Zen 24/7 - Zen alarm clock

Posted by: Dauragon c mikado

Zen 24/7 - Zen alarm clock - 03/07/06 07:59 PM

This will be my first weekly contribution to the forum (scary to be honest). I will be sticking quotes on here from the amazing book "Zen 24/7" by the late Phillip Toshio Sudo.
The idea is simple, I write a quote, then we give our opinions, ideas and thoughts on it etc.

Zen alarm Clock-

Quote:

Much as we may want to roll over and go to sleep, we have to start the day sometime. Whatever serves to stir us from our slumber-the alarm clock, the light from the outside, the dogs cold nose-remember: The purpous of zen is to do the same.
We all need to awaken, zen says-to our true nature, to the timeless essence ar our core that connects us to everybody. So many of us are spiritually asleep, oblivious to the precious gift we have. We take life for granted, sleepwalking until a shattering event knocks us awake. Zen says, don't wait for the car accident the cancer diagnosis, or death of a loved one to get your priorities straight. Do it now.
Let today's wake-up call signal the start of a new day-the first day of a new lifetime.
Awaken!



Posted by: wolfscalissi

Re: Zen 24/7 - Zen alarm clock - 03/07/06 11:02 PM

In many Monastaries,just out side the Zendo, a wooden block is struck with a mallet to call the monks to meditation. next to this is usualy a scroll or plaque with the words (roughly translated) "Life is fleeting. Gone. Gone! Awake! Awake each one! Don't waste this life!"

words to live, or better yet, die by.

^gassho^
mike
Posted by: Dauragon c mikado

Re: Zen 24/7 - Zen alarm clock - 03/07/06 11:37 PM

I like your way of thinking
Its true we should watch how we live, thats obvious.
But very rarely do you se those who take into account how to die, its like their denying the end will happen, but I think we should think about how we live and die because they are equally important.

Posted by: harlan

Re: Zen 24/7 - Zen alarm clock - 03/08/06 08:09 AM

My practice of Goju and kobudo fills this purpose. Every step is a moment of introspection, as I acknowledge each ache from an old injury and an aging body/impermanence. I also view kata as an experiential vehicle on the contemplation of death...as a practice to awake.
Posted by: Gavin

Re: Zen 24/7 - Zen alarm clock - 03/08/06 10:52 AM

Some would argue that the whole purpose of living is to learn how to die.....
Posted by: wolfscalissi

Re: Zen 24/7 - Zen alarm clock - 03/08/06 02:26 PM

It is not so much an argument as....if we learn to die well we live well and if we learn to live well we die well. sogyal rinpoche (loosley quoted)

^gassho^
mike
Posted by: Dauragon c mikado

Re: Zen 24/7 - Zen alarm clock - 03/09/06 06:31 AM

Its all a matter of what you consider living well and what you consider dying well.

The only examples of Dying well I can think of are:

-The classic deathbed scene surrounded by family members and friends waiting for the end.

-Dying in the greatest fight of your life, both equal in skill, both landing strikes when somebody lands a strike, winning and losing no longer matter, pain and suffering no longer matte, life and death no longer matter.
The fight is all...

Can anyone expand on how to die well? You may as well put how to live well too since that seems to be the key on how to die well.
Posted by: wolfscalissi

Re: Zen 24/7 - Zen alarm clock - 03/09/06 09:04 AM

Dying well has little to do with braverey or valor. these again are just perceptions and comparissons. The "hero" who charged up a a hill in battle, sacrificing his life to take out three or four enemy in a bunker is only a hero to one side. The family of the deceased enemy do not see him as such.
Dying well might be more along the lines of not dying with regrets and longing. If we just live in this moment and not projected into the future or recessed into the past how could we suffer? And living this way we can cease to create the wreckage that will cause us to mourn our own passing as we die. It is a viscious circle only broken by living an awakened life.

^gassho^
mike
Posted by: Dauragon c mikado

Re: Zen 24/7 - Zen alarm clock - 03/09/06 09:24 AM

Very good, though one of the things I fear is through our so called 'awakened lives' we lose part of our humanity, though many would argue that our 'awakened lives' make us even more human, but perhaps it simpy makes our sight clearer, because isnt caring for things and mourning their loss part of what makes us human?
Posted by: Dauragon c mikado

Re: Zen 24/7 - Zen alarm clock - 03/10/06 04:02 AM

Ps- this is just a challenge question.