(Text by Kevin Moriarty) A few weeks ago one of the attendees at the Thursday evening meeting challenged the existence of an afterlife citing the lack of proof. This led to a discussion of the basis of any belief and the reasonableness of spiritual beliefs. This piece expands on that discussion. A black line is […]
This is a very common and practical question. Here are three examples among many. First student: “You said that meditation would help me to deal with my anger by accepting it, but, every time I try, I find that it is impossible. The more I meditate on it, the worse it becomes!” Second student: “You […]
A newly ordained Hindu Monk, in orange clothes, was traveling in a bus in Mumbai. He came across an old high school friend. They started chatting, the high school friend was anxious to know what the monk was doing. So he asked him “What exactly do you do?” The young monk gave him a brief […]
Buddha found that the nature or feature of existence is characterized by the following three roots: Impermanence or Ongoing Change: Nothing persists, everything is transient. Suffering or Unhappiness/dissatisfaction caused by desire, anger and illusion also called ignorance. No-self or Insubstantiality: no living being is a permanent, independent, unique and separe self entity. We are all […]
Zen is telling us “When you are living realize also that you are also dying”! The vast majority of people who listen to this statement would react almost violently: “This is terrible, too pessimistic, too morbid.” On the contrary Zen is simply teaching us to live our lives plentifully and to be aware of our […]
The student asked “Learning from water? You must be kidding! What do you mean?” To pay attention to water is a wonderful and peaceful exercise, almost a spiritual one. Being mindful to water puts everything in perspective including how lucky we are to be made of it. Water is inside us, composing 70% of our […]
This is a frequent question and the answer is simple: Zen practice is not a warm, cozy and fuzzy practice generating a “feeling good” state. The practice requires rigorous commitment, patience and discipline. It is designed, first, to help practitioners realize their genuine Self or True Self different from our social mind- controlled self. This […]
Student: “ Zen is teaching us to quiet the mind but I can’t. I am always thinking about this and that, about the past, the future, my current issues, my work. It is non stop, even if I have being meditating for months!” Our mind and its hardware component, the brain, are working 24/7 like […]
Contrary to our Western medicine, the Oriental one and Zen Buddhism consider Mind and Body as an unbreakable single unit in which each part affects the other one continuously and at different degrees. Body functions, thoughts and emotions are the jobs of our subconscious and conscious mind. If thinking does not affect our body, our […]
The word meditation comes from the Latin meditare, which is the passive form of the verb. It means "being moved to the centre" Please note: it is not the active form that means "moving to the centre" So, who / what is moving us? Meditation does. When we meditate we are being moved to the centre of self […]
