I am Suja, I’m German living in France.
I’m a Zenways member since about one year now, but I was practicing Zen in different places and schools before.
I do love sessins ! Being able to practice silent sitting for several days in a row is very precious to me. I have a very jumpy, active mind and I need a lot of time to concentrate and let it calm down.
The koan, Daizan told us about, was: “The Dragon roars in the withered tree”.
November, the withered tree, the falling leaves, letting go….
And then there were these three pictures in the front of the meditation hall: to the left, we had a waterfall, in the middle Kanon standing/riding on a frightening dragon and to the right a dragon staff .
Daizan told us that the waterfall, the “letting go” , and the rising energy of life, symbolized by the dragon staff are linked together.
So the first days we would practice the letting go. Breathing into the Hara, then inhaling from the top of the head, down the front of the body into the belly and exhaling also from the top of the head down into the belly. This was completing new for me, but helped me a lot.
Later on, Daizan proposed to inhale up the back and exhale down in front of the body. And even some days later, he would propose to inhale up the spine exhale down the spine. I did follow all these exercises as much as I could, and they were really precious to me.
The ” dragon” had different meanings : On one hand, the word dragon designed all the difficult experiences and feelings we might have had during our life, specially during early childhood. For me, for example it was the feeling of loneliness and the strong wish to be appreciated by my father.
On the other hand, the dragon designs the wonderful strong energy of life that we are.
The Dragon in the old tales clings to the treasure. In the same way, I’m clinging to these old harmful experiences. The energy – like the dragon – is coiled around these experiences that I identify with.
So the practice during the sessin was to look at the harmful feelings that would arise with kind compassion , let them be there – just be with it.
This allows the energy to flow freely. The dragon can fly! It worked , I experienced a lot of energy, heat and openness.
I am very grateful to Daizan for guiding us the way he does and I’m very much looking forward to the next sessin!
The Nightingale Centre was very nice, the people very supportive and kind, the food was nice, the Dojo was nice, the heating was absolutely awful, making noise and blowing hot wind on the heads of everybody, the landscape and the surroundings are gorgeous, the assistants, Riccardo and April we’re so helpful and the whole group was just marvelous.
Riccardo asked me to describe the session in three words, so I try:
Power, Kindness, Joy