Posts in the “zen” category

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.)

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.

“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 general I try to avoid swearing these days, but sometimes you just need to get your point across. Meditate, let it go ... forgiveness is good for your heart, and good for your soul.^*

^* Forgiveness doesn’t mean you should be a carpet for others to walk on.

(Sorry, I don’t know the original source of this image.)

When I first started learning Zen I didn’t understand the quote shown in this image, and I truly was a carpet to walk on. Then I woke up and thought, “You need to run your business. You need to find the middle way between accepting ‘just this’ and what you need to do to be successful at work.”

It would have been helpful if I had seen this quote then, but the book, Making Zen Your Own, wasn’t available then.

“As a general principle, any positive state that you experience within the context of silent sitting practice (when you reach the state of samadhi), you must try to attain in the midst of ordinary life.”

~ Shinzen Young’s teacher

In my experience, some “judgy” people will make up their own opinion about you — about what you should do or shouldn’t do — when they don’t know all the facts. I use the word judgy, because if you’re a Christian, Jesus was very clear on this point:

“Judge not, that ye not be judged.”

To wit, sometimes you just have to let people be wrong about you. (From this tweet by TinyBuddha.)

My meditation tip of the day: If you really, really, really can’t take time out to meditate, the best thing you can do is pay ruthless attention to the present moment during your daily activities. And the best way to do that is through mantras or noting practices.

“Noting Gone may lead to a spontaneous spirit of love and service (bodhicitta). As I’ve said, where sensory events go to is where sensory events arise from. Gone points to the source of your own consciousness ... so Noting Gone can lead to a spontaneous sense of oneness with — and commitment to — all beings.”

From the book, The Science of Enlightenment: How Meditation Works by Shinzen Young.

(I don’t remember where he stated it, but I also remember that Shinzen Young said that if he could only teach one meditation technique, it would be noting gone.)

These “metta meditation” instructions come from this story on LionsRoar.com.

FWIW, when I practice metta meditation I always start by thinking about the best dog ever. :)

“Meditation practice brings our neuroses to the surface rather than hiding them at the bottom of our minds. It enables us to related to our lives as something workable.”

~ Chogyam Trungpa

The CliffsNotes of my favorite meditation instruction for beginners is:

Sit as usual, and then approximately every 4 seconds say either “hear” or “calm,” depending on whether you hear thoughts in your mind, or not. Just keep doing this for as long as you meditate, whether that’s one minute, two minutes, five minutes, etc.

IMHO, it’s a terrific technique for people who are just getting started with meditation. I still use it a few times a year if I can’t calm down or something like that.

That comes from Core 1, Lesson 8 of the Brightmind app.

On a drive back to Colorado in 2017 I listened to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. In the book, The Lady Chablis talked about how much the estrogen shots affected her, mentally and physically — her thoughts, such as who she was attracted to, as well as her physical attributes.

I’ve often thought about how our thoughts and behavior are affected by our hormones (estrogen, testosterone, etc.). That’s one reason I like meditation: The farther you get away from the physical body and chemically-influenced brain, the more you can figure out who you are.