Should You Move to a Monastery??
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- Опубліковано 24 лип 2024
- Many are the emails I receive from curious seekers who are fed the heck up with everyday life. They want to know if it's time for them to move to a monastery!
Well, there are three ways to move to a Zen monastery. You can move there for a weekend retreat, or zazenkai. Or, how about for a little longer: a 7 day Dai-Sesshin retreat. Or...how about for a whole LOT longer, i.e. you enter the monastery fulltime.
In my experience, Zen monastic life is a bit like skydiving. When you jump out of a plane, your foot automatically extends downward -- it is instinctively looking for the ground. When it doesn't find it, well, you learn how to fly for the those moments you're up in the sky. So too, when you join a monastery whether for a weekend or a whole lot longer, you instinctively reach for your comfort zone...and when you can't find it, you learn how to practice Zen.
Ultimately, we could say that Zen practice is about becoming really good at living life. That is to say, not buying into delusions or illusions; learning compassion and generosity; discovering how to connect, moment after moment. Whether you move to a monastery, or take on a lay practice at home, the challenge is exactly the same. In other words, if the stars align and you're meant to become a monk, great! If not? Also great! Either way, as always, the practice is exactly the same.
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0:00 Intro
1:44 Wait, Where ARE All the Monasteries??
3:40 Three Monastic Paths You Can Take
4:40 Zen Practice as Skydiving
7:27 Regrets, I've Had a Few...
8:18 Let's Talk Karma
17:46 A Monastic Cautionary Tale - Фільми й анімація
Good one. In the wise words of Buckaroo Banzi "No matter where you go... there you are." Misery loves company.
Buckaroo Banzai knew what the heck he was talking about!
That is just wild Shozan Jack -where did that come from? I was just scrolling around looking at war stories wondering how the world is going to end when you jumped in to my feed 🤔 Having been to retreats at every type of monastery and spiritual retreat I could find here in NZ, Australia, Thailand, over the past 30 years, now, at age 77 the truth of your message resonates deeply and just wonderfully humanly. I noted something from a Buddhist Lama recently on a UA-cam (Samaneri Jayasara) video,' Do not ask me where I go in this limitless world - where every step I take is my home'. Every step......Brilliant! Thank you 🌿
Thank you for these wonderful comments, my friend, and hello to you in New Zealand from over here in Vienna. I'm so glad we can connect. Deep bows.
In having practice, medicine, and Zenzen, for 45 years, and from a neuroscience approach, I would ask you to consider this question before going to a monastic setting. Will your peace of mind survive once you leave the monastic order? A solid meditation practice within the daily challenges of life will give you a "much stronger" brain base on neuroplasticity. I worked in the medical field where death was always close by, and I have personally experienced tremendous physical and emotional pain. I credit meditation for saving my life and giving me the resilience to face the darkness of life with becoming a completely cynical ass😂. Best wishes, young friends
Thank you, my friend, I too would be a cynical ass without meditation!
I was going to become a monastic at Plum Village, but I realised that I'd probably be the same idiot I am now whether I lived in a monastery or not, so I decided that my practice as a lay Buddhist would probably be just as good as if I was living in a monastery.
Thank you my friend. It's great to hear from you again.
@@zenconfidential25 Thanks! I'm always here, just don't always have something to say. 😅 Always enjoy the videos.
Bravo, it is exactly like this..
In my case, in difficult circumstances... I realized that I was moving away to breathe,
something was urging me to get to the other shore. I have been a swimmer...
I hadn't even put a name to what I was doing, every time I needed it....
I lived in a foreign country, had two small children and a husband with an insolvency suit.
After a few weeks something inside me took the baton and under the motto "I'm going to do this with dignity" I started breathing, looking and paying attention to what needed to be done. Curiously it was not so much and I liked doing it....
Now I'm a grandmother and I go on with my life.
I learned to cook well, to speak the other language as my own, to read at ease and to inhabit even the lines I write....
I didn't know I could...
Wow. Thank you, grandmother!!! And swimmer. And language learner (I wish I, who live in another country, was one of those.) Beautiful.
@@zenconfidential25 Gracias..I married a German, it's my second land...I have the Tipp from Muho channel. Bleibt wie du bist...(???) greetings
@@zenconfidential25 Well actually I consider my country to be more the language spoken there, all the culture that is hidden in the way its words are used and the implications of its grammar...it is precisely there that I find myself in my homeland. And in Germany the discovery of the woods 🌳 the fresh air of a shady grove with crisscrossing sunbeams.
I truly, truly, truly liked, loved, and enjoyed this talk (teaching) you haven given. It touched on many many bells, whistles, gongs, and incense sticks of my own experience in contrast to formalized structured spiritual 'training' settings. It is so very true, life is the bucket of rocks that teaches even rock-heads like me to become at least a little more polished dispite an inborn reluctance to join in and get knocked around a little by it. Your approach and delivery just hit home on so so many points.
Especially after spending a week away from home and having one very long talk with a professional about my life's difficult and hard lessons, and bizarre quirks. Her advice was to get back in the game by joining a kind of mutual "group" so that I could be part of everything all over again.
She wanted me to stop beating myself up over things that I have/had no control over.
She was of course correct which maybe is why what you say here in this video resonants so profoundly with me at this moment. I loved this one. Thank you.
Thank you my friend.
Appreciate ya Shozan. Your authenticity just shines.
Thank you, my friend!
The emptiness (of inherent existence) of "the world" is the same as the emptiness (of inherent existence) of the monastery!
Take comfort in that.
Peace out, kids ✌️Mommy has had enough of this lay life and she is moving to a monastery.
Be careful… Your kids might come with you!
@@zenconfidential25 I'll tell them there is no wifi 🤣
Totalmente de acuerdo muchas gracias!
Gracias my friend!
Good morning Shozan,
i think before you start to save the world or go to a monastery you should be able to keeping your front yard every single day in order. A monastery life is only suitable to a limited extend to live your life because every time we got only the harvest we have sown and so it‘s much better when your front garden and in the best case your back garden too is all right.
Thank you very much for your work and modern Teishō!
🙏🙏💡
Very good points, my friend, thank you so much.
I had this fantasy about going to practice at Antaiji with Uchiyama Roshi. But I was born too late!
I needed this video today.
Thank you.
Welcome!
Nice one, Jack. Love your work, brother.
It’s funny, I’ve come to similar conclusions, only my experiences were on the ayahuasca hippie trail in South America. I went looking for exactly what you describe towards the end, only to realize I was never going to get it from puking and shitting my guts out in the fucking jungle. I’m a bit dense, so it took me a while to figure it out. Though, I have to say, I did get some external validation that my time “with the medicine” 🙄 was not a complete waste of time, money, and life. It may have made me a bit less of an asshole, maybe.
Cheers
Ayahuasca hippie trail! Wow! There's a real story there… Thanks for weighing in my friend.
I really appreciate your insight and advice, sir! I am at the beginning of my spiritual path and your words offer good guidance. Thank you!
I am also at the beginning of my path, so thank YOU.
Would recommend Hokyoji on the border of Iowa and Minnesota, right by Mississippi river. They have a little of everything.
Thanks a lot. Maybe recently more than before or that I pay more attention to it now is the distinction of Transcendental vs Psychological approaches. I really enjoyed you talking about that little locked box that only you have the key. I wonder what a practice without that relational component to become better to make things around you better looks like. And the opposite. I hear more and more people I like saying that those are 2 different things.
I never thought about it in terms of transcendental versus psychological approaches, but I think you've got something there. I'm gonna think about it.
A short remark, if I may: Phenomenological sociologist like Thomas Luckmann speak of “small, medium, and big transcendencies“, inherent in our human sense- and lifewolds, mirrore
... mirrored by “Kosmien/Kosmions“ on the subjective-intersubjective side, So, basically, all levels of “Dasein“ (M. Heidegger) would somehow be involved. - Another point for reflexion: Why is it sometimes said that human beings enjoy an especially favourable position regarding “soteriological matters“? Is it the rather “unique“ faculty for “fundamental insights“ via the “condition of ifs possibility“ (I. Kant) of “deep thoughtful reflexion“? May be ... some stuff for further reflection. - Thanks for sharing, and
Greetings from the parochial fields of Germany
Great, thanks. Getting really good at your life is exactly the right outcome. I think spiritual training in a monastic setting is a helpful springboard out of the rat race, but inevitably leads straight back to the problems we started with...which is horrifying at the time, but obvious in hindsight!! Helpful stuff. Thanks.
D
Thank you D-san!
Just keep on meditating and hope the best of it that all your problems will disappear like clouds in the sky😅
Such a wonderfully insightful and passionate presentation. Much thoughtful truth in this one. I have sat a few weekend meditations at Mt. Baldy led by Brad Warner several years ago. Glad to here you're headed back to America. Safe travels. I wonder...have you any desire or would you ever return to Mt. Baldy to practice? Thanks for doing such a good job with these talks.
You are so welcome. Deep bows.
😊 Isn't a Cat a type of whip? Anyway, enjoyed your video! Maybe it is people's pre conceived ideas about getting/ receiving/ being given something from special places? 🙏
Thanks my friend.
In summary it seems like you are saying don't bother going to a monastery because its full of wackos and you just end up remaining a wacko! So, are there no benefits to a monastic setting at all? Or does it depend on other students/main teachers?
No!! Definitely go to a monastery, definitely!! But it's not a panacea.
Catholic monasteries you only need to pay for the food you eat.
I love the idea of monasteries but at the same time I can practice just at home and it's probably more quiet.
I always thought about going to theravada monasteries it may be different but it seems like you could pretty easily become a monk if you're dedicated and showing interest.
WAY more quiet at home. ;)
Love your videos! Is there a solution to my feet falling asleep and being painful to walk on after?
I wonder what the peak of lay practice looks like, technically anybody could sit hours a day and brute force the intrinsic "pure perception"
I don't know if there's a solution for it, but you could try really elevating your butt so that the sitting is easier and not pressing down and making too much pressure on your legs such that your feet fall asleep. I've also found that it gets better with time, but mostly if you find a position where your butt is elevated and your legs are comfortably crossed that should help.
@@zenconfidential25 Thank you. I noticed that helps the back even more, I'll look into the angle my knees bend and pressure distributes across the legs too. Once there's no self the whole you, the entire we, will be much better off!
Just so you know, the phrase "swing a cat" has nothing to do with felines. The cat in this idiom's case is a cat o'nine tails, aka a flogger/flail. Some people would call it a whip, but most people think only of singletails when they hear the word "whip," so I don't prefer it for this application.
Ope. Day late and a dollar short. Oh well. 😅
That is fascinating!