Oakville Zen Meditation

#304 Key words & short expressions in Zen philosophy 2-2-20

Key words and short expressions of Zen philosophy

In non specific order.

Suffering is part of life that we like it or not. It cannot be prevented but should be accepted.

     Acceptance to what we don’t want to accept is a big step towards serenity.

      Suffering is caused by attachments.

      Attachments are ego-driven and made of desire, hatred and mind-made “ignorance.”

      Being in control of our attachments is Nirvana.

Ignorance means being unable to differentiate concrete reality of the moment from mind-made fiction.

Being in control of our attachments & ego-driven mind is Nirvana

Nothing lasts including self.

Good & bad stuff are transient.

Almost nothing can be controlled including self (body/mind). Believing otherwise is an illusion.

Only now (present time)exists. Past and future are very useful inventions but remain illusions.

Life, people, events, things and environment are what they are and not what our ego mind wants them to be. Believing otherwise is an illusion.

No living being has a permanent, independent, unique, self- sustained separate self-entity. This is what Zen Buddhist calls “emptiness” or empty of self entity. We are all interconnected & interrelated, dependent of Nature & the Universe to survive.

Global consciousness is made of all living beings and each individual one has an incorporated  component of the collective one. Believing otherwise is an illusion. Some call this global consciousness God. Consider individual consciousness –you- as a wave and the global one as the ocean.

Our ego-centered mind is the main source of our illusions, unhappiness, dissatisfaction, suffering causing attachments, desire, fear, anger, resentment and negative emotions, etc. Meditation will help us to control this beast. Believing otherwise is an illusion.

To be mindful is tp ay attention moment-to-moment to what is real , like a mirror & reflecting things as they are and not as we want them to be.

To be mindful to our body, mind and environment is a non-cognitive skill. No judgment, no decision. 

We should not believe everything all our thoughts despite the fact that we are creating them.

Karma is the consequence of our actions and intentions. It is individual and collective.

Meditation is:

    Living in the moment & paying attention to our mind anchor and wandering mind.

   “Strait back = strait mind”,  “Still back = still mind”  as Zen says.

Life is endless in multi ongoing space-times. Its biological form – our body-mind-  is only one of them in a transient form.