Thinking into Not Thinking

This morning’s sunrise above. The colors created by sun, snow, eyes and mind were quite spectacular and I tried to capture it for you, greased pig as it is to “capture” something!

I’ve got a few days now with my teenagers at their mother’s to dig back into writing. 

Oh, and I’ll be preparing for the online talk via Webex this Saturday, 10am-11am CST (-6 UMT), “Making Manifest the Great Earth’s Gold: Zen and Service.” There are still plenty of virtual seats available at this point, so send me an email and I’ll sign you up. 

The book I’m working on deals with the old “Healing Point of Zazen” material on thinking, not thinking, and nonthinking (and then polishing the tile, distinguishing silent illumination zazen and shikantaza…). 

The point that has gotten more and more clear through the writing process is about thinking and how we regard our thoughts in zazen – and off the old zafu. 
 
That is, how we meet thinking in zazen reflects how we meet the world off the cushion and the other way too, of course. I’m told that one American Theravadan teacher yells at his students in meditation, “Thinking is garbage! Throw it away!” 

Such a rough attitude might work for a short period of time to attain a course and uneasy settling of mind. For a profound quieting, imho, thinking into not-thinking, a more subtle and kinder approach that is equally direct with less future bounce-back see this blog post from June: click here. Wow, what to do about that sentence!

Anyway … I’m editing the linked piece now as chapter 5 of what might be a rather long book … so feedback would be welcome.