Hi all - just a quick note to say that the SWZ Northampton group will not be meeting in August because of various holiday and sesshin trips.
Our last meeting will be this coming Wednesday (27 July), and we'll meet again on the first Weds in September (7 Sept).
Hope you have a wonderful summer!
So often, people mistake zazen for 'not thinking anything', and then get frustrated when they continually fail to somehow cease all mental activity, as if they could unplug their brains somehow.
Really, we find a way to truly experience each moment as it arises, including our responses to those moments. How easy, though, for our small selves get in the way, and we have a million different ways to avoid facing the truth of these responses... how can we see through these tricks we play on ourselves?
I love this advice from Joko Beck's Ordinary Wonder:
Practice is returning, always, back to the body. Feeling the original pain, anger, or whatever emotion it is that you’re trying to cover. Human beings want to cover everything, so we don’t feel it. We don’t want to go out of our way to feel something that’s unpleasant, do we? No. If you’re like me, you’ll find some way to cover it. But the longer we practice, the more quickly we see what we’re doing.
