Hakone Zendo

Shared by Linu

It has been more than a decade since I first encountered the word Zen. Over the years, I have heard this term in numerous contexts: design, art, meditation, Steve Jobs, and more. And yet when I ask myself to define what it is, I fail to put a finger on it. This unsettled me and led me recently to buy this book by Bonnie Myotai Treace called “A Year of Zen: A 52-Week Guided Journal”. The book has daily thought-provoking prompts that make you think deeply (and hopefully experience zen). I want to share a paragraph from the book that resonated with me. I hope you enjoy it!

~~~Zen will steal your tongue, and then ask that you speak. It will deliver you to the territory of utter intimacy, and make clear that whatever you say about it only moves you away from it. No one is immune from Zen’s truth: we each and all suffer the demand that we express the inexpressible. We wake up in this demand everyday, and seek sleep in the evening even as it presses on our heart. Think about it: your life is an astonishing improbability. Every single moment has a fresh face. And absolutely no one but the one reading (or hearing) this right now has what it takes to fully realize your precise possibilities. There is a heavy responsibility to this, as well as the lightness of a feather, floating in the invisible wind that will bring the affair to the perfect rest. Perhaps Meister Eckhard was right: “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough”.

~~~

Link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Year-Zen-52-Week-Guided-Journal/dp/1638788537

^{(Photo by Reni)}

Shared by Anand

These are excerpts from the Book: The Best Team Wins, by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton (Page 233)

Three Good Things

Martin Seligman, a psychology professor at University of Pennsylvania, developed many of the ideas used today in the field of positive psychology. He suggested an exercise called “Three Good Things”. Each night, just before bed time, people write down three good things that happened during the day, especially how they helped bring those good things about. Those positive memories are then processed during our REM sleep and the theory is we will wake up more positive and confident.

Shared by Kaz

How do you motivate yourself to overcome challenges? Any special tactics?

Personally, I train for triathlons every year, and the January training can be a real struggle. It’s cold, often rainy, and still dark in the mornings. Whenever I get ready for training, my mind starts coming up with excuses – maybe I can start tomorrow, or it’s okay to skip today. Despite many attempts to push through, I sometimes faced failures.

However, one approach that consistently works for me is adopting the mindset of “might as well.” I think I might as well give it a shot and see how much I can swim. I’m already awake, so why not? I am already done for 1 month of training so might as well try to continue. It’s like, I’ve already committed to a month of training, so might as well keep the momentum going.

Interestingly, this phrase has also become my go-to phrase in various situations. Like during a family dinner, I tell myself, might as well forget about work and fully enjoy the time with my loved ones to stay in the present.

Do you have any go-to phrases or tricks that help you push through challenges? Let’s share some inspiration!

Shared by Aaron on 1/28/24

From Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

“Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine. If you become too busy and too excited, your mind becomes rough and ragged. This is not good. If possible, try to be always calm and joyful and keep yourself from excitement. Usually we become busier and busier, day by day, year by year, especially in our modern world.”

“Zen is not something to get excited about. Some people start to practice Zen just out of curiosity, and they only make themselves busier. If your practice makes you worse, it is ridiculous. I think that if you try to do zazen once a week, that will make you busy enough. Do not be too interested in Zen.”

“Just continue in your calm, ordinary practice and your character will be built up. If your mind is always busy, there will be no time to build, and you will not be successful, particularly if you work too hard on it. Building character is like making bread—you have to mix it little by little, step by step, and moderate temperature is needed. You know yourself quite well, and you know how much temperature you need. You know exactly what you need. But if you get too excited, you will forget how much temperature is good for you, and you will lose your own way. This is very dangerous.”

Shared by Taylor on 1/21/24

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki: “If you continue this special practice every day, you will obtain some wonderful power. Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you attain it, it is nothing special.”

Dogen: “Before one studies Zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after a first glimpse into the truth of Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters; after enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters.”

Shared by Peter on 1/14/24

Through meditation, we practice mindfulness. So what is mindfulness? Mindfulness is a skill that involves focusing attention on the present moment, rather than dwelling on the past or thinking about the future. 

When I learnt practicing meditation for the first time, I was told to be mindful of my breathing–breathe in and breathe out.  The more I practice meditation the more I realize it’s all about focusing on my true conscious experience of the present moment. Each time I breathe in, I feel thankful for being alive. Each time  I breathe out, I just feel like letting go of all those worries and unhappiness.  Nothing can be more joyful than being alive with no worries, right?  I often don’t appreciate this great joy because of my tendency to take things for granted.  It is also because I’m not mindful enough of the present moment. 

We often show a lack of mindfulness of the present moment because we get our mind full of the past and the future.   We might be possessed by sorrows in the past, and fear for the future. 

Time is like a river stream. You cannot touch the same water twice. It is a good metaphor for our life journey. The only moment we can enjoy is the present moment, not in the past because it was gone, not in the future because it has not arrived yet. 

Mindfulness (of the present moment) helps us focus our energy on doing things NOW for tomorrows. We don’t have 100% control over what might happen tomorrow. But we can do just like a farmer does – be mindful of sowing good seeds NOW in preparing for a good harvest LATER. “ Why Worry? If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?”

The past was gone, and we cannot change a thing in the PAST.  With the power of mindfulness (of the present moment), we learn to let go of the agony of the past. 

With the power of mindfulness, we are motivated to live a FULL life, not a wasted life of regretting, sorrowing, fearing and despairing. 

With the power of mindfulness, we learn to understand and develop a clear perspective towards life.  “It is not life that causes suffering, but our expectation that life should be the way we want.”

Shared by Deepak

_{Deepak generated this image using AI}

To lighten the mood, I shared a humorous story about meditation

A bunch of monks were meditating together when a Buddhist deity suddenly appeared before them. The deity pointed to one of the monks, named Larry, and said, “Your meditation is so pure that it has been noticed in all of the Pure Lands of the Buddha. It has been decided to award you with a choice of Buddha’s wisdom, or the wealth of the world.” Larry, of course, chose wisdom.
“So be it,” said the deity and disappeared in a puff of emptiness.
The monk just sat there, saying nothing. Finally one of the others monks couldn’t stand it anymore. “Say something,” he pleaded.
Larry quietly responded, “I should have taken the money.”

As we end the year and celebrate the holidays with our respective families, I wanted to highlight how important it is to lighten the spirits, enjoy the moment and find joy.

My daughter is 9 months old, and she is a bundle of joy. She recently started laughing out loud filled with joy at the simplest possible thing – bouncing the ball, seeing our cat walk and  while playing peekaboo. 

It made me think about how simple things can bring us joy. but as we grow old we lose that ability. Joy can be worldly – driven by our senses (getting anew car for example) or it can be unworldy, coming from within. Meditation helps us find joy from within – even Buddha has a half-smile while meditating.

I hope we all are able to find joy during these holidays and share joy with our close ones.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Deepak

Shared by Chris on 12/17

What is the relationship between comfort and growth? Often, discomfort is the gateway or catalyst to growth, which means we should be wary of being overly focused on comfort. A reading from “The Prophet” illustrated this:

And tell me, people of Orphalese, what have you in these houses? And what is it you guard with fastened doors?
     Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power?
     Have you rememberances, the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind?
     Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain?
     Tell me, have you these in your houses?
     Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master?

     Ay, and it becomes a tamer, and with hook and scourge makes puppets of your larger desires.
     Though its hands are silken, its heart is of iron.
     It lulls you to sleep only to stand by your bed and jeer at the dignity of the flesh.
     It makes mock of your sound senses, and lays them in thistledown like fragile vessels.
     Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.

On the other hand, too much discomfort is damaging. A good metaphor is the oyster that produces the pearl–just enough sand creates the jewel. Too little and now jewel. Too much sand and the oyster chokes and dies.