9. On Spiritual Discipline, Success with Meditation, Countering Rigidity

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 with a German-speaking audience.

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

If you want to ask a question: [e-mail]

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/our-books.html

Questions and Time Stamps:
1:30 In which way are your father and your mother present in your life now, if they are present?
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3:58 During sitting meditation, is it important to consciously slow down my breathing or do I just stay with whatever breathing pattern is natural at that time?
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5:58 Would you share something about your experience of discipline?
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8:16 This morning when you gave instructions for sitting meditation you said that it was best to not wear shoes and if it was cold to not wear socks. How come? 
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10:16 When does discipline lead to feeling overwhelmed and tightness?
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10:50 What your saying is, if I am not enjoying, for instance getting up very early in the morning and getting on with my day and I’d rather be in bed because I don't’ like doing that, that’s not discipline?
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14:40 When does discipline lead to more serenity and freedom?
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18:50 In my meditation practice I do experience on certain days I am busy with quite intense feelings which I usually reject internally and am fighting with it, and then I am not succeeding in meditating. What would you say about that?
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21:08 Do you sometimes experience situations when you keep yourself small?
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24:03 What are your thoughts on the idea of the value of looking or reflecting on the path?
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27:24 When bringing little children into the zendo, when does it get to the point where the disturbance gets to big and I need to interact?
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31:50 There is this saying that every response already exists in us. Do you have any idea how it comes that we are so deluded as humans that we don’t have access to it?
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34:21 I noticed lately that when I travel I become rigid and uptight. Is the response to that tension just to accept it or should I make an effort to change that and relax?
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40: 08 (In reference to what was shared in previous question) Why didn’t you just put the eyedrop in your eye?