Enlightenment: demystification I am practicing Zen since 2002 and received the Spiritual Transmission from my teacher Yangil Sunim 5 years ago. It means I became “awakened” or enlightened and may teach. To be awake in a spiritual way means to mindfully experience the existing reality of the moment inside and around self. Nothing to boast […]
Serenity vs. happiness The following Serenity Prayer addresses our needs and the frustrations that arise when we don’t like, don’t want or cannot control how people, […]
SUFFERING: "NOW & ZEN/THEN" Zen Buddhism teaching has been criticized for putting too much emphasis on suffering meaning that everything that has a negative impact either physically or mentally. The word suffering is a poor translation. The Sanskrit word “Dukkha” means not only physical and mental pain but also any negative feelings such as […]
Worried about worrying This email was sent to me: “I am worried almost all the time and about everything. How do I work against it?” Anxiety is a growing mental state affecting all ages even the youngest ones. The causes are numerous and beyond the scope of this talk. “ Working against it” is […]
Spiritual and Material self-care When we talk about self-care, we usually referring to proper diet, exercise and sleep. This is only part of global self-care. In Zen, however, self-care is an oxymoron. Why? A fundamental teaching of Zen Buddhism is the concept of “no-self”. No-self does not mean that we don’t exist as living […]
Breathing: your app to the calming reality of the moment Reality is what we are experiencing concretely in the moment thru our consciousness. It should not be confused with virtual reality that our mind is producing. Thoughts and feelings do exist but are, by definition, virtual, fictional and the fruit of our imagination. When […]
When boredom becomes an opportunity We don’t like to be bored. When we are actively engaged in something, there is no boredom. But when there is nothing interesting or mandatory to absorb our attention or entertain, it starts to hurt our self-image very quickly. But if we suddenly become idle in our space-time, we […]
When our ego needs help Our ego or self has 2 faces. The constructive/positive and the destructive/negative one. The good self is critical to grow, to survive, to have pleasure, and to function and interact properly. No brainer here. The bad self: Ego is our main source of “pain”, affliction we all […]
Ego: its role in our conflicts with difficult people Ego-self that is I, me, myself, and mine is absolutely critical for survival, identification, thinking, feelings, behavior at all levels and so on. However also, ego-self is at the heart of many of our relationships Because we perceived our ego/self as a single and isolated […]
Emotional suffering Most of us start to practice Zen mindfulness-based meditation because of problems such as dissatisfaction, unhappiness, physical/emotional pain and disillusion or for any other specific reasons happening in life. These reasons are called "suffering". “Maybe Zen meditation is going to fix my problems and make me happy”. Internet and books are full […]
