What is the most important Zen teaching ? If you were asking Zen teachers to name the single most important teaching of Zen, they may remain silent, pour a cup of tea until it overflows, point at the floor, laugh, walk away, dance …whatever crazy things they may decide to do. It is not an […]
By resentments I mean anything that we perceive negatively, and affecting us emotionally. They are endless in nature, appearing all the time when they are not hidden in our subconscious which is most of the time. I will elaborate in detail further in a few weeks. Meditating intensively on our negativities seems to be counter-intuitive, […]
Positive evidence-based impacts of mindful breathing on ourcritical brain functions. We talk many times about the importance of mindful breathing not only during formal meditation as a perfect tool to anchor our mind, but also during the day as a temporally stress release technique.However, I never went in detail into the sophisticated functional neuro-imaging evidence-based […]
The Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness: Mindfulness of Dharma The fourth foundation of mindfulness is mindfulness of dharmas. The word Dharma can refer to the Buddha’s teachings, but it can also refer to truth or reality, the way things actually are. In this fourth foundation, we use the Buddha’s teachings as a way of looking at […]
Who are you ? I see you standing— Tall as a tree, soft as a pillow, Drawing air, vibrating quietly. So I ask: Who are you? Are you a wall? Are you a tree? Are you a machine? Please, do not answer. Something moves. You speak, and I hear Sounds known yet forgotten— High and […]
Why Zen loves craziness Zen is full of paradoxical, irrational, absurd stories and statements. Koans are perfect examples. Question from a teacher to a student: - A long time ago, a man kept a goose in a bottle and it grew larger and larger until it could not get out of the bottle any […]
MIRANDA: The third Foundation of mindfulness: mindfulness of the mind The third foundation of mindfulness is mindfulness of mind. Moving from mindfulness of the body and feelings, we now bring awareness to the state or quality of the mind itself. In the second foundation, we become aware of the feeling tone of experience: pleasant, unpleasant, […]
EGO: Part 3 Zen approach to deal with our ego A common misconception is that Zen requires you to "kill" the ego. Zen masters smile at this, because trying to kill the ego is the ultimate ego trip—it’s just the ego fighting itself. Instead, it invites you not to fight your ego but to observe […]
EGO Part 2 Ego : A schizophrenic beast. The good and the bad. Contrary to what most people think, Zen is not trying to eliminate the ego from our life. It does not make any sense. Being non-dualistic, or trying to be, Zen sees the ego as a critical component of our identity, but, as […]
Physical & mental unrests during meditation Physical and emotional unrests are unavoidable during meditation. They are not signs of weakness, or obstacles to overcome, but as an opportunity to learn to shift from negatively to witnessing, accepting , and letting them go. It is very important to remember that body and mind are ONE in […]
