatest of ascetics) actually ate the leper's finger that fell in his bowl. > Thank you for helping me know the difference of meditation. Right now I am focusing on relaxation meditation, because I can't do or think of anything else if I don't have a good and balance health. No matter what, I think it is the best to simply focus on the basic relaxation part and then see how the process will lead me. Of course, I hope the next level that I can reach is intention-less meditation. I am not quite sure if I would be interesting to get into the Tibetan/emptiness meditation that to see 'things'. Yes, meditation for relaxation is very useful, especially in our fast paced times. It does indeed support the process of healing, and restoration. I myself don't really care for the Tibetan practices. To my mind, it seems like adding more and more, not letting go of more and more. And yet I have seen remarkable effects in sincere Tibetan practitioners, so clearly it works for some people. Agnes, in this country we have two main "styles" of Buddhist practice, regardless of tradition. We have temples based on Asian immigrant communities that are very much like traditional temples in Asia. And we have temples based on largely middle- class white communities that are very untraditional. For example, in Japan it has been the tradition that lay people were not taught zazen, were just expected to give generously to support the monks and attend ceremonies, sort of like church on Sundays. In US-derived groups, ceremony may hardly exist at all, and everyone is taught zazen as soon as they walk in the door. We are much more practice oriented. Perhaps this is true in Belgium as well. It may be that finding a practice oriented group will be more helpful to you as a seeker than the traditional temple. Blessings, Ryunen ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/S27xlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Noble Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration, Right Livelihood Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZenForum/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
