5. On Life and Various Questions: Awakening, Suffering, Death, Boundaries

These are questions and topics that Claude AnShin Thomas - fully ordained Zen Buddhist Monk in the Japanese Soto Zen tradition - reflects on. He reminds the listener of how to stay awake to life and how to understand more deeply the trappings of a deluded mind.

This episode was recorded during a zoom questions&responses session.

For more interesting information: https://zaltho.org/

If you want to ask a question: [email protected]

Want to read up on this topic? Book recommendations: 

-       Bringing Meditation to Life - 108 Teachings on the Path of Zen Practice (Oakwood Publishing 2021)

-       AT HELL'S GATE - A Soldier's Journey from War to Peace (Shambhala Publications 2003)

https://zaltho.org/en/media/books.html

Time Codes:

• 1:20 Have you ever had a burst of laughter when it was not fitting, how you dealt with it?
• 2:20 I was wondering what you are learning about yourself at the present time in your life?
• 6:48 Do you experience any limitations that you encounter as you move through time?
• 8:17 Could you describe one or several spiritual awakenings you might have experienced through Zen practice?
• 11:28 Beyond the physical difference between men and women, what differences do you perceive?
• 13:42 I’m confused about when you say “sit just to sit” … Do you have any suggestion what to do with my confusion?
• 18:20 My mother experienced a lot of trauma in her childhood and still suffers a lot. And through this suffering she can be hurtful to other people. How can I be connected to her and have her in my life but not always get hurt by her?
• 23:13 I have a question about something you said on a podcast about a comment on social media about you do not following “real” Zen. Can you help me understand this?
• 27:52 I have heard the statement that it is up to me how much I let something or someone hurt me or anger me. What is your experience how much determination is really involved in that?
• 33:15 I know you make commitments in the morning, generally toward life. Is there any time you also ask for help let say, to the greater reality of the universe or interconnectedness, that I could use some help?
• 35:02 How do you digest all the suffering you are exposed to, the personal and also the wider suffering?
• 39:20 How are we not broken?
• 40:44 Are you worried for the future of your grandchildren in relation with climate change?
• 43:02 During the meditation practice I notice my way of being with thoughts when they come up, is different. I am wondering if that is natural and part of the process or if I am imposing things on my thoughts which at times can seem harsh?
• 49:07 My conditioning around death is rather dark and heavy. In the spirit of having more balance would you think it would be good to look a little more at it in a celebratory way?
• 52:04 There are behaviors we need to stop, and we stop those behaviors because we know that is for the better, right? …. Isn’t that the same thing with the thoughts?