Been a minute since we’ve been on the blog, with so much happening since Halloween it’s been a bit spooky. I started this piece weeks ago, but closing out the Fall retreat season temporarily pulled me away from the bounding growth experienced during my teacher Shinzen’s final virtual retreat in November, which was off the charts. Speaking of charts, two pictures grace this post. One is the world’s greatest meditation teacher giving a hopeful underling some well-deserved grief during our session together while on retreat. Shin said looked like Darth Vader, which I found apropos. The other photograph is of Shinzen and Unified Mindfulness’s Happiness Chart. Who knew such a gauge even existed? That’s the depth and width of Shinzen’s teaching. Find Relief. Elevate Fulfillment. Understand Yourself. Act Skillfully. Build Relationships. And, one day, finally, transcend all our personal conditioning as well as the pull of the past, accessing the moment-by-moment unlimited growth our practice promises.
We’ll be spending more precious time with Shinzen in Tucson soon, and hope to practice and convey more of the teachings and techniques picked up on retreat. Regarding Zen Hacks, one of the exercises we engaged in was what I jokingly call What’s My State? It’s a new game show with Shinzen as host. Here’s how it works: parsing the moment by moment feeling of sensation and action, it’s always helpful to have more than one laser beam angle on a topic. So we sliced the pleasantness or unpleasantness of each moment into four logical possibilities, with relatively better detection and resolution clarity than we do in general, daily life. Ask yourself this: is this moment pleasant, unpleasant, of mixed valiance (both) or neutral? It’s not uncommon for neutral to turn pleasant, because we feel relative relief from anger, fear, sadness impatience, embarrassment, disgust, interest, joy and physical discomforts of a gazillion possible origins, as well as terminal states.
You can potentially experience neutral sensations by way of contrast to the unpleasant. And the sought-after taste of purification that signals dropping into equanimity creates reward flavors, as well as a healing loop that works against other loops, loops where the physical or emotional pain is so bad you fight against it, or the fantasy is so compelling you continue it. If you get a little bored or caught up in memory, fantasy, or planning, just gently return to “Whats My State”. You’ll experience insights related to cause and effect, especially when the channels are open and there’s “No Self” fighting against the hierarchy of processing. Pleasantness or unpleasantness more mindfully perceived reveals a universal connector to everything, This is how we clean up the past, construct a more reasonable future, and dwell more peacefully in the present moment. More growth and stories from the road and our personal retreat time soon. Until then, Merry Christmas and HNY!
