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Often we mistake ideas as reality. As Michael McAlister reminds us, “The map is not the territory”. Through a practice such as meditation, when our mind becomes still, ideas become visible. We see outside of them, and their grip loosens. It’s at this place that we gain access to reality. There we realise our ideas are just that. Ideas. They are not facts or certainty, just one possible path. When we let go of ideas and concepts, we live in the moment and the world opens.
Continue reading ‘Working with Ideas and Reality’
I would like your help. I would like to tap into each of your personal experiences, your wisdom. In a few weeks I will be presentation a talk on Meditation to a room full of smart people who most probably haven’t thought about meditating before. I would like your help with what questions should I be trying to answer? What questions, did you have before/when you started meditating?
Continue reading ‘Reader Help:Your Meditation Questions’
To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe
How does this work? Studying the self is to forget the self? This quote is one of the most common Dogen, and Zen quotes. But what does it mean? What is it saying? What’s it pointing to?
Continue reading ‘Studying the Self’
What are you holding onto? Where are you stuck? What’s keeping you from moving forwards? These questions continually help me find out what’s going on, and break through. It may seem a bit odd asking yourself questions, but funnily enough, you know what you need deep down, and the answer is usually pretty surprising.
Continue reading ‘Let Go!’
Walking meditation plays an important role. We can use it as a mindfulness bridge, linking our sitting practice to our active, waking life. Sometimes it’s hard to move from mindfulness of sitting and bring it into the active world. Walking meditation is an active form of practice, reflecting how we live in the world. It allows us to move from the cushion and remain tapped into mindfulness. To have an active practice helps develop both our sitting and worldly mindfulness. In truth, they are different sides of the same coin.
Continue reading ‘Walking to Enlightenment’
We are like trees, with our roots grounding us in mindfulness. We are nourished, we grow, we develop personality, all by being and continuing to keep our roots in the ground of mindfulness. Mindfulness as a root is one of the Five Roots which is covered by Great Master Dogen. We investigate in detail what’s said about Mindfulness as a Root, and overview the roots.
Continue reading ‘Mindfulness as a Root’
Sound can play an important role in our practice. Sound, as a device of the way, is used in many texts. “Kyogen realized the Way when he heard the sound of a tile hitting bamboo.” It was this concept alluded to by one of our readers’, Cedric that started my recent investigation with sound. What’s also interesting with sound, is the non-sound, and non-identification that comes, both with and without the sound.
Continue reading ‘The Sound, Before Hearing’
In Zen Buddhism there’s a lot of bowing. The idea of bowing to an image, idol, or godhead, to many brings up a lot of resistance and hesitation. When bowing, however, you aren’t bowing to a Thing. You bow to yourself, the world, the ideas, the concepts, nothing fixed.
Continue reading ‘Bowing to a Statue?’
