Category Archives: Zen

True Freedom — Great Middle Way

All forms of cruelty and exploitation are blatant manifestations of self-cherishing, and strengthen our dualistic wrong view of separation, the perceived antagonism between self and other. Callous disregard for the life and well-being of other sentient beings prevents spiritual progress, because it is based on the assumption that we are somehow more important, and our […]

via True Freedom — Great Middle Way

Buddha story.

imageSomeone asked Buddha, “How shall we meditate?”

Buddha replied, “Whatsoever you do, do it with awareness; this is meditation. Walking, walk attentively, as if walking is everything; eating, eat with awareness, as if eating is everything; rising, rise with awareness; sitting, sit with awareness. All your actions become conscious, your mind does not travel beyond this moment, it remains in the moment, settles in the moment – this is meditation.”

What many of my students struggle with is clearing their minds for meditation

– we have tens of thousands of thoughts every single day after all.

Focus On The Rose

heartbeat-wallpapers-7Robin Sharma wrote about a very interesting exercise for clearing the mind called the Heart of the Rose.

To perform the exercise, all you need is a rose and to be in a silent, relaxing place.

Start to stare at the center of the rose, its heart. Focus all your attention on the rose. Notice its texture, its color, notice everything about it. Only think about the rose that is in front of you and let go of all your problems and worries…

If your attention starts to wander… if you start having unrelated thoughts… just observe your thoughts and let them go…

Then return your attention to the rose…

It’s a very simple exercise, but one that I enjoy to practice from time to time.

“Is there anything I can do to make myself Enlightened?” — Zen Flash

Student: “Is there anything I can do to make myself Enlightened?” Teacher: “As little as you can do to make the sun rise in the morning.” Student: “Then what use are the spiritual exercises you prescribe?” Teacher: “To make sure you are not asleep when the sun begins to rise.” ~Anthony de Mello Source: Tao […]

via “Is there anything I can do to make myself Enlightened?” — Zen Flash