Had a great night last night at the Zen Center. Ate dinner with the group for the first time. We had a humble meal of soup (which was delicious, spicy) and rice (sticky brown rice) and water to drink. Was nice to sit with some of the members and chat. It's hard to feel uncomfortable at this place when everyone is so nice and mellow. After their bowls are empty, they put tea in them and drink it as a way to clean the bowl and get every bit of food. Interesting practice. I did it. We prayed before the meal and after. We sat on the floor just like the picture above.
I then sat and relaxed in the common area while waiting for the first meditation, a chant. I read a bit from "Only Don't Know" while I was waiting. It is a collection of letters to a Zen Master. I read a letter from a gentleman that was in prison. He sent it to the Zen Master. He was studying Zen in prison and wanted to know how he could learn more. The Zen Master had a great answer. He said that prison is a great place to practice Zen because his body is incarcerated but his mind is not. You don't need the body for Zen. It's about the mind, clearing the mind, not thinking. The prisoner also wanted suggestions on what to read. The Zen Master said it wasn't necessarily good to read about Zen and not necessarily bad. That is Zen. No opinion.
Here's a kong-an for you: You are tied to a tree and bound and holding on to a branch only with your teeth. If you let go, you will hang yourself. Your master comes along and asks you a question. You must answer or you will be shot. If you answer, you die because you end up hanging yourself. If you don't answer, you will die because you will be shot. How do you answer without dying?
I don't know the answer. Not knowing, not having an opinion is Zen. My gut tells me to answer the question and be the master of your own destiny. Buddhists believe in reincarnation anyway so the belief is we are always here and eventually no longer need to come back as human (when one reaches Nirvana). So, you answer and you don't really die. There is no right answer and needing to be right is not Zen. So...
Chant meditation started at 6:30 and went for an hour. I'm getting better at my bows. Not any better at chanting but only my second time. The idea is to not think about anything but the chant and I for sure can only think about the chant as I don't know them well. They are in Korean and we have a chant book that gives phonetic pronunciations. There is one chant that is in English.
I then sat in on an hour of seated meditation. 25 minutes seated, 10 minutes walking meditation and then another 25 seated. The walking in between helps get the circulation back in your legs and feet. It was a good night. The meditation ending with the young lady who led the seated meditation discussing the importance of God in our lives. This made me feel more certain that I am hanging out at the right place.
I rode home in silence (no radio on in the car). Makes no sense to deal with noise after all of that quiet time. Speaking of noise: we have too much noise in our lives both literally and figuratively. I have noticed recently that many days I come home from work with my ears ringing. This is from the day's noise and the cranked radio on the ride home doesn't help. Then there is all the crap in our heads which, to me, is also noise. My goal is to get rid of a lot of that noise and find a more peaceful place in general (not ocassionally).
Reduce the noise and get closer to God!
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