What is Yoga? | Your Instructors | Note from Robin | Featured Articles | Archived Notes Zen Practice: a Personal Strategy for World Peace These days, indeed any given day, we might feel reluctant to open the newspaper. What we’ll read will be the day’s headlines of animosity and distrust brought to the extremes of human suffering. Round after round of recriminations and revenge follow one another like sheep to slaughter. Spain, the Middle East, politics, religious war—what can we possibly do, sitting at our breakfast tables, gearing up for work, getting the children off to school? What will we hold as our opinion on these matters? It has been said that those who are not part of the solution are part of the problem. However, I would like to suggest that as soon as we define "the problem" and "the solution", we may find ourselves caught in the maelstrom of (you guessed it) animosity, distrust, ideas of right way, wrong way — i.e., world suffering. What to do then? In Buddhist practice, human suffering is understood to be our reality. At its core is the endless clinging to our ideas, opinions, and condition. For some, a genuine passion to save the world from suffering can become a campaign to promote their particular idea of the route one should take. Does this sound familiar? Have we ever felt convinced of wrongs done, pounding the table, saying something along the lines of: I will never permit such … over my dead body … Zen practice means waking up, looking within ourselves, directly to the root of our world suffering, in which we will find, guaranteed, our own minds. This is anything but a passive or "laid back" practice. Zen is an exercise in being one hundred percent available—open for business. Consider how much time and energy we invest in exercising and feeding our bodies. If we can sustain the courage and diligence to exercise a clear mind, we will, over time, develop the clarity of vision to see ourselves and the world, vividly and intimately. To see things as they are for just one minute creates an opening, a space of mutuality, a realization of world peace at its root. I invite you to join us at Tiger Mountain Zen, where our practice is just that, to practice being present and clear, moment after moment. In our introductory classes, new students learn the eminently practical and life-long technique of meditation. Instruction is accessible to everyone and there are many opportunities for questions and consultation. New 4-week consecutive sessions begin every month, meeting Sundays from 9:00 - 10:15 AM. |
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