Navigation bar
  Print Start Previous page
 5 of 71 
Next page End 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10  

5
Student: I am concerned that if I sit a retreat, I will become so bored that I won’t be able to
finish it. I find sitting for half an hour boring.
Jinmyo osho: States of boredom need to be opened just as any other state we experience needs to
be opened. Boredom may appear to be dull, flat and empty, but in actual fact, the state is very
animated. Any state that can appear to be that dense obviously has a lot of energy to it.
Otherwise, it would not manifest with such density. 
Where does the energy come from to generate such a dense state? --- From the energies
of bodymind. This is the energy of bodymind, contracted and held in place by an arrangement of
attention. If you practice with the states you don’t like, such as boredom, dullness, lethargy and
torpor, you can open the energy of them and that energy can become useful to your life as a
whole. Sit with them and learn to practice with them. Let the boredom come up, but open around
it by opening attention to the sensations of the breath, the tanden, the rest of bodily sensation,
your seeing and hearing. The state is not the only thing going on. In fact, it is the smallest part of
your experiencing. 
Never cut a retreat short just because a state comes up that you do not like. States do not
spring up from the zafu because we are sitting. The states we experience while sitting are the
same states that come up for us the rest of the time. If we do not learn to practice with them while
sitting in optimal conditions, with little distraction, how will we be able to learn to practice with
them when they come up the rest of the time? 
A comment Roshi once made in reply to a question I once asked him about boredom
when I first began practising was, “If you find you boring, how do you think other people
experience you? 
Student: I find that I often fall asleep while sitting and am concerned that I will do so during a
retreat. I would find it very embarrassing if this were to happen while I was sitting with other
students. 
Jinmyo osho: Practice with the embarrassment. Open around it. Students do fall asleep, space out,
get lost in thought and so forth while sitting a retreat. If you fall asleep, notice what you can of
what actually takes place as you make the transition between the waking state and the sleeping
state. At the moment that you wake up from having been asleep, immediately re-initiate your
practice and notice what you can of what it is like to wake up. 
Bodymind has cycles that change approximately every 18 to 22 minutes and these cycles
are going on all day, every day, whether we are sitting or not. They influence what we will do or
won’t do, how we will respond to the people around us. 
During a half-hour of sitting, at some point during the round, all depending on where you
were within a cycle when you began sitting, you will experience a shift of attention. The shift can
take the form of ‘sinking mind’ (states of dullness or torpor), sleepiness, discursiveness or
restlessness, to name a few. We sit in half hour rounds because this is considered the optimal
length of time to sit. It allows us to experience the change in cycle and accompanying shift of
attention and continue to practice through it by opening attention around it. If we learn to practice
with these states when they come up while sitting, we can learn to practice them the rest of the
time, when we are at work, or anywhere else. 
So if you find that 20 minutes or so into your sitting round you are falling asleep, this is
not a bad thing, something to feel embarrassed about. It is occurring because of a shift of
attention. Just do your best to practice with it. Don’t end your sitting round, and don’t fidget to try
to keep yourself awake. Just sit and if you fall asleep, notice what you can of what that is like. 
Student: What is the difference between a retreat and a sesshin or an O-sesshin?