Question
I have been practicing zazen for two or three years (I can’t remember!). I discovered this website, and I am currently reading the kusens from the Montpellier dojo.
I have reached 2003, and the urge to ask questions has become too strong!!
Hishiryo. I read all kinds of things: thinking from the depths… observing… stripping away… paying attention to breathing… But if I love zazen so much, it’s
for its “simplicity.”
I haven’t reached hishiryo. I don’t know whether I’ve progressed, so
perhaps I am not practicing in the right spirit.
I would so love not to have to ask questions. I would just like
to sit in the posture day after day and tell myself that hishiryo “will come”
!
Is my approach wrong?
In another kusen I read that half lotus is good, but full lotus is better!
I can’t do full lotus. Is it really important? I don’t
think so, but then why mention it? Don’t all these details
ultimately just create conscious or unconscious blocks (like:
If I can’t manage it, it must be because I am not breathing
the right way, not sitting in lotus, etc.)? We end up with
texts full of little details, full of “intellectualizing” (that’s
certainly a human failing! LOL), when perhaps we just need to “sit”
?
Anonymous
Answer from Master Kosen
The feeling of “I’ll never manage it” is perfectly normal; it is the sign of true learning. I myself began full lotus only after at least five years of practice. You have to give time its due; for a beginner, half lotus is already very powerful. I think hishiryo is inherent in zazen. You are already practicing it without realizing it. Even if my kusens are not very useful to you for now (I should point out that they are addressed to practitioners during zazen), you will understand them later if you continue the practice of just sitting.
Kosen