Awakening Buddha Within.....

Samadhi Raja Sutra

2011-11-18T10:44:00.000-08:00

Know all things to be like this:
A mirage, a cloud castle,
A dream, an apparition,
Without essence, but with qualities that can be seen.

Know all things to be like this:
As the moon in a bright sky
In some clear lake reflected,
Though to that lake the moon has never moved.

Know all things to be like this:
As an echo that derives
From music, sounds, and weeping,
Yet in that echo is no melody.

Know all things to be like this:
As a magician makes illusions
Of horses, oxen, carts and other things,
Nothing is as it appears.
The Buddha

Elixir for Life from my consciousness

2011-08-28T02:22:00.000-07:00

Zen Essence Of Life:

- The Greatest achievement is self mastery.
- The greatest worth is the emptiness of everything.
- The greatest knowledge is constant awareness.
- The greatest action is not confronting or confirming with the worldly ways.
-The greatest wisdom is non attachment.
- The greatest medicine is peaceful mind.
- The greatest meditation is droping of self image.
-The greatest enlightment is not concerened with results.
-The greatest universal law is nothing is permanent.

To experience the infinite vastness within and to unfold cosmic wonders. Drop your mind every moment and simply flow with rhythm.

Nothing is as scary as our own mind and nothing is as sacred as our own mind. How we unfold our mind is the essence of life.

The entire universe arises and subsides in an infinite consciousness. Everything we call the external world is sensations, images, feelings & thoughts in our own consciousness.

There are only two responses to the world, accept or ignore. Our life depends on which one we choose.

In what is seen, there should be just the seen;

In what is heard, there should be just the heard;

In what is sensed, there should be just the sensed;

In what is thought, there should be just the thought."

Grasp nothing, resist nothing....

There is nothing rational about existence . I exist is a perpetual surprise & therefore simply live joyfully in present moment.

Every ending is simply a new beginning. Nothing ends, nothing. All is a beginning. Welcome to the new now.

In reality nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion or Illusion.

We make plans, projecting from the past into the future. But we can never fully anticipate the Unknown...

Six easy steps to enlightenment:

1. Accept Your Life Gracefully 2. Develop sense of peace 3. Develop sence of purpose 4. Develop sense of fulfillment 5. Be happy and relax ...There is no step 6....

Every tragedy of the human experience can be attributed to one human decision - the decision to withdraw from self image...

Life is a infinite series of cosmic game. It Fills what's empty. It Empties what's full!!!

In every event of LIFE, If we look only for what we want to see, we miss all there is worth to see.

The ability to think is extraordinary but, the ability when not to think is even more extraordinary.

The joy of life is not to have everything we want, but to enjoy everything that we have.

As we appreciate life without being judgemental, we become more happy, gracious and valuable ..both to ourselves and everyone around us.

The richest man is not he who has the most, but he who needs the least....

Meditation, nature, art and music all help our neurons to turn off the internal gossip and dialogue.

Internal dialogue limits our understanding towards universal realm & purpose of our beingness. Use the mind sparingly and seek a quiet mind as often as possible to witness and enjoy the vastness of cosmic circus.

From external world we expect and spend our entire life seeking what we already have........Happiness and Peace within!!!

There is actually nothing that we need in order to be happy. Our mind only creates the illusionary needs.

To experience karmic freedom and peace, allow Life to flow through you without any clinging, aversion or resistance with simple awareness.

Understanding our mind is far more important than understanding Life, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom towards our life.

It is not about how we live our life, It is all about how we respond to our life.

Between the banks of pleasure and pain the river of life flows. The key is to let life flow in its own rhythm.

Change is inevitable. The trick in life is not to resist or avoid the change, but to adopt the change.

We have no right to ask when sorrow comes, "Why did this happen to me?" unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness that comes our way.

If something is comming in your life, dont resist and if something is going from your life dont try to hold it, Let nature play its own game. You simply remain as that Space of being.

Its worth avoiding those People who are more impressed by the height of your material wealth than the the depth of your inner wealth.

I trust Law of Nature, because it is unbiassed, unprejudiced, uninfluenced by like or dislike, by any doubt or fear and its above perspective of human mind.

The irony of life is that, by the time we are matured enough to know our way around, we are old enough not going anywhere.

Frame every so-called event in Life with these words:

' In five years, will this matter?'

The obstacle in spritual growth is not ignorance of self, it is the illusion of self.

If we neglect the present for the future, we will never cherish our life, because when the future arrives we may not be present....

We are not body, brain or name, then who we are ? We are all spiritual beings traveling along the same path. Eventually we all are destined to get to the same place. During this entire journey, The direction is more important than the speed. Experience is more worthy than belief. Rest all is illusion.

The wonderful teaching is from a bird silently flying across the sky: it leaves no path that can be followed, yet its rhythm, freedom, joy, beingness and skill to reach destination cannot be denied.

Do not seek fame. Do not make plans. Do not crave anything. Do not be absorbed and entangled by activities. Do not think that you know or you dont know something. Be just aware of all that is around you and dwell in the infinite. Wander where there is no path. Enjoy all that nature gave you, but act as though you have received nothing because you can not hold or posses anything. Be empty, that is all.

Meditation is the only process, to know nothing and yet everything.

Letting go of our thoughts, beliefs, emotions, point of view and ego is a wonderful gift to ourselves and world. it is Freedom from self created insanity and illusion.

Some of us think holding on makes us stronger, try other way round to realize, if there was anything worth holding on to!!!

The circumstances of the world are so variable, It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most receptive and responsive to change.

Our existence, our mind, our thoughts, our emotions, our achievments, our ego, our noise, birth or death all these has no relevance to the universe and its flow. In contrast, universe and its flow plays a vital role and have great significance for our beingness.

We don't have power to stop the mind, but if we wish we do have power to alter it.

It requires courage to see insight, how imaginary concepts superimpose the illusion of various things in our mind, which is the root cause of all afflictions.

The essence of life is very simple. Everything arises and everything dissolves in its own natural flow. Just be with the flow......

The mind is like a garden. Either cultivate it well, or accept the weed.

Something we call it misfortune today, become a blessings after few years or a vice versa, because universal law is bottomless.

Often the mind only come in the way of natural flow of life. Step out of the way and allow life to flow in its own direction. Be a silent observer.

If you wish to make a difference in the life of a person today, start with self and you'll make a difference to the entire world.

Wise individual knows how to apply the mind, Awaken individual knows how to ignore the mind.

Some of the most significant moments in our life happen without we even knowing it. All our emotions and corresponding actions are simply based on Ego, fear and desire only. Be aware of them fully to realize and alter the Life.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I am suppose to be.

If we understand the transient and illusory nature of every event in life, then it should not be difficult for us to accept the flow of our life.

Everything in the Universe eventually wears out. We do not pass through life. Life passes through us...

We have a choice to determine what LIFE means to us! Until we decide to give meaning to our life, it remains meaningless.

There's no real world apart from illusionary dreams created by mind. To see dreams as dreams is freedom. To deny dreams is adding one more illusionary dream.

Sometimes we need to distance ourself from our mind, to see things clearly.

Jiddu Krishnamurthy on Dying daily

2011-07-31T03:50:00.000-07:00

Questioner: Would you please explain what you mean by dying daily?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Why is it that we are so frightened of death? Because death is the unknown. We don't know what is going to happen tomorrow; actually, we don't know what is going to happen. Though we build for tomorrow, actually, realistically, we don't know; and so there is always the fear of tomorrow. So, fear is the guiding factor, which is the incapacity to meet the unknown, and therefore we continue taking today over into tomorrow. That is what we are doing, is it not? We give continuity to our idiosyncrasies, to our jealousies, to our stupidities, to our memories; wherever we are, we carry them over from day to day.

Don't we do that? And so there is no dying, there is only an assurance of continuity. That is a fact. Our names, our actions, the things that we do, our property, the desire to be - all these give a continuity. Now, that which continues obviously cannot renew. There can be renewal only when there is an ending. If you are the same tomorrow as you are today, how can there be renewal? That is, if you are attached to an idea, to an experience which you have had yesterday and which you desire to continue tomorrow, there is no renewal; there is a continuity of the memory of the sensation of that experience, but the experience itself is dead. There is only the memory of the sensation of that experience, and it is that sensation you want to continue. And where there is continuity, obviously there is no renewal. And yet it is what most of us want - we want to continue.

We want to continue with our worries, with our pleasures, with our memories; and so most Of us are actually uncreative. There is no possibility of a rebirth, a renewal. Whereas, if each day we died, finished at the end of the day all our worries, all our jealousies, all our idiocies and vanities, our cruel gossip - you know, the whole business - if each day we came to an end and did not carry all that over into tomorrow, then there would be a possibility of renewal, would there not?

So, why do we accumulate? And what is it that we accumulate, apart from furniture and a few other things? What is it that we accumulate? Ideas, words, and memories, do we not? And with these we live - we are those things. With those things we want to live, we want to continue. But if we did not continue, there would be a possibility of a new understanding, a new opening. This is not metaphysical, this is not something fantastic. Experiment with it yourself and you will see that an extraordinary thing takes place. How the mind worries over a problem, over and over and over again, day after day!

Such a mind is incapable, obviously, of seeing something new, is it not? We are caught in our beliefs - religious, sociological, or any other form of belief - and those beliefs are oneself. Beliefs are words, and the word becomes important, and so we live in a sensation which we want to continue, and therefore there is no renewal. But if one does not continue, if one does not give continuity to a worry, but thinks it out, goes into it fully and dissolves it, then one's mind is fresh to meet something else anew.

But the difficulty is that most of us want to live in the past, in past memories, or in the future, future hopes, future longings - which indicates that the present is not significant, and therefore we live yesterday and tomorrow, and give continuity to both. If one actually experiments with this thing, really dying each day, each minute, to everything that one has accumulated, then there is a possibility of immortality. Immortality is not continuity, which is merely time; there is continuity only to memory, to ideas, to words. But, when there is freedom from continuity, then there is a state of timelessness, which cannot be understood if you are merely the result of continuity.

Therefore, it is important to die every minute and to be reborn again - not as you were yesterday. This is really very important, if you would go into it seriously. Because, in this there is a possibility of creation, of transformation. And most of our lives are so unhappy because we don't know how to renew; we are worn out, we are destroyed by yesterday, by yesterday's memories, misfortunes, unhappiness, incidents, failures.

Yesterday burdens our minds and hearts, and with that burden we want to understand something which cannot be understood within the limits of time. And that is why it is essential, if one would be creative in the deep sense of that word, that there be death to all the accumulations of every minute. This is not fantastic, this is not some mystical experience. One can experience this directly, simply, when one understands the whole significance of how time as continuity prevents creativeness.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti talk at Ojai, August 27, 1949

What is Most Important in Life.

2011-05-15T01:32:00.000-07:00

There is a story by Leo Tolstoy of a king who had everything he needed, but he had three questions that nagged at him.
What is the right time to do any one thing?
Who are the right people to listen to and work with?
What is the most important thing to do at all times?
He figured that if he knew the answers to these questions, he would be free of any anxiety and never have any issues.
He called upon all his countrymen to a contest to see if anyone had the answers. Hundreds of people came in.
For the first question there were a variety of answers. Some people told him he needed to fill out a calendar and follow it to the tee and then he would know what the right thing to do was. Others had other theories.
For the second question, again, some people listed religious leaders; others said he needed a wise counsel to rely on, while others said the military is who he should surround himself with.
The third answer brought similar responses from science to religion to the military.
Underwhelmed by all these responses, the king dressed in peasant clothing and walked up to visit a wise hermit on top of the mountain, for he may have the answer.
The hermit was busy plowing a garden and the king said, “Excuse me, wise hermit, you do not know me, but I have come to ask you three questions.”
After asking the questions the hermit smiled, patted him on the back, and continued on. The king soon saw that the hermit looked tired and offered to help and began plowing himself. After some time, the king asked the questions again and was interrupted by the sight of a naked man running through the hills with blood spilling from his stomach.
The bleeding man made his way to the hermit and king and the king swept into action and began tearing his own shirt to dress this man’s wound. The hermit and king went to lay the man down to rest in the cave where the hermit stayed and the king’s eyes began to close from exhaustion.
When he awoke he saw the man lying next to him and the man said, “Please forgive me.”
“What have you done that needs forgiveness my son,” said the king.
He continued, “You do not know me, but I was your enemy and after the last war you took my house and killed my brother. I came here for revenge to kill you, and had been waiting for you down the hill for quite some time. But after you didn’t show up, I decided to run out from where I was, but your men found me and gave me this wound. If it wasn’t for you, I would have died out there, so please forgive me and I will be in your debt forever. The king was surprised how easy it was to reconcile with a former enemy and pledged to give the man his house and land back. The man then went on his way.
The hermit came back in the cave and the king once again asked him these three questions to which the hermit replied, “You already know the answer.”
The king gave him a confused look.
The hermit said, “Don’t you see, if you didn’t take pity on me yesterday and help me plow the garden, you would have been attacked by that man and likely died. So the most important time was with me helping me plow those gardens and I was the most important man to be with and to do this good deed was the most important thing to do at the time. After this, the most important time was dressing the wound of that man, for if you had not done that he would have died and you would have never made peace with him. So he was the most important person to be with and what you did for him was the most important thing to do.
So what can you take away from Tolstoy’s story today? We are all looking for the next best thing or the most important thing to be doing and what we often don’t realize is that maybe what we’re doing RIGHT NOW is actually the most important time and who we’re with is the most important person and what we’re doing in the moment is the most important thing to do.

Krishnamurti on Awareness

2011-04-02T23:54:00.000-07:00

You can’t be totally aware if you are choosing. If you say “This is right and that is wrong,” the right and the wrong depend on your conditioning. What is right to you may be wrong in the Far East. You believe in a savior, in the Christ, but they don’t, and you think they will go to hell unless they believe as you do. …To be aware is to be conscious of all this, choicelessly, it is to be aware totally of all your conscious and unconscious reactions. And you can’t be aware totally if you are condemning, if you are judging, if you are justifying, or if you say, “I will keep my beliefs, my experiences, my knowledge.” Then you are only partially aware, and partial awareness is really blindness.
Seeing or understanding is not a matter of time, it is not a matter of gradations. Either you see or you don’t see. And you can’t see if you are not deeply aware of your own reactions, of your own conditioning. Being aware of your conditioning, you must watch it choicelessly; you must see the fact and not give an opinion or judgment about the fact. In other words, you must look at the fact without thought. Then there is an awareness, a state of attention without a center, without frontiers, where the known doesn’t interfere…
(London, 4th Public Talk, June 12, 1962 Collected Works, Vol.XIII, p.188)

So, through awareness I begin to see myself as I actually am, the totality of myself. Being watchful from moment to moment of all its thoughts, feelings, its reactions, unconscious as well as conscious, the mind is constantly discovering the significance of its own activities, which is self-knowledge….
All relationship is a mirror in which the mind can discover its own operations. Relationship is between oneself and other human beings, between oneself and things or property, between oneself and ideas, and between oneself and nature. And, in that mirror of relationship, one can see oneself as one actually is, but only if one is capable of looking without judging, without evaluating, condemning, justifying. When one has a fixed point from which one observes, there is no understanding in one’s observation.
So, being fully conscious of one’s whole process of thinking, and being able to go beyond that process, is awareness. You may say it is very difficult to be so constantly aware. Of course it is very difficult—it is almost impossible. You cannot keep a mechanism working at full speed all the time; it would break up; it must slow down, have rest. Similarly, we cannot maintain total awareness all the time. How can we? To be aware from moment to moment is enough. If one is totally aware for a minute or two and then relaxes, and in that relaxation spontaneously observes the operations of one’s own mind, one will discover much more in that spontaneity than in the effort to watch continuously. You can observe yourself effortlessly, easily—when you are walking, talking, reading—at every moment. Only then will you find out that the mind is capable of freeing itself from all the things it has known and experienced, and it is in freedom alone that it can discover what is true.
(Brussels,Belgium, 4th Public Talk, June 23, 1956 Collected Works, Vol.X, pp.53-4)

Understanding comes with the awareness of what is. There can be no understanding if there is condemnation of or identification with what is. If you condemn a child or identify yourself with him, then you cease to understand him. So, being aware of a thought or a feeling as it arises, without condemning it or identifying with it, you will find that it unfolds ever more widely and deeply, and thereby discover the whole content of what is. To understand the process of what is there must be choiceless awareness, a freedom from condemnation, justification, and identification. When you are vitally interested in fully understanding something, you give your mind and heart, withholding nothing. But unfortunately you are conditioned, educated, disciplined through religious and social environment to condemn or to identify, and not to understand. To condemn is stupid and easy, but to understand is arduous, requiring pliability and intelligence. Condemnation, as identification, is a form of self-protection. Condemnation or identification is a barrier to understanding. To understand the confusion, the misery in which one is, and so of the world, you must observe its total process. To be aware and pursue and pursue all its implications requires patience, to follow swiftly, and to be still.
There is understanding only when there is stillness, when there is silent observation, passive awareness. Then only the problem yields its full significance. The awareness of which I speak is of what is from moment to moment, of the activities of thought and its subtle deceptions, fears and hopes. Choiceless awareness wholly dissolves our conflicts and miseries.
(Madras, 11th Public Talk, December 28, 1947 Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp. 143-4)

I wonder if you have ever walked along a crowded street, or a lonely road, and just looked at things without thought? There is a state of observation without the interference of thought. Though you are aware of everything about you, and you recognize the person, the mountain, the tree, or the oncoming car, yet the mind is not functioning in the usual pattern of thought. I don’t know if this has ever happened to you. Do try it sometime when you are out driving or walking. Just look without thought; observe without the reaction which breeds thought. Though you recognize color and form, though you see the stream, the car, the goat, the bus, there is no reaction, but merely negative observation; and that very state of so-called negative observation is action. Such a mind can utilize knowledge in carrying out what it has to do, but it is free of thought in the sense that it is not functioning in terms of reaction. With such a mind—a mind that is attentive without reaction—you can go to the office, and all the rest of it.
(Saanen, 7th Public Talk, July 26, 1964 Collected Works, Vol.XIV, p. 20)

Zen is Understanding Yourself

2011-03-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

One day a student from Chicago came to the Providence Zen Center and asked Seung Sahn Soen-Sa, “What is Zen?”

Soen-sa held his Zen stick above his head and said, “Do you understand?”

The student said, “I don’t know.”

Soen-sa said, “This don’t know mind is you. Zen is understanding yourself.”

“What do you understand about me? Teach me.”

Soen-sa said, “In a cookie factory, different cookies are baked in the shape of animals, cars, people, and airplanes. They all have different names and forms, but they are all made from the same dough, and they all taste the same.

“In the same way, all things in the universe – the sun, the moon, the stars, mountains, rivers, people, and so forth – have different names and forms, but they are all made from the same substance. The universe is organized into pairs of opposites: light and darkness, man and woman, sound and silence, good and bad. But all these opposites are mutual, because they are made from the same substance. Their names and their forms are different, but their substance is the same. Names and forms are made by your thinking. If you are not thinking and have no attachment to name and form, then all substance is one. Your don’t know mind cuts off all thinking. This is your substance. The substance of this Zen stick and your own substance are the same. You are this stick; this stick is you.”

The student said, “Some philosophers say this substance is energy, or mind, or God, or matter. Which is the truth?”

Soen-sa said, “Four blind men went to the zoo and visited the elephant. One blind man touched its side and said, ‘The elephant is like a wall.’ The next blind man touched its trunk and said, ‘The elephant is like a snake.’ The next blind man touched its leg and said, ‘The elephant is like a column.’ The last blind man touched its tail and said, ‘The elephant is like a broom.’ Then the four blind men started to fight, each one believing that his opinion was the right one. Each only understood the part he had touched; none of them understood the whole.

“Substance has no name and no form. Energy, mind, God, and matter are all name and form. Substance is the Absolute. Having name and form is having opposites. So the whole world is like the blind men fighting among themselves. Not understanding yourself is not understanding the truth. That is why there is fighting among ourselves. If all the people in the world understood themselves, they would attain the Absolute. Then the world would be at peace. World peace is Zen.”

The student said, “How can practicing Zen make world peace?”

Soen-sa said, “People desire money, fame, sex, food, and rest. All this desire is thinking. Thinking is suffering. Suffering means no world peace. Not thinking is not suffering. Not suffering means world peace. World peace is the Absolute. The Absolute is I.”

The student said, “How can I understand the Absolute?”

Soen-sa said, “You must first understand yourself.”

“How can I understand myself?”

Soen-sa held up the Zen stick and said, “Do you see this?”

He then quickly hit the table with the stick and said, “Do you hear this? This stick, this sound, your mind – are they the same or different?”

The student said, “The same.”

Soen-sa said, “If you say they are the same, I will hit you thirty times. If you say they are different, I will still hit you thirty times. Why?”

The student was silent.

Soen-sa shouted, “KATZ!!!” Then he said, “Spring comes, the grass grows by itself.”

Plant the seed

2011-03-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust.

If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.

If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.

If you plant perseverance, you will reap victory.

If you plant consideration, you will reap harmony.

If you plant hard work, you will reap success.

If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.

If you plant openness, you will reap intimacy.

If you plant patience, you will reap improvements.

If you plant faith, you will reap miracles.

But:

If you plant dishonesty, you will reap distrust.

If you plant selfishness, you will reap loneliness.

If you plant pride, you will reap destruction.

If you plant envy, you will reap trouble.

If you plant laziness, you will reap stagnation.

If you plant bitterness, you will reap isolation.

If you plant greed, you will reap loss.

If you plant gossip, you will reap enemies.

If you plant worries, you will reap wrinkles.

If you plant sin, you will reap guilt.

Time - The Illusion

2011-02-27T00:05:00.000-08:00

Time - The Illusion
Sometimes people experience so-called co-incidences.
Synchronicity, co-incidences, and miracles are able to happen because the "past" has not yet gone.
The present affects the "past", and plays out Now.
The "past" is still present in the form of karma.
The "future" comes into existence according to what has been chosen in the "past", or according to what is being chosen this very moment, right Now.
The "past" is still playing out.
The "future" has not yet come.
Just Be… Now

When thoughts arise, things manifest physically (karma), and the world arises.
When thoughts disappear, nothing is manifested physically, and the world disappears.
Perhaps psychic readings come into "reality" because of the "reading".
Don't worry about the "past".
Don't worry about the "future".
What's done is done, so let it go.
What's to come will come, as an automatic consequence.
Those who have complete and utmost trust and faith in God/Universe/Life worry about nothing.
Only those who have complete trust, and allow life to unfold naturally in the Now, can experience synchronicity and miracles.
Absolutely everything you need in life is already yours, but only if you stop worrying about such things.
Just Be... Now.

Only that which is relative is subject to change.
That which is Absolute can have no such limitations.
The Absolute is not subject to divisions and limitations of past, present, and future.
The ever-present Now is actually a Timeless Foreverness beyond form and physicality.
The senses cannot perceive this.
The ego/mind/intellect cannot comprehend it.
One must be It to know It.
Let go of the ego/mind/intellect. Let it fall away.
Just Be... Now.

There is nothing whatsoever to gain or realize, for The Absolute already Is.
There is only the letting go of that which stands in the way.
No time. No thoughts. No-Mind.
Just Be... Now.

Authour: Unknown

Zen Fundamentals can Change Person's Life

2011-01-22T09:05:00.000-08:00

The study of Zen has spread quickly throughout the world. People are looking for a sense of peace, a new outlook on life. Zen accomplishes this through meditation and direct experience of the world.

Even though there is much curiosity regarding Zen, people remain skeptical. It is often seen as a fad, although its practice has lasted throughout countless centuries. People wonder what benefits Zen study truly has.

The truth is Zen fundamentals can change your life. How? Here are ten life-changing behaviors that Zen fundamentals can instill in your life.

Identify your values. As you study your thoughts, you will find patterns in what your mind is drawn to. These are your values, what is most important in your life. This can include your family, your religion, healthy living, kindness to others, or environmental awareness. There are no right or wrong answers, just be honest with yourself and your values will become clear.
Embrace your values. Once you are aware of your values, it is far easier to live according to them. When faced with a decision, you can compare it to your values, and see if it will bring you closer to living your values, or will draw you away.
Develop inner peace. Zen mind does not struggle. It accepts life as it truly is. A rock is a rock. It will remain that way no matter how much you worry, wish, or pressure it into changing. The things your mind worries about are the same way. Accept things for how they are, and do not waste time or energy fretting over things you dislike.
Energize for change. Seemingly contradictory to point #3, Zen mind can give you extra energy for change. You are not wasting energy fighting against the inevitable. As above, there is a large rock in your way. You have three options: run into the rock repeatedly, agonize about the rock being in the way, or find a way around the rock. Before Zen, most people choose one of the first two options. With Zen mind, you accept the rock for what it is: an obstacle. You accept that you cannot go through it. You do not panic, and waste time and energy worrying about the obstacle. You instead make your own path around the obstacle, either over the rock, around the rock, or under the rock.
Enhance knowledge of yourself. As you practice Zen, you will spend a fair amount of time in meditation, listening to your mind ramble. In time, you learn what quiets your mind, and puts you at peace. Listening to the same fears repeating themselves in your mind will soon inspire you to change what is causing those fears. You realize, for example, that your job is a large source of anxiety, and it is time for a change. Without meditation, we tend to ignore what our mind is telling us, and remain locked into our old patterns of doing things.
Gain confidence. As you reflect on your inner self, you become conscious of who you really are. You learn what makes you happy, what is beneficial to your life. You bypass the fears and anxieties of your mind, and do what needs to be done. You walk boldly, live passionately. The opinions of others do not matter, because you know you are doing what is right.
Appreciate life. You accept life as it is. Starry evenings, a stroll by the river, or a night of solitude each have their own unique characteristics to be appreciated. Mundane activities, such as household chores or doctor’s appointments, also hold their own charm. Observing the quiet details of life lends value to the less appealing aspects, and brings peace and joy in commonplace tasks.
Increase consideration for others. Each person on this Earth is interconnected. We are all searching for peace, contentedness, and a meaningful life. It is much harder to be angry at the person who cut you off in traffic when you realize they are on the same path, just at a different point in their journey.
Simplify your life. Meditation helps you differentiate between needs and wants. Needs are the basics for survival, such as air, food, water, clothing, and shelter. Wants are designer jeans, the latest electronic gadget, or a mansion. You learn that you can live without the latest, greatest thing. You begin to use your stuff as tools on your journey, and not as status symbols or emotional crutches. The same holds true for your commitments. Your to-do list can be culled down to the necessities, such as caring for your family, providing for needs, and fulfilling activities. It is far easier to say no to another commitment, when your plate is full of the things you love and require.
Cultivate a giving spirit. When you are living the best life you can, your heart fills with joy. You are doing what you were put on this earth to do, and doing it to the best of your ability. Your life is simple, you are living your values, and you have a clear mind. You can then give to others with a loving spirit, to help them along their path.

There are countless more ways that Zen fundamentals can benefit you. Experience the life changing advantages of a Zen mind, through simple meditation and appreciating life to the fullest. Have you found that Zen has changed your life? What benefits have you gained through Zen study? Stop by and let me know. I’d enjoy hearing what Zen has done in your life.

By Kimberlee Ferrell

Faith Mind

2010-12-29T11:19:00.000-08:00

Verses On the Faith Mind

Translated by Richard B. Clarke

The Great Way is not difficult

for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent

everything becomes clear and undisguised.

Make the smallest distinction, however

and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

If you wish to see the truth

then hold no opinions for or against anything.

To set up what you like against what you dislike

is the disease of the mind.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood

the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

The Way is perfect like vast space

where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.

Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject

that we do not see the true nature of things.

Live neither in the entanglements of outer things,

nor in inner feelings of emptiness.

Be serene in the oneness of things

and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.

When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity

your very effort fills you with activity.

As long as you remain in one extreme or the other

you will never know Oneness.

Those who do not live in the single Way

fail in both activity and passivity,

assertion and denial. To deny the reality of things

to assert the emptiness of things is to miss their reality.

The more you talk and think about it,

the further astray you wander from the truth.

Stop talking and thinking,

and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

To return to the root is to find the meaning,

but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.

At the moment of inner enlightenment

there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness.

The changes that appear to occur in the empty world

we call real only because of our ignorance.

Do not search for the truth;

only cease to cherish opinions.

Do not remain in the dualistic state

avoid such pursuits carefully.

If there is even a trace of this and that, of right and wrong,

the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.

Although all dualities come from the One,

do not be attached even to this One.

When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way,

nothing in the world can offend,

and when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to exist in the old way.

When no discriminating thoughts arise, the old mind ceases to exist.

When thought objects vanish, the thinking-subject vanishes,

as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.

Things are objects because of the subject (mind);

he mind (subject) is such because of things (object).

Understand the relativity of these two

and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.

In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable

and each contains in itself the whole world.

If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine

you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.

To live in the Great Way

is neither easy nor difficult,

but those with limited views

and fearful and irresolute: the faster they hurry, the slower they go,

and clinging (attachment) cannot be limited;

even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray.

Just let things be in their own way

and there will be neither coming nor going.

Obey the nature of things (your own nature),

and you will walk freely and undisturbed.

When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden,

for everything is murky and unclear,

and the burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness.

What benefit can be derived from distinctions and separations?

If you wish to move in the One Way

do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.

Indeed, to accept them fully

is identical with true Enlightenment.

The wise man strives to no goals

but the foolish man fetters himself.

This is one Dharma, not many: distinctions arise

from the clinging needs of the ignorant.

To seek Mind with the (discriminating) mind

is the greatest of all mistakes.

Rest and unrest derive from illusion;

with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.

All dualities come from

ignorant inference.

They are like dreams of flowers in the air:

foolish to try to grasp them.

Gain and loss, right and wrong:

such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.

If the eye never sleeps,

all dreams will naturally cease.

If the mind makes no discriminations,

the ten thousand things are as they are, of single essence.

To understand the mystery of this One-essence

is to be release from all entanglements.

When all things are seen equally

the timeless Self-essence is reached.

No comparisons or analogies are possible

in this causeless, relationless state.

Consider movement stationary and the stationary in motion,

both movement and rest disappear.

When such dualities cease to exist

Oneness itself cannot exist.

To this ultimate finality

no law or description applies.

For the unified mind in accord with the Way

all self-centered straining ceases.

Doubts and irresolution's vanish

and life in true faith is possible.

With a single stroke we are freed from bondage;

nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.

All is empty , clear, self-illuminating,

with no exertion of the mind's power.

Here thought, feeling, knowledge, and imagination

are of no value.

In this world of Suchness

there is neither self nor other-than-self

To come directly into harmony with this reality

just simply say when doubt arises, 'Not two.'

In this 'no two' nothing is separate,

nothing excluded.

No matter when or where,

enlightenment means entering this truth.

And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space;

in it a single thought is ten thousand years.

Emptiness here, Emptiness there,

but the infinite universe stands always before your eyes.

Infinitely large and infinitely small;

no difference, for definitions have vanished

and no boundaries are seen.

So too with Being

and non-Being.

Don't waste time in doubts and arguments

that have nothing to do with this.

One thing, all things:

move among and intermingle, without distinction.

To live in this realization

is to be without anxiety about non-perfection.

To live in this faith is the road to non-duality,

Because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind.

Words! The Way is beyond language,

for in it there is

no yesterday

no tomorrow

no today.

The Law of KARMA

2010-12-12T11:31:00.000-08:00

The energy of thoughtfulness, kindness and graciousness are considered to be ‘good karma’. When you send these energies out, they will be returned to you in kind.

Hate, anger , act of vengeance, vindictive thoughts, self pity and resentment are damaging energies. When you send out these negative energies, they too will return to you in some form and prolongs your own suffering and generates more bad karma.

Karma provides situations that will best help us to learn from our mistakes. The best way to deal with bad karma is to accept our fate and let it work itself out. We should accept the hand that life deals us and go with the flow, because if we resist life and try to wriggle out of our karma we will only make matters worse in the long run. Karma is self-balancing divine justice; it is 100% fair and absolutely infallible.

The Law of Karma is ‘as you give so you shall receive’, or ‘you reap what you sow’. Bad deeds and thoughts return to you, as do kind, thoughtful deeds. To the exact extent that you live these qualities, you will receive an equivalent back into your life, at some time. Karma is recorded and balanced. Loving thoughts, emotions, deeds and words are ‘credits’. Negative ones are ‘debits’. The Universe calls these up when we least expect it.

Your family is also your karma. Your soul chooses your family before you are born. Difficult family ties may be a consequence of unresolved feelings or situations in a past life. You choose that family this time around because your soul wanted another chance to resolve the problems. This offers you the lessons your soul needs to learn.

By loving and empowering others we heal karmic relationships.

Mindsets that you bring into this life with you are also your karma. If you have a mindset that you are not good enough, the belief will inevitably draw into your life things and people that make you feel inferior or weak.

Positive beliefs create good karma in your life. Wonderful things then happen. You are responsible for your own mindset, so change your beliefs if they do not serve you in a positive manner.

Your health is your karma. Before you incarnated you chose your family, your life challenges and your mission. You also chose your body and your genetic predisposition. Your moment by moment choices of thoughts and emotions will affect your vitality and health. This is your karma.

The balance sheet of your karma is known as your ‘Akashic Records’, which is a recorded history of all of your lives and life experiences and lessons. Karma is carried forward from lifetime to lifetime. We may not experience the consequences of our actions until a subsequent lifetime. Because of this there is often no obvious and visible correlation between an action and its consequence/s.

The higher our vibration, the more quickly karma returns to us. Some are subjected to ‘instant karma’. If you feel that you never get away with anything, you may be experiencing instant karma. This means that whatever you give out comes back to you, instantly. It is a sign that you are becoming more evolved because your karmic balance sheet is being kept up to date. Your soul is no longer allowing you to accumulate debt.

The key to the Law of Karma is ‘you reap what you sow.'

By: Joanne

There are Four different types of karma that works around our life:
Sanchita Karma: the accumulated result of all our actions from all our past lifetimes. This is our total cosmic debt. Every moment of every day either we are adding to it or we are reducing this cosmic debt.
Prarabdha Karma: the portion of our "sanchita" karma being worked on in the present life. If we work down we agreed upon debt in this lifetime, then more past debts surface to be worked on.
Agami Karma: the portion of actions in the present life that add to our "sanchita" karma. If we fail to work off our debt, then more debts are added to "sanchita" karma and are sent to future lives.
Kriyamana Karma: daily, instant karma created in this life that is worked off immediately. These are debts that are created and worked off - ie. we do wrong, we get caught.

On Death and Dying - A (very personal) Zen perspective

2010-12-04T21:39:00.000-08:00

eath is the Great Teacher, the Great Equalizer. Death claims the rich as well as the poor, it fells the powerful just as swiftly as the powerless. Death teaches us how precious life is, and brings into painful focus the precariousness of our sense of self. Death is also the ultimate irony, for it underscores the value of life by negating it; we tend to value life more when faced with the prospect of losing it, since only then can we muster the willpower to live our lives mindfully, a day at a time -- a moment at a time.

Our Lin Chi Chan school emphasizes mindful living; it teaches us to be fully present in the moment during every single minute of our day. This relentless focus on awareness brings with it a strong wonderment towards life, and it makes us value life because we are alive and not because we will die. The difference is not semantic: if we value life because we fear death, we can be happy only as long as we ignore the fact that we will die someday, and we become anguished as soon as we suspect that our life is endangered. This is a deluded and egotistical form of valuing life in that it humors the wants of our ego. The ego claims immortality but it is not the ego that is immortal. The ego is focused on the self, and feeds the self's need for self preservation and discrimination. The ego blinds us to the reality of mortality, as well as to the reality that our essence, our Buddha essence, is indeed immortal.

In Chan, we value life not because of a fear of death, but because ... we are alive! We value life for itself, not for its absence. Not for its eventual cessation. This frame of mind arises from awareness, and is facilitated through the contemplative practice of meditation. Once we free ourselves from concerns of death, we make a great step towards grinding down our dualistic thought; we value life for what it is, for its "suchness" as well as for the opportunities it affords us, not because it props up our ego and ensures its survival. The life/death dualistic view of existence isolates us from the world, causing us to seek to create classifications, categories, and other things that express our sense of separation from the world around us. A mind that avoids the reality of death cannot affirm the value of life. The ego's tendency to value only what it can lose leads to dualistic thought which isolates us further from the others around us. This tendency stems from the root of all dualistic views: that which sees the ego as a self-standing entity, existing on its own, separate from all that surrounds it. Dualistic thought leads to alienation from our True Nature because it makes us see ourselves as separate from the others: valuing life because we will lose it is a primal form of dualistic thought.

The need to fathom the nature of death leads many of us to Religion. A commentator once wrote that religion was created by our restless minds as a way to cope with death. Buddhism is no different in this regard, but unlike other religions it significantly tones down the focus on death by classifying it as one more form of suffering, and by providing very clear instructions on how to address suffering, which is, itself, the solution for understanding death.

Chan Buddhism has no formula for how to overcome or transcend death. In Chan we deal with death not by trying to avoid it, or by hoping to attain rebirth in another form or another realm. We recognize that death is another point of change on an infinite continuum of change. If we attribute suffering to death, then death is suffering. If we attribute death to a process of change, removing our projections of fear, then it is just that. The Chan practices of concentration and meditation make clear the inherent lack of individual-nature in everything - including us. And it makes clear that the unifying essence of Buddha Nature permeates everything, both in space and in time, the realization of this fact dispels the duality that so feeds the ego. The practice of the eightfold path is the first step toward relieving suffering, and it prepares us for ultimate liberation from delusion and, thereby, death.

In Chan, death is no different from lunch or from a cab ride: it is just an event that happens of its own accord. Death is only tragic for the ego, for it is only the ego that fears it, and for good reason, because the ego knows it will sever the connection with all its attachments, which is all the ego is. What it doesn't know, is that its very existence eliminates our chance of attaining a pure, egoless, awareness - what we call the "enlightened mind." For those of us who have taken the Bodhisattva vows, which includes the promise to help other sentient beings, it raises the question of how we can help other sentient beings attain an enlightened mind if we, ourselves, haven't yet found it. The realization of our impending death should bring a sharp sense of urgency to our practice, for we can only attain enlightenment while alive, and we can die at any moment. When I received the five precepts from Abbot Chuan Zhi, he expressed to me this sense of urgency: Don't waste time. Zen is a matter of life and death.

I had read how Hsu Yun used to talk about Chan as "a matter of life and death," but it takes great effort - or a close call with death - for us to internalize this point.

None of these aspects I'm discussing are mere philosophical or religious bantering: I have just been diagnosed with prostate cancer. It was fortunate that it was diagnosed early and that I have been a Dharma practitioner for so long: for one, I seem to have a good chance of cure and, for another, because this brought renewed energy and focus to my practice.

Prostate cancer is a type of cancer that grows slowly - which is not necessarily good news for someone like me who still hasn't clocked 50 years of age, yet its treatment has a host of side effects that rob us of our dignity and sense of self. What a great solution for rapid advances in Zen! Here lies a great opportunity to practice: not only am I given a sharp reminder of how tenuous life is, but it also brought my mind to focus on several hua tous: "who is this I?" "Whose identity is threatened by the disease?" "What is this dignity that I supposedly have and that I am being robbed of, and who is the one being robbed?"

I also have the privilege of observing my mind as it indulges in all sorts of negative thoughts and feelings: a sense of loss, a fear of the unknown, frustration. And, on the other hand, I observe the more rational mind answering that these feelings make no sense, that they apply to the interpretation of some knowledge that I now have about my death - in many cases to inference about that knowledge - and not to facts: my likelihood of dying did not change by my knowing the probable cause for my death. The only change is that now I have something around which my restless monkey mind can busy itself with. My mind's craving for duality just found a new tool! But this has also given me a renewed sense of urgency and a far greater focus on practice, I can now raise a doubt when using a hua tou, and the doubt is solid and strong. The doubt just . . . is, and I see what's beyond the doubt.

I don't know if I'll be cured, or if this growth inside me will kill me, but I thank it for raising in me such strong and present doubt, a mind that questions and investigates deeply. As the Latin saying goes: Mors certa, hora incerta. Death is certain, only the time of its occurrence is uncertain

Written by Upasaka Fa Huo

Japanese Poems when life ends!

2010-12-04T21:25:00.000-08:00

Gesshu Soko, died January 10, 1696, at age 79

Inhale, exhale
Forward, back
Living, dying:
Arrows, let flown each to each
Meet midway and slice
The void in aimless flight --
Thus I return to the source.

Goku Kyonen, died October 8, 1272, at age 56

The truth embodied in the Buddhas
Of the future, present, past;
The teaching we received from the
Fathers of our faith
Can be found at the tip of my stick.

When Goku felt his death was near, he ordered all his monk-disciples to gather around him. He sat at the pulpit, raised his stick, gave the floor a single tap with it, and said the poem above. When he finished, he raised the stick again, tapped the floor once more, and cried, "See! See!" Then, sitting upright, he died.

Hosshin, 13th century

Coming, all is clear, no doubt about it. Going, all is clear, without a doubt.
What, then, is all?

Hosshin's last word was "Katsu!" (a word signifying the attainment of enlightenment.)

Shoro, died April 1894, at age 80

Pampas grass, now dry,
once bent this way
and that.

Sunao, died in 1926 at 39

Spitting blood
clears up reality
and dream alike.

Senryu, died September 23, 1790, at 73

Bitter winds of winter --
but later, river willow,
open up your buds.

Kozan Ichikyo, died February 12, 1360, at 77

Empty-handed I entered the world
Barefoot I leave it.
My coming, my going --
Two simple happenings
That got entangled.

A few days before his death, Kozan called his pupils together, ordered them to bury him without ceremony, and forbade them to hold services in his memory. He wrote this poem on the morning of his death, laid down his brush and died sitting upright.

Senryu, died June 2, 1827

Like dew drops
on a lotus leaf
I vanish.

Shinsui, died September 9, 1769, at 49

O

During his last moment, Shisui's followers requested that he write a death poem. He grasped his brush, painted a circle, cast the brush aside, and died.

The circle is one of the most important symbols of Zen Buddhism. It indicates void -- the essence of all things -- and enlightenment.

The poems collected and edited by Yoel Hoffman are part of a centuries-old Japanese tradition in which Zen monks, samurai and others compose poems at the moment of death.

The Magical Illusion of Self

2010-11-28T10:55:00.000-08:00

For the meditator who sees things as they really are, explains the late Mahasi Sayadaw, there is no “I” or “being”—only mental and physical phenomena coming together in the present moment.

Seeing the mind (mental phenomena, which incline toward sense-objects) and body (physical phenomena, which change) as they really are is the purification of view.

—Visuddhimagga 2, 222

A meditator will rarely have wandering thoughts once concentration becomes strong. Instead, there will be an uninterrupted flow of pure noting mind most of the time. If a wandering thought does enter the mind, the meditator will be able to note it immediately and the thought will pass away. The meditator sees physical phenomena as they really are: that they are subject to alteration and that they are not able to know or experience anything. They are insensible (abyakata), inanimate, just like a log or stone.

As the meditator is noting, it becomes obvious that the noting mind resembles running to and sticking with the noted object. Likewise, it becomes obvious that the six types of consciousness—seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking—seem to go to their respective sense objects. The meditator is seeing and understanding mental phenomena as they really are, seeing their characteristic of inclining, or being drawn toward, sense objects.

For the meditator who sees things as they really are, it is obvious that the mental and physical phenomena are different. They are not taken as one and the same anymore, as they were before the practice of meditation. When the meditator observes the rising movement (of the abdomen when breathing in), he or she can at least discern between the rising movement and the noting mind. Similarly, the meditator can differentiate between the falling movement (of the abdomen when breathing out) and the noting of it; the sitting posture and the noting of it; the intention to bend, the bending movement, and the noting of it; the intention to stretch, the stretching movement, and the noting of it; the visible form, the eye, the seeing, and the noting of it.

Before a drum is beaten, its sound does not exist in the drum itself, the drumstick, or anywhere in between. Even though a sound occurs when the drum is beat, the sound does not originate from the drum or the drumstick. The physical phenomena of drum and drumstick are not transformed into a sound nor does the sound originate from anywhere in between drum and drumstick. In dependence on the drum, the drumstick, and the hitting of the drum, the sound is a completely new phenomenon each time the drum is hit. The drum and the stick are different from the sound.

In the same way, before you see something or someone, seeing does not exist in the eye, in the visible form, or anywhere in between. The seeing that takes place neither originates in the eye nor in the visible form. The seeing consciousness neither originates in the eye nor in the visible forms, which are physical phenomena. It also does not originate from anywhere in between. Seeing is actually a new phenomenon that arises due to the combination of the eye, the visible form, light, and your attention. Thus, the eye and the visible form are different from the seeing. The same is true for the other senses.

When you understand the difference between mental and physical phenomena, you are likely to reflect that neither the mind nor the body alone can perform actions such as sitting, standing, walking, bending, stretching, seeing, hearing, and so on. Only the mind and body together can perform these activities.

Because of this, the mind and body together are mistaken for “I.” One thinks, “I am sitting; I am standing up; I am going; I am bending; I am stretching; I am seeing; I am hearing,” and so on. In reality, there is no “I” or “being” that sits, stands up, and walks, but only mental and physical phenomena. That is why the Visuddhimagga (2, 231) says:

In reality, mind conditions matter, and matter conditions mind. When the mind wants to eat, drink, speak, or change posture, it is the body that actually eats, drinks, speaks, or changes posture.

When we expand on this, we can say:

The volition to eat is mental, but what actually eats is the body.

The volition to drink is mental, but what actually drinks is the body.

The volition to speak is mental, but what actually speaks is the body.

The volition to sit down is mental, but what actually sits down is the body.

The volition to stand up is mental, but what actually stands up is the body.

Some meditators may use similes to describe their experience of mental and physical phenomena. The Visuddhimagga (2, 228) gives these similes:

A coach is so called because of the way that its components are assembled: the axles, wheels, body, and shafts. However, if you examine each component separately, there is no coach to be found. A house is so called when its materials, posts, beams, etc., are fit together. Other than these materials, however, there is no house that can be found. A tree is so called because it includes a trunk, branches, and leaves, and so on. But apart from these parts, no tree can be found.

In the same way, a being is so called because he or she is composed of the five aggregates of clinging, i.e. mental and physical phenomena. However, if you pay attention to each of these phenomena separately, you will no longer have the conceit that, “I am so and so,” or the wrong belief that, “I am a person.” You realize that, in terms of ultimate reality, there is no being that exists. All that exists is the mind, which is able to incline to the object and know the object, and matter, which is not able to know the object and is subject to alteration. This realization is called “seeing things as they really are.”

Being able to come up with a good simile, however, doesn’t matter. Without thinking deliberately, while you are simply noting, you are able to discern between mental and physical phenomena, and you understand that in this body there are only mental phenomena that are able to know objects and physical phenomena that are not able to know objects. Besides these two phenomena, there is no being, I, soul, or self. This understanding comes naturally and is the peak of the insight knowledge of mental and physical phenomena. This insight knowledge in turn is called “the purification of view,” as it helps to remove the deluded view that a being really exists (atta-ditthi). That is why theMahātīkā [the commentary to the Visuddhimagga] says:

The phrase “seeing mind and matter as they really are” means seeing them as just phenomena and not a being by observing their individual characteristics, thus: “This is mind; this much is mind; there is nothing more than this (i.e., no being). This is matter; this much is matter; there is nothing more than this (i.e., no being).” This is purification of view, as it eliminates the deluded view that a being really exists. Thus should it be understood.

The individual characteristics of physical phenomena (such as alteration or roughness and hardness) and individual characteristics of mental phenomena (such as inclining toward the object, mental contact with the object, feeling, perceiving, or knowing of an object) only really exist in the moment they occur—not before or after. That is why you can only be truly aware of the specific characteristics of mental and physical phenomena when you observe them from moment to moment. In this way, you understand that there is no “I” or being, but only mental and physical phenomena. This understanding is called the purification of view. It means that this understanding can eliminate the wrong view of a person or being.

When the characteristics of mind and matter have been understood as they truly are by noting the presently arising objects, the meditator comes to see the causes of those phenomena. With this, the insight knowledge of conditionality will arise: the realization that certain causes give rise to certain phenomena, whether in the past, present, or future. This insight knowledge can take various forms, depending on a person’s aspiration, spiritual maturity, and intellectual ability. The Visuddhimagga identifies five forms, which are explained in the sections below.

The First Way of Seeing Conditionality
Seeing the Causes of Matter

Some meditators see the causes of matter. They see that physical phenomena have been continuously occurring, from birth up to the present moment, due to the four causes of ignorance, desire, clinging, and volitional actions in the past. They also see that the nutrition they receive in the present preserves the body, and that the desire to sit, bend, and so forth results in the physical actions of sitting, bending, etc. As well, they see that hot and cold environments give rise to hot and cold physical sensations.

A meditator can empirically observe the present causes for physical phenomena, such as nutrition, consciousness, and weather. But one cannot directly observe the causes from the past, such as ignorance, desire, clinging, and volitional actions. However, even before beginning meditation practice, a vipassana meditator has already accepted intellectually that wholesome actions lead to a good life and beneficial results, whereas unwholesome actions lead to a bad life and unbeneficial results. Therefore, when one practices and empirically observes ignorance, craving, clinging, and volitional actions in the present, one will inferentially realize that they were also operating in the past.

The mental and physical phenomena that make up our lives are all unsatisfying. Attachment to them is the cause of suffering. Not knowing this truth is called “ignorance of suffering and its cause.” Believing that the phenomena of life are actually satisfying and the cause of happiness is called the “delusion of pleasure and its cause.” These two kinds of delusion are deeply rooted in the hearts of ordinary people. They devote themselves day and night to enjoying as much pleasure as possible. Day and night, they do everything they can to get the most out of their present life and to enjoy better lives in the future. These delusions, therefore, cannot be overcome simply through study.

On the other hand, the cessation of the defilements and volitional actions as the causes of suffering leads to the complete cessation of all mental and physical phenomena at the time of entering parinibbana. One is no longer reborn as a human or deva, man or woman. This is called the truth of cessation.

Ignorance of the peace and happiness of nibbana, as well as ignorance of insight practice and the path (the causes of happiness and peace), can be called “ignorance of suffering and its cause.” Believing that nibbana must be awful and that insight practice and the path are causes of suffering can be called the “delusion of pleasure and its cause.” In other words, these are distorted and wrong understandings of the truths about the cessation of suffering and the way leading to its cessation.

If these two kinds of ignorance are very strong, one may actually fear nibbana, thinking that after parinibbana nothing will arise, nothing can be known or experienced, and one cannot meet others anymore. One may even make disparaging comments about liberation, saying, “Nibbana is complete annihilation. It can’t possibly be good. Practicing to attain it is simply going to a lot of trouble, mentally and physically, to attain annihilation!” For ordinary people, this active form of ignorance and wrong understanding of the four noble truths occurs only at certain times. However, it occurs in its dormant form along with every object that is not noted. Therefore, if ignorance is noted at the time of its occurrence, it can be empirically seen by the meditator.

In addition, if these mental and physical phenomena are mistakenly believed to be satisfying, liking and attachment arises. As a result, the desire to become more prosperous arises. This is clinging. Because of clinging, various activities—volitional actions—are performed.

Craving, clinging, and volitional actions can be seen by noting them as they are occurring and by recollecting them from the past. When the meditator sees in practice how volitional actions have their origins in ignorance, craving, and clinging, he or she realizes that because of volitional actions in the past there is continuous arising of physical phenomena in this life starting at the moment of rebirth-linking (the consciousness that gives rise to rebirth after death based on karmic accumulation). At the same time, the meditator understands that these physical phenomena also arise because of ignorance, craving, and clinging. We call this “realizing the causes of physical phenomena empirically and inferentially.”
Seeing the Causes of Mind

When seeing is noted, the meditator understands and comprehends that seeing occurs when there is the eye and a visible form. Or the meditator understands and comprehends that with the meeting of the eye, the visible form, and the seeing, there is contact between the object and the mind. The same is true for all the senses. Furthermore, when a meditator notes “seeing,” or “hearing,” or “touching,” or “thinking,” etc., he or she can see that contact with the object arouses pleasure or displeasure in the body or mind.

Pleasure is enjoyed and therefore the desire for continuous enjoyment arises. The meditator wants to get rid of the displeasure and wants pleasure instead. The clinging to pleasure causes actions of body, speech, and thoughts with the aim of gaining enjoyment. In this way, the meditator empirically sees the causes of the mind in an adequate manner.
Inferential Knowledge Regarding the Past and Future

Once a meditator has empirically seen the causes of mental and physical phenomena in the present life, he or she concludes with inferential knowledge that they must be the same in the past and future: “In the past, there were only these mental and physical phenomena which occurred due to certain causes. In the future, there will only be these mental and physical phenomena which will occur due to certain causes.”
Overcoming the Sixteen Kinds of Skeptical Doubts

A meditator who understands and comprehends that in the past, future, and present, there are only mental and physical phenomena that give rise to other mental and physical phenomena can abandon and overcome the belief in a self and the related sixteen kinds of doubts, which are as follows:

Five doubts about one’s existence in the past:

1. Did I exist in previous lives? (the notion that the “I” has existed forever)

2. Did I not exist in previous lives? (the notion that the “I” only exists in this present life)

3. What was I in previous lives? (rich or poor, lay, ordained, Myanmar, Indian, brahma,deva, human or animal, etc.)

4. What did I look like in previous lives (tall, short, fat, thin, fair, dark, etc.), and who or what created me in previous lives (God, Brahma, or another celestial being or did I spontaneously come into existence)?

5. What type of person was I in previous lives?

Five doubts about one’s existence in the future:

6. Will I have another life after death? (the notion that the “I” is indestructible and eternal)

7. Will I not have another life after death? (the notion that the “I” will disappear after death)

8. What will I be in my next life?

9. What will I look like in my next life, and who or what will create my next life?

10. What type of person will I be in my next life?

Six doubts about one’s existence in the present:

11. Is there an “I” (being, self, soul, spirit) in this body?

12. Is there not an “I” in this body?

13. What is this “I”? (rich or poor, lay, ordained, Myanmar, Indian, brahma, deva, human, or animal, etc.)

14. What does this “I” look like?

15. From where or what previous life did this “I” transmigrate?

16. To where or what future life will this “I” transmigrate?

These sixteen kinds of doubt only arise in those who believe in the existence of a “self.” They do not arise in those who understand that there is only a succession of mental and physical phenomena based on cause and effect—devoid of a “self” or an “I.”

One can only have doubts about whether or not a rabbit has horns if one does not really know what a rabbit looks like. If one has actually seen a rabbit, however, it would not be possible to entertain this doubt.

The Second Way of Seeing Conditionality

Some meditators experience the conditionality of mental and physical phenomena arising as follows:

I see due to the eye and visible forms. I hear due to the ear and sounds. I smell due to the nose and odors. I taste sweet, sour, and so forth, due to the tongue and flavors. I know touching sensations due to the body and tangible objects. I think, reflect, and note objects due to the heart-base and various mental objects. Due to wise attention, living in a suitable place, associating with virtuous people, listening to the dhamma expounded by the wise, and having mature paramis (virtues or perfections), there arises wholesomeness and the ability to practice insight meditation. Due to unwise attention, living in an unsuitable place, associating with evil people, listening to the words of immoral people, and having poorly developed paramis, there arises unwholesomeness.

Wholesome volitional actions based on delusion, craving, and clinging result in a fortunate rebirth, in good and pleasant objects at all six sense doors, and in many beneficial results. Unwholesome volitional actions based on delusion, craving, and clinging result in an unfortunate rebirth, in bad and unpleasant objects at all six sense doors, and in many unbeneficial results.

The physical phenomena that make up the heart-base, eye, ear, and so on, have been arising continuously since the first moment of this life due to past volitional actions.

The physical activities of sitting, walking, bending, and so on are caused by the intention or desire to do so.

The temperature of the external environment causes physical sensations of heat or cold. The nutrition in the food one eats gives energy to the body…

Meditators who understand and comprehend that in the present, there are only mental and physical phenomena that give rise to other mental and physical phenomena, inferentially understand that the same is true for the past and the future.

The Third and Fourth Ways of Seeing Conditionality

Some meditators see the arising, presence, and disappearance of conditioned phenomena while observing presently arising objects. From this, they understand that the first arising of the mind in this life is just another moment of arising of the mind. They also understand that death is just another moment of disappearance of the mind. They understand that aging is the successive presence of mental and physical phenomena. Therefore, the causes for mental and physical phenomena are understood. It can be understood in this way:

For aging and death, first there must be arising or rebirth.

Arising or rebirth in turn is generated by volitional actions.

Volitional actions are generated by clinging.

Clinging is caused by attachment to mental and physical phenomena.

Attachment results from pleasant and unpleasant sensations.

Sensations are brought about by contact between the mind and sense-objects

Contact originates from the sense-bases, the sensitive matter of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind (i.e., because of the eye-sensitivity and the mind, seeing occurs, and so on).

The sense-bases come into existence due to the mental and physical phenomena on which they depend (i.e., the sensitive matter of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body are based on the physical organs, and the mind is based on its physical base and the other mental elements).

Mental and physical phenomena are generated by various types of consciousness, such as rebirth-linking consciousness, the life-continuum and sense-consciousness.

Consciousness has its origin in volitional deeds that one has performed in past lives for one’s well-being.

Volitional actions arise from ignorance and delusion.

Noble beings, such as bodhisattas, fully realize conditionality in this way, by seeing dependent origination (paticcasamuppāda) in reverse order. Ordinary meditators are also able to realize conditionality this way and overcome the sixteen kinds of doubt. This is the third way of seeing the conditionality of mental and physical phenomena.

Other meditators realize conditionality by seeing dependent origination in forward order. That is, they realize that ignorance and delusion generate volitional actions, and that volitional actions generate consciousness, and so on. Noble beings, such as bodhisattas, fully realize conditionality in this way. Ordinary meditators are also able to realize conditionality this way and overcome the sixteen kinds of doubt. This is the fourth way of seeing the conditionality of mental and physical phenomena.

The Fifth Way of Seeing Conditionality

Some meditators see the conditionality of mental and physical phenomena in terms of the relationship between volitional acts and their results. This relationship between volitional action and its results is divided into the cycle of volitional actions (kamma-vatta) and the cycle of results (vipāka-vatta). The cycle of volitional actions includes ignorance and delusion, volitional action, attachment, clinging, and existence based on volitional actions(kamma-bhava). The cycle of results includes consciousness, mental and physical phenomena, the sense-bases, mental contact, and feeling.

If a meditator considered conditionality in detail, he or she would see each of the five causal factors and the five resultant factors. If a meditator considered it in general, he or she would not differentiate each individual cause and result. Instead, he or she would simply see volitional action as the cycle of volitional acts, and would see the kammic results of volitional actions as the cycle of results.

In the following sections, I explain how the Patisambhidāmagga, in the Pali Canon, explains the cycle of volitional actions and the cycle of results.
Causal Factors from Previous Lives

The volition generated as one plans to perform a wholesome or unwholesome action issankhāra. It is the volition that compels one to perform that action right away. However, the volition that is generated while actually performing the wholesome or unwholesome action is kamma-bhava.

Here’s an example of kamma-bhava: while giving something to someone, you let go of the thing and hand it over to the recipient so that he or she can do with it as he or she pleases. In the case of killing, you do that act so that the other being dies. In this way, the action is completed. It is just the same with other wholesome or unwholesome deeds.

There are five causal factors that occur as follows:

Ignorance and delusionlead to craving

Craving leads to clinging

Clinging leads to volition involved in preparing to act

Preparing to act leads to volition involved in carrying out the act

After carrying out the act one mistakenly thinks that the act is a cause for happiness and that the result to be experienced will be happiness

With this, ignorance is generated again, followed by craving, clinging, and so on. In this way, volitional actions, supported by ignorance and craving, can lead to rebirth.
Resultant Factors in the Present Life

When a meditator is noting mental and physical phenomena from moment to moment, it is obvious that successive moments of consciousness (seeing, hearing, etc.) are part of an ongoing mental process. In the same way, the moment of rebirth-linking consciousness of this present life can be understood as the successor to the last moment of consciousness (i.e., death) of the previous life.

If a meditator notes phenomena continuously from moment to moment, he or she will see new phenomena coming into existence. He or she can then realize inferentially that the phenomena at the moment of rebirth arose in the same manner. The same is true for the six senses, contact, and feeling. These resultant phenomena eventually give rise to the five causal phenomena when the six sense-bases mature.
Causal Factors in the Present Life and Resultant Factors in Future Lives

When the sense bases become mature in this present life, the five causal factors are generated: ignorance or delusion, wholesome or unwholesome volition, craving, clinging, and volitional action that result in new life. These five factors are generated when performing volitional acts in the present life and are the causes of future rebirth.

—Patisambhidāmagga, 30

These present causal factors lead to the arising of the five resultant factors in the future:

In the future, there will be rebirth-linking consciousness, mental and physical phenomena, the six sense-bases, contact between the mind and sense-object, and feeling or sensation. These five resultant factors will arise in future existences caused by volitional acts performed in this life.

—Patisambhidāmagga, 51
Inferential Knowledge

The five causal factors that were generated in past lives are the same as those generated in the present life. Also, the five resultant factors that will be generated in future lives will be the same as those generated in the present life. Therefore, if one empirically perceives the causal and resultant factors in the present life, one will also inferentially realize the causes generated in past lives and the results that will be generated in future lives.

These five resultant factors are all contained within one moment of consciousness. Therefore, if one is aware of these resultant factors in a general way, one will see all of them together as a whole. For example, when one notes a pleasant or unpleasant object, one is aware that the sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, or thought simply arises of its own accord as the result of past volitional action. One is not aware of each resultant factor separately, noticing, “This is consciousness; these are the mental and physical phenomena,” and so on.

Instead, one experiences all five of the causal factors together during a single moment of noting, seeing that they are the past causes. One then realizes that all volitional activities performed for the sake of one’s well-being, whether physical, verbal, or mental, whether in this life or the next, constitute volitional action that will lead to rebirth. However, one doesn’t see the resultant factors separately as, “This is ignorance; this is volitional action,”and so on.

Because the meditator finds only the causal and resultant factors at the time of noting, he or she concludes, “In past lives too, there was only volitional action and its result. In future lives too, there will only be volitional action and its results. There is only volitional action and its results, and no individual or personality who produces volitional action or enjoys or suffers its results.”

MAHASI SAYADAW was born in Burma in 1904 and ordained as a Buddhist monk at age twenty. He published many volumes of Buddhist literature in Burmese, including a Burmese translation of the Visuddhimagga. The teaching presented here is adapted from his newly translated Manual of Insight, edited by Steve Armstrong and Deborah Ratner-Helzer. Many of the early Insight Meditation teachers in the West were trained in Mahasi Sayadaw’s tradition of vipassana meditation. In 1979 he traveled to the West and taught at the newly founded Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. He died in 1982.

IT'S ALL A COSMIC JOKE!

2010-11-06T04:14:00.000-07:00

Satsang with Robert Adams

Introduction

'The individual is sentient and cannot be without consciousness. The Self is pure consciousness. Yet man identifies with the body, which is insentient. The insentient body does not say 'I am the body.' Something else says so. The unlimited Self does not say so either. Then who says it? A spurious 'I' which arises between pure consciousness and the insentient body, and which imagines itself limited to the body. Seek this and it will vanish as a phantom. That phantom is the ego or individuality. The present state is mere illusion. Our aim should be simply to remove this illusion."

Thus speaks Ramana Maharshi, one of the great contemporary sages of the Wisdom or Jnani tradition. Robert carries on this tradition, explaining that the world arises with the I-thought, or ego. When we sleep, we are absolute consciousness itself, but do not remember this transcendent state in waking consciousness. In waking consciousness, the I-thought reins, identifies with a body named Fred or Sam or Ed, and projects a world of phenomena, of intrigue, of evolution, of living and dying. But waking consciousness, like the dream state, is an appearance within absolute awareness, which is your real nature. Robert says forget the world, and know that which goes before birth and death. Who will listen to the crazy man that says you do not exist? Only those have given up on the mortal dream and long for rest in the absolute.

Robert’s Satsang ranged from total seriousness to total humor. Yet, the same absolute understanding was always there, sometimes hidden in the joke, sometimes hidden in seriousness. “Who would come,” he said, “if I only spoke the highest truth?” Yet, the highest truth inevitably emerged during Satsang. Rest in yourself. Abide in yourself and all will be revealed. To try to comprehend the Self through the intellect is impossible because mind is only a poor reflection of Self. Speculation will not reveal the Self but obscures the Self. Self is found in utter stillness which is so difficult to find. That is why the presence of a teacher who always abides in the Self is so important. Silence is the beginning and end of true seeking and is enlightenment and Nirvana itself.

R: There is no real purpose for you being alive. Ponder this. There is no special or real purpose for you being alive. What are you here for anyway?

What has man done for this earth? What has mankind achieved even with all its saints and sages? Civilizations have come and gone, and where are we now? We think we are important. Who do we think we are? We are born, we experience many things, we work, make a lot of money perhaps, then we get old and die. So what is the real purpose of all this? There is none.

We are nothing. You have no reason to exist. As a matter of fact, you do not exist. (Laughter) You have never really existed. It is all a cosmic joke. There is no reason for you to be alive and to be here. This may sound like an insult--it is! (More laughter) But it is the truth and the truth hurts.

You may think you are important, that you have come to earth to accomplish great deeds, or to get enlightened. That is not true. The enlightenment is already here and it doesn't need you. You are not wanted by anything or by anybody. (Laughter) You are a complete failure. (Loud laughter)

In truth you do not exist. The illusion of your existence makes you think that you are important, that you are somebody. That is why we talk about being nobody so much; there is no body. Yet, no matter how often I say this, you appear to be real. You appear to have a body. You appear to go to work. You appear to eat and sleep, and believe the illusion is going to continue. But as you know, soon you will be six feet under.

So what good are you? This is why it is important to wake up. Yet, you are never asleep! So who wakes up? Therefore, nothing is important. You think some things are important. So long as you think them important, you give them power, increas ing the power of living in things, making you feel more and more--so called--alive.

The beginning of wisdom is understanding that there is no wisdom. There is no body to have wisdom. The more you try to analyze things, the more you use your brain to function on this plane of existence, the more you put into Maya, into nothing, into illusion, the more that effort is inevitably doomed to failure. All you dreams and aspirations come to nothing. There is nothing you have to become or be.

Think of all the people looking for liberation, for enlightenment. Who wants to be liberated? The ego. There is no ego. (Laughter) There is no one to be liberated. Yet you continue to believe you exist.

Remember, never put lion's milk in a clay pot. (long pause...) So what are you here? You want a teaching. You want a lesson. You want a Mantra. You are looking for a way out. All of this searching and seeking keeps you back. It cannot fulfill you. It does nothing for you. Awakening is a joke. Liberation is a joke. My sitting here talking to you is a joke. There is nothing to be found, nothing to be achieved, nothing to become. You are attached to your mind and its false beliefs.

The so-called mind is constantly judging things to be good or bad, right or wrong, and you react to the judgments creating more problems, attaching you more firmly to the illusion.

Wouldn't it be beautiful if you awoke one morning and realized you do not exist, that you never existed, and that no one exists? There is no existence whatsoever. What role would you have then? As long as you believe you exist, you will defend yourself. You will fight for survival. You will seek wisdom. It is all very funny to me.

Even when I tell you to wake up, there is really no one to wake up. No one has ever gone to sleep. Who sleeps? You may say, "The body sleeps," or "The mind sleeps." But there is no body, there is no mind. There never was. All the teachings you have been through are a waste of time: the struggles, the searching all over the world for teachers, reading scriptures--to what avail? Why do you think you need these things?

All you need do is to understand what I am talking about. Ponder what I say. Then forget it. Do not hold on to thoughts, words, teachings. (A bird sings constantly in the background) The reason the bird sings beautifully is because it doesn't know it is a bird. It has no idea what it is. We give it a name, 'bird.' We give names to everything. These things just are. They are not here, they are not there. They are not good, they are not bad. The same with you. You are not this or that, you just are. There is absolutely nothing you have to do.

Think of all the years you have spent studying. Where will it all lead? You may be altruistic and believe that you are doing good in the world and for its future, but the world has no future. It never did; it never will. Thousands of civilizations have come and gone, even civilizations that have surpassed, in ways, where we are now. They are all gone. What I am saying is that you cannot do good for anybody. Everything is right the way it is. Nothing in this world needs improvement. The improvement idea comes in to your mind, and you try and try, to no avail.

You must know yourself as no-thing, not as something. Always remember, there is absolutely nothing you have to do. This is how you become happy, peaceful. When there is nothing in the mind, happiness increases.

Awaken from this mortal dream. Who has to awaken? Ask yourself. There is no one, no thing to wake up. Can you see why there is really nothing to say? We can play all sorts of games with Mantras and Tantric techniques--for what end? Just know that you are nobody; there is absolutely nothing to do; no one exists. This relieves you of everything. It relieves you of all responsibilities to yourself and to the world.

You will not turn into a vegetable. If you're listening to me correctly, you will do whatever you're doing now but you'll be happier than you've ever been in your life, because you'll realize that it doesn't matter. You'll know there's really nobody doing anything. Most of you will be doing the work that you usually do if you want to do that. You'll appear to be living a human existence, but there's really nobody left to do anything. The doer is gone. There is no doer. The doer has been completely wiped out.

Some of you still believe that if you become this way you'll become so sarcastic and belligerent, you'll not care, or be loving and kind, but this is not true. On the contrary, as you drop everything, as you let go of all your preconceived ideas, your dogmas, as you forget all of your rituals and all the things you've been doing all your life, what we call love begins to function as you. What we call compassion begins to function as you. Living kindness, peace--these attributes will automatically take over, for you've lost all fear. When you've lost all fear for existence, love automatically takes over.

As long as you fear existence and you think something's wrong somewhere, the mind creates all kinds of images and you have to go out and defend yourself.

It's time to play, stump the guru. (Referring to the question and answer period following Robert's talk)

Q: You have said that we are creating the dream, both sleeping and waking. In the past 24 hours I have started to live that, not just know it intellectually and really see that everyone in my life is really me. It is totally freeing. Thank you.

R: You're welcome. That's not a stumper. Next case.

Q: When you refer to the entire universe as disappearing when one is asleep, don't you mean for him or her only? Another person could walk in and see you sleeping, maybe a cat. The same universe that the one who is sleeping witnessed or created. Any comments?

R: How do you know this is happening when you are asleep? When you are asleep you are not aware of anything. There is no universe. You saying that there may be a cat who comes in or someone may come in and observe you sleeping, that life is

going on while you're sleeping. You don't know this. Somebody may tell you they came in when you were asleep, but that apparent person tells you that in waking consciousness, which is its own kind of dreamworld. Would you let dream people to tell you what was really going on in your waking world?

Who is there to say that while you're sleeping this is happening? When you are in a sound sleep, as far as you're concerned you are dead. There is no universe. You are out of it completely. The cat who walks in or the person who walks in does not exist as far as you're concerned. You are lost to this world when you are asleep. This is the way death appears to be. When you decide to leave your body, people are still doing things, but it has absolutely nothing to do with you.

Everything is your dream. In deep sleep you are in between dreams and there is nothing happening for you. During dreams you create new worlds with all kinds of people and situations. When you wake up to this world, it appears real to you. When you go to sleep again, you do not dream nor are you awake to this world. Both are gone. Neither exists nor have they ever existed.

The difference between the sage and the average person is that for the sage there is no dream going on in either world. There is no dream world; there is no waking world, which is also a dream world. The sage sees this clearly--there is only the One and nothing else. You have this experience every night when you go into deep sleep; but you are not awake to the deep sleep. The sage is awake to the deep sleep state, the fourth state. The waking and dream states are both unreal. In deep sleep you are in the fourth state, the primary consciousness, but you are not aware of it. The sage is always aware of that state no matter what state appears superimposed on it. That is why it is said the Jnani sleeps the living dream.

(Editor's note) Ramana Maharshi's response to a similar question:

"The sleep, dream and waking states are mere phenomenon appearing on the Self, which is stationary as simple awareness. The waking state is perceived to be full of beautiful and interesting things, the absence of which makes one think sleep is dull. What you consider a world fil led with interesting things is the dull and ignorant state of sleep to the Jnani. The wise one is wide awake where just darkness rules for others."

"There is continuity of Being in all three states, but not of the individu al and the objects. That which is continuous endures; that which is discontinuous is transitory. Therefore the state of Being is permanent, whereas the body and world are not."

Q: Could you talk about the importance of a teacher for self-realization, and how the relationship between teacher and student works?

R: The teacher is really yourself. You have created a teacher to wake you up. The teacher would not be here if you were not dreaming about the teacher. You have created a teacher out of your mind in order to awaken to see there is no teacher, no world, no God--nothing. You have done this all by yourself, congratulations!

This is your dream. You have a teacher in front of you, explaining all these things to you saying you have to awaken sooner or later. If you go further, you will see, in truth, you are already awake, then all the rest will disappear.

While this is going on there is a relationship between the student and the teacher. You are playing a game you created yourself. You create a teacher to wake you up; but you are already awake and do not know it. A teacher gives you teachings, gives you grace, and lets you understand you are already awake and in peace. In return you take care of the teacher. It is a reciprocal game. It is your game, it is your dream. Therefore waken now and be free.

Master Joshu’s Dog

2010-11-05T23:35:00.000-07:00

By Gudo Wafu Nishijima (translated by Brad Warner)

I was asked to contribute something to a collection of articles about the famous Zen koan "Mu" or "No." One of the fundamental tenets of Buddhism is that everything has the Buddha Nature. But in this story a famous Zen master seems to deny this idea. In order to begin writing my own commentary about this story, I decided to translate my own teacher's comments about it. The koan "Mu" is famous as the traditional beginner's koan in the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism. The Soto sect also teaches about the koan "Mu," but in an altogether different way. In this short piece Nishijima explains the fundamental difference in approach. This is the first part of a very short book Nishijima put together last year (2004) commenting upon twelve of the koans in the Rinzai koan collection Mumonkan or "The Gateless Gate." Take it away Nishijima Sensei...

At one time a monk asked Master Joshu, “Does a dog have Buddha Nature or not?” Master Joshu answered, “No.”

In the chapter of Shobogenzo titled Bussho or “Buddha Nature” Master Dogen talks about the meaning of this word “no” as it relates to a conversation between the fifth and sixth patriarchs. He says, “This ‘no’ is not the ‘no’ of ‘have’ or ‘have not.’ It is the no of no no.”

The no of no no is a way of expression that we do not often hear. The no of no no means that even no is denied.

In other words, this is not the kind of no which we conceive in our brains as the conclusion to the question of whether something exists or not. The meaning of no as it is used here does not require any kind of thinking at all.

In regards to this koan there is no shortage of explanations that this “no” represents the no of no in other words the absolute no, or that it represents the absolute void, or that it’s something that cannot possibly be understood, or other similar nonsense which even those who spout it don’t seem to understand.

But by slandering the Buddha’s truth with such nonsense, people who put out these kinds of explanations are really just floundering in the darkness, not knowing what is what and tasting the miseries of Hell.

In the chapter of Shobogenzo titled “Sutra of Mountains and Water” Master Dogen says that any koan has a superb theoretical meaning. The purpose of the koan stories is to make difficult points of Buddhist philosophy clear by using a concrete example. The tendency among many Chinese monks to view the koans as some kind of riddle whose original meaning was impenetrable was something Master Dogen scoffed at.

A dog which exists before your eyes is most certainly a dog. There is nothing extra added to that dog. And there is nothing lacking in the dog either, nothing apart from itself that it needs in order to be what it is — a dog. A dog is a dog. Joshu understood that to theorize about whether a dog has Buddha nature or not is just adding something extra. When dealing with any koan it is necessary to read it in this way on the basis of Buddhist philosophy.

I am an old monk of over 70 years who has spent the past fifty or more years studying Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo. Therefore I am an amateur when it comes to the koans included in Mumonkan and I have some misgivings. But on the basis of the Buddhist philosophy which I have absorbed through long years of studying Shobogenzo, there is no room for doubt about the meaning of this koan. With such meaning in mind, I would like to proceed with the reading of some of the other koans in the collection.

BONUS SELECTION:
Here are Master Dogen's comments on this koan as presented in the Bussho chapter of Sobogenzo referred to in the text above. The following translation is by Gudo Nishijima and Chodo Cross. This part can be found on page 29 of volume two.

A monk asks Great Master Shinsai of Joshu, “Does even a dog have the Buddha-nature or not?”

We should clarify the meaning of this question. “A dog” is a dog. The question does not ask whether the Buddha-nature can or cannot exist in the dog; it asks whether even an iron man learns the truth. To happen upon such a poison hand may be a matter for deep regret, and at the same time the scene recalls the meeting, after thirty years, with half a sacred person.

Joshu says, “It is without.” When we hear this expression, there are concrete paths by which to learn it: the “being without” with which the Buddha-nature describes itself may be expressed like this; the “not having” which describes the dog itself may be expressed like this; and “there is nothing,” as exclaimed by an onlooker, may be expressed like this. There may come a day when this “being without” becomes merely the grinding away of a stone.

The monk says, “All living beings totally have the Buddha-nature. Why is the dog without?” The intention here is as follows: “If all living beings did not exist, then the Buddha-nature would not exist and the dog would not exist. How about this point? Why should the dog’s Buddha-nature depend on ‘non-existence.’?”

Joshu says, “Because it has karmic consciousness.” The intention of this expression is that even though the reason it exists is karmic consciousness and to have karmic consciousness is the reason it exists, the dog is without anything, and the Buddha-nature is without anything. Karmic consciousness never understands intellectually what the dog is, so how could the dog meet the Buddha-nature? Whether we cast away duality or take up both sides, the state is just the constant working of karmic consciousness.

A monk asks Joshu, “Does the Buddha-nature exist even in a dog or not?”

This question may be the fact that this monk is able to stand up to Joshu. Thus, assertions and questions about the Buddha-nature are the everyday tea and meals of Buddhist patriarchs. Joshu says, “It exists.” The situation of this “It exists” is beyond the “existence” of scholastic commentary teachers and the like, and beyond the dogmatic “existence” of the Existence School. We should move ahead and learn the Buddha’s Existence. The Buddha’s Existence is Joshu’s “It exists.” Joshu’s “it exists” is “the dog exists,” and “the dog exists” is “the Buddha-nature exists.”

The monk says, “It exists already—then why does it forcibly enter this concrete bag of skin?” This monk’s expression of the truth poses the question of whether it is present existence, whether it is past existence, or whether it is Existence already; and although Existence already resembles the other “existences,” Existence already clearly stands alone. Does Existence already need to force its way in? Or does Existence already not need to force its way in? The action of forcibly entering this concrete bag of skin does not accommodate idle heedless consideration.

Joshu says, “Because it knowingly commits a deliberate violation!” As a secular saying these words have long since spread through the streets, but now they are Joshu’s expression of the truth. What they discuss is deliberate violation. Those who do not doubt this expression of the truth may be few. The present word “enter” is difficult to understand; at the same time, the word “enter” is itself unnecessary. Moreover, If we want to know the immortal person in the hut, How could we depart from this concrete skin-bag here and now? Even if the immortal person is anyone, at what moment is it [necessary to say] “Do not depart from your skin-bag!”? A deliberate violation is not always entry into a skin bag, and to have forcibly entered a concrete skin bag is not always to knowingly commit a deliberate violation. Because of knowing, there can be deliberate violation. Remember, this deliberate violation may contain the action of getting free of the body—this is expressed as “forcibly entering.” The action of getting free of the body, at just the moment of containment, contains self and contains other people. At the same time, never complain that it is impossible to avoid being a person before a donkey and behind a horse. Still more, the founding Patriarch Ungo says, “Even to have learned matters on the periphery of the Buddha-Dharma is to have adopted a mistaken approach already.” That being so, although we have been making the mistake for a long time—which has deepened into days and deepened into months—of half-learning matters on the periphery of the Buddha-Dharma, this may be the state of the dog that has forcibly entered a concrete skin bag. Though it knowingly commits a deliberate violation, it has the Buddha-nature.

Psychotherapy, Buddhism, Personality, Self

2010-10-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

“To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly” (Dogen Zenji 1200-1253).

How does one “study” or “forget” the self?
How does the self study and forget it-|…|-self?
How is one “actualized” by “myriad things”?

Who is the “one” asking the question?

Both Buddhism and psychology attempt to grasp the nature of mind, consciousness and the self, to alleviate suffering and to foster greater capacity for happiness and compassion. We all are prewired to develop a “self”. Human brain and nervous system have evolved to “have” consciousness and an embodied, pertinacious sense of “I / me” as a phenomenological center of our own subjectivity.

Along with the “language instinct” and its semiotic function(s), the capacity to “have” (an experience of) mind, consciousness and self are uniquely human, reflective of our evolutionary moment in space and time. As humans, we are also hardwired to organize our genetic endowment and all personal experiences into a personality - a neurocognitive (brain-mind) system regulating the enduring patterns of our internal experience and behavior.

As we mature and transition from infancy to adulthood, personality eventually becomes central in making each of us unique among others and consistent in time and across different situations. In the course of our psychological development, all events in our lives, every interaction, sensation, thought, internal experience or overt behavior leave a permanent trace on our brain-mind (memory) and make us who we are in the present moment.

Given “good enough” conditions, life, self, identity and personality develop relatively intact. When the hereditary and / or situational conditions are not wholesome enough, specific problems known as “disorders of personality” may develop.

A disorder of personality (and a personality disorder) can be thought of as “an enduring disturbance of the neurocognitive system regulating patterns of internal experience, behavior and interpersonal adaptation“. It can become a life long psychological and psychiatric affliction permeating all aspect of life, interpersonal relations with other people in particular.

Buddhism and psychology in general, and Buddhist meditation training and psychotherapy in particular, are two distinct yet overlapping ways of healing and mending hurt selves, ruptured identities and maladaptive personalities.

www.twardon.org ~This website is a forum where psychotherapy, Buddhist meditation and disorders of personality are explored and discussed within a multidimensional, multivariable, psychodynamic neurocognitiveparadigm.~

General symptoms of a personality disorder

Personality disorder symptoms include:

Frequent mood swings
Stormy relationships
Social isolation
Angry outbursts
Suspicion and mistrust of others
Difficulty making friends
A need for instant gratification
Poor impulse control
Alcohol or substance abuse

Specific types of personality disorders: The specific types of personality disorders are grouped into three clusters based on similar characteristics and symptoms. Many people with one diagnosed personality disorder also have signs and symptoms of at least one additional personality disorder.

Cluster A personality disorders: These are personality disorders characterized by odd, eccentric thinking or behavior and include:

Paranoid personality disorder

Distrust and suspicion of others
Believing that others are trying to harm you
Emotional detachment
Hostility

Schizoid personality disorder

Lack of interest in social relationships
Limited range of emotional expression
Inability to pick up normal social cues
Appearing dull or indifferent to others

Schizotypal personality disorder

Peculiar dress, thinking, beliefs or behavior
Perceptual alterations, such as those affecting touch
Discomfort in close relationships
Flat emotions or inappropriate emotional responses
Indifference to others
"Magical thinking" — believing you can influence people and events with your thoughts
Believing that messages are hidden for you in public speeches or displays

Cluster B personality disorders: These are personality disorders characterized by dramatic, overly emotional thinking or behavior and include:

Antisocial (formerly called sociopathic) personality disorder

Disregard for others
Persistent lying or stealing
Recurring difficulties with the law
Repeatedly violating the rights of others
Aggressive, often violent behavior
Disregard for the safety of self or others

Borderline personality disorder

Impulsive and risky behavior
Volatile relationships
Unstable mood
Suicidal behavior
Fear of being alone

Histrionic personality disorder

Constantly seeking attention
Excessively emotional
Extreme sensitivity to others' approval
Unstable mood
Excessive concern with physical appearance

Narcissistic personality disorder: Believing that you're better than others

Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness
Exaggerating your achievements or talents
Expecting constant praise and admiration
Failing to recognize other people's emotions and feelings

Cluster C personality disorders: These are personality disorders characterized by anxious, fearful thinking or behavior and include:

Avoidant personality disorder

Hypersensitivity to criticism or rejection
Feeling inadequate
Social isolation
Extreme shyness in social situations
Timidity

Dependent personality disorder

Excessive dependence on others
Submissiveness toward others
A desire to be taken care of
Tolerance of poor or abusive treatment
Urgent need to start a new relationship when one has ended

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

Preoccupation with orderliness and rules
Extreme perfectionism
Desire to be in control of situations
Inability to discard broken or worthless objects
Inflexibility

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder isn't the same as obsessive-compulsive disorder, a type of anxiety disorder.

When to see a doctor- If you have any signs or symptoms of a personality disorder, see your doctor, mental health provider or other health care professional. Untreated, personality disorders can cause significant problems in your life, and they may get worse without treatment.

Helping a loved one- If you have a loved one who you think may have symptoms of a personality disorder, have an open and honest discussion about your concerns. You may not be able to force someone to seek professional care, but you can offer encouragement and support.