Absolute Waiting Zen

What is Absolute Waiting?

When we are in anticipation we are not in a state of waiting. Our mind is on a past events projecting those stored memories into the future as ‘what ifs’ whether they be negative or positive.  When we are not in a state of waiting we are up using our moments of life in illusory hopes and what ifs.

We are not having our full awareness of living life.  Losing moments of living awareness and consciousness in dreams.  The paradox is that we are not really losing anything at all, whether or not we are aware!

This short post invites you to bring what happens regarding waiting to your awareness. That is to support a higher state of awareness, not to prove that this query is right or wrong, or good or bad,  for that is a judgement, which is an illusion of the mind.

Since humankind developed language that enabled the process of thinking, we have judged and assessed what is ‘best’, but has humankind ever found what is best? How is any human being going to assess  the best without thinking about and referring to what’s worse?

Is it not so that whilst nature nurtures, she does not care?  The sun will provide warmth to that which is better AND  that which is worse.   What’s in between? Just waiting?

Would not absolute waiting be comfortable with the absence of all other things?  No judgements, or expectations.  Just absolute waiting…  And the mind would have no answer even after and in-depth analysis of what waiting is. Even with all the analysis in the world, the mind cannot know what absolute waiting is, as it would just turn out to be another explanation and not absolute waiting itself.

Some contemplation on Absolute Waiting.

Contemplate waiting. When truly waiting, the here-and-now will happen in awareness. Notice if you get a thought come to you that you just cannot wait.  Just notice it, for the thought is not waiting or not waiting… The thought is more or less confirming a belief in being unable to wait.

Notice if you are waiting. What action is involved in waiting?   How can you show waiting to anyone?

Few or no people absolutely wait as the empty chairs in the picture above represents. Where’s the absolute waiting? Where and what is the activity of waiting? There is knowledge of having waited, but knowledge is just more thinking of thoughts that are stored in memory. it cannot be waiting itself, can it?

Contemplate the question…  What is absolute waiting? Throw all answers from the mind away – for they are concepts and beliefs and not absolute waiting. They would be thoughts about waiting that occur AFTER the event of waiting!  So keep the question, ‘what is absolute waiting?’ and wait. Notice if absolute waiting happens to you.

How to Meditate on Chakras.

  

The Chakras
and their respective colors

Learn how to Meditate on Chakras

This is my way  of doing meditation on chakras – there will no doubt, be other methods, but I invite you drop all preconceptions about chakra development, and especially not to blindly believe in what I am saying here, but to go through this exercise and experience for yourself, anything that comes to you from the actual practice of this meditation. Personally, I have found that diligent practice of this method produces results.

Before you start, contemplate the chakras and their colours colours in the image (left) and familiarise yourself with them and the position of each chakra.  Get an idea of their location and colour they each resonate with.

It is best to sit upright with arms and legs uncrossed. (A chair will be fine, or  if you are already a mediator, you may have a preferred method of meditating). Close your eyes go through the following seven chakras...

The Seven Chakras

1. Base Chakra Focus:  (Red)

Take your mind to the Base Chakra the bottom of the torso – usually considered to be in the perineum. Breathe slowly and completely inward and imagine a Red light glowing from this base chakra point and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy.  Hold the in-breath for a while – it is difficult to think of anything in this gap between the two breaths, as thoughts tend to move only when the breath is flowing. This is ‘no-breath’ (in or out) – therefore it is said that ‘no-thoughts’ can occur which is the state ‘no-mind’ in Zen – there is value in experiencing this.

Next, allow the breath to slowly and gently move out of the body whilst enhancing the image of the chakra as a glowing and expanding light. Hold the breath out for a while before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.

2.  Sacral Chakra Focus:  (Orange)

Take your mind to the Sacral Chakra located in the lower abdomen also known as the hara. Again, as you breathe slowly in,  imagine an Orange light glowing and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy from this point. And hold the full in-breath for a while and repeat the same process as with the previous (base) chakra – don’t forget to hold the out-breath also for a while afterwards before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.

3. Solar Plexus Chakra: (Yellow)

Take your mind to the Solar Plexus Chakra or a point in the upper-mid part of abdomen. Again,  breathe slowly inward and imagine this as a Yellow light glowing and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy. And again hold the in-breath for a while and repeat the same process as with the previous chakra  – don’t forget to hold the out-breath for a while afterwards before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.

4. Heart Chakra: (Green)

 Take your mind to the Heart Chakra in a point in the region of the heart. Again,  breathe slowly inward and imagine this as a Green light glowing and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy. Hold the in-breath for a while and repeat the same process as with the previous chakra – don’t forget to hold the out-breath for a while afterwards before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.

5.Throat Chakra:  (Blue)

Take your mind to the Throat Chakra or a point in the region of the throat/neck.  Breathe slowly inward and imagine this as a Blue light glowing and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy. Hold the in-breath for a while and repeat the same process as with the previous chakra – don’t forget to hold the out-breath for a while afterwards before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.

6. Brow (Third Eye) Chakra: (Indigo)

Take your mind to the Brow (third eye) Chakra  or on a point in the region between the eyebrows/centre of the forehead. Again,  breathe slowly inward and imagine this as a Indigo light glowing and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy. And hold the in-breath for a while and repeating the same process as with the previous chakra – don’t forget to hold the out-breath for a while afterwards before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.

7. Crown Chakra:  (Violet or white)

Take your mind to the Crown Chakra or a point in the region just at the top the head and perhaps a little above it.  Again,  breathe slowly inward and imagine this as an violet/white light glowing and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy. And hold the in-breath for a while and repeating the same process as with the previous chakra  – don’t forget to hold the out-breath for a while afterwards before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.  This time when you are ready, just allow the breath to slowly exhale from the body and return to breathing in a natural rhythm, following the breaths for a while down into the body before opening your eyes and returning to normal daily activity.

And that’s the work on the seven chakras.

(My) Zen Notes on Chakra Meditation.  

First of all Zen does not foster beliefs.  Beliefs are something that may or may not be true. The objective of practising Zen is experiencing.  Experiencing in the here-now.

Beliefs are thoughts of the past based on opinion and judgement from past learning and conditioning.  Experiencing is existence, here-and-now with or without thinking.  Zen is not a way for believers, but for those who are willing to experiment with focus and experiencing mindfulness in order to transcend (ego)mind and experience emptiness or no-mind.

As there are no beliefs in Zen practice,  there are no guarantees. It's aim is the development of awareness that grows as mindfulness and focus develops more and more.

The past is thought.The mind is the storage of thoughts of past images, sounds and sensations.  The present is experiencing,  but when analysed experiences become thoughts after the manifestation of the experiencing analysis is based on past knowledge.  So the mind cannot exist as a present moment, for the present moment is not static but moves. The present moment has already gone and is now (possibly) being thought about. It is in this way that we are not experiencing experiencing.

So chakra meditation is the visualisation of each chakra, its colour and its light.  We need to drop all stored ‘knowledge’  that has been learned about chakras even what is written here and be here now with our focus. Just experiencing. Notice how thoughts come and go. Allow the to come; allow them to go.

Zen is always exposing paradox and paradox when realised, enhances the experience of the mysterious. Life is a mystery and not a thing that can be analysed as to what it is.  It is everywhere and everything.

The best I can do here is to write about how chakras are a mystery. There are some that claim to be able to see the chakras and auras around others, but personally I have not experienced that form of seeing. But what I have experienced are the various sensations that come about in my own body, as a result of what I am naming here as Chakra Meditation... Focusing on the energies as light and colour that are moving through each chakra in the body, as they have been outlined in various explanations and images in many documents throughout history.

The more I have practised chakra meditation over the years, the more vividly the imagery has become, and the more the accompanying experiences have been enhanced.  One may ask what this has to do with Zen practice.  To which I would answer that Zen can be applied to anything even a belief-system! But then Zen is not a belief system itself but the experiencing of the moment of now.
Beliefs are considered to be illusory but it doesn’t mean that we don’t hold them, they are part of our experience of the dualism of the mind.

Zen embraces all and makes no comment.  Duality exists within the context of the Whole and is the 'play' created in about our life – some would refer to this as 'the game of life'.

Words can be forever produced, but it is all just thinking, and not Zen itself.

What Is Zen?

What is Zen?

It is better for me to describe what Zen is for me, for Zen is everything and everybody, and all I can give in any form of communication is what Zen WAS for me, for Zen is ever the present and right now I have moved on to… Well,  more Zen!

Photo Supplied
by
Jens Leslie

I would say that if it could be described at all,  Zen is an experience of experiencing that is subtly unique to each individual practitioner.  And because of this uniqueness, you may read different accounts of what Zen is.   This is because words cannot define Zen. Zen is a realisation that comes from practising it. So it could be said that Zen is a happening that one cannot pursue.  Neither can one 'succeed' in Zen because it is not an achievement - there is nothing to achieve!

Zen is the here-now, and the here-now contains all there is that exists.  How can any words define the here-now when  it is immediately gone!?  Any definition of Zen will be of what WAS the here-now. And the paradox is that  right now, the here-now is no more.

 Zen is all there is, the Whole, and how can a ‘content’  that is created from Zen define the Whole? There may be a paradox there too!

Zen can however, be investigated with the words that are being spoken or written, but the words will only point unsuccessfully to the whole. However, consciousness will expand through enquiry.

If one is asked to point to all that there is in the universe, he/she would not succeed at all. Because the pointing would only be to that which is withing the view of the senses,  to the individual elements of parts of all there is, like stars and planets and the space between them. One could say that Zen is interested in the space between objects which is emptiness and  permeates everything in existence within and without.

The words that can be spoken of Zen are the products of the mind. The mind is not the master, but can point to the master, but only if the mind knows the master, and the mind cannot know the master.

Another paradox – without being guided by some form of knowledge, how can one possibly pursue Zen, the pursuance of which will obscure it even more!?

The Mind.

The mind cannot know Zen as Zen is no-mind.  So even these words, can only try and define what Zen is. They can explain the practice of Zen, which is basically formal zazen and extending to mindfulness in all activities, but the experience of Zen and enlightenment will only come if one is actually experiencing the journey to enlightenment totally here-now.

Zen and enlightenment. This is not two.  Neither can exist as the named. So Zen is a word for Zen, yet not Zen itself. Enlightenment already is, it just needs to be realised.

An  individual will make his own unique path to discover Zen that in reality, he is already at one with.  And the thoughts that colour that path, will be his and his alone – nobody else can walk on that path.

Zen In Practice

The basis of Zen is zazen, just being..  just sitting,  just standing or walking or working at something or other.. It can be applied to anything that one participates in, in daily life.   This is all there is to the practice. It can be quite challenging to be 'just' with anything!  The mind will do the challenging.

It can be practised  in groups, but it is always alone that a practitioner will realise his/her own Zen.

This is just the beginning of what Zen can be. I am not saying here what Zen is, for I do not know what Zen is. It is no-thing... indescribable.  I would say that nobody  knows Zen with anything the mind can define.  It is a vast emptiness that all these words written here and elsewhere will simply fall into and disappear.

This is just one of many analogies I have of what Zen may or may not be.  It is not that I have knowledge of Zen. This is just my Zen practice trying to express itself through words. If it is not making sense, then it is perhaps becoming a little more pure, and unblemished by the mind and its duality.

Why do I practice? 

I first heard the  word Zen many decades ago, and looked at it one day in a workshop. I felt the need to practice and look for myself,  on my own, and I let go of everything I had experienced in the workshop. For me that was just the beginning. It is not that I cannot stop now, it is that I have no desire to stop. Sometimes it can hurt as the mind resists having its reasonableness challenged, but so very often it is the experiencing of pain that is the most revealing part of my practice. Not that Zen is masochistic, as I am more for pleasure any day of the week!

If I had known of the pain that can occur during practice in the beginning, I would still have practised it.. There is something of value that is beyond the mind to describe.

Silence and Pain

Silence within is where I can be at peace.

Where I will reflect on myself and witness what is going on.

Silence is the only permanent thing in life; the only unchanging thing.

Silence is silence, always has been, always will be.

It existed before the beginning, because all beginnings have an end,

And the journey is endless. 

Silence is always there even in the midst of the marketplace.

The Moon reflects on the water.

The reflection is silent.

When there is pain or loss,

Listen to its silence closely. 

This is the art of true meditation

It can be like a built-in healing phenomenon

Keep focusing allowing the silence to absorb it completely

Into completion.

I want this higher state of awareness.

I opened the gates to it through my Zen,

And I know that this pain and that pain happens to many Zen practitioners..

But I need to remember the art or non-resistance.

Be with what I am with. This is it.

All truth is experience and all perception is of the mind

And all that mind stuff...
Is merely an interpretation of what I am experiencing.

The truth of what I am experiencing comes from experiencing it.

Without judgment.

Undoing Karma?

If we run away from our pain in life, we are running away from something that has great potential.  In zazen pain often manifests in the emotions and in the body that is responding to those emotions, especially when those emtions are not in full awareness.  The body may be acting to mask the emotions that we don't want to look at.
 
What was prominent in today's zazen is that it is through pain and struggle that  the "best" spiritual growth comes.  Therefore, I need to accept and witness and use any discomfort or pain as a tool for concentration and focus, allowing my awareness to expand.

Awareness needs first of all to move through my karma. Karma is stuff that I have not let go of.. It is easy to let go of pleasurable situations, yet the struggle to build the "spiritual muscle" come more effectively from the pain encountered in zazen.  If I do not resist my pain,  if I accept it, and go deeply into the core of it and from there, I can release it, and expand my awareness a little more.  Undoing karma?   Possibly, but there needs to be no goal or achievement in Zen.

Makyo

I find that the Osho Zen Tarot often gives me something to focus on.  It is all stuff on the ego-mind, I recognize, but sometime the makyo involved is quite uncanny.   In Japanese Zen  the word makyo means, (ma- devlish) and (kyo - phenomenon or objective world). It is a distraction.  Little "devils" of thoughts, ideas, ambition, achievement, entertainment that tempts me out of the present moment. Tempts me out of mindfulness. Anyway, I looked at my card which was VIII Courage..  The courage of the small seed to transform into a fragile plant with all the risk that that entails.  It could be eaten or a gardener may decide that it needs to be uprooted.. Just two of many risks it would take.  

So I was looking at an 8 card. Since the age of 10, I have had a weird  connection with 8, always expecting something profound to come from it…  

Expect nothing! This is the Zen way!  Courage is needed. I have started the journey and that is it. There is no beginning and no end now. There is only the journey.  I was always on it, and became aware of it.. So therefore, there cannot be a beginning or an end.  It was always there, and I cannot now un-know what I know. Not that I would want to. The desire has been awakened. But… Desire paradoxically stands in my way. But such is the way of Zen to work out what to do with it.   I am here.. I am on the path. This is Zen, the pathless path that I have come upon through a gateless gate.

Judging: Three Questions and more... How long? But there are a lot more...

Today in zazen, came lots of thoughts - also known in Zen as makyo.   But should I judge and condemn makyo? Should I condemn the thinking mind?  I think to much.. Ah! Another judgement!  A neat trap.. Or is that a judgement?

We take other people (and situations) into our awareness. This is so. Can't get away from that statement. We can know others from our own awareness.. That must be so, as we cannot know them from their awareness!

We see something that we cannot agree with. We condemn it. We are aware of that thing we cannot agree with, therefore it is bound to be within us!  Another neat trap.  We condemn our Self!   The more we judge as liking this, disliking that, attracted to this, repelled by that,  the more disintegrated we become. Whether it is good or whether it is bad, makes no difference.


Zazen then, is the task of reconnected with those disintegrated parts of our Self (or self, there are some who say that Self should not be capitalized - just more judgement, just more makyo to get stuck in - but I don't care what they say - I forgive them! Do I really? ).  We reconnect to our fragments by forgiveness of Self which is forgiveness of others.


I think of all the incidents in my life when I must have judged and condemned in my mind. There are loads!  I probably think too much, I say again!  We walk along the Zen path (or some other labelled path) and we come to a space, to a situation, to the memory of a person, to.... whatever....  We are not happy with it, and we want to forgive for our own sakes,  but we don't know how to do it. We cannot do it! Of course we can't do it.. Because it isn't doing.. It is being. Being forgiving. We can only be willing, and then go within and wait in patience for the experience of forgiveness to come to us. Or if you prefer, the experience of closure; or the experience of completion.  If not, another part of us, greater or smaller, will get stuck in this space on our journey.  And we may find ourselves running around and around in this space. It could be temporary, but it can last... How long?  I don't know.. Best not to add another judgement! How long is a piece of Zen string?

What's It Like to Be a Zen Practitioner - #2

Zazen is the basis of Zen practice. One can say that zazen is Zen. My zazen is usually mentally "busy" with thoughts flying here and there. But as the years have gone by I have gotten the hang of watching and accepting the thoughts in mindfulness.

Anyway, I have realised that mindfulness is not the same as focus. Mindfulness is where I observe without interference whatever is going on in my mind. I am being a witness. Focus is like concentration and concentration suggests force. Zazen is the achievement of a subtle balance between mindfulness and focus, and it helps to make the distinction between the two. The two! Dichotomy? I just love the paradox of Zen where the aim is to realize that all is one and that there are no "two"! But also, there is no "shouldism" in Zen either. So the balance of the two (mindfulness and focus) is very subtle where both states realize an at-one-ness and simply exist together. But that is just an explanation about it. It is trying to make sense of it, and Zen transcends sense.

The experience of zazen is very different! Experience! Now there's word. Just a word that points to the fact that experiencing is constantly in a state of flux, and an experience is already gone! An experience can only be thought about and therefore is not an experience at all, but the experienced! Past tense. Tense being the operative word when I try to nail down what the experience of an experience is! But that's how we grow… through tense (tension). In-tensely... The never-ending story.. The never-ender wrestle?

Looking at what the distinction between the two (experiencing and experience) is, can be very frustrating and annoying. Bah! Oh! I was wondering why Zen masters uttered that word in so many Zen writings. Bah! is Zen..

On occasions, I have been asked if I am a mystic. Mysticism is an illusion that doesn't really exist, because as far as I am concerned, the profound comes from the mundane - or better still, probably is the mundane. That to me is mysticism. Right there in front of my nose in every consecutive moment of now.

Zen really messes with my head sometimes! But that's what it is meant to do and I invite it to do so. Zen wants me to get out of my head and into my experience! Oh, I had better say experiencing to be semantically correct, but still… Experiencing what it is like to be in the head? Probably. Again the one and the other merge and disappear into each other, becoming one.

So this is the journey. A journey-less journey. There is only one destination and that is now and I am arriving and leaving here and now constantly. I won't be back in this moment again, but my head will try and drag me back here to this moment that is fast becoming an illusion.

Expansion and Suffering.

This is interesting discussion on religion I got involved in regarding resistances from the point of view of my own Zen life.

As a Zen practitioner, I do not believe in a creator deity as such, but will acknowledge the existence of the Whole or Universal.   When something is experienced to completion, it disappears as it becomes one with the whole. So if I am suffering, I focus my attention fully on the experience and allow it to be, allow it to expand into the realm of everything or All.  At the point of complete expansion, it disappears. With a headache or other pain, I feel it expand to become everything as I meditate upon it. With the emotions the same thing can happen.

There is no time limit to the duration of such experience, for if I am motivated to free myself of the pain and use acceptance to do this, I will get to keep the discomfort, because I am looking to rid myself of an experience, therefore resisting and not experiencing it to completion.

It is not always easy because resistance to discomfort feels to be wrapped around my mind layer by layer, like onion skins, each layer will disappear to reveal the layer underneath, which may or may not be more pain, and there are some problems that as I get closer to the core, where before it will disappear, it will grow more intense.

So Why Meditate?

Yes, why meditate? I even find that I still ask this question, but what is the point of any answer to any question? The "answer" I feel lies in the experience.

I have learned from my meditation over the years, that in life there is no comparison between one person and another, between one thing or situation and another. But in the mind there is! 

There is a saying in Zen that states "without you the universe would be incomplete".  

The feeling that everything is fruitless is just a feeling and in life, all things, including feelings, are impermanent and subject to change. To feel negative about life today, will disappear to manifest a feeling of positivity tomorrow. But no point in chasing tomorrow as it doesn't exist. Be with whatever is so right now, and see that there is no comparison between what is, and what isn't. Because what isn't doesn't exist. All is what is!

Opinions, are just opinions and are just as subject to the change.

And because of this universal truth, opinions, are not really real because they disappear and become changed.

The only reality is here and now. What you can sense; what you can feel. But then, the here and now is instantly gone.

So if you can contemplate these lines, the experience may feel strange at first, particularly if you have not really come here before, but  it can be quite empowering.

Past and Future: Non-existent. Peace of the Moment.

This is a copy of a response to a discussion post I have done on myLot forum...

As a Zen practitioner I do not follow any conventional religion but through my practice of zazen every day I have no beliefs about what is to happen at some future time or when I am dead.

My Zen practice takes me to the truth that the future does not exist and neither does the past. How can it!? There is only now, and it is constantly available. The moment of now, disappears immediately and cannot return again. If you can understand, the past is an illusion - that is, it is not real. The future is also an illusion and not real. Only now can exist. If I am to keep looking and focusing on this moment of now, I am focusing on the only reality that exists. My mind becomes still, and I connect with everything in my awareness that exists.

There cannot be fear, only when I allow my mind to fear what may be in the future, which I have already established (within myself), is not real! So that means I fear what is not there! A ghost!

I have found that no matter what I experience whether I be comfortable or in pain, if I just stay focused on this moment of existence as it comes and goes, I recognize that nature provides me with a natural inclination to the peace and calmness of the here and now.

Generally society, does not teach this, but teaches us to focus on the future all the time. Get better, richer, healthier and do not rest on the moment, for we have to "improve life" constantly! The truth I have found is that we can only really improve the quality of our life by being focused here and now and becoming totally mindful of what we are doing or experiencing. We are not working things out, so much as allowing nature to allow us to evolve and grow. Contemplating these ideas in meditation, I have found for myself, that problems have a tendency to sort themselves out. It is our very being (or soul) that allows energy to flow allowing such evolution to naturally occur.

I thought with this post, that I would share my experience and insights with you.. If you just look within yourself, I feel you may find something far more valuable than any beliefs that come from outside yourself. My truth cannot be yours, and yours cannot be mine, but we can certainly find our own and they will sound remarkably similar...

Please feel free to share your insights or experiences..
Love and light..

Zen: Just Awareness

Zen. It is just awareness! When it is not present, it is present, but through the ego we are stuck in the pretence that we are not aware! A rock and a hard place, for to try and be aware is a desire and will only cause us to sink into the quicksand of the finite mind. So what do we do to become aware? Exactly!

If we want to get it right, then it will be wrong. So, we need to transcend both right and wrong to that state of awareness where we get the experience that everything is just so.

In Zen. What is Absolute Truth? Is it Truth That We Lie?

I have just involved myself in an on-line discussion on why people lie. It will be interesting to see what reponses I get, but being a very Zen answer. What I have written can be quite challenging to some, so there may not be any responses at all.

As a Zen practitioner and therapist, I have studied the tendency to lie.  In Zen I aim to deal in absolutes, that is, we are either lying or telling the truth. Lying is usually done  out of some sort of fear. The fear could be great or small.  For instance if you see someone who is wearing what you believe to be an awful outfit, but they seem very proud of it, it may difficult to tell absolute truth because there is a fear. Not a big-deal fear, but a fear of offending them. It is easier to say that it's nice, than to say it is hideous and doesn't suite them at all.  So, it is not easy to tell the absolute truth all of the time.

Another part of this equation is that the mind exists on a lie, meaning that what we may totally believe is a lie.

For instance, in Zen, the truth is that whenever we judge another person, we are judging our self.  But we totally believe that we are judging and perhaps blaming another person for something that upsets us. This is not so.

We can only perceive the other person as part of our own awareness, which we consider to be our self and then we create our ideas of what they are like, but thos ideas still isn't truth. It is only our ideas about what may be truth.

So judging others is judging our own awareness which we believe to be our self!  It's a neat trap, if you can understand what I'm saying here.  Most of life, we are strongly identified with our self as being separate from others in the world, This is another lie. But no-one will believe you if you were to realize this, because believing is not truth either, only realization and experiencing is! Only now is true as the past or future which we may think of as being real, is not truth.

As a Zen practitioner, I am as honest as living in this world permits me to be, and to tell absolute truth is a great challenge whilst the mind keeps interfering!

Nothing wrong or right about that, so it's best not to worry about it.

Can we really say that there is truth in the world everywhere we look? I think there may be more untruth than truth in the world.  That's is a mystery that I love about Zen practice!

Please click here if you want to read the discussion or responses... Or lack of them! Or sign in/sign up and respond yourself.

Zen for 1000 Years?

It has been said by many a Zen master that a Zen practitioner needs to be willing to practice zazen for 1000 in search of enlightenment.

Being mindful of all my activity during the day, is the extension of my Zen into daily activity, yet there is a lot of past conditioning to bring up into my awareness. It is in the last 10 years or so that I have recognized the wisdom of the "1000 years" of zazen statement. And now that my Zen practice has reached the 30-year mark it continues. It is the journey, not the destination, so I really need to learn to stop counting the years. That time is an illusion!

Lies and Truths in Zen

Sometimes in zazen, I am looking at the burden I carry from the past.  But this burden is a lie, because the past cannot exist! So it is pointless in seeking truth. Is this not the ego's way of preoccupying me with pretences that there is some great truth to discover!?

The lie cannot exist, because only truth exists. In Zen the truth is whatever is so right now. Trees are trees, grass is grass, earth is earth.

So in Zen, it is not a case of pursuing or seeking truth as this will just create more confusion. What is the point of seeking something that already is!

In Zen, it is really to be OK to be OK to be whatever way I am.  I don't see the trees, the grass and the earth seeking anything.

In Zen, it is a case of looking deep into the lies as seeing the lies, will evaporate them and expose the truth.

The Known and the Unkowable

The known feels comfortable because it is past and predictable. The unknowable is what is to come - what is here and now is always what is to come because it is timeless. It is pure Zen to be here now constantly connecting with truth that can liberate with bliss, or paralyze with fear. Both bliss and fear are in the relative domain of the dualistic mind. True Mind transcends the relative.

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.

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..

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!