In the past, the practice has emphasized the absolute: “awakening” or enlightenment as the raison d’etre of development. This is a wonderful basis from which to proceed and I greatly appreciate the efforts the Ancestors made to clarify this fundamental aspect of the practice. At the same time, as we practice in Lost Coin today, we can contribute to this tradition by addressing the integration of the absolute and the relative through the activity of endless learning.
This endless learning consists of becoming “objective” towards oneself and clearly seeing the cause and effect of our actions in our life. It also consists of an ongoing curiosity, openness and learning about the relative: the world and ourselves. Much of this kind of learning is done with a teacher and is often the most difficult part for students. Many students are very happy to sit and work through the koan system and yet be “snoring” on another level. In my own desire to grow and learn, I have gone again and again to teachers and yes, it has been difficult, but I have always learned from my experience with them.
At present, I am lucky enough to be studying chess with International Master, world famous coach and distinguished author, Jeremy Silman. In the process, we have also become friends. I have learned so much when I can be open to both his criticisms and his affirmations. An important thing I have learned is something he calls “the will to win” which I have sometimes lacked.
Looking into this aspect of my chess game, and myself, makes me dig deeply into what I really want, what I am really doing and how unconsciously and mechanically I can sometimes manifest. Jeremy goes over my losing games and shows me my shortcomings. On the other hand, Jeremy has been very supportive of my endeavors, particularly my writing, and because I have a relationship with him which is not just a friendship but a teaching relationship, his affirmations are strongly empowering.
Putting oneself in this open and dangerous territory in which you empower another human being and trust them with your development is truly the hard practice, the hard way. photo credit: nestor galina
I have been looking at a number of interesting blogs that deal with personal development. I think there is a great deal of valuable information out there. However an important element, sometimes missing is addressing the nature of our minds. How the mind works unconsciously and mechanically and how we can actually train our minds to understand and do so much more. Adding this meta-element – observation and training – changes the whole thing. We have understood this in music, athletics, chess, business and many other fields. Are we ready to start work on breaking the walls rather than decorating them with ideas, default behavioral patterns and beliefs.
We can look at is as a new age. The one after the age of information – the age of amplification. With information and amplification combined the limits expand exponentially.
Tokusan and his development as told through the stories and koans of Buddhism. This series on Tokusan began with three video clips from a previous class. (Part 1, Parts 2 & 3)
Part 4
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tTVODvJLBg
Part 5
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnvQwonR-3A
Part 6
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppXGYS6hVUI
The Lost Coin Blog is almost 3 months old. So far we have established our goals and identity by posting talks and videos. We’ve noticed a steady increase in traffic, subscriptions, and video views from all over the world. Thank you to all who have taken time to view posts and subscribe to this blog; we appreciate your support.
It is our hope to establish a broader culture. We will be doing more collaborative posts as well as including other aspects of Lost Coin’s shared interests. To that end we will be presenting things of interest from other sources as well as our own members and hope to utilize the Internet to the fullest of its emerging abilities.
We are interested in collaboration, exchange, we invite your input and participation. In essence you might say we are creating a culture, one that is broad, contemporary, and open. We invite all those interested in the development of spirituality, science, art, and business to be part of our emerging culture.
photo credit: nestor galina
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