‘I think there is a real question we have. Like “What do I really care about…?” And I think the standing, the physical practice is a great free form way to allow the sincerity of that inquiry to open an internal alchemy. Like, facing that question, really facing it, physically, and it begins to open. And it’s not necesarily that there is an answer, but the physical experiential opening that occurs when we face that most sincere feeling about what we care about, will give us an ability to, in our own way, interact with life. Our way in. We won’t need the information to come second hand. We’ll see that our practice opens when we bring that bottom line. That’s what I do in the standing or sitting. That’s what I’m always talking about in being real. Now at this point, I don’t have a lot of fundamental existential questions. But that same laser beam sincerity can be used to open the body, open up to reality, open into more depth, learn, be a better husband, dad, etc. Once we see that sincerity is a gate that can open life, it opens up a lot of doors. So if you are struggling about how can I connect with practice, I suggest you face your most essential questions, with your whole body, and see if that facing will begin to open doors. In that way we are all on our own. Because we can’t read about someone else’s approach and try to imitate it.’ (from Zen Embodiment)
As regulars will know, I am a big fan of how Corey expresses his practice, and this answer to a question following a recent post was another wonderful articulation of this. It also happened to chime perfectly with a teaching session I was doing right before I read it, which always feels encouraging.
Shundo David Haye 