Bodhizendo :)

With a Zen Master at the crossroad of Christian, Hindu and Japanese Buddhism influences, this place allows me to enter gently into Zen practice, without having to absorb a whole cultural shock. The essence of Zen (as much as I can tell, which is not much) guides us, but the rigorous discipline of zen monasteries is not enforced here: we have a lot of freedom to go at our own pace, the service is only 90 mins a day, there is even a washing machine for clothes! We get lovely Western bread morning and night, and simple South Indian food for lunch. And the zen wooden 'stick' is only used as a decoration...

Unlike last year staying at Sivananda Ashram , quite likely thanks to the bread, I don't have too many meditations filled with Western food thoughts... Letting go?
It takes me a couple of days to settle in a sitting position that suits me, but once this is done, my body is rather well behaved, “just” my mind to deal with...
We sit for 3 hours throughout the day. The “breathing space” that we have during the rest of the day, as well as the opportunity to discuss my practice with the master during Dokusan in the morning, allow me not to get stuck for too long in one mindset and to re-focus on the purpose of sitting in zazen – which is having no purpose, letting our thoughts come and go and being there here and now...
Do not try, just be...
[zen is more complex and more deep but has also that simplicity]
Of course, most of the time, everything is a lot more blurry in my mind and I don't feel I went anywhere deep during these four weeks, staying at the surface, and yet something shifted within.

The interaction with friendly fellow meditators is part of the process to grow and heal: non-judging ears to share key thoughts with, avoiding the full loops my mind was getting into during Vipassana last year; interaction between real, imperfect people, at a slower pace than normal life to practice tolerance of our own faults and others' – which are the same since we are all one (!). Another zen practice connect with void/empty myself to give space for others to just be others, instead of clinging to my opinions. tricky one for me!


Oh well, now back to the Market Place (aka the world) and real India, we will see if I've learned anything! :)

First stop is at Nisha and Raghu's Organic Farm near Coimbatore, where I just stayed a couple of days. I've now just arrived in Tiruvanamalai, and I'm staying near Sri Ramana Maharsi ashram.

Love,
Caroline