Happiness, Contentment, and Attentional Presence

12/26/24 • 51 min

1 Listener

We live in an "achievement society," in which we are encouraged to constantly improve our lives in search for happiness. This talk presents Zen practice as a series of simple instructions like sitting down, not moving, and attending to breath and body, which facilitate the discovery and cultivation of a breath-body-attentional-space that can flower into a presence that doesn't go anywhere in the midst of changing experiences. This always-there presence hosts all of our experiences—pleasant and unpleasant, good and bad. This attentional presence can become for each person, independent of particular circumstances, the timeless source of contentment.

Welcome to Zen Mind!
Zenki Roshi's 6-week practice course, "Transforming Habits" is now available in a self-paced online format! Learn more here: https://www.boulderzen.org/transforming-habits.
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Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better!
Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.
See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected] or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.
If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!
Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.

Previous Episode

Our Entanglement with Thinking- Sesshin Day 3

This talk is the third talk given during the seven-day December Sesshin held at the Boulder Zen Center. It is a detailed investigation of why, despite our sincere mindfulness practice, it can be so difficult to disentangle our attention from the thinking process. It explores the hypothesis that thinking can be non-consciously used as a defense against the anxiety and disturbance we experience around existential facts like discontinuity, uncertainty, powerlessness, and pain. As a remedy, we can practice to invite our most disturbing existential feelings with gentle fearlessness. The stillness and stability of the physical zazen posture (discussed in the first Sesshin talk) is an invaluable resource for this.
Welcome to Zen Mind!
If you would like to listen to all 7 of the Dharma talks given during this intensive and from other intensives, please become a premium podcast subscriber! Doing so will give you access to talks given during all of our intensives plus the recorded Q&A sessions with Zenki Roshi that follow each of the regular public Dharma talks. Memberships begin at only $9/mo! Your support goes a long way towards helping the continuation of the Boulder Zen Center and Zenki Roshi’s teachings.

Learn more here: https://www.boulderzen.org/becomeamember
Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better!
Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.
See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected] or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.
If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!
Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.

Next Episode

Each Moment Is Material for Awakening (Everyday Bodhisattva Practice) - Sesshin Day 7

This talk is the seventh and last talk given during Boulder Zen Center's seven-day December Sesshin. It raises questions about the relationship between being on retreat and practicing in the context of daily life. To address these questions, it shows how the Bodhisattva ideal of Mahayana Buddhism goes beyond the idea of transcendence in Early Buddhism. To live as a Bodhisattva is to be committed to this world and its problems while continuously practicing non-grasping and non-resisting. The imperturbability, we cultivate through zazen doesn't mean we're never disturbed; it means we're not disturbed by being disturbed—time and again for the rest of our lives. Taken to its logical conclusion, being a Bodhisattva means to use each moment, whatever it is, as material for awakening with all beings.
Welcome to Zen Mind!
If you would like to listen to all 7 of the Dharma talks given during this intensive and from other intensives, please become a premium podcast subscriber! Doing so will give you access to talks given during all of our intensives plus the recorded Q&A sessions with Zenki Roshi that follow each of the regular public Dharma talks. Memberships begin at only $9/mo! Your support goes a long way towards helping the continuation of the Boulder Zen Center and Zenki Roshi’s teachings.