Oakville Zen Meditation
Short Zen Lexicon
ACCEPTANCE:
An attitude towards serenity. The opposite is Resistance causing suffering.
ATTACHMENT:
#1 cause of suffering. Attachment to things, thoughts, ideas, etc.....
AWAKENING:
Achieved when we realize and experience the factual realities of Life as opposed to the mind-made
fictional ones.
AWARENESS:
Experiencing factual reality and its components at the moment in a mindful way.
BUDDHA:
Nickname for “The one who is awaked”
BEING:
Genuine self, discovered and experienced thru awareness. The genuine self is free from
our mind-made worlds.
BEING IN THE MOMENT:
Experiencing the present moment as it is. It is only during the present moment that you are alive.
COMPASSION:
See empathy. Cannot express compassion to others w/o, first, having self-compassion.
Part of empathy.
CONSCIOUSNESS:
Probably an immaterial entity allowing us to connect to our body-mind and to experience life.
DHARMA:
Teaching.
DELUSION / ILLUSION:
Product of the mind and source of suffering because fictional that is in conflict with reality.
Ex: “I am in control of my life”, “I am an independent, indispensable, separate, the self-sustained entity”
“ Past and future exist”, etc...
Basic delusions: Identification and belief of our thoughts- ideas, belief, opinion.
DESIRE:
“ I want” sources of suffering.
DON’T KNOW MIND:
Similar to Open mind (see below)
EGO:
I, Me, Mine, Myself: A necessary and important tool to live, but also our worse deceptive one.
EMPATHY:
Ability to understand and share the feelings of others. Part of compassion.
EQUANIMITY:
Even-tempered mental & emotional calmness, during difficult situations.
Diff. from indifference.
EMPTINESS:
An entity exempted from permanent, independent, isolated, separated, unique and self-sustained attributes.
FUTURE:
Very useful invention but fictional by definition since it does not exist.
Source of suffering when the future is generating unrealistic expectations, anxiety, fear,
HAPPINESS:
An emotional and transient state of mind is mostly triggered by outside sources. Different from serenity
HUMAN CONDITION:
Lost in continuous compulsive thinking and emotional default modes, mostly ego-driven.
KARMA:
The law of action and effect. Can be personal and collective.
LOVE:
When expecting something back from love, it is called a trade.
MEDITATION:
W/o it there is no Zen. The act of experiencing the current reality of the moment using awareness
and stillness of the body and mind.
MIDDLE WAY:
Path of life in which both extremes are avoided.
MINDFULNESS:
The heart of Zen practice. Act of paying attention, to observe w/o analysis, judgment, and decision.
See also Awareness, Stillness.
NIRVANA:
Literally: extinction of the flame that is suffering.
OPEN MIND:
A mind not trapped in endless opinion, judgment, ideas, and labels, most of them ego-driven.
PAST:
Exist only in pictures, books, and our memory. Fictional like the future because it does not exist.
Source of suffering when it triggers regret, guilt, and anger.
RESISTANCE:
The opposite of Acceptance and cause of suffering.
TIME:
A very useful human invention.
Only the present moment exists. Past is dead and future unborn.
SERENITY:
A permanent state of well-being, such as being content, at peace, and in harmony with self and others.
Different from happiness which is an emotional yo-yo mostly triggered by outside sources..
SANGHA:
Zen community who meditate together.
SILENCE:
Listening to silence awakens the dimension of stillness and awareness.
STILLNESS:
Motionless body & mind allowing to experiencing our innermost sense of self, of who we are.
Inseparable from awareness and mindfulness.
SUFFERING:
Caused by desire/craving (I want), hatred (I don’t want), and our mind-made illusion/delusion.
Is suffering necessary? Yes because it cracks open the shell of ego.
TRUE SELF:
Your genuine original self, probably in the form of pure consciousness.
UNHAPPINESS:
Needs an ego-mind-made story to exist besides obvious external events such as the passing
of a loved one.
WISDOM:
Ability to properly apply knowledge, insight, experience, understanding, judgment, and decision
to any given situation.
ZEN:
The Japanese word for meditation. A philosophy of life acquired only from the daily practice
of meditation. Here are a few principles. The list is not exhaustive.
Daily practice of mindfulness-based meditation.
Control of our ego-driven mind source of suffering. –
Attachment is the main source of suffering, besides mind-made illusion and delusions.
Interconnectedness of all living beings-
We are alive only in the present moment.
Everything is transient-
Our logic is misleading
Practicing Acceptance, compassion- Being present and mindful.
Practice the Middle Way, etc.....
THANK YOU
