A small lesson in Zen and how you can apply it to your daily life.
All spiritual practices aim for the exact same thing:
To help you find your real self.
Our real self is the self which knows Non-Duality.
Our true self does not need anything or anyone to be happy and feel good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondualism
Some of you have read the book: "The Power of now" by Eckhart Tolle
And some of you are familiar with Eastern philosophy like Buddhism, Advaita, Taoism...
I'm going to share something taken from Zen Buddhism which I have been applying...
First let's have a quick look at reality:
The Ego (the way I see it) is not a bad thing if used correctly. It helps us pursue our goals and pushes us forward to move out of our zone to achieve our goals and passions. Emotions are also not bad- an emotion is just energy in motion and if we don't label it as good or bad- it's just energy that passes by.
What makes it difficult is the attachments to our emotions and to the outcomes....
Since we are not enlightened yet we will have attachments for things.
Someone wrote once:
"You love women, but you don't need women, and you don't want to get anything from them"
It sounds great but how do you keep this state when you feel like you do want something from women and you do need them?
what do we do when situations and things don't go exactly as we plan and we find ourselves too much attached to our thoughts and emotions?
This is where Zen can be applied even if you are not doing meditation on a regular basis.
Zen master Seung Sahn explains really well in his book: "Dropping Ashes on the Buddha" that Zen mind is like "don't know" mind. What does that mean exactly?
Our true self is the self before thinking. Before thinking there is no good or bad, right or wrong there is just "Is".
Empty mind is the mind before thinking. Before thinking is where our true non dual self is.
We need to think in order to get by in this world so the goal is not to stop thinking,
But what happens most of the time is that we feel an emotion which we don't like and then the mind starts cycling with thoughts around that emotion and it won't stop.
This is the time where we want to calm our mind and that is done by accessing our true self.
How is this done?
Very simple: when you have an emotion feel it to the full without trying to catalogue\ label it. as good or bad- Just feel it...
After you have done that and you see that the mind starts racing with thoughts around it, ask yourself: What is feeling this? And immediately answer: don't know
Or you can ask yourself: what is experiencing this? What is thinking?
And the answer should always immediately be: Don't know.
Why don't know?
Because our true self does not have a shape or form, it cannot be explained with words and it can't be imagined either.
Our true self is in the state of before thinking, before speaking, before knowing…..
Our true self is when our mind is clear.
So the next time you feel something like needy
Feel that emotion to the full without labeling it as good or bad. Then when the mind starts to race with thoughts: gently ask yourself: What is feeling this? And immediately answer: don't know
What is needy? And immediately answer: Don't know.
Repeat this process as much as you need until the mind calms down.
Do it gently don't use force.
It's really great to do this before you fall asleep.
Keep "don't know" mind and practice accessing your true self.
Works even better when you are in nature.
word of caution: Don't do this while driving or while doing something that needs your full attention.
Since I'm not a qualified teacher I really recommend you to go to the source. Read the book:
"Dropping Ashes on the Buddha" by Zen master Seung Sahn.
And there are great Zen articles that were written by Zen teachers on the site:
http://www.kwanumzen.org/
and on other sites on the internet.
also great videos from Zen Master Seung Sahn
on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJF8AaNu ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7OYwYyY ... re=related