tomk said:

Wow.

Do you get breaks for walking meditations between sitting?

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I feel pretty clear after doing breath counting for 30 minutes.  I also sometimes do some loving kindness meditations and some contemplations (looking at leaves and stuff).  I assume you are doing just sitting, right?

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Yes.  It is called Shikan-taza or "intense sitting", or "just sitting."  It the foundation of zen practice.  It is bloody hard though.  I cant even describe the kind of mind required, even concentration is doing something.  We "just sit."  That's it.  During beggining phases of practice, we are taught to follow the breath at the Tanden (hara, dantian, what have you, "3 finger widths below the navel"), then as mindfulness stabilizes, we feel the sensations of the whole body. Then once that stabilizes, we then practice being aware of the space within which we are sitting.  It is quite difficult when you get to this point.  "Feel the space between your toes, feel the air around your body as your body" etc...  There are many other techniques for stabilizeng mindfulness such as koan (those fucked up questions that make no sense), kinhin, samu (caretaking practice), oryoki (eating practice) mantra, chanting, practices are for going to the bathroom (I always picture this as the monks bowing to there shit or something )sleeping and dreaming practices, and probably others that I dont know about.  I have only been instructed as far as being aware of space, samu and kinhin.  The core practice however is shikan-taza.  It allows you to observe any and all grasping you have.  From there the teacher asks you questions to see how your practice is going.  Then can give you specific practices to help release this grasping.  There are other which I will get as my practice matures.  Once I become a formal student, I will get instruction in carrying over mindfullness into the full sleep state.  I will be aware I am sleeping, even when in deep, non dreaming sleep, and when dreaming, they will be as "real" as "reality". 

Peace

redgreenvines said:

this gives new meaning to "Holy shit!"

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yousuck said:

Will you have to attain a bald spot on the top of your head to progress to the next level? do they wear socks with their sandals? is it like a convent where everyone has to abide by community rules? would they kick you out if you invited a few girls into your room?


on a more serious note, how is it that the zen buddihsts believe that the only way to transcend our mental prision, IE the concious state, is lock the door and throw away the key? What i mean, is that if they dont use psychdelics, our only way out of this prision aside from lucid dreaming, then how do they ever expect to transcend? or is transcendence to them just a greater awareness of our imprisonment? and dont give me that BS that our conscious state isnt a mental prision and that all can be gained with psychdelics can be gained in the concious state.

What is their stance on lucidity btw, do they actively explore other natural states of mind like that, or are they ego maniacs who only believe in the concious state ( like the christians/jews/islams ).

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It is not the content that matters.  Like the glass to the water, or the room to the glass... etc etc, everything arises within something else.  By you saying that you need psychedelics to transcend, you have attached a need to using them.  Zen is a practice.  It is not a belief, a way of life, a philosophy or a religion.  It is something you do.  Allowing whatever arises to arise, dwell and decay without attachment.  In the later stages of practice, dreaming gets covered.  I have posted some info above that goes into this in more detail.  I hope this answers your question.  If not, ask some more, I love challenges  

Peace