Shinzen's Blog

Trigger Practice

2012-02-17T15:56:00.000-05:00

A good sports coach will encourage you to “train smart”. Trigger pratice is a smart way to build mindfulness strength and endurance. It allows you to individually and systematically retrain each of your hot buttons before they get pressed in daily life. Here’s how it works.

In daily life, we frequently encounter situations that trigger thoughts and emotions—sometimes pleasant, sometimes unpleasant; sometimes intense, sometimes subtle. Those thoughts and emotions may, in turn, lead to words and actions—sometimes appropriate (and effective); other times inappropriate (and less effective).

People often report that they don’t get much emotional body sensation or visual thought during periods of formal practice. On the other hand, emotional body sensation and visual thinking are often activated by life situations. But when that happens, we usually have to take care of the objective situation. This requires time and energy. So it may be difficult to systematically cultivate mindfulness and take care of business at the exact same time.

So how can we train ourselves to stay deeply mindful through the whole range of emotions and thoughts that come up in our daily life? One possible answer is Trigger Practice.

During Trigger Practice, you control the (1) type, (2) intensity, and (3) duration of stimulus you’d like to work with. You also control the (4) length of time between exposure to the stimulus. In other words: you have 4 independent variables you can tweak to optimize your training. Moreover, during trigger practice, there’s no actual situation you need to respond to. So you can direct all your energy to working with those triggers in a deeply mindful state. After this training, when things suddently come up in daily life, you’ll find that you automatically go into a mindful response. This will reduce your suffering in unpleasant situations, increase your fulfillment in pleasant situations, and foster more effective behavior in all situations.

The basic structure of Trigger Practice is simple. You expose yourself to a sight, sound, or physical type body sensation that would tend to create a mental and/or emotional reaction within you. The stimulus could create a certain type of pleasant reactions (love, joy, interest…) or a certain type of unpleasant reaction (anger, fear, sadness, shame…). You vary the type, intensity, duration, and spacing of the stimulation so that you’re working against an edge but not overloading yourself (as in weight training).

During and between the simuli, you apply a formal technique. The technique can involve turning toward what’s triggered or it can involve turning away from what’s triggered. There’s something to learn from either strategy. You can turn towards what’s triggered by using one of the techniques from the Focus In family. You can turn away from what’s triggered using Focus Out, Focus on Rest, Focus on Flow, or Nurture Positive.

Most people find listening to sound from the TV/Internet with eyes closed to be the easiest way to do Trigger Practice but there are many other possibilities. You can trigger reactions through sight only (for example, by listening to the TV/Internet with the sound off), or through physical body sensations (for example, the sensations associated with a hot tub, workout, etc.). See what patterns are interesting and productive for you. If you want to really challenge yourself, you can try 2 or even 3 of the physical sense triggers at once (for example, watch and listen to tv).

May you have invigorating and productive work out sessions!

Leonard Cohen on Mt. Baldy

2012-02-15T11:13:00.000-05:00

A student sent me a link to a video made about Leonard Cohen in 1996 when he was living as a monk at Mount Baldy Zen Center. It’s mostly about Leonard but it does show some footage of our mutual teacher Joshu Sasaki Roshi.

Any videos or photos that document the physical appearance of a realized person are important. Roshi's liberation is expressed through his demeanor and body language as well as what he says. If you’re sensitive to such things, you can get “a direct transmission” of his liberation just by really looking and listening. In particular, check out his gaze; he no longer “needs to make an object of self or world.” Also check out the catlike, egoless body language.

Leonard reads a beautiful poem he wrote for Roshi (“Roshi is Tired Today” around 2 minutes in). Another intense high point is Leonard’s poem on terrorists (about 35 minutes in).

On a personal note, years ago when I used to translate for Sasaki Roshi at Mt. Baldy Zen Center, I would sometimes stay in Leonard’s cabin, the one you’ll see in the video.

The Mindful Leader

2012-02-09T17:17:00.001-05:00

Check out the new interview series by my colleague Maria Gonzalez called “Conversations with Mindful Leaders.” The interview she conducted with me is in the January issue of her “Mindful Leadership” newsletter (scroll down about 3/4 way down to the interview). We talk about inspirational people in my life path, the cross-fertilization of science and meditation, and how mindfulness changes lives.

Myoshin (Maria) is founder and President of Argonauta Strategic Alliances Consulting and a long time student and facilitator of the Basic Mindfulness system. Her vision is “to spread mindfulness globally,” chiefly by offering her skills to help organizations and their leaders to apply mindfulness to every aspect of their business, including developing strategy, creating successful strategic alliances and managing the organization.

She challenges people to consider: What will change in your life if you start thinking of yourself as a leader? What if every action becomes your way to lead?

Enjoy!

Shinzen

Life Coach - Death Coach

2012-01-19T14:35:00.000-05:00

Euthanasia in the original Greek did not mean mercy killing. It meant, rather, to have a good death. In the Buddhist tradition, the dying process is looked upon as the premier window of opportunity for liberation. Over the years, I’ve guided many people through the dying process, usually with very positive results. The basic principles for doing this are amazingly simple.

In a recent California retreat, I gave a detailed and systematic formulation for how to die a good death and how to guide others to do the same. As I myself get older, this material seems increasingly poignant and relevant. Hope you find it useful.

Thanks to Stephanie Nash and her Shinzen Interviews YouTube channel for creating and posting this video.

Season’s Greetings from Shinzen

2011-12-31T09:28:00.000-05:00

New Year, New You!

An Advanced Perspective

--The Dharma Wheel by Shinzen Young

Interview with Skeptiko

2011-12-16T15:32:00.000-05:00

I was recently interviewed by Alex Tsakiris for the Skeptiko website. We talked about God, near death experience, and a gazillion other heady topics.

So if you’re up for some hot skeptic-on-skeptic action, check it out!

http://www.skeptiko.com/buddhist-meditation-teacher-shinzen-young-on-god/

Update on Expand-Contract YouTube Channel

2011-12-16T11:34:00.000-05:00

Check out the new features on my Expand-Contract You Tube channel!

Per creator Har-Prakash Khalsa:

“Just wanted to give you-all the heads up on the new face and improved user interface on the expandcontract Shinzen Mindfulness YouTube channel.

Besides the new look there's a key word(s) search in the top right of the page that users can take advantage of (It needs a little fine tuning - but it's now up and running : ).

Shinzen-style "dharma on demand" just got a whole lot more user-friendly - I couldn't be happier!”

From Vipassana to Zen

2011-12-01T08:04:00.002-05:00

I sometimes describe my approach to meditation as “a Burmo-Japanese fusion practice created by an American Jew who got turned on to science by a Roman Catholic priest.”

The Burmo part refers to the 20th century Burmese technique of Noting which was developed by Mahasi Sayadaw. The Japanese part refers to the Expansion-Contraction paradigm of Joshu Sasaki Roshi, who teaches at Mount Baldy Zen Center and other locations. Essentially, I’ve taken the Roshi’s paradigm of expansion and contraction as the nature of consciousness (which he teaches through the intuitive method of koans and mounted it within the systematic framework of Noting.

Whenever possible, I encourage my students to go the Source and study directly with Sasaki Roshi. However, the style of practice in Zen is radically different from, almost diametrically the opposite of, the style of practice in Vipassana (although, when things go well, the results should be similar). In Zen practice, one first learns how to flow with impermanence (expansion and contraction, anicca) through doing—riding on the rhythm of a highly ritualized schedule. After doing impermanence for many years, the Zen practitioner will begin to see that impermanence is also the nature of their sensory experience—both subjective (image, talk, emotional body) and objective (sight, sound, physical body). In Vipassana, the order is reversed: a person first carefully observes the senses, sees their impermanent nature and (hopefully) later learns to express that impermanence dynamically through their energy and actions.

In order to prepare students to make the transition from my relatively laid back Vipassana retreats to Sasaki Roshi’s extremely rigid and intense Rinzai Zen retreats, I prepared a series of talks that I call Zen Prep Talks. If you’re interested, you can listen to them here (or go to www.shinzen.org, click on "For Students", and click on "Zen Prep Talks" at the top of the page).

Recently, a student sent me a link to a video by Tom Davenport called "Bodhidharma's Shoe" that shows how Rinzai Zen practice is done under Sasaki Roshi’s leadership. Perhaps some of you will find it fun and interesting if you’ve never had contact with that tradition. Here’s the link. Enjoy.

By the way, the Roman Catholic priest that turned me on to science was an Irish Jesuit I met in Japan, Father William Johnston.

The Dark Night

2011-11-13T17:27:00.000-05:00

The Dark Night (difficulty integrating the experience of no self) is currently being widely discussed and debated within the Buddhist community. Here’s some thoughts on the issue prompted by a student’s question. All these postings are with the student’s permission. If you and I have had an email exchange that you would like to see posted here, let me know.

On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 6:03 PM, Andrew wrote:

Hey Shinzen,
Hope all is well! I hear you gave an awesome presentation at the Buddhist geeks conference so I'm looking forward to all the footage from that. I just had two questions to run by you. I have been spending some time over at dharma overground reading about their experiences and the four paths model of enlightenment but part of me is getting cautious regarding practice because they imply that dark night is an inevitability for any meditator. In your experience is this true and if so what exactly is dark night and does it make negative emotions etc worse? I can't seem to find any concrete definition that everyone uses. Since one of the primary drives for my practice is getting a handle on mind-body states and improving them I have been a bit confused and put off by the idea that practice could make them more out of control and difficult to deal with. I am obviously still practicing and staying disciplined but I just want to reassure that part of me that is afraid to dive in head first at the moment that this leads to a better place (even though I know it does haha). I want to kick start that enthusiasm again which was so strong a fortnight ago!

Also just a question about the interview you had with Buddhist geeks a few years ago. You mentioned that you are building intelligent software that basically simulates an intricate tailored meditation with you, very exciting! Any more on that project? How is that coming along?

Ok, thanks again for you.
Cheers,

Andrew

On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 10:20 AM, Shinzen Young wrote:

Hi Andrew,

Part of the problem, as you imply, lies in how one chooses to define a "Dark Night" experience. Although I like the term and believe it has some utility, I also sense that its current prevalence in Buddhist dialogue is a mixed blessing. Whenever one uses this term, one should be aware of two things:

(1) Historically it is not a term from the Buddhist meditative tradition but rather from the Roman Catholic meditative tradition. (Of course, there's nothing wrong with using Christian terms for Buddhist experiences but...)

(2) One must clearly define what one means by a "Dark Night" within the context of Buddhist experience.

It is certainly the case that almost everyone who gets anywhere with meditation will pass through periods of negative emotion, confusion, disorientation, and heightened sensitivity to internal and external arisings. It is also not uncommon that at some point, within some domain of experience, for some duration of time, things may get worse before they get better. The same thing can happen in psychotherapy and other growth modalities. For the great majority of people, the nature, intensity, and duration of these kinds of challenges is quite manageable. I would not refer to these types of experiences as "Dark Night."

I would reserve the term for a somewhat rarer phenomenon. This phenomenon, within the Buddhist tradition, is sometimes referred to as "falling into the Pit of the Void." It entails an authentic and irreversible insight into Emptiness and No Self. What makes it problematic is that the person interprets it as a bad trip. Instead of being empowering and fulfilling, the way Buddhist literature claims it will be, it turns into the opposite. In a sense, it's Enlightenment's Evil Twin. This is serious but still manageable through intensive, perhaps daily, guidance under a competent teacher. In some cases it takes months or even years to fully metabolize, but in my experience the results are almost always highly positive. For details, see The Five Ways manual pages 97-98.

This whole Dark Night discussion reminds me of a certain Zen Koan. Although the storyline of this koan is obviously contrived, it does contain a deep message. Here's how the koan goes: A monk is walking on a precipitous path and slips but is able to grab onto a branch by his teeth. A person standing below, recognizing the monk as an enlightened master, asks him to describe Enlightenment. What should the monk do? As a teacher, he's duty bound to speak, but as soon as he speaks, the consequences will be dire. It sounds like a lose/lose situation. If you were the monk, what would you do? That's the koan.

If we don't describe the possibility of Dark Night, then we leave people without a context should it occur. On the other hand, if we do discuss it, people get scared and assume it's going to happen to them, even if we point out (as I just did), that it's relatively infrequent. So the take-home message is:

1. Don't worry, it's probably not going to happen to you.
2. Even if it does, that's not necessarily a problem.

It may require input from a teacher and time but once it's integrated, you'll be a very, very happy camper.

I think it would be a good thing if people lighten up around this issue. This may help (see attached cartoon).

The program that you asked about is coming along very nicely.

All the best,
Shinzen

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 9:30 PM, Andrew wrote:

Hey Shinzen,

Hope all is well! Just a question regarding the dark night issue we spoke about recently. I heard an interview with Dan Ingram on Buddhist geeks and from what I gathered he paints what seems to be quite a dark image of enlightenment actually and as something that most people only pursue if they have to after passing the A&P stage.
He even said that he himself still lives his life in so-called dark night and has these cycles every day of A&P, dark night, equanimity etc and that anyone like him does too. And that he's an Arhant!? Do you think he means the same thing as what you call the pit of the void because the whole point is to be happy right? He claims that everyone who at least follows the dry insight path will experience this. I'm just trying to clarify how everyone's different use of terms coincides. Some teachers seem to portray enlightenment as something really worth pursuing and others almost seem not to! I heard Upasaka Culadasa talking about how the 4 path model is quite a brutal way to get the results and can really mess people up compared to other paths, particularly ones which emphasize shamatha first as the grounds for developing sufficient joy and equanimity before insight. I guess different approaches suit different personalities but is there a more user-friendly method than say the dry insight one?
Forgive my confusion, as you know the way teachings are presented these days are so numerous it can be overwhelming. Naturally I want to read about and understand meditation very deeply as my experience and understanding grows plus it's just absolutely fascinating but it's also easy to run into confusion and even doubt which can halt my super enthusiasm.
Cheers Shinzen,
All the best :)

Andrew

On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 3:12 PM, Shinzen Young wrote:

Hi Andrew,

I sympathize with your confusion. At this point, there is no scientifically-developed, universally-agreed-upon description regarding how people evolve over a lifetime of practice. I am confident that through open dialogue among teachers, practitioners, and scientists, such a map will be developed over the next century or so. But what to do until then? My main suggestion would be to lower your expectation regarding understanding who's right and how things really work, and just put a lot of time and effort into your own practice. Of course, I realize the Catch-22: How can I put time and effort into practice until I know what the "right practice" or "best practice" is? This may not be of much help but in my not very humble opinion all current systems of enlightenment are roughly equally sub-optimal. This, of course, includes all of my own innovations. Both Daniel and Culadasa are right. Daniel is right because being enlightened is being totally dead. And Culadasa is right because being enlightened is being totally alive. It's both at the same time. It is absolute devastation AND absolute empowerment.

Because of the (justifiably) negative language used by some teachers, students like yourself might get the impression that enlightenment isn't any fun. So here's the take-away message: If I was given the choice of living one more day experiencing life the way I experience it, or living 20 more years as a wealthy, healthy, celebrity sexual athlete, beloved by everyone but not experiencing what I experience (vis a vis enlightenment), the decision would be a no-brainer--I'll take the one day of enlightened living. IT'S THAT GOOD, DUDE.

All the best,
Shinzen

Finally, here are some video resources on The Dark Night on my Expand-Contract YouTube Channel, created by (and thanks to!) Har-Prakash Khalsa:

Enlightenment, DP/DR & Falling Into the Pit of the Void

Classic "Dark Night" or Clinical Issues?
Enlightenment "Downsides"
Experiences of the Dissolution (Bhanga) Process - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Dalai Lama Visits Kōyasan University

2011-11-03T12:16:00.005-04:00

The Dalai Lama, right, listens to Japan's Koyasan Shingon Buddhism leader Yukei Matsunaga as the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader gives a lecture with Matsunaga at Koyasan University in Koya, Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. Some 850 people gathered to listen to Dalai Lama who visited the Tantric Buddhist headquarters for the first time since 1980, Japan's Kyodo News said. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

This picture gives me a lot of pleasant sensations.

Matsunaga Sensei was one of my professors when I doing research at Kōyasan University in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. When foreigners would come to Mount Kōya, I would sometimes serve as his interpreter.

Here’s a video with a few things I’ve said about Shingon/Vajrayana.

For more details, check out these wiki articles: