12. On Attachment and Loving, Is Suicide a Solution?, Our Life is a Reflexion of Our Conditioning, Suffering and Comforting

These are questions and topics that Claude AnShin Thomas - fully ordained Zen Buddhist Monk in the Japanese Soto Zen tradition - reflects on. He reminds the listener of how to stay awake to life and how to understand more deeply the trappings of a deluded mind. This episode was recorded during a weekly zoom session of questions&responses. For more information: https://zaltho.org/ If you want to ask Claude AnShin Thomas a question: [email protected] Want to read up on these topics? Book recommendations:  -       Bringing Meditation to Life - 108 Teachings on the Path of Zen Practice (Oakwood Publishing 2021) -       AT HELL'S GATE - A Soldier's Journey from War to Peace (Shambhala Publications 2003) https://zaltho.org/en/media/our-books.html Questions and their time stamps:1:10 If daily life and meditation are not two separate things, should we aim at keeping breath awareness as long as we are awake? **** 1:25 In my relationship, especially with cats, I realize that loving them comes with some attachment. How is it in practice that non-attachment doesn't mean not to love? **** 3: 34 Would you say that as humans most of our problems are created by ourselves, for example through our attitude or our behavior? **** 3:53 Do you have any recommendations for work when one is working with people with different cultural backgrounds? **** 6:55 Would you expand on a quote I read?  "When the mind appears reality disappears and when the mind disappears reality appears." **** 7:14 Is suicide ever a solution? **** 7:55 You mentioned that my conditioning is being reflected back to me by my world. Do you have an example of this? **** 8:36 Earlier in this session you said that expecting love to be reciprocated is to ignore the interconnectedness of the world? Could you explain that? **** 10:42 Do you see a difference between taking one's own life and or engaging in assisted dying? **** 11:07 How would you evaluate Buddhism in context of a perspective through the Abraham religions? **** 11:55 There are those poems from Rumi. Do they speak to you? **** 12:43 How can you see that the grass loves you? **** 13:27 Yesterday you mentioned to not to seek external comfort. If you support someone in their suffering, what are you doing it for if not to comfort them? **** 14:54 How would you respond to someone who sincerely believes that they perceive dead people and can speak for them? **** 16:16 I have problems with hearing something and understanding it in that moment, then remembering and repeating it. Mostly it's too much for me. **** 17:18 How would you respond to a teenager who says that she hates her mother, that her mother doesn't deserve any love or recognition, even though the mother does a lot for them?