[0:09]Um, in regards to practice and its efficacy, at times that I have been able to keep keep a consistent practice, I definitely see the benefits. Um, I do find that it is difficult still to maintain. Sure. So, I wonder if there is, I guess there's probably not any right way of going about establishing a set practice, but at times where I guess you find yourself kind of falling off, what are ways to either keep yourself dedicated or are those times where you need to question if you're perhaps doing it the way that is easiest to sustain for yourself? Sure. Good question. So I'm going to come back with another question to you, okay.
[1:34]I'm excited. All right, practice, John practice, Zen practice is not defined to any physical form. That's the number one thing we should know. Practice, happens at the junctures of life. So you have to reorient yourself about what practice is. The junctures of life refers to many things. On a broad level, when we encounter difficulties, when um, our mind is not at ease, or it could mean the junctures, life, our being, full of sense faculties, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, where these senses meet its objects. So sight, sound, right, taste, touch, thought. So sense faculty, sense object, corresponding sense object giving rise to, you know, different moments of awareness. That's where practice is. Thank you. Yeah. I'm not finished with it. Okay. So if we redefine practice, if we try to sustain because our life is just ups and downs. Right? There are different rhythm or our body, different external conditions, if we fix it to a particular posture or particular set of things that we have to do, and it becomes obligation and then, we're not going to be able to sustain it. Period. Unless the external environment is so perfect, and your physical good conditions are so perfect that you know, we we can do certain kind of physical ritualistic practices. You know, that kind of practice is important to for some purpose. But I want all of you to to understand practice broadly. Right? So just remember, practice occurs at the junctures. And this is extremely important. The junctures of life of experiencing. Sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, thought. Now I have to define what do you mean by practice then? That's the location. That's the circumstances. So what do I mean by practice? Giving rise to greed, hatred, ignorance, the poisons of the mind, and all the subsidiary vexations, jealousy, arrogance, that's not practice. So now it becomes clear. At the junctures of life, we are free from the poisons of the mind, habit tendencies, ruminations, discriminations that contaminate the precious moment of here experiencing.
[5:48]Right? We can even bring it up a notch. So instead of greed, at those junctures of life, we cultivate consciously generosity. There's all kinds of creative ways to to practice. Right? So usually when we encounter people and things, our habit tendencies is, and you really have to observe this. Our habit tendencies is, what do I get out of it? I'm going to help this person. Am I going to get recognized? Or what was it benefit? Is it benefit me? Why I need this for myself?
[6:46]Right? So you counteract this kind of tendency of craving, greed, possessiveness, control. So at the junctures of life, generosity. Practice one thing is generosity. Patience. You know, Buddhism has so many list of things. Diligence. Loving kindness, right speech. Right? Then your practice will pervade every aspect of your life. And then our motivation for sitting practice, formal practice of coming to the center, because we begin to derive power from our life, from our practice. This power comes from being free from vexations. Then we'll definitely will be begin will be able to maintain sitting practice daily life. We do it reverse. You don't try to make it into obligation to sit, come to the center. I'm not saying you shouldn't come to the center. You should definitely come to the center. Right? Um, but life, life is practice. Now if you say life is practice, it's too general. Like most likely you'll forget. Right? It's too vague. Life is an abstraction. It's a concept, it's a word. It doesn't really mean anything. So something bring it down a notch, something concrete, the junctures of life. The junctures, the meeting point of my senses. Then, it becomes very concrete. Right? So when you're sitting, the meeting points of the embodied experiencing of the sense of weight on the seat. Your posture, like a pyramid. Your body is able to fully relax.
[10:40]and feel grounded to earth. So this is so the body start to affect the mental state. Does that make sense? So this is a physiological component, why we do certain things, but that's just a physical aspect. If we broaden our understanding of practice, to junctures of life, meeting points, then uh, everywhere we go, the opportunities, every obstructions becomes opportunities. Every difficulty becomes creative response. You know, we rely back on the old pattern where we responding to things or tap into the resourcefulness of how we can free ourselves. So we don't, we're not locked in your box or containers. Automatic response. We're free. Another way to practice,
[11:50]tell my students, one minute John, Zen. Have you heard of it? Okay. Pick five minutes, one minute each, five occasions. Same flight of stairs, every time you brush your teeth, first bite of your lunch, 2:00, washing dishes, whatever. In those occasions, you can't forget, you got to build discipline. That's part of the practice. Every time you see the flight of stairs, that same path to the bus stop or drive, or whatever. Just the first moment, not the whole duration, is too hard to to begin like that. So just the first moment, you use the principle of sitting meditation. Relax. Like the time keeper has guided us. Progressive relaxation. Ground. And then engage. Brushing teeth. First fight of lunch. Same walk. Just the first moment. So you have laid out throughout the day, five occasions. If you practice that for three months, you will build up stamina in your practice. You will build up the stamina of your mindfulness, the power of your mindfulness, integrated into what you're doing in your life.
[13:35]You know? That's practice. I guarantee you'll begin sitting meditation daily. You know, reversely, you know the efficacy, the efficacy and the power of practice. And if you build that discipline, that practice not confined to postures, then right off the bat, you begin your John Zen journey, not confined to forms. Right? That's practice. It's so important. So important. You know? Uh, so these are two ways. Junctures of life, free yourself on vexations. And then structurally, five, one minute John Zen every day. It's a long answer to your question, but useful, right? Yeah. Yeah. Very useful. You know, I get guarantee those one minute, something's going to go wrong, definitely. You're doing your pass, someone steps on you, and it's great. It's great. You have your routine, the one minute, you buy your lunch. I didn't ask for mustard. Ah this is the wrong sandwich. Someone you order it, something will go wrong. That's life. Those are great occasion because the context through which you experience that something going wrong, it's framed in practice, and then something goes wrong in that framing. Mindfulness. Your whole response will be exposed. And that is, you know, very important. So we understand our interior life, what's actually going on. You know?
