Studying the Way: Part III

08/28/21 • 69 min

This talk continues to explore Dogen's statement, "To study the Buddha Way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self, to forget the self is to be actualized by the 10,000 things." It uses the teaching of the five skandhas (form, feeling, perception, conditioning, and consciousness) to explore studying the self as being intimate with one's own experience. Suzuki Roshi says that in the experience of breathing in and breathing out, when you say "I breathe," the "I" is extra. Similarly, we can study how the "I" is extra in our material existence, in our feeling, perception, habit structures, and thinking consciousness. When we "forget the self" in this way, how does that change the way we respond to circumstances? Welcome to Zen Mind! New talks will be published bi-weekly throughout the summer. Registration is now open for our fall practice course, "Liberation from Suffering", led by Zenki Roshi. Head to our website to find out more: www.boulderzen.org. 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 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 yogic embodiment.

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Studying the Way (Part 3)

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Studying the Way (Part 4)

The goal of Zen practice is not to become a better, enhanced person; the goal is an open, flexible mind. Openness may sound attractive, but it actually means we allow the teaching to undermine our habit and personality structures. This can be a bit scary. To study "the Way" is to study ourselves not as a fixed thing that needs improvement here and there but as an open-ended process of unfolding. This talk investigates five interrelated dimensions of how to study this unfolding: (1) psychological, (2) behavioral, (3) energetic, (4) attentional, and (5) conceptual. It shows how we need to navigate within and between these dimansions to make our study work. Welcome to Zen Mind! New talks will be published bi-weekly throughout the summer. Registration is now open for our fall practice course, "Liberation from Suffering", led by Zenki Roshi. The course will begin on October 1st with a 3-day weekend seminar on "Working with Reactivity", which can also be attend on it's own. 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 yogic embodiment.