{"id":860,"date":"2009-10-11T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-11T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/10\/sit-down-and-shut-up.html"},"modified":"2009-10-11T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-11T10:00:00","slug":"sit-down-and-shut-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/10\/sit-down-and-shut-up.html","title":{"rendered":"Learning to Sit Down and Shut Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

The truth is, I’m an accidental Soto Zen Buddhist<\/a>.  When I initially
\nlearned to meditate, I had little interest in sticking to any particular tradition.  I liked to call myself a “non-denominational” Buddhist and didn’t really see a need to identify with one school of Buddhism or another.  When I moved to Kansas, I joined a Soto Zen group, not
\nbecause I was interested in Zen at all but because this group seemed to
\nfocus primarily on sitting, which happened to be exactly what I wanted to
\ndo.  Also, there really aren’t tons of Buddhist groups to choose from
\nhere so I took what I could get.  The funny thing is, looking back on
\nit, I think I also found the group that I didn’t even know I needed.<\/p>\n


\nThere was a Buddhist Geeks podcast episode a few months back called,
\n“You Will Get the Dharma You Need,”<\/a> with Tami Simon<\/a>.  It took me a little while to
\nrealize it, but I think Zen and the Soto school in particular is the
\ndharma I need.  As I’ve mentioned before, I’m an engineer.  Engineering
\ntends to attract a certain type of person.  Specifically, the curious,
\nanalytical types who love to solve problems and get real results.  For
\na while, I took the “hard-core” approach to the dharma.  I wanted to
\nknow all about jhanas<\/a> and how to reach some higher states of
\nconsciousness and I wanted it all laid out plain as day in a map or
\nalgorithm that I could simply follow and study my way to
\nenlightenment.  Then, I’d go in to talk to my Zen teacher with
\nquestions on how to become a better person and his ever-predictable
\nresponse was: “just keep sitting.”  What?  Just keep sitting? And then
\nwhat do I do??  The truth was, I really<\/i> didn’t like this response.  It felt like
\nsomeone telling me to just sit down and shut-up and my natural response
\nwas to want to rebel against it.  It took me a while to see that this
\nwas exactly the dharma I needed.<\/p>\n

I spend my days thinking and
\nsolving problems for hours on end.  Even when I get off work, I’m
\nconstantly trying to schedule my days and get everything I want to
\naccomplish squeezed in.  So, when I sit down to meditate, my “left-brain”<\/a>
\nis still running on all cylinders, cranking out answers to questions I
\ndon’t even have yet.  The down side of this, of course, is that it’s
\nvery easy for me to get off balance and go too far down the left-brain,
\nlogical road.  This sort of thinking leads me to become very critical
\nof the actions of people around me and has been known to make me quite
\nan irritable and testy person.  When I think I’m was just being helpful or
\ncurious, my loved ones sometimes see me as overly questioning and correcting
\ntheir actions.  In my hyper-logical way of thinking, I’m just trying to
\nhelp the person out, even if they don’t want to be helped.<\/p>\n

This
\nis where Zen has come into my life and helped bring it into balance. 
\nOnce I quit rebelling against the teachings I was hearing and began
\nlearning more about them and really trying to practice in the Soto
\nstyle, I began to slowly but surely notice that my logical mind was
\nstarting to quiet, giving my “right-brain” an opportunity to operate. 
\nYou see, in my practice lineage, to practice zazen (or sitting meditation) is
\nbasically to practice enlightenment itself.  As Matsuoka Roshi<\/a> (my teacher’s
\nteacher) said: “This is because the practice of meditation and its
\nwisdom – enlightenment – are not separate.  Even the sitting of a
\nbeginner will be a brilliant one which has the “lining” of right
\nenlightenment of the Shakyamuni Buddha.” (“The Kyosaku” p. 115)  As a result, in sitting zazen,
\nthere really is nothing for my logical mind to analyze and figure out,
\nno problem to be solved.  Once I just sit long enough to let my logical
\nbrain settle down, I’m able to come into a greater sense of balance, which I can
\nthen take off the cushion and into daily life.  I guess it turns out my teacher
\nwas right, I did just need to keep sitting afterall.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong I’m not
\nsaying that other schools of Buddhism don’t have a lot to offer myself
\nor others.  I’ve read books by teachers from many different traditions
\nincluding Tibetan and Theravadin and I’ve received a lot of very
\nbeneficial teachings from these sources.  But, I think the Soto school
\npresented a very direct challenge to my normal way of thinking; a challenge that I needed. 
\nInstead of allowing me to use my usual analytical thinking style to
\npractice meditation algorithms or even make an attempt at Koan study
\n(where it eventually would have fallen short, I’m sure), Soto Zen put
\nup a road block for me right away.  It challenged me right up front to
\nlet go of all of my hard won problem solving skills and “just sit.” 
\nI’m the type of person who really needs to be challenged in order for
\nme to grow on a deep level.  Once I finally agreed to listen, I began
\nto slowly, dimly understand the wisdom behind the teaching.  I think
\nI’m finally starting to learn how to really sit down and shut-up.<\/p>\n

So,
\nI send it out to you.  Have you found “the dharma you need?”  If so,
\ndid it find you or did you find it?  If not, don’t dispair!  There are
\nso many spiritual traditions out there, I truly believe there’s
\nsomething for everyone.  Just keep practicing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The truth is, I’m an accidental Soto Zen Buddhist.  When I initially learned to meditate, I had little interest in sticking to any particular tradition.  I liked to call myself a “non-denominational” Buddhist and didn’t really see a need to identify with one school of Buddhism or another.  When I moved to Kansas, I joined…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meditation","category-talking-dharma"],"yoast_head":"\nLearning to Sit Down and Shut Up - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/10\/sit-down-and-shut-up.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learning to Sit Down and Shut Up - 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