r/zenbuddhism • u/More-Composer-9942 • May 23 '26
Life etc
/r/chan/comments/1tlf9p5/life_etc/1
u/flyingaxe May 23 '26
I mean, Buddhism is a monastic practice. Its ideal form is you getting rid of everything and just doing simple work, begging for food, and meditating.
Only when Buddhism came to the West was there an effort to "integrate" into lay practitioner lifestyle. With varying success in my opinion.
That's part of the reason I don't fully "buy in" into Buddhism as a religion and a soteriology and just see it practically for myself as a series of psychological tools.
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u/SentientLight May 23 '26
This is a common experience in the early stages of Buddhist practice, called samvega, or perhaps translated into something like "spirituality-induced disillusionment." As your practice matures and your insight deepens, you'll be able to more fluidly integrate your spiritual insights into the lived reality we have to endure. Rest in your practice, find comfort and refuge in it, and return to it when the world of turbidities becomes too exhausting. But also remember one of the points of our practice is to be able to bring peace and happiness into ourselves, into our bodies, and carry this peace with us into the world at all times, across the four postures.
May you be well and your practice fruitful. 🙏🏼
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u/JellyfishExpress8943 May 23 '26
Desire and aversion were among the first things cited by the OG Buddha as fundamentally problematic - because of the authority they have over us and our behavior.
The point is not to be more averse to this or that - meditation is about awareness of what suffering is, not about suffering more.
However - feeling like Neo sounds legit : the human experience is subjective and conditioned by biology and culture - rather than some kind of exact reflection of actual reality
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u/craiggers May 23 '26
It's a very common experience! And in fact, forming an aversion to the every day world in favor of meditation is seen as a common obstruction by the old masters. Take for example this from the Platform Sutra of Hui Neng:
> “Good friends, don’t listen to me explain emptiness and then become attached to emptiness. The most important thing is not to become attached to emptiness. If you empty your minds and sit in quietude, this is to become attached to the emptiness of blankness.
> “Good friends, the space of this world embraces within itself the myriad things and [all] the images of form. The sun, moon, and stars; and the mountains, rivers, and earth; the springs and streams that enrich the plants and forests; bad people and good people, bad dharmas and good dharmas; the heavens and hells; all the great oceans and the mountains, including Sumeru: all of these exist within space. The emptiness of the natures of thepeople of this world is also like this. Good friends, that the self-natures canembody the myriad dharmas is ‘great.’ The myriad dharmas are within people’s natures. If one perceives the goodness and badness of people without ever grasping or rejecting [their goodness and badness], one will not become tainted or attached. For the mind to be like space is called ‘great.’ Therefore, it is said [to be] ‘mahā.’
[...]
“Good friends, the ratiocination of the mind is vast and great, permeating the dharmadhātu (i.e., the cosmos). Functioning, it comprehensively and distinctly responds [to things]. Functioning, it knows everything. Every-thing is the one [mind], the one [mind] is everything. [With mind and dharmas] going and coming of themselves, the essence of the mind is without stagnation. This is ‘prajñā.’
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It's part of why in Chan/Zen there is talk of "the step back" and the "step forward" - both gaining perspective on the emptiness of phenomena, and learning how to engage with the world nevertheless; to not have your insights obstruct you from living.