The following is an audio recording of an essay by Treeleaf founder and guiding teacher, Jundo Cohen.
Here's the "elephant in the room" of Shikantaza Zazen: What does it mean to "think-non-thinking?" In ordinary life, our daily minds resemble a mad circus, maybe a chaotic jungle. We react to the elephants passing through our awareness, jumping on, leaping from one to the next, pulling their tails, prodding them with a stick, often tangled in their trunks. Sometimes we chase them to catch them, sometimes we run away in fear, sometimes we get trampled underfoot. What is more, all our meddling seemingly summons ever more elephants of thought and emotion into the crowded room. The jumbled circus of "thought jumbos" and "emotion mastodons" never ends, and we taunt them and stir them up more. But in Zazen, the elephants are tamed.
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:
The Elephant in the Zazen Room
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: Even Buddhas Get the Blues
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: The BEST Zen is SO DISAPPOINTING!
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: I AM-NOT-NOT-AM-AM A ZEN ARTIST CLERGY!
Sit-A-Long with Taigu: No Expectations
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: Safe Landings
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: Newtown -IS- Samsara
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: MORE Sex Scandal Finger Wagging
Fukanzazengi 8
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: BUDDHA BOO!
In the stream, Dogen's poem
The sitting that fills the whole universe
September 1st, 2012- OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!
SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Sex Scandal Finger Wagging
Sit-A-Long with Taigu: Cloud in the Sky, Water in a Bottle
SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Pain, Suffering & Freedom
SIT-A-LONG with Taigu FUKANZAZENGI 7
SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Announcing the GLOBAL DAY OF SERVICE
July Monthly Zazenkai Dharma Talk - Wild Fox Koan
Blue mountains, gniocchi and Boss coffee
Sit-A-Long with Taigu: Fukanzazengi 6
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Buddhist Society of Western Australia
Tara Brach
Heart Wisdom with Jack Kornfield
Learn Buddhism with Alan Peto
Insight Hour with Joseph Goldstein