All things that appear in this world are illusion. If you view all appearance as nonappearance, then you will see your true nature.
~ Zen saying
When one realizes their own true nature, they will be free from birth and death.
~ Zen saying
Zen is keeping the mind which is before thinking.
~ Zen Master Seung Sahn
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.)
In my post on Ram Dass’s best books — and in other articles on this website — I use words and phrases related to the work of Ram Dass, including terms on yoga, Hinduism, Maharaj-ji, Buddhism, meditation, mindfulness, mantras, and the different names of the man he called Maharaj-ji (aka, Maharaji, Neem Karoli Baba, Neeb Karori Baba). To help understand that article, as well as his speeches, books, and other writings, I have put together the following “Ram Dass Glossary of Terms”, and I hope it’s helpful to others.
Your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind all deceive you. The true you is without the six senses.
~ Zen Master Seung Sahn
Here’s a story on 91-year-old meditation master Ruth Denison.
I used to meditate in what I now call a “lazy” way, more of a savasana “withdraw from the senses” style. These days my meditation is more active and alert, and I like this quote by Shunryu Suzuki:
“Treat every moment as your last.
It is not preparation for something else.”
(Last spring (2014), when I thought I might die as I laid in a bed in a hotel room, my meditation was extremely intense, just like this quote requests of us.)
I don’t know the original source of this image, but this quote is from the book, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
This is a quote from one of my favorite Zen Masters, Shunryu Suzuki: “(In meditation) Leave your front door and your back door open. Let your thoughts come and go. Just don’t serve them tea.” Image from this Tumblr page.
I just learned about the Zen Master artwork of Mark T. Morse from this Shambala Sun article. (I previously linked to both of those websites, but they are both gone in 2024.)
This book cover (nothing holy about it) has an interesting use of fonts and colors. I think I would have gone for a wee bit of transparency on the white font, and lined up the blue with the white, but it’s interesting, and essentially fits two subtitles on the cover.
“Most people treat the present moment as if it were an obstacle that they need to overcome. Since the present moment is life itself, it is an insane way to live.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
In the third line of Alanis Morissette’s song, Thank You, she sings, “How about them transparent dangling carrots?”, and in this article I’ll take a little look at what that line means.
Ms. Morissette’s entire song is about gaining enlightenment — also known as awakening — and from that perspective, a transparent dangling carrot is anything that leads you to take a path of pursuing or gaining enlightenment. In the song she mentions things like terror, disillusionment, frailty, consequence (karma), and silence; each of these can be considered motivational “carrots” that are capable of pulling a person down a path where they want to seek enlightenment.
“Remember that you are the Witness only ... even for a moment, do not think that you are the body.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“...understand always that you are the timeless, spaceless witness.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“The dark night of the soul is when you have lost the flavor of life but have not yet gained the fullness of divinity. So it is that we must weather that dark time.”
~ Ram Dass (from this tweet)
One of the more interesting things about the teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj is that he says we should focus on “I am,” but from what I have read so far, he does not specifically describe what he means by this.
Therefore, I have taken to researching this myself through his own quotes, internet searches, and the use of A.I. tools. This is what I have found so far.
If you’re interested in meditation and enlightenment/awakening, the book, I Am That, by Nisargadatta Maharaj, has this terrific conversation, which I have shortened slightly. “M” refers to Nisargadatta Maharaj, and “Q” refers to a common person asking questions:
M: The Guru is concerned little with the person. His attention is on the inner watcher. It is the task of the watcher to understand and thereby eliminate the person.
Q: But the person does not want to be eliminated.
M: The person is merely the result of a misunderstanding. In reality, there is no such thing.
(later)
Q: When will this happen for me?
M: When you remove the obstacles.
Q: Which obstacles?
M: Desire for the false and fear of the true. You, the person, imagine that the Guru is interested in you as a person. Not at all. (He then clarifies what this means.)
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 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.
