Hardcore Full Lotus training in Japan

[voidisyinyang]

http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Sleep-Sit-Japans-Rigorous/dp/4770030754

 

Eat Sleep Sit: My Year at Japan's Most Rigorous Zen Temple, Kaoru Nonomura – John Einarsen

 

 

At the age of thirty, Kaoru Nonomura left his family, his girlfriend, and his job as a designer to undertake a year of ascetic training at Eiheiji, one of the most rigorous Zen training temples in Japan. This book is Nonomura's account of his experiences. He skillfully describes every aspect of training, including how to meditate, how to eat, how to wash, and even how to use the toilet, in a way that is easy to understand even for readers with no knowledge of Zen Buddhism. This first-person account also describes Nonomura's struggles in the face of beatings, hunger, exhaustion, fear, and loneliness, the comfort he draws from his friendships with the other trainees, and his quiet determination to give his life spiritual meaning.

 

After writing Eat Sleep Sit, Kaoru Nonomura returned to his normal life as a designer, but his book has maintained its popularity in Japan, selling more than 100,000 copies since its first printing in 1996. Beautifully written, and a fascinating insight into a lifestyle of hardships that few people could endure, this is a book that will appeal to all those with an interest in Zen Buddhism and to anyone with an interest in the quest for spiritual growth.

 

About the Author

 

Born in 1959, Nonomura traveled widely in China and Tibet as a young man. He worked as a designer before his year at Eiheiji. After his year there, he returned to his design job, and it was on the daily crowded train commute to work that he began to scribble his recollections of his Eiheiji experience, and these scribblings eventually became Eat Sleep Sit, the author's only book.

 

 

Designed to strip the recruits of their egos and concepts of self, the training subjected Nonomura, who as a monk received the name of Rosan, to beatings, kicks, and abuse, to long days beginning at 1:30 a.m. and ending at 10:00 p.m., to extensive periods of sitting in the painful full lotus position, to endless chores and studies of Zen texts, and to rigorous procedures covering every aspect of the day from eating, walking, and sleeping, to folding one's clothes, washing one's face, and going to the toilet.

 

 

"[W]hy, in order to remove the ego, is it necessary to sit with legs folded, facing the wall? Why this form and no other? I doubt whether anyone could put the answer into words. Only in sitting for oneself, and persisting in sitting to the very end, does the answer come welling up in one's blood and bones. .... Devoting oneself to sitting, getting used to sitting, and conquering the pain of sitting are all equally pointless. The only point of sitting is to accept unconditionally each moment as it occurs. This is the lesson of 'just sitting' that I had absorbed after one year." (pp. 291-92)

 

"Do not eat from the center of the bowl. Do not seek extra vegetables or rice unless you are ill. Do not cover up the vegetables with rice in order to obtain more. Do not look into your neighbor's bowls or compare portion sizes.

 

Pour all your physical and mental strength in the act of eating. Do not roll the rice into a big ball. Do not fill your mouth with a large amount of rice at once. Do not eat spilled grains of rice. Do not chew noisily. Do not slurp. Do not lick anything." (p. 99)

 

 

Stand wrong at the entrance, expect to be hit in the face and knocked down a hill. Sit wrong, expect to get slugged. Meet the eyes of an elder -- expect physical blows. One person can't sit full lotus because he broke his leg in the past (1/2 lotus is acceptable most places) -- the monks tell him it's OK - they'll tie him in full lotus the next day. (This reminds me of the story a zen monk told me once about someone setting a small refrigerator on his legs to force them into the correct position). I guess how you sit really is important to them. And they sit for hours and hours and hours every day.

 

The new recruits stand out in the freezing rain. They are screamed at. They are beaten. Kicked. Starved. They are ordered to memorize long, complicated sequences of movements and are hit if they fail. If they make the smallest mistakes their food is removed. They get only the bare minimum of food to begin with. Several students end up at the hospital for stretches of time before returning for more abuse.

Edited May 6, 2010 by drewhempel

[3L3VAT3]

yea, if all that pays off in satori or enlightenment then that's cool,

but arent the people who are going to be attracted to that kind of abuse on some level masochist's (or they enjoy the pain)

And the monks are sadistic right?

i don't know, not my scene...

i like the attitude of

"keep going, keep playing"

[lifeforce]

Isn't all this a bit unnecessary ?

Military style meditation training taken to the extreme.

Bullying, there's no other name for it. It makes me sick.

What happened to compassion and virtue here.

Is this what the Buddha's teachings have been reduced to ?

These sadist zen monks should be charged with assault.

[voidisyinyang]

So when the two masters of Wang, Liping tie him up in the beginning of "Opening the Dragon Gate" -- so Wang Liping sits in full lotus for 4 hours nonstop?

 

Sadistic?

 

Brutal?

 

Chunyi Lin made this comment about the full lotus:

 

"There's good pain and there's bad pain."

 

He was implying the full lotus is good pain.

 

Maybe all the other hitting, etc. is wrong.

 

Yeah I agree -- if you consider the Bushmen culture where this healing meditation tradition really comes from they don't have all the brutality -- except fasting for a month on just a bit of water while trance dancing continuously -- to learn to conquer thirst, sleep, hunger, pain.

 

No -- unfortunately -- it seems the training to be an energy meditation master does require a brutal physical confrontation to transcend death itself.

[NeiChuan]

Hm I believe in conditioning the body to fit the minds needs.. To not go into detail I meant..

 

I mean hey if you hold full lotus for 4 hours and only meditating for 3.. The time you can use is still in your grasp.. Won't take another few weeks of practice. If you "need" 3 hours and not 4 then yes your wasting your time..

 

If its in the road potentially then its still worth it.

[Birch]

I wonder if my mom was a zen monastery head in a past life!

[voidisyinyang]

I wonder if my mom was a zen monastery head in a past life!

 

Free chi transmissions are secrets to behold like the beauty of a flower on the side of a road.

[3L3VAT3]

im not saying brutal is bad... well it can be...

I guess the key work is CONSENT...

If these guys want to get smacked around Hey at least it's in the pursuit of spiritual purposes/progress. and it's of their own valition.

i'm sure it's very valid... like the opus dei dudes who flog themselves with the whippy thing to get in the zone...

 

Me personally, im more into pleasure, less into pain...

 

i'd problaby be more responsive to a tantrika showing me the good stuff than some old monk punching me in the face... but hey

 

I think you also wanted to show the importance of the full lotus these guys subscribe to... if i remember some of your other posts correctly this is one of your main practices right Mr Hempel?

[Gerard]

You all missed the key point of the article (really not full lotus). Therefore you all FAIL!

[lifeforce]

You all missed the key point of the article (really not full lotus). Therefore you all FAIL!

 

I didn't know there was a test. I suppose you passed.

Whatever way you look at it, it's 100% bullying. Disgusting.

[Aetherous]

Once again the self-proclaimed arahant declares his superiority over the masses, to the masses.

 

And once again, no one cares.

 

[Gerard]

Once again the self-proclaimed arahant declares his superiority over the masses, to the masses.

 

And once again, no one cares.

 

 

 

I am the GOD of this forum, remember that grasshopper.

[voidisyinyang]

im not saying brutal is bad... well it can be...

I guess the key work is CONSENT...

If these guys want to get smacked around Hey at least it's in the pursuit of spiritual purposes/progress. and it's of their own valition.

i'm sure it's very valid... like the opus dei dudes who flog themselves with the whippy thing to get in the zone...

 

Me personally, im more into pleasure, less into pain...

 

i'd problaby be more responsive to a tantrika showing me the good stuff than some old monk punching me in the face... but hey

 

I think you also wanted to show the importance of the full lotus these guys subscribe to... if i remember some of your other posts correctly this is one of your main practices right Mr Hempel?

 

yeah that is my practice -- full lotus as much as possible -- plus walking-working meditation! haha. Chunyi Lin says 20 minutes of full lotus is worth 4 hours of any other meditation. Also Chunyi Lin says if you want to see if someone is a real master just see how long they can sit in full lotus.

 

Full lotus cuts through all the b.s. -- you just sit and the energy flows on its own. The pain and pleasure deal actually are opposites and increase in strength the deeper your practice. So Chunyi Lin was asked recently how he deals with taking in other peoples' suffering all the time -- he said he just goes deeper into his heart to overcome their suffering.

 

The thing with full lotus is you have to be on the special modified bigu diet. So I had to quit my job because I couldn't maintain the proper diet.... essentially it's fasting one day a week and then a little veggie meal once a day. So that means full-time meditation.

 

That's the stage I'm in now only I'm not in a monastery and my parents are big meat-booze people, as is the rest of my family, etc. In Minnesota that's the norm as it's so cold here people like the meat for heat.

 

It's all messed up -- but emotions are the first type of blockage and then nutrition -- the two are intertwined. So the pain-pleasure thing is also tied into the type of food impurities -- the modern diet is rife with food impurities.

 

I use full lotus to over-ride these blockages but I off-gas a lot of toxins -- leached out of my brain -- aka "wearing underwear on my head." haha.

 

Full lotus is the real deal -- and you know this because of the constant purging and purification required to maintain it. Actually the third eye requires this pain/pleasure dynamic even without full lotus -- after the third eye is opened up. But the full lotus is the most efficient means to recharge the body-mind -- to exorcise the body-mind of demons. To restore our natural state of euphoria -- lost to civilization.

[xyz]

drew, you talk about the full lotus and opening the third eye but does it work on grounding? if not than that might be the reason for your bacteria emission and other problems

[lifeforce]

The thing with full lotus is you have to be on the special modified bigu diet. So I had to quit my job because I couldn't maintain the proper diet.... essentially it's fasting one day a week and then a little veggie meal once a day. So that means full-time meditation.

 

I have practiced full lotus for years and have never had to modify my diet.

[voidisyinyang]

drew, you talk about the full lotus and opening the third eye but does it work on grounding? if not than that might be the reason for your bacteria emission and other problems

 

The answer is in the previous "full lotus" threads. I give links and quotes so you probably want to review those.

 

Good luck.

[Cloudhand]

To be one with the Godhead is what we seek all other things are nonreal. Peace Cloud

[voidisyinyang]

I have practiced full lotus for years and have never had to modify my diet.

 

Well I would need more information. I'm not talking about "just" full lotus -- I mean full lotus after the macrocosmic third eye transmissions are open. Which means that as long as you have a steady source of external energy then you can sit in full lotus as long as you want.

 

There's a reason qigong masters like Wang, Liping and Yan Xin and Chunyi Lin practice the modified bigu diet. Chunyi Lin says if a qigong trainer does eat a lot of food or has some sort of digestive problem then they can just empty it out that much faster. Still Chunyi Lin told me to stop eating crap. When I started my training I was vegetarian. The third eye opening training in the book "Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality" requires a diet of NO SALT -- this is much more strict than just vegetarian. It implies NO GRAINS which is the literal meaning of bigu -- and the traditional Taoist teaching about internal worms as demons.

 

It's definitely possible to sit in full lotus without the third eye transmissions -- kids sit "apple sauce criss cross" or whatever they call it! But if they did it on a serious level then a diet change would be required. At a minimum it is to be vegetarian and to eat only 70% of filling the stomach. In fact being vegetarian in Beijing -- I read this was considered elitist in China. I even got this reaction at Chinese restaurants here -- they started treating me like a monk because I always got vegetarian food.

 

At the same time a higher level qigong master can certainly transform internal blockages more quickly -- using the LASER holographic energy -- but since the focus is on healing then it's practical to not increase your internal blockages. So it's preferred to be in a work environment that is conducive to practice -- preferably with good feng shui -- with lots of wild life and good ecology, etc. And once in that environment to also practice the bigu diet for the training.

 

But "tantra" is the poor man's spirituality -- as Professor Hugh B. Urban documents -- in Calcutta certainly many wanted to join the Ramakrishna Vivekananda movement but they could not AFFORD to -- it was limited by caste and economics. So the poor man's training was tantric without the diet restrictions, using meat and alcohol and sex, even, as a reaction to the exclusive caste system.

 

This is called "crazy Zen" or something. So after I went 8 days on half a glass of water and went into the Emptiness -- I had finished my masters degree. In Buddhism this 8 day fast is called "achievement of cessation" and is considered the first step to real samadhi -- in Hinduism the nirvikalpa samadhi. But often the case fasting is not regularly practiced in monasteries which more and more are focused on ritual priest teachings controlled by the laypersons paying for the food. The monasteries of Burma, for example, underwent this "democratic" reform insisting the monks teach practical skills to the laypersons -- be it philosophy as logical thinking or job training. No longer was the focus on meditation abilities. The full lotus "forest monks" of Thailand were corrupted or co-opted by the wealthy rulers in the city -- the royalty -- and then work to convert the indigenous tribes in Thailand, not yet assimilated into the modern political state. So then the forest monks became politicized and with the increasing pressures of modernity there is more focus on trying to replant forests since there is too much population pressure, etc.

 

I no longer had school monies and I was working a poor man's tantric job in environmental activism. And so I could no longer afford the exclusive diet. So I went the other extreme. First I realized that when I ate meat then the increased testosterone would give me strength -- deepen my voice, make me more attractive -- and I saw that all the other poor males were relying on it to succeed on the job -- to compete. I knew it was bad for health but that's how they survived. So then I was eating fast food -- and then I realized that many of my friends who were homeless and usually avoided by others -- lived off dumpster diving. I knew that many people live off dumpsters around the world -- garbage heaps. For low cost I had been forced to live with this old perv dude who constantly tried to suck me off but it was in a nice neighborhood with lots of fancy restaurants that were not hit for dumpster diving. So I started living off that dumpster food -- and ate whatever I found. Fancy chocolate gourmet cake, meat sandwiches, and lots of bread goods -- bagels, pastries. So then I just ate tons of garlic to kill off the bacteria. As long as I worked the night shift it worked but then one of my coworkers who was female and poor was trying to compete with the poor males. And she started stalking me at work since I could do healings on her, as I sat in full lotus at work.

 

The rest is history. haha. I did more and more healings at work while sitting in full lotus at work -- but I stunk the place up with garlic! haha. The males began relying on me for healings as our department was being automated and downsized and so the competition kept increasing. The female was promoted but she kept stalking me even more. Since it was tantric it turned to real love. But then I had similar "real love" with several other females around town -- from my full lotus practice in either fast foot restaurants or coffee shops. Well things got more crazy after that and I finally quit my job at a workplace that had faster turn over than fast food! I was first forced to sign a document which completely disowned the 10 years I had worked there -- albeit part-time. It was fun to be sure.

[DalTheJigsaw123]

Well I would need more information. I'm not talking about "just" full lotus -- I mean full lotus after the macrocosmic third eye transmissions are open. Which means that as long as you have a steady source of external energy then you can sit in full lotus as long as you want.

 

There's a reason qigong masters like Wang, Liping and Yan Xin and Chunyi Lin practice the modified bigu diet. Chunyi Lin says if a qigong trainer does eat a lot of food or has some sort of digestive problem then they can just empty it out that much faster. Still Chunyi Lin told me to stop eating crap. When I started my training I was vegetarian. The third eye opening training in the book "Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality" requires a diet of NO SALT -- this is much more strict than just vegetarian. It implies NO GRAINS which is the literal meaning of bigu -- and the traditional Taoist teaching about internal worms as demons.

 

It's definitely possible to sit in full lotus without the third eye transmissions -- kids sit "apple sauce criss cross" or whatever they call it! But if they did it on a serious level then a diet change would be required. At a minimum it is to be vegetarian and to eat only 70% of filling the stomach. In fact being vegetarian in Beijing -- I read this was considered elitist in China. I even got this reaction at Chinese restaurants here -- they started treating me like a monk because I always got vegetarian food.

 

At the same time a higher level qigong master can certainly transform internal blockages more quickly -- using the LASER holographic energy -- but since the focus is on healing then it's practical to not increase your internal blockages. So it's preferred to be in a work environment that is conducive to practice -- preferably with good feng shui -- with lots of wild life and good ecology, etc. And once in that environment to also practice the bigu diet for the training.

 

But "tantra" is the poor man's spirituality -- as Professor Hugh B. Urban documents -- in Calcutta certainly many wanted to join the Ramakrishna Vivekananda movement but they could not AFFORD to -- it was limited by caste and economics. So the poor man's training was tantric without the diet restrictions, using meat and alcohol and sex, even, as a reaction to the exclusive caste system.

 

This is called "crazy Zen" or something. So after I went 8 days on half a glass of water and went into the Emptiness -- I had finished my masters degree. In Buddhism this 8 day fast is called "achievement of cessation" and is considered the first step to real samadhi -- in Hinduism the nirvikalpa samadhi. But often the case fasting is not regularly practiced in monasteries which more and more are focused on ritual priest teachings controlled by the laypersons paying for the food. The monasteries of Burma, for example, underwent this "democratic" reform insisting the monks teach practical skills to the laypersons -- be it philosophy as logical thinking or job training. No longer was the focus on meditation abilities. The full lotus "forest monks" of Thailand were corrupted or co-opted by the wealthy rulers in the city -- the royalty -- and then work to convert the indigenous tribes in Thailand, not yet assimilated into the modern political state. So then the forest monks became politicized and with the increasing pressures of modernity there is more focus on trying to replant forests since there is too much population pressure, etc.

 

I no longer had school monies and I was working a poor man's tantric job in environmental activism. And so I could no longer afford the exclusive diet. So I went the other extreme. First I realized that when I ate meat then the increased testosterone would give me strength -- deepen my voice, make me more attractive -- and I saw that all the other poor males were relying on it to succeed on the job -- to compete. I knew it was bad for health but that's how they survived. So then I was eating fast food -- and then I realized that many of my friends who were homeless and usually avoided by others -- lived off dumpster diving. I knew that many people live off dumpsters around the world -- garbage heaps. For low cost I had been forced to live with this old perv dude who constantly tried to suck me off but it was in a nice neighborhood with lots of fancy restaurants that were not hit for dumpster diving. So I started living off that dumpster food -- and ate whatever I found. Fancy chocolate gourmet cake, meat sandwiches, and lots of bread goods -- bagels, pastries. So then I just ate tons of garlic to kill off the bacteria. As long as I worked the night shift it worked but then one of my coworkers who was female and poor was trying to compete with the poor males. And she started stalking me at work since I could do healings on her, as I sat in full lotus at work.

 

The rest is history. haha. I did more and more healings at work while sitting in full lotus at work -- but I stunk the place up with garlic! haha. The males began relying on me for healings as our department was being automated and downsized and so the competition kept increasing. The female was promoted but she kept stalking me even more. Since it was tantric it turned to real love. But then I had similar "real love" with several other females around town -- from my full lotus practice in either fast foot restaurants or coffee shops. Well things got more crazy after that and I finally quit my job at a workplace that had faster turn over than fast food! I was first forced to sign a document which completely disowned the 10 years I had worked there -- albeit part-time. It was fun to be sure.

 

Very interesting.

Would love to hear more!

[voidisyinyang]

Very interesting.

Would love to hear more!

 

Well the full lotus is traditionally called 5 points facing heaven. I've discussed this before with quotes and refs. from others chiming in here -- on previous full lotus threads. I've discovered that the easiest way to make sure the bottom of the feet face up -- the center acupoint of the foot -- is to have the legs at a slightly wider angle -- it's I guess an equilateral triangle. My tendency is to go full on full lotus with my ankles full on my thigh bones and my feet closer to past my thighs. This works for a while to open up the "kundabuffer" -- the small of the back -- and to stretch out the legs. But then you can just go into the equilateral base position for deeper mind meditation, as long as you still have that pressure on the thighs.

 

The real secret of the full lotus, of course, is that this pressure on the thighs sucks in the yin energy -- there's various sources of yin energy. It's called female energy for a reason but to discuss this source of energy is totally taboo. It's taboo here on taobums, as well as anywhere else. I've raised it here only to be shot down by those who don't focus on the full lotus. Of course even full lotus masters won't discuss this -- because to talk about the sex side of the energy goes against the energy flow -- the energy flow is right brain while talking is left brain.

 

When I did healings at work for example I would be in full lotus but the person wanting the healing would want first to talk to me. Even Chunyi Lin mentioned this -- how people come to him for healings but want him to talk to them!! haha. I mean in the West we assume that everything that is real is based on talking or words. Chunyi Lin says that he's there to heal -- not to talk! And so it is -- when I transmit the energy then I can not talk. So for my coworkers I would talk a bit and then get them to talk or just demonstrate to them visualize while I was silent - "see!" -- watch my neck I would say. As the right side of my neck pulsates as the pineal gland transmits the energy, and also sucks up the lower body energy.

 

Now that type of transmission I currently do is mainly the electrochemical energy but in order to do any third eye transmission of the macrocosmic orbit you have had to build up the jing or electrochemical energy into strong energy chi or electromagnetic (so that you have telekinesis, telepathy, precognition) and then the chi converts to the shen or laser-spirit energy to open the third eye. After then you finally enter nivikalapa samadhi for real astral travel and long distance healing. So many western healers don't really achieve this state but claim they do -- that's why I rely on the full lotus. I, also, did not achieve this state but what happened is that Chunyi Lin said I should have called him before I got too afraid, too excited, and stopped practicing. Then, before my energy channels closed up, Chunyi Lin touched my forehead when I retook his Level 3 Third Eye class to open the center of the brain -- he touches everyone's forehead. But since my channels were already open quite a bit when he transmited the laser-holographic energy into my forehead then the center of my brain was permanently magnetized with bliss for the full lotus third eye transmission.

[lifeforce]

I had been forced to live with this old perv dude who constantly tried to suck me off