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Ben Giordano's avatar

This post is a labor of love, and it is received as such. Thank you, Sasha.

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American Badger's avatar

I love this post and completely agree with it all! A few extra notes, all of which Sasha will already know.

- My Zen mentor told me of an old saying - the Buddha is still practicing, as are the grand masters of the Zen tradition. They are still meditating, getting more clear on what it is to be human.

- So there is no end to practice - but as Henry Shukman says in his book (which Sasha put me on to), there are definite shifts, which you cannot cause to happen in any way. These landmark events are "enlightenment," or larger "openings" in the Zen tradition.

- There's a dynamic dialectic around striving for enlightenment vs not worrying about it (partly because it's just what's already there shining out). As Ajahn Chah put its - just another thing to let go of!

- Refined states (love, the jhanas, etc) are not the heart of the deconstructive path, but attention/concentration is unusually important for it.

- Eventually finding a teacher you can really trust is key for most people.

- Grumpy note, I think some autodidact meditators on twitter are very overconfident and should listen to the tradition more. Much meditation advice on the internet is bad, in my opinion.

- Slow practice can be more effective because you're living in your real life, encountering actual suffering, not avoiding it by going monk-mode.

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