Zen In Tech Podcast
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[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to the Zen tech podcast. The podcast of indeterminate length. Today, we are going to talk about incorporating Zen. There's a lot of talk these days about mindfulness and we hear the word Zen a lot, a lot of products even have the word Zen in it, but I don't think that. The true way of bringing Zen in, into your life.
It's very clear. And when I say the true way, I don't mean that you go off into the blissful mountains, China or Japan, and don't see any human beings and have noble silence. I mean, You come to a place of peace inside of yourself amongst the [00:01:00] chaos. That is the world we live in.
One of the most challenging things that we face is how do we create that mindful space, amongst the chaos. The way that I think about it is how do we find peace amongst the chaos that is our mind? Not the chaos that is the world.
We have lots of thoughts running through our head all day. And many of us are so identified with our thoughts that we think. We are our thoughts, not that we are the thinker of our thoughts, and it's very hard to turn down the noise of [00:02:00] that pervasive voice in the back of your head as you're going through your day.
And so when we're approaching mindfulness, there is a need to put some space between you and the voice in your head space between you and your ego self. And this is a very challenging prospect because to do that, You have to first decouple from the idea that you are your thoughts, not that you have thoughts and that you think thoughts,
it's just sit with that.[00:03:00]
The question that I like to ask myself
is who am I?
And every time that I think that I have the answer to that question, I'll ask myself that question again. Who am I?
The more I ask this question, the more, the realization becomes clear that who I am is beyond my own comprehension, my own understanding.[00:04:00]
Once we start to see ourselves more from a limitless capacity, the more space we have between these things that are very limiting, like our thoughts. Or even our bodies,
I think that there's lots of techniques of meditation. And , and it's hard to do some of these truly, if you haven't cleared certain other things out first.
The other thing that I think that is very important to clear [00:05:00] is the body itself. And what do I mean by that? So you go to a meditation place, you sit down, maybe cross-legged, maybe you try to do that Lotus posture that you see everybody doing. That must mean that you're enlightened.
and the first thing that you're met with is the discomfort of the body. And so maybe the thought goes, oh, well, I am supposed to overcome this and go into this Zen state. What's very hard to do because pain directs the mind. And though it is true that we can transcend the body's state. Of pain and discomfort.
It's very high level. And so when we're first starting to integrate our [00:06:00] practice, it is more important to address what's going on to make it easier for us to do the meditation so that we can start getting a consistency of practice. And so we have methods in our practice for seated meditation self massage and getting the blood circulating and flowing relaxing the spine.
There's a lot of spinal exercises that we practice and hip opening exercises so that when we sit there's a flow of energy going through our body. and when that flow is there, it's easier for the mind to let go and to be with the self.[00:07:00]
And so one of the important things for integration is that the things that we do are simple and the things that we do. Help to clear our blockages or clear our anything that's coming in the way of you doing it. Sometimes one of the things that blocks people from a meditative practice is that they don't have a guide.
They don't have anyone to. Get them started or keep them accountable or, or maybe they don't have a community that helps keep them com out accountable. And that kind of can make it hard. There are lots of ways of overcoming that. Obviously joining a community, finding a, a teacher, finding a practice, there are apps[00:08:00] that can help with this.
So that you can have something that can guide you. So there's a lot of ways to get started. But once again, I would make sure that whatever practice that I'm starting with does address some of the things that block us so that we can slowly start to drop in and then make a consistency of that practice.
And so that is our podcast today about the integration of Zen and mindfulness into your daily life, into your daily practice. We will share much more about what we do and if you're interested in learning more. We do have a course on[00:09:00] meditation and Qigong, it's for people who work in office settings.
People who maybe have tech jobs or maybe a job that they don't move their body a lot. And even if you move your body a lot, even if you're a construction worker this course will be really good for you because it gives a lots of different meditation techniques exercises to get the body out of the way and in a flow state so that meditation can take.
Something that you can purchase from our website on zenintech.org. And if you're interested in supporting our program there are ways to support and donate to our practice. We teach lots of techniques and we have regular courses on technical trainings with the Zen mindset and methods.
Thank you again for listening. This is Master Sheldon Callahan. We'll see you next time.[00:10:00]
