Dealing with impermanence Zen says: “ Enjoy the best of the good because it will not stay. Accept the worst of the bad because it will not last” While dying from mushroom poisoning, Amanda, the fidel servant of the Buddha asked him: “Teacher: What is your most important teaching over the last 50 years?” Without […]
Who am I? True Self, Little Self, and Awakening What is the True Self? This is the state of being. It is found in consciousness or awareness's still, silent, and alert presence. Consciousness is incarnated in each of us for the purpose not only of being a functional human—see below the little self—but also of […]
Evidence-based beneficial effects of mindfulness meditation. A 2024 update Mindfulness meditation has nothing to do with sitting relaxed and daydreaming about this or that. The practice of mindfulness meditation is simple but demanding: focusing, in a mindful way, on a target, such as our breathing to anchor our wandering mind forcing it to slow down. […]
RIGHT VIEW “And what, monks, is Right View? It is monks, the knowledge of suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering. This is called the Right View.” – Buddhist Scripture The Eightfold Path consists of eight interrelated steps leading to Nirvana. It […]
Being at peace with ourselves.A Zen perspective In the following, “peace” is synonymous with harmony, stability, contentment towards, eventually equanimity of our state of mind. How often your mood is restless / jitter? Surprisingly, most studies show that our emotional default mode is, to various degrees, on a “non-peaceful, restless state”, mostly in our subconscious […]
By tradition, we differentiate our thoughts from our emotions, but Zen is teaching us that they are, quite often, tightly entangled like 2 sides of the same coin. They are our mental twins. Therefore, a vicious circle can build up between our thoughts and emotions, feeding each other back and forth between our subconscious and […]
Does our mind generate reality? A quick look at the dictionary reveals a wide range of definitions for Reality. Cambridge Dictionary: Reality is how things are, not how you would like them to be. From a Buddhist/Zen perspective, our beliefs and reality are deeply intertwined. Buddhism teaches that what we commonly experience as "reality" is […]
The mind watcher How to interact with our mind is the #1 determinant of all other Zen key points, because, w/o proper interaction, we are most deluded in a mind-made fictional world full of traps. What are the main functions of our mind that I will call mind output:? There are 3: Cognitive-based analysis/decision, interaction […]
Karma: Sanskrit word for “ action/ volition”. Its origin is found in Indian religion and philosophy. It defines the moral and ethical law of causality that is to say: cause is inducing effect. More precisely: Action ( doing) and intention (thinking) trigger or will trigger consequences accordingly. Action and intention are interrelated meaning action >>>intention […]
The 4th Noble Truth “Setting the Wheel of the Dharma in Motion” As humans, we can’t seem to find our way to inner peace, our lives are constantly oscillating with ups and downs, and we are so attached to getting what we want (pleasure) and avoiding what we don’t want (pain) that we live in […]
