They Beat Us - Zen retreat, part 1

They beat us. Those Zen bitches beat us with a fucking stick!! The monitors walk behind us and literally whack us on our shoulders while we are trying to meditate.

Ok, while entirely true, it doesn't really explain what's happening. We generally do 3 half hour seated meditations interspersed with 2 walking meditations at each session. Many times by the middle of the second half hour you are sleepy (a form of resistance, I am told). It's around this time that one of the monitors walks ever so slowly behind the meditators, sometimes sliding his feet so you may know he is approaching. In his hands he carries an "encouraging stick" or kyosaku. If you choose, and only if you choose, you place your hands together (as though in prayer) as the monitor comes towards you. This indicates to him that you wish to get hit. I have done this several times to help jolt me awake. As you sense him directly behind (and above) you, you both bow. Then you tilt your head exposing your neck and shoulder. He may move the collar of your shirt or robe to cover your bare skin. Then he hits you. Hard. You repeat this on the opposite side. After you have been good and truly beaten, you put your hands together again and bow indicating your gratitude.

[note: As I was hand writing this entry on a piece of paper (no computers allowed) while still at the retreat, the Shuso, who was the main guy running the entire event, walked by me. As he had been one of the wielders of the kyosaku, I told him that I was at that very moment writing about him and, did he wish to read my entry? He gave me a very stern lecture about this being a silent retreat where talking, reading and writing were inappropriate, and no he would not read it, and in fact if I must continue writing, I should do in the privacy of my lonely monk's cell where I couldn't infect the virtuous minds of the more pious practitioners with my mutinous activities. As he began to walk away, the just and righteous shuso turned back to me, and said in a conpirital whisper, "Could you write down the Blog address for me?"]

The significance of this beating is similar to that of Manjusri's sword, which is said to cut off all dilussions. In fact, one time while I was not sleepy but extremely alert and very much Zen'd out I asked to be struck. At the moment of being hit, I actually felt as though, for just a spit second, I got it. For that spit second of time, I actually understood what Zen and meditation really is. At that moment I had no past and I had no future. Only the present moment. And the present was perfect in every way. This lesson was affirmed in a way that I would never have imagined just 2 short days later with an event that would change the lives of everyone sitting at this retreat forever. Stay tuned, readers.