Meditation around the Labyrinth

On next July 11, 2009 I will lead a meditation seminar at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Dothan.

This event is open to every person interested in Meditation, regardless of their religious affiliation.

We will practice sitting meditation inside the main hall, and walking meditation on the Labyrinth.

This is an interesting experiment as it brings together the Eastern practice of sitting with the Western practice of walking a Labyrinth

Labyrinth were used in the West for religious and possibly other purposes for over 2000 years. They became very popular in Europe during the 13th and 14th century and were incorporated in the floors of numerous Gothic Cathedrals. As the access to Jerusalem was lost people would do pilgrimages to these Cathedrals instead, and end up walking the Labyrinth in Prayer.

In the last quarter of the 20th century, there was a renaissance of the use of the Labyrinth as a mind centering device through walking prayer and meditation, and numerous Labyrinth were built in the US for this purpose.

Tai Chi, Iaido and Zen

Practicing Nukitsuke this morning - I was reminding the Dai Kyo Soku Ke motto.
Big, Strong, Fast, Swift.


Something comes to mind - One of Tai Chi's aims is the release of internal tensions in the body - muscles, joints, sinews...
Why release tensions ? Because when the body is tense and stiff, the mind is also tense and stiff. But this is not all. It also enables the proper and fast performance of the next move.

When it comes to swordsmanship, if your body has no tension at the end of the initial draw, you are able to carry on with the next cut, switfly, without hesitation, which maybe the difference between life and death.

Slow Tai Chi-like practice of Iaido will help you (or your instructor) figure out residual tensions that slow down your next move (these blockages are usually easier to spot in shoulders and spine, but they really plague your whole body).

Once you become aware of them, you can work at suppressing them by properly realigning your joints. I have no doubt great progress can be achieved this way.

How does this relate to other activities ?

Karate, Kendo, same as Iaido, slowly practice kata paying attention to the body tensions on each impact. Minimize tensions, find the right body form.

Residual tensions in the body (elbows, shoulder, hands...) are the equivalent of what Suzuki Roshi calls "Traces". Imprints of patterns of moves repeated over years and years of practice. Pollution. They prevent us from freely performing the next move. We need to let them drop out - Leave no traces.

One day I might figure out how Zen related to Budo !

Book of Changes

A student once asked Shunryu Suzuki Roshi :

“Suzuki Rohi, I’ve been listening to your lectures for years, but I just don’t understand. Could you just put it in a nutshell? Can you reduce Buddhism to one phrase?”

Everyone laughed, Suzuki laughed and said :

“Everything changes.”

(Zen is right here, page 37).

And I wonder: Am I studying the right book?

The I Ching, or Book of Changes has been around since before Buddhism. It is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. It describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy intrinsic to ancient Chinese cultural beliefs, centering on the ideas of the dynamic balance of opposites, the evolution of events as a process, and acceptance of the inevitability of change.

Are we not speaking about impermanence here ?

UJI

I was just wondering...

Did Dogen really think when he wrote Shobogenzo, that 8 centuries down the road we would still try to understand what he was trying to say to some not so bright 13th century Japanese farmers ?

Come on, think about it !

When he wrote about the Moon being reflected in a dew drop, do you think he had any idea and could have had any understanding that one day men would FLY up there to take a walk and come back ?

How would you try to explain quantum mechanics and special relativity theory to him. It hardly makes sense to us in the 21st century. How could he understand them in the 13th ?

And you want us to understand UJI ???

How about going back to sit on our cushion ???

A Deadly Serious Attitude

In Karate do Nyumon, (Page 43) Funakoshi Sensei writes about Training :

Each and every punch must be made with the power of your entire body behind it. With the feeling of destroying your opponent with a single blow. You must believe that if your punch fails, you will forfeit your own life. Thinking this, your mind and energy will be concentrated, and your spirit will express itself in the fullest. … You will find that training with a deadly serious attitude will over time benefit not only your study of karate, but many other facets of your life as well. Life itself is often akin to a match with real swords. With a lukewarm attitude toward life – such as assuming that after every failure you will always have a second chance, what can you hope to accomplish in a short life span of fifty years ?

Although this is about Karate Training, I believe it also applies to every training, and among them to Zen. We should practice with a deadly serious attitude, as if each one of our expiration were our last one, and concentrate right then (Right Zen ?) !

AH ! What if this one were my last breathe ? What if I'd drop dead right now with my mind entangled in my daily life worries !

OK, do I practice like that? Of course not, give me a break, I am no Master but a beginner trying to figure it out, and only my experience of Martial Arts is what best helps me on my way !

And on this way Humor is good, and we should keep it flowing too. Have a deadly serious attitude, and at the same time not beat ourselves too hard on the head when we fail.

Always stand back up after we fell and learn from our mistakes.

Let's have a deadly serious attitude, and when our mind wanders around, let's bring it back home and start over again, as if it would again be our last breathe...

Kiotsuke

Patty Sensei reminded us one point Long Sensei insisted upon during a seminar she attended : While in Seiza, Tatehiza or standing stance before a waza, one should not be “too” relaxed. Even if the waza is not started yet, there should be a part of Zanshin, awareness, attention...

Originally, one is relaxed; once the instructor claps his hands together, giving the signal for the preparatory breathe, one gets a little more tense or focussed, ready to act.

From Seiza, this practically means to transfer ones weight a little to the front in order to raise the toes and be able to stand up faster. This is achieved by slightly tilting the pelvis to the front.

From a standing position, this also means to transfer one’s weight a little more toward the ball of the feet (Kidney 1 Acupuncture point), by slightly bending the knees and turning toes inside (Uchi Hachi Ji Dachi). The heels are still on the floor, but the weight of the body is more toward the balls of the feet, ready to jump. We are not in a fighting stance yet, but we are not relaxed anymore, paying attention to our environment, Zanshin.

In Yoshukai, this is the attitude we take when the instructor commands “Kiotsuke” - "ki wo tsuke" or 気を付け (Stand to Attention). This term is also used in The last Samurai Movie by the commander of the army that is going to be attacked by the last Samurais.

How Strange, reminds me of one of my last Blog postings about Front Stances…

Pensacola Iai Class

Great class in Pensacola yesterday at the Big Green Drum Dojo

We went through :
Seiza Mae
Tsukikage
Junto Sono Ni
Shihoto
Zentekigyakuto Sono Ni
Moniri
Tsubamegaeshi

Moniri and Tsubamegaeshi were (almost) new waza for us as we had only studied them once with Long Sensei earlier during one of his seminars.

Classes like these are very profitable as we can quietly get into details of waza we have practiced times and times, with possible mistakes (we had for example practiced the wrong Chiburi on Tsukikage for the last 3 months...).

It also answered some of the questions we had, for which I did not know the answers...

I will e-mail my notes to everyone in a separate e-mails

Thank you Patty Sensei for your help and patience.