Oakville Zen Meditation
#35.Pragmatic Zen

Statements made by someone and the reply from a Zen talking mirror. Nothing changes around me. Nothing is permanent & everything is transient including you, your friends, your pet, the clouds, this planet, the sun, and me. Everything is changing all the time, every second, non-stop within an endless circle of new beginning and new […]

Read More
#34.Eating an orange is Zen

This is a dialogue between a student and a Zen teacher. Can you tell me what Zen is all about? I need to understand Zen in order to progress in my quest. NO....NO I cannot explain Zen because there is nothing to explain and you cannot understand because there is nothing to understand. Words and […]

Read More
#33.The 4 seals of Zen Buddhism

They are called seals because there are the landmarks of Buddha 50 years verbal teaching. They are SUFFERING, IMPERMANENCE, NO-SELF and NIRVANA. They represent the 4 standing blocks of his philosophy. Everything else rests on them.These words seem weird, complex and esoteric but we will see how logical and useful they are in our daily […]

Read More
#32.Individual & Collective consciousness

We all have an individual consciousness (IC) that is a state of awareness even if most of the time we behave in our life on an auto pilot mode with our mind wandering around continuously and usually not been in the present moment. In addition to our individual consciousness we are also part of a […]

Read More
#31.ZEN on words.

Words are wonderful thinking and communication tools and we are addicted to them non stop. 1- We are thinking through words. No other choice. Words are the fuel of our mind producing our thoughts, concepts, ideas and opinions. No word, no mind. When we think we talk to ourselves and we talk to ourselves all […]

Read More
#30.Zen teaching: an arrow in our ego mind

How often during the day we are “sleep walking” doing things from pure habits, conventions and routine? How often are we in auto pilot mode submitted to our ongoing thoughts like thinking zombies? The answer is almost all the time. There is nothing wrong to follow our daily routine but it should be within a […]

Read More
#29.To find yourself is to lose yourself

Famous Japanese Zen Master Hashida used to repeat over and over: " To discover awakening is to discover your true self   To discover your true self is to meditate & practice Zen   To meditate & practice Zen is to study your own self   To study your own self is to forget your […]

Read More
#28.The 7 pillars of a Zen Mind

  The 6 Realities of life that our ego centered mind is distorting all the time: Nothing lasts including self. Good & bad stuff are transient. This is part of Life & Evolution. Without the endless circle of birth & death Life & Evolution would not exist. Believing otherwise is an illusion. Nothing can be […]

Read More
#27.From rabbit mind to Zen mind: Revised 6mar15

Are we behaving like Easter Bunnies?   From a rabbit mind to a Zen mind We are spending most of our life searching continuously for "outside happiness", running around like 7.244 billions * “Easter rabbits” looking for one egg after another, all lifelong with an endless and never satisfied appetite. We become slave of our craving, desire, expectation, […]

Read More
#26.Misconceptions about meditation.25feb15

1. Introduction Over the last 30 years or so meditation - like yoga - is enjoying huge interest as THE holy grail which is going to solve every personal problem such as stress, anxiety, sexual dysfunctions, poor self image, chronic fatigue, poor relationships, better mental concentration and many more.Based on unofficial figures the numbers of […]

Read More