Now Zen

Now! Now! Now.... Right now! This is all there is. This is the beginning of the rest of life. Right now.

Discomfort and Challenge

In Zen, when we sit in zazen, we sometimes feel challenged and uncomfortable, dealing with issues that we prefer not to deal with. It is getting outside the comfort zone and into the realm of each moment of truth that provides the impetus for our growth and development. Such experiences do not come to hurt us for the sake of hurting us, but to keep us focused and aware, so that zazen can function in each living moment as we go about our business.

When I am happy and comfortable, how much focus do I utilize in day-to-day living? When I am uncomfortable it is a different matter.

The Alchemy of Zen

There is a vast reservoir of creative energy available if I am centred, grounded and focused in zazen.

It is about realizing that there is nothing other than the moment, and that there is nothing I can be doing other than what I am doing in the here and now.

And when there is nothing to be doing, just returning to the hara and breathing,  giving each moment my attention and focus and not getting entangled with the potential results. This is the alchemy of Zen.

Chaos

The unconscious is unseen, yet influences consciousness. I need to realize that not everything can be ordered and make way for a bit of chaos. Zen tends to create such dilemmas. This is OK. How else could awareness develop?

Now is a New Moment

Now is always a time of completion. Each moment is a moment of completion. There are no answers in Zen, only questions that act as indicators for me to witness and observe. Take this into zazen and extend the mindfulness is produces it into daily activity

Now is a new moment… Now is a new moment.

There is no real need to do anything. Just trust. Just be.

Journey to Nothing

In Zen life it is the journey that matters, not the destination. We are not going anywhere where we will arrive. There is no need to plan or to struggle, all that busy-ness is in true reality, redundant. Just be here now. Relax on the journey for as it goes nowhere it means no-thing. No-thing is that domain where all there is is a vast potential for everything, that includes everything.

Balance: A Matter of Acceptance

Too much of the spiritual or material causes imbalance. There is a physical world as much as there is a spiritual world. There is a spiritual world as much as there is a physical world. Balance is about being centered. To achieve this we need to accept all there is to accept.

How Many Types of Love are There?

The Buddha said that there are three kinds of love, each linked to each other. The first, and basic level is sexuality and this on its own soon disappears. But if it is linked to romantic love, then it can progress even further, as this isn't ultimate love because it is based on neediness. The highest form of love is when there is when we lose the neediness, and care selflessly for the other.

The Buddha then said that meditation plus love created compassion, a true spiritual love. For further discussion on how many types of love are there, click here..

Feeling Misunderstood by Others?

During zazen, lots of thoughts and ideas come up into the mind. There are times when I have felt a great loneliness on my path and a feeling that I am strongly misunderstood. This I recognize now is part of the journey. Many people back strongly away from the discipline of Zen practice that I represent.

Suddenly a new feeling can emerge from all this "loneliness" and I refer to this as my "aloneness" and it is a very fulfilling and comfortable feeling. I recognize that I have no need to surround myself with friends, family and people, and cherish my own space. It is at this point that I am misunderstood by others.

I need to take care not to judge myself on this, because judgement is a trick of the ego that seems to excel from such stress and conflict.

Further discussion on feeling misunderstood.... feel free to register and get involved..

Lonely or Alone?

Some people go through extraordinary steps to thwart feeling lonely. Leaving the TV when not watching it is one way of feeling that we have company. This is something I used to do myself, but no longer do. Click here to read more....

A Higher Reality.. Life After Death?

I have a theory, that at this time in our evolution, we cannot 100% get to know what happens after death, only a belief. Maybe if we were to know, it would not be beneficial to us.

Through my zazen(meditation), I have noticed that I learn some really profound things during and just after periods of pain and stress.

It is not a knowledge that can be put into words, but more of an experience of a personal energy, and it has been discovered that energy can never be destroyed. Perhaps this sort of thing, gives us glimpses of a higher reality that is to come as we progress. more on this discussion...

What is this Zen?

If the practitioner of Zen could understand that everything he encountered was empty and meaningless then he could be free to focus on each moment as if that moment was all that he had in the world.

And indeed, each moment of now is all that he has in the world. The rest is an illusion. He would need to remember to discuss this with his master, but maybe not!

Zen Stories

It is told that a Zen master once threw a person out for the window when that person asked him how to meditate.

In another story, it is told that when two monks were arguing over ownership of a cat in a Zen monastery, the master simply took the cat, cut it in half with meat cleaver and give one half to each monk.

It is told that these sort of shock tactics often bring on states of enlightenment.