Lost Coin Notes SLC 9-6-2011

Announcement/reminder: retreat registration is closing; please get in touch with Rebecca ASAP if you plan to attend.

Doen: Sitting is very important.  The essence of sitting is the door to the practice, which is no thought or non-thought.  Without understanding non-thought you can’t understand the practice.  

The practice has three parts: sitting, working with Doen, and study.  All work together.

When you work on a koan you work on it without thought.  If you work on a koan with thought, your thoughts want to do the koan with thoughts.  

Koan: When the tree withers ad the leaves fall, what then?
Answer: Body exposed in the golden wind.

As a koan you experience it.  With words you can only talk about it.  All life is the golden wind.  All of everything is a golden wind. 

The only way to grasp is to be the golden wind.

Please sit with being one with your life and be the golden wind.

S:	I’m attached to my thoughts, and trying to think on purpose (positive thinking.) Is it ever ok to linger on anything really good?  For example, I had a really great day and kept thinking about it and reliving it.  
D:	You won’t be able to stay in the realm of non-thought.  Try to be there 5% of the time. That will be a great improvement.  Think of a really great book that has all of the answers to life.  You can’t read it all of the time.  Reading 30 minutes a day would be good.  This is how you incorporate your practice into your life.  
The process of non-thought has a very beneficial effect on thought.  Non-thought influences thought to be more logical, more pristine.  

S:	I’m having a hard time with negative thought.  I have a lot of judgment against having negative thought. 
D:	Prejudice against negative emotion just means that you’re blocking negative emotion. 
Empty space separates emotions, and helps you to see.  We each have our way of being, our chief feature.  Don’t judge or dislike those parts that are viewed as negative.  These are great learning tools.
Develop the mind to the practice.  Nothing is a problem anymore, They are just challenges.  Think of the movie The Matrix, just wake up from what you think is reality.  
Sit everyday. Talk to Doen, he’s trained to see things differently.