Walking the Way by Robert Rosenbaum

Author:Robert Rosenbaum
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781614290261
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

A busybody has difficulties self-adjusting. Where there is an excess of control, it is hard to relax.

Through studying yoga, I learned how to control my breathing. I applied this to Rinzai Zen breath counting, focusing intensely on deep breaths to cleanse myself of discriminative thought and strengthen my hara (the seat of spiritual and physical energy, located in the lower abdomen). I trained myself to be so intentional in my breathing that when I began Soto Zen meditation and was told to “just let the breath come naturally” I had a terrible time finding a way to breathe willingly instead of willfully. Often my breath felt too shallow or too rapid, but if I tried to resume controlled breathing, it now felt forced.

I developed back pain. Hoping to alleviate it, I began practicing Dayan (“Wild Goose”) Qigong. Most qigongs emphasize breathing exercises but Dayan lets the breath come naturally, without interference from thinking about it too much. (Apparently because of this, it has helped many of my patients with lung problems who had troubles with effortful breathing).

Initially I approached qigong as a way to increase my control over my body, and I had difficulties understanding when my teacher, correcting me, would exhort me to be “just natural.” I struggled to learn what seemed to be strange and even unnatural movements; I didn’t realize they only seemed this way to me because I was trying to acquire them as a set of skills I could add to my spiritual resume. I had to learn to stop interfering and let the flow of qi go about its business.

Gradually, practicing the same set of movements over and over, they became so familiar I started to let go, do less, and trust my body and mind to self-adjust. I began to stop “doing” the movements and allow them to “just move.”

Through this practice I began to learn to stop “doing” shikantaza meditation and “just sit.” Shunryu Suzuki advises us it is a mistake to think “I” am doing meditation. I began to offer myself instruction: “let the meditation do the meditating … let the qigong do the qigong.”

Body, breath, and mind began to have room to cooperate with each other naturally. It became possible to stop “breathing” and just breathe. As zazen and qigong stopped being a matter of learning to do some special practice, they became gateways to great ease and joy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.