LILI LAURITANO GRADY | Zen Wisdom

It is important to have a regular sitting schedule. But practice does not end when you get up from the cushion. or vexations might interrupt your practice. To practice well on your own takes great will power.

In regard to short-term vs. long-term practice, results and progress will depend on your level of experience, your karma, and causes and conditions. Practicing for a long time does not guarantee more enduring experiences, just as practicing for a short time does not preclude having an experience. So long as you practice, that is good. Focus all your energies on the present sitting. If you can maintain this attitude every time you meditate, you will make progress.

I always stress the importance of daily practice. It is important to have a regular sitting schedule. But practice does not end when you get up from the cushion. You should be mindful in all situations. Whether you are doing something you like or dislike, whether it is to your advantage or disadvantage, you don’t put yourself at center stage. Put aside self-centeredness; cultivate compassion. Be helpful to others in everything you do; this will help decrease self-centeredness. Most importantly: Whenever you do something, just do it with focused awareness. Do not be lazy and allow your mind to wander. This is daily practice. This is mindfulness.

For most people, this type of lifestyle is impossible. In order to practice in this way, it is important to meditate every day, and to periodically attend more intensive retreats.

Most householders cannot practice steadily and energetically for a long time because of responsibilities and obligations. However, if you are single, and have a flexible job, you can devote yourself to long-term practice ─ one or more years. In most cases, such people live in monasteries or retreat centers, where the environment is conducive to practice. Many householders do so on a temporary basis. They practice intensely, leave to work a while, and afterward return to practice. Although beneficial, this is not genuine long-term practice. The best way is to live in a monastery or center and practice continuously for several years.

Until now I have been talking about lay practitioners. The correct attitude of a home-leaver is fundamentally different from that of a householder. In taking vows, monks and nuns should leave behind self-centeredness and devote all their time and effort to the practice of Buddhadharma. Home-leavers do not have a family, a home, a career, or possessions. They have no worldly responsibilities and obligations. The true meaning of leaving home is to leave everything behind ─ intellect, emotions, ego, desire, body and mind. In effect, abandoning everything except the vows and Buddhadharma.

Many people say that the Ch’an Center belongs to me ─ Shih-fu Sheng-yen. They are mistaken. I live here and work here, but it is not my place. Nor does it belong to the monks and nuns who live here. A person who has left home has nothing. If a monk or nun thinks, “This is my home, ” he or she should immediately remember what it means to have left home. People who have truly left home have nothing except practice; no cares, no worries, no goals. To an outsider, it may seem that they are working and acting like lay people, but to monastics, everything is practice. It would be difficult for householders to have this kind of attitude.

STUDENT:
I have to disagree with you, Shih-fu. Sure, monks and nuns take vows and leave home, but that is a ritual, and it is purely an intellectual conception. Most monks and nuns are pretty much the same as lay practitioners. I see the monks who live and work here. They have responsibilities just as I do. In fact, it seems they have more responsibilities and work than I do. They have bills to pay, legal matters to deal with, visitors to greet and take care of, and a very hectic social schedule. It seems that they have replaced one home with another.

On the other hand, why can’t I, as a lay practitioner, have the attitude of a monk or nun? Yes, I must go to work and earn money, but it is something I must do to survive. But in all things I do, whether it be work or being with my family, I try to see it as practice. I try to be mindful in all that I do. I try to live by the precepts and put Buddhist principles into practice. If some lay practitioners have this attitude, why should they be any different from monastics?

SHIH-FU:
The difference is that the responsibilities of home-leavers are just responsibilities, and nothing more. Monastics should not be emotionally involved with and attached to what they do. Let me rephrase that. Monks and nuns should not be emotionally attached to anything, and they live in an environment with rules that constantly remind them of that. On the other hand, most householders cannot help but be emotionally attached to their families, their work, their possessions. But, if you can practice with the attitude of a home-leaver, and detach yourself from things, then you are correct, there would be no difference. A fine example is Layman P’ang, who was a highly-attained lay practitioner of the Tang dynasty.

Monastics should be able to leave behind their worldly selves. This does not happen instantly. They do not take the vows, shave their heads, put on robes, and immediately master such an attitude. It is a gradual, life-long process. One cannot win or inherit such an attitude. One must cultivate it.

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