#zazen

A meditação zen budista consiste en apenas sentarse sem tentar raciocinar sobre nada, apenas sentir sem tentar sentir, ouvir sem tentar ouvir, ser sem tentar ser, observar sem tentar observar, compreender sem tentar compreender.

Quando você entender profundamente o vazio por trás de cada manifestação então você será um buda.

Quando você compreender que a manifestação é apenas uma criação da sua própria personalidade ilusória criada a partir dos 5 agregados, então você estará iluminado.

「坐禅」

無になれず、無になろうとすれば、するほど、雑念がさらに嫉妬心を煽りやがる。

I'm not a person who posts my altars super often, but I will on this post because it's basically all of us hanging out. Beelzebub is on the left, Astaroth in the center, the cuneiform mug is Lucifer's, and on the right is Belial.

Tonight I didn't want to go to the zendo I'm newly a member of (🥳) for service and precepts class because it's been a big week. So Lucifer and I decided to stay home, I did 30 minutes of zazen, and he reminded me that I picked up wine earlier so I served him and the other three. I also lit frankincense on Belial's shrine.

Then we discussed the second of the Grave precepts, which my zendo translated as, "Do not steal -- honor the gift not yet given." The San Francisco Zen Center translated the same precept as, "I vow not to take what is not given."

Beelzebub went first: It is wrong to take from the community, and damage relationships, with what might come later while working together is larger prosperity.

Me: So you see this precept as protecting the Sangha (one of the Three Treasures)?

Beelzebub: Yes, mainly, for without the others surrounding you, you will not get far. The object you stole will be temporary, what's destroyed in the process goes much farther.

Astaroth: I don't see the precepts as individual. They build upon each other and work with one another. [Mostly in regards to an incident Feebz had 3 months ago] I think it's fine to be upset that you're stolen from, you just shouldn't create unnecessary strife and conflict in response to it per the other precepts. Especially when it's something replaceable and not worth fighting so hard for return.

Belial: There's no need to steal if you already feel like you have everything you need, which you can often find within yourself. Stealing to feed yourself or your family is not stealing. Stealing is when you take something out of greed that isn't meant to be with you.

'Mind' is not an exact translation from the Sanskrit word. Ask for what it actually means, which is something like a larger perception or existence. It's saying that you are already with whatever it is you covet because you're in the same universe.

Me: I think unlike the other precepts, this precept is more material-based. Zen as a tradition is very minimalist so I wonder if this speaks to its traditions very differently than other Buddhist schools and Mahayana traditions.

Belial: Even when its material-based, stealing is from a source of feeling lack. If you fulfill the feeling of lack, stealing is unnecessary.

Lucifer suggests: if someone takes something of yours you're allowed to go and take it back. That is not stealing.

Me: is that a message because that sounds kind of specific and foreboding?

Roshi Joan: Zazen is not meditation. It is not a mental exercise, a thing you do with your mind. It is not focused on practices that are antidotes to afflictive states or secondary consciousness. It is not about attaining a special state, being relaxed, or solving your problems. It is not about reducing stress, working with trauma, and being happy. Nor is it associated with visualizations or phrases to nurture certain qualities of mind.

It is about being radically open to things just as they are, not grasping at or rejecting phenomena, but simply being present and at ease with moment to moment uncertainty and groundlessness. It is fully embodied presence, with no separation between the mind, heart, body, and the context of our lived experience, and letting openness or not knowing deconstruct our version of reality. It is the method of non-method. Nothing extra, nothing added. This is zazen… just sitting upright.