Lost Coin Talk - 11/17/2009

We will be taking the week of Thanksgiving off.  No class or sitting that week.

Tawni will be managing content on the blog.  Doen would like for members to sign up to post content to the block, as we are doing for note taking.  The content of the post should be about something that we're currently discussing, or it could be about something that has been meaningful to you in the past, but try to tie it to the Lost Coin agenda.  Don't go too far afield.

Doen began his talk with the subject of "time".  When we think of unpleasant or unwanted things, we think "that's going to happen, but not now".  But, this is not realistic.  When things happen, it's always "now".  Thinking that something is not happening "now" is a thought that you are having "now".  Now is always now.  Because of our reluctance to accept "now", we tend to treat our life like it is a story. But in your life, every part is "now".  There no story -- things don't resolve like they do in television or the movies.  You can only be happy in the now.  If you want to practice and be realistic, then practice as if life is a series of "nows".

To illustrate his point, Doen brought up the book "Little Women".  He joked that male movies are about killing everyone and female movies are about becoming a writer.  But life is not a movie and doesn't end that way.  Movies are a made-up thing.  Life is not made-up and doesn't end like a movie.  You are not going to win in life, but you don't *have* to win.  There's not a war going on, nor an auction.  Doen asks us, "What is life without a story?"

Next, Doen discussed what it means to commit to practice.  It means committing to the male version, the female version, and the third version.  In the male version, the way you "win" in practice is to become a great warrior.  Who you are is more important than circumstances in the story.  Life cannot take who you are away from you.  In the female version of practice, if you decide that you want to become a great artist, then you do that.  Whether you become famous or not is the Hollywood version.  The difference in practice is the difference between you and yourself.  It's your own standard of excellence, your own standard of mastery.  When we talk about a Zen "master", we're not talking about someone who is a master over others, but rather who is a master (to some degree) over themselves.  They are masters over their own fear, their own negativity, their own story.

When you commit 100% to practice, you have no way to fail.  This 100% commitment will make you happy.  Doen is considering *not* calling Lost Coin monks "monks".  Instead, he is considering calling them "adepts", because that is really what they are -- they are committing to their growth.  You don't have to be a monk to do this.  Previously, that's what monks *used* to be.

As we go through the transition of Doen's move to SF, we are relied upon to commit ourselves more, without Doen being around as much.  Doen feels that we should be able to do this, because *very* few people have access to their teacher every week.  We need to support our own practice.  As far as using Doen as a teacher, think carefully about what he says.

Good teachers teach -- there's not some other agenda there.  They can be inaccurate, they may have sexual relationships with their students, they may be driven by making money.  All of these are possible (although perhaps not desirable), but they are not what makes a teacher good or bad.  Bad teachers have an emotional agenda with you.  Not something as simple as you liking them or vice versa, but rather that they are on a power trip.  Or, that they are insecure enough that, without your validation, they do not feel good about themselves.  Those things are dangerous.

So, when Doen tells us something, take him seriously.  Never think that he is against you.  We can irritate Doen, but don't think that he is against you.  Doen does not irritate easily anyway.  Apply the things he tells us to our own practice.

Doen told a Sufi story of someone who visited a famous Sufi teacher.  The person asked a lot of questions, but she (the Sufi teacher) did not answer the questions.  She said that she had placed a message under a rock, fifteen feet from her door, for folks like the questioner.  So, when the questioner left, he/she was to find the rock and look underneath.  So this person left and found the rock.  Underneath was the following message:  "Stop trying to find out more and more stuff from me.  Use what you already know."  

On a personal note, Doen said that he is available to us and we should not be shy of him.  Because he is our teacher, we may feel that he is more likely to be rejective (than someone else) or that we won't meet up to his standards.  However, the opposite is true.  We are *more* likely to meet his standards and he is *less* likely to be rejective of us.  So, take a chance and make contact.    

