Posts in the “zen” category

I know that the idea of a “dream vacation” for most people is time at the beach or a beautiful place like Alaska, but once you get to a certain point in meditation, there’s nothing a person would rather do than meditate. So the dream vacation for a meditator is a peaceful, quiet place — both quiet surroundings, and not having to talk to anyone else — where they can meditate, practice yoga, make simple meals, and go for quiet walks.

Because I have lived in (a) some sketchy places and (b) other places where people are constantly cutting the grass and running farm machinery, I’ll add that the location should be secure, and again quiet (or at least a place where you know that loud grass-cutting and outdoor activities happen at a certain time). At some point you need to learn to meditate even in those environments, but on vacation, no thanks.

A great Zen quote from Zen Master Seung Sahn: “If you want Satori, Satori is far, far away.”

(Satori is a Japanese Buddhist term that means enlightenment, awakening, liberation, or self-realization.)

“You can meditate while talking to someone, while washing the dishes, while driving. As your experience grows, you eventually come to a point where you are so present that there is a kind of a merging of inside and outside. When that happens, ‘focus’ becomes more than an extremely interesting and pleasant experience; it becomes a transformative experience.”

“Eventually a delicious figure-ground reversal takes place. In the beginning, meditation is something that happens within your day. Eventually, the day becomes something that happens within your meditation.”

~ From “The Science of Enlightenment: How Meditation Works”

Maybe because of my Back To Now app, I really like this quote about remembering from Ram Dass:

“I think that remembering is the strategy that most religions are designed to do. It’s remembering there are other planes of consciousness, it’s remembering the illusory nature. It’s remembering Maya, it’s remembering Dukkha. It’s remembering the karma, the sangha, the Buddha, it’s remembering that you’re not caught on one plane of consciousness. It’s reminding you to wake up. The device is to wake you up.”

That quote comes from this ramdass.org page.

I haven’t decided yet if I like the book, Demystifying Awakening: A Buddhist Path of Realization, Embodiment, and Freedom, by Stephen Snyder, but one thing I do like is the concept of an “80/20 rule” that he learned about for when we are interacting with other people.

The idea is that even when you’re talking and interacting with other people, 80% of your concentration should still be on yourself and your inner processes, and 20% should be on who you are interacting with.

This is consistent with my own thoughts on the subject, and what Ram Dass said about Maharaji, that Maharaji could always be seen mouthing “Ram ... Ram ... Ram,” even when he was listening to others. Ram Dass himself also spoke of this in his own practice, and is almost always seen working a mala in public speeches.

IMHO, this Ram Dass definition of the word “namaste” is really wonderful:

I honor the place in you
Where the entire universe resides.
I honor the place in you
Of love, of light, of truth, of peace.

I honor the place in you
Where if you are in that place in you and
I am in that place in me,
There is only one of us.

This namaste definition comes from the excellent Ram Dass book, Polishing the Mirror.

Namaste. :)

A little meditation:

In all the history of the world,
And all its future,
The only thing that matters,
The only thing that’s real,
Is now.

IMHO, once you dig into all the eastern religions, you’ll find people saying the same things, and just using different words.

One favorite quote comes from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, who said, “Just remember that you are the witness only ... even for a moment, do not think that you are the body.”

Anandamayi Ma was quoted as saying, “My consciousness has never associated itself with this temporary body.”

Those two quotes remind me of this great image that’s based on a Ram Dass quote about humans being spiritual beings who are having a human experience, and not vice-versa. (Also, I apologize, I don’t know who originally created this image, so I can’t give them attribution.)

Datline March 22, 2014: A little personal enlightenment:

After going unconscious several times during the last few weeks, I've had conversations with doctors, nurses, friends, and even a shaman about life, death, quality of life, goals, and desires.

I had a hard time answering some of their questions, and yesterday I realized why that was:

If you're truly living in the present moment, those questions don’t make any sense! You can't think about life, death, the past, or the future if you’re fully absorbed in the present moment.

“Are you afraid of dying?” / “I’m sorry, your fear has to do with the future, you’re not talking about the present moment.”

When planning for the future, live fully in that moment of planning for the future. When eating, just eat; and when writing text like this, just write. That’s all.

(In computer parlance, become single-threaded, where that one thread is only focused on HereNow.)

Here’s another “fake oil painting” I created with Gimp recently. This one is of Thich Nhat Hanh meditating. I don’t remember the original source of this image (before I converted the original photo to an oil painting), but I’m pretty sure I found it on Facebook. On this one I manipulated the colors quite a bit, and also did a Gaussian Blur on the background.

LionsRoar.com has this interesting story on Zen koans.

This is a page of quotes from Daniel Ingram, mostly from two versions of his book, Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha.

On a personal note, there are maybe five great books I have read about meditation, and this book is one of the Top 5, maybe #1.

All of the following quotes come from Mr. Ingram.

The quotes from Daniel Ingram

Until you gain access concentration, you ain’t got squat.

... if we can simply know our sensate experience clearly enough, we will arrive at fundamental wisdom.

Insight practice is all about ... grounding attention in our six sense doors and their true nature.

There are six sense doors. Sensations arise and vanish. Notice this for every sensation.

The gold standard for training in concentration is how quickly we can enter into specific, skillful, altered states of consciousness...

The gold standard for training in wisdom ... is that we can quickly and consistently perceive the true nature of the countless quick sensations that make up our whole reality...

“People tend to overestimate or underestimate how wonderful the experience (enlightenment) is. How wonderful is it? Well, I would say that anyone who has entered into the world of no-self, emptiness, and wisdom mind, who abides in that world, if you gave them a choice to live one day knowing what they know, or live an entire lifetime but not be allowed to know that, I think — I can’t speak for everyone — but I would say most people who live in that world would say, ‘I’d rather have one day knowing what I know than a lifetime of not being able to know this.’ So that’s how wonderful it is.”

~ Shinzen Young, in this video

A big part of meditating for me has been getting to a point of completely dropping the self-conscious B.S., as I call it. (Which is why I may never be a meditation teacher, lol.) You just have to get to a point where there is no “you.”

(To expand on that, you get rid of your self-consciousness. There are no thoughts like, “I’m meditating,” “I’m too fat,” “I’m too skinny,” “My name is Alvin,” or even, “What was that sound?” If you’re interested in what I’m talking about, it’s described more in this article on the three nen actions.)

Here’s a look at the three nen actions, as described in the excellent book, Zen Training. My summary of the three nens goes like this:

• 1st Nen: Pure sensation/cognition; your bare attention.
• 2nd Nen: Reflecting upon watch you sense.
• 3rd Nen: Self-conscious thought of what you have sensed; integrates the impressions of the 1st and 2nd nens into a perception.

Note that the third nen involves referencing “some knowledge that you have already stored up as conceptions (your memories). Then the sound is recognized as that of the noon whistle.”

“On one occasion of my own practice, nearing deep samadhi, I happened to notice that the stage of my mind was quietly turning and a new scene was appearing. In this new scene no wandering thought popped up its head; there was absolute stillness and silence, as if one had landed on the Moon.”

~ Zen Training

“Trying to find a way to love everyone in a world I don’t even like.”

~ somewhere in The Dark Night of the Soul

In this interview, the interviewer (Steph) asks Shinzen Young about his daily life, and whether he applies any sort of techniques during his normal day. That eventually leads to him saying:

The biggest change is that I don’t have a preference between enlightenment and non-enlightenment. (Note: This is a big change from when he was younger.)

Then, if I’m intending to meditate — in action, in life, like I’m talking to you now ... now I just started to intentionally meditate as we’re talking.

And I typically meditate in the external visual field, and I’m typically meditating on the process of simultaneous expansion and contraction, causing the world in front of me to arise and then disappear. So I’m now applying a formal technique (as we talk).

Interviewer: So I’m arising and disappearing right now.

(Yes) You’re arising and disappearing from the source, moment by moment. Therefore, you appear to me to be the Source. And therefore, very effortlessly, loveable.

Interviewer: I’ll take it.

At the end of this video that’s titled, Inside Shinzen’s Brain: How Shinzen Experiences his Daily Life, he talks about the one obsession he has: “How smart can I be, how creative can I be, in service of the world?”

In a Buddha there has never been
Anything that could be said to be there.
Just as a magician
Does not get caught up in his illusions
And therefore by his knowledge
Is not attached to magic forms,
So also the wise in Perfect Enlightenment
Know the three worlds to be like a magic show.
Liberation is merely the end of error.

~ Gampopa

(I saw this quote in the book Be Love Now by Ram Dass.)