how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

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master of puppets
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how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by master of puppets »

how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

wondered.


and if you don't mind what are the tips that speed up/quicken the process??
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PadmaVonSamba
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

master of puppets wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:13 pm how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

and if you don't mind what are the tips that speed up/quicken the process??

You gotta be somewhere for an appointment?
:jumping:

As soon as you begin to meditate and are met with distractions, you begin to understand the practice.

Being directly confronted by one’s own mortality will hasten the process, but don’t be in a hurry to do that!

Anyway, keeping a regular practice routine is probably the best thing you can do.
Question what you don’t understand, read sutras, and be deadly honest with yourself.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
reiun
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by reiun »

There is no substitute, in zen, for a student-teacher relationship, particularly for a beginning student who may unknowingly perpetuate mistakes without teacher guidance.
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Matt J
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by Matt J »

The basic practice is fairly easy to understand: pay attention, don't cling.

The problem is mastery.

Things that help speed up: the so-called common preliminaries and meditation retreats.
master of puppets wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:13 pm how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

wondered.


and if you don't mind what are the tips that speed up/quicken the process??
"The world is made of stories, not atoms."
--- Muriel Rukeyser
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Konchog Thogme Jampa
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by Konchog Thogme Jampa »

master of puppets wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:13 pm how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

wondered.


and if you don't mind what are the tips that speed up/quicken the process??
Retreat time helps
jimmi
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by jimmi »

master of puppets wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:13 pm how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

wondered.


and if you don't mind what are the tips that speed up/quicken the process??
Is there a timeline, a process? No.
All that is required is to begin. It doesn’t get any quicker than that.
As a well known zen ancestor (don’t remember his name) said, “Every day is a good day.”
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Konchog Thogme Jampa
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by Konchog Thogme Jampa »

Konchog Thogme Jampa wrote: Thu Dec 01, 2022 12:24 am
master of puppets wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:13 pm how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

wondered.


and if you don't mind what are the tips that speed up/quicken the process??
Retreat time helps
And I should say a good teacher
master of puppets
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by master of puppets »

exact numbers would be definete...

maybe we can divide into two that before understanding the practice and after the process..

I've heard for bodhidarma many years (35-40 if it is true), for buddha 6 years..
Last edited by master of puppets on Thu Dec 01, 2022 9:52 am, edited 2 times in total.
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PadmaVonSamba
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

Looking back over nearly 40 years, I can’t count how many times I thought I had got it.
I anticipate this will occur again in the future, when I look back on today.

I think this is why, even if you ask great masters, they will tell you they don’t know yet.
It’s like being an astronomer… within a couple years of study, you can know everything that is known.
But the more you learn about the universe, the more you realize how little you know of what can be known.
It’s not that full realization is impossible, but simply, until you reach it, you haven’t reached it.
Last edited by Ayu on Thu Jan 05, 2023 7:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Deleted quote of a removed post.
EMPTIFUL.
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jimmi
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by jimmi »

PadmaVonSamba wrote: Thu Dec 01, 2022 4:45 pm
Looking back over nearly 40 years, I can’t count how many times I thought I had got it.
I anticipate this will occur again in the future, when I look back on today.

I think this is why, even if you ask great masters, they will tell you they don’t know yet.
It’s like being an astronomer… within a couple years of study, you can know everything that is known.
But the more you learn about the universe, the more you realize how little you know of what can be known.
It’s not that full realization is impossible, but simply, until you reach it, you haven’t reached it.
I was going to also respond to MaitreyaBuddha in a similar vein to how you have. In fact though both he(?) and the master of puppets are referring to understanding the practice, with a view I am guessing, to having some measurable cost/benefit conclusion. Can the practice be understood? Only if one is satisfied by attempts to contain and confine what is vast and immeasurable. In any case, Dogen stated that practice and realization are one. It seems to me that this would be a useful consideration for the quest.ioner.
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KeithA
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by KeithA »

master of puppets wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:13 pm how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

wondered.


and if you don't mind what are the tips that speed up/quicken the process??
Some will say it is very hard, and takes many lifetimes.

Some will say it just takes an instant.

So, it's probably somewhere in between.

But, if one goes about it with a goal in mind, it will be longer than many lifetimes.


_/|\_
When walking, standing, sitting, lying down, speaking,
being silent, moving, being still.
At all times, in all places, without interruption - what is this?
One mind is infinite kalpas.

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Kris
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by Kris »

There's always more... :meditate:
The profound path of the master.
-- Virūpa, Vajra Lines
jet.urgyen
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by jet.urgyen »

master of puppets wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:13 pm how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

wondered.


and if you don't mind what are the tips that speed up/quicken the process??
it depends on many many factors, to say: is circumstantial.

tips? it depends on the methods you are using, so i don't know what to answer.
true dharma is inexpressible.

The bodhisattva nourishes from bodhicitta, through whatever method the Buddha has given him. Oh joy.
Soma999
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by Soma999 »

Forget everything about time. The only thing important is that you are on the right path. Everything will make more sense step by step. We are not in a rush. This is not office work. Do your best and don’t focus so much on the results. If you do what is good and follow good guidance, everything will make sense.
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by reiun »

master of puppets wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:13 pm how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

wondered.


and if you don't mind what are the tips that speed up/quicken the process??
jet.urgyen wrote:
it depends on many many factors, to say: is circumstantial.

tips? it depends on the methods you are using, so i don't know what to answer.
Soma999 wrote: If you do what is good and follow good guidance, everything will make sense.
Probably the current methods, if any, do not include zazen, plus no Turkish teacher to give good guidance. Just mulling zen quotes, e.g. ten bulls, bodhidharma, etc., which, certainly, are all worthwhile.

A method you might be able to use is to act with compassion. This method is characteristic of the intermediate stage of being a zen student. The main "tip" is: open your heart. For one hour. For one day. As best you can. It is a befitting Buddhist practice that benefits all beings.

Suggest starting with the complicated relationship you have described with your father.
master of puppets
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by master of puppets »

reiun wrote: Sat Dec 03, 2022 9:36 pm
master of puppets wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:13 pm how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

wondered.


and if you don't mind what are the tips that speed up/quicken the process??
jet.urgyen wrote:
it depends on many many factors, to say: is circumstantial.

tips? it depends on the methods you are using, so i don't know what to answer.
Soma999 wrote: If you do what is good and follow good guidance, everything will make sense.
Probably the current methods, if any, do not include zazen, plus no Turkish teacher to give good guidance. Just mulling zen quotes, e.g. ten bulls, bodhidharma, etc., which, certainly, are all worthwhile.

A method you might be able to use is to act with compassion. This method is characteristic of the intermediate stage of being a zen student. The main "tip" is: open your heart. For one hour. For one day. As best you can. It is a befitting Buddhist practice that benefits all beings.

Suggest starting with the complicated relationship you have described with your father.
Thank you. father start medical treatment mostly sleepy
reiun
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by reiun »

Best wishes for your father's health and your challenge to help it.
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by Kai lord »

master of puppets wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:13 pm how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

wondered.


and if you don't mind what are the tips that speed up/quicken the process??
The understanding part never really stops because learning never stops.

Remember more haste less speed
Life is like a game, either you win or lose!
Life is like a fight, either you live or die!
Life is like a show, either you laugh or cry!
Life is like a dream, either you know or not!!!
master of puppets
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by master of puppets »

Soma999 wrote: Sat Dec 03, 2022 6:08 pm If you do what is good and follow good guidance, everything will make sense.
Thanks. make sense
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Re: how many years does it take you to understand the practice?

Post by seeker242 »

20,000 years. :smile:
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