I am feeling a bit under the weather today, so it is a good time to talk about Zazen while sick …
When you cough, just cough. Cough as the only cough in that moment, a perfect cough … cough cough cough. Vomit vomit vomit. It is the whole universe vomiting in that instant.
If you cannot get up out of bed, then just sit in bed. If you cannot sit in the Lotus Posture because your head is swimming and feverish, then just curl up like a ball under the sheets. If you fade in and out of sleep … snore snore snore. Moan moan moan.
It is all Zazen, all perfectly what it is.
Sometimes, Zen Masters when sick, would have someone help them into the Lotus Posture. When that can be done, it is perfect. Other times, when they could not, they would just recline. That is perfect too. Here is how the Buddha was when really sick (food poisoning in this case … his last earthly meal ever in fact) … Poor guy, he really looks sick, and his color is not so good.
TSUKUBA SHOUT OUT: To Dr. Makoto Kobayashi, Professor Emeritus and former Director of Tsukuba’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (that’s the particle collider down the road from Treeleaf Japan … we visited there a few weeks ago http://treeleafzen.blogspot.com/2008/08/it-long-with-jundo-insta-zazen-at-speed.html ). He won the Nobel Prize in Physics this year, with some other fellows! http://www.kek.jp/intra-e/press/2008/NobelKobayashi.html. Everyone in Tsukuba is thrilled! Both the folks at the particle collider, and we at Treeleaf, are engaged in important research on the nature of reality … just from slightly different perspectives!
Press on arrow for ‘play’
NOTE: IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE TO SEE THE SCREEN OR START BUTTON,
PLEASE UPDATE FLASH. SEE HERE
Read Previous Post