Episode 15: No Gaining Idea

One Heart One Mind

Thomas McConkie

Meditation, Spirituality, Mindfulness, Contemplation, Psychology, Buddhism, Development, Thomasmcconkie, Religion & Spirituality

5 • 632 Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2022

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you think about virtually everything you do in a given day, you may come to a realization: “I do what I do because I want to get something out it.” We work to earn money, we exercise to stay fit, we meditate to feel good…it seems harmless enough. But there is a more subtle path available to us as human beings. In Suzuki Roshi’s words, we can live our lives with “no gaining idea.” When we have no gaining idea, we taste what it means to express our true nature—to be truly alive.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to another episode of Mindfulness Plus.
0:15.4	I'm your host Thomas McConkey. Thanks so much for listening today.
0:20.4	Today's content is a Zen teaching. It's articulation. Thank you. Thanks so much for listening today.
0:20.9	Today's content is a Zen teaching.
0:24.4	It's articulated many different ways across the ages.
0:28.6	The way I first heard the teaching was in the English language from the great Suzuki Roshi,
0:35.5	not directly from his lips, but from his classic book, Zen Mind,
0:39.5	Beginner's Mind.
0:41.5	Suzuki in this book in his career taught about what he called in English no gaining idea,
0:50.8	No gaining idea.
0:53.3	Let's go to the text and see what he says about this. This is from Zen
0:56.8	Mind, beginner's mind. Suzuki-Roshi says, when there is no gaining idea in what you do, then you
1:04.5	do something. In Zazen, what you are doing is not for the sake of anything. So Zazen is meditation. In Zazen, what you are doing is not for the sake of anything. So Zazen is meditation.
1:12.6	In Zazen, what you are doing is not for the sake of anything.
1:16.6	You may feel as if you are doing something special, but actually it is only the expression of your true nature.
1:22.6	It is the activity which appeases your inmost desire.
1:27.6	But as long as you think you are practicing Zazen for the sake of something, that is not true practice.
1:34.5	Ooh, it's so good and pithy, let's go back.
1:38.5	When there is no gaining idea in what you do, then you do something. In Zazen, what you are doing is not for the sake of anything.
1:48.1	You may feel as if you are doing something special, but actually it is only the expression of your
1:53.7	true nature. It is the activity which appeases your inmost desire. But as long as you think
2:00.6	you are practicing Zazen for the sake of something,
	...

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