May I live at the empty radiant heart of Paradox
2015/03/23 2 Comments
Salma:
Me:
The Buddha with no name
2013/10/24 Leave a comment
He:
Being a devoted Buddhist means denying your natural human instincts and desires
Me:
I am no Buddhist, but if you let yourself believe that Buddhism is about “denying your natural human instincts and desires” is a total misconception.
It´s most likely the fault of many deluded minds calling themselves “Buddhists”, who have promulgated this stupid misunderstanding.
Buddhism is not about denial. It´s about questioning the world of our senses, pointing to a Reality which is ever-present yet beyond time, thought and duality.
The essence of Buddhism – or for that matter, the essence of any true religion – is not to be found in Sutras, Bibles, or God knows what other holy books.
Reality doesn´t lend itself to words…It has nothing to do with Reason, it´s more a kind of feeling-less feeling…;)
Of course, my words may sound totally unsubstantiated, unless you experience it for yourself. It´s a hell of a work, or un-work…
Very few ever know it, if any…
Is there a way to It?…
2013/10/11 4 Comments
Richard:
Although I’m rather suspicious concerning Osho I like his saying:
“You have to create your own path to your own temple.”
Me:
You are right to be suspicious about Osho. He was a big trickster.
The thing is that
Unless we learn to “think paradoxically” we don´t get the Truth.
The Path is neither personal nor impersonal – and at the same time it is both.
So how can something which is not “personal” be turned into “my own”…?
As long as you state “this is mine” you create differentiation, that is, conflict.
The path is nameless, the temple exists and exists not.
So is there a way to something which has no existence?…
In constantly seeking to actualize your ideal, you will have no time for composure
2013/09/23 2 Comments
– Shunryu Suzuki-roshi
Related articles
- Zen: NOTHINGNESS (heartflow2013.wordpress.com)
Freedom from views
2013/05/27 Leave a comment
“All views are wrong views. When you get in touch with reality, you no longer have views.
You have wisdom. You have a direct encounter with reality, and that is no longer called views.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
Quoted from a post by heartflow2013.wordpress.com
Who is writing and who is not?
2012/12/08 5 Comments
Says seeingwhatis
“Life” is a concept.
We were never born.
We die like wind and live like water.
Our life is the eternal play of form…
Me:
There is this Zen story:
The disciple tells the master ” I do not exist”.
In that very second the master harshly punches
the young man in the face asking him:
Is this punch real or not…?
So I ask you now:
Who is writing these words and who is not…?
Who understands them?…
Why?
Or…
Why not…?
Stop trying to be someone – just be yourself for a change
2012/11/13 15 Comments
Everyone tries hard to be someone. If I am so self-important, someone else wants also to be important, so obviously everything becomes a constant conflict. Yes, the same goes for conflict between families, casts, groups of interest, nations – in short, everything in this life is a constant series of struggles and conflicts between different people who want to be someone empowered by a certain belief.
If I have a certain viewpoint, whenever I stubbornly hold to my ideology – be it Christianity, Buddhism, Marxism, Atheism, Freud, Jung or whatever -, this will enhance my ego and surely create conflict with another person holding another ideology.
In our present world, my belief is your threat. Your belief creates walls around you so I can´t reach you. Can you recognize and honestly question this?…Can you see that whatever “belief” is the very ground for arguments, fights and wars…?
Can you see that your avid attempt to find “your way” is often nothing more than vain conflictuality?
Whenever you work hardly to be “someone” you stress your belief, you create disharmony, imbalance, violence…Whenever you create something out of personal interest, “something else” will be the other´s answer to you.
You are always a threat for me, and me to you, as long as I hold to “mine” and you to “yours”.
Your specific way in life is given, but you cannot look for it, it´s nothing you can deliberately find. Searching creates isolation and violence. Only when you cease “trying to be” and instead, peacefully know yourself in harmony, in relation – that is, in swift tacit accord with the other -, then and only then, you will find “your real way”.
It is the natural non conflictual way, something that is both your and the other´s gain.
Do I believe in something?…I like Christ, Buddha, Homer, Scriabin, Rembrandt, Rilke, Kandinsky and many others, but I don´t believe in any of them.
I used to be a Julien-ist but I have given up that too 🙂
No standpoint – a koan for you
2012/11/09 1 Comment
For the ones who don´t know:
A koan is a special kind of Zen riddle.
Koans are not to be solved with the mundane, limited logical mind, they are meant to suspend the intellect, to put it in a state of vacuum, out of which the secret totality of life can emerge. A koan is indeed an opportunity to look deeply into one´s real nature, and “think” without thinking.
So let us consider this:
Your standpoint makes your perspective. My question to you is:
WHAT IS THE PERSPECTIVE OF NO STANDPOINT?
Our factual and perceptual knowledge is pure vanity
2012/10/13 7 Comments
She writes:
But it isn’t seizing is it? What you describe is letting things wash over me, through me, choosing to be passive. Perhaps I have a difficult time assimilating what is meant because I do not have my definition of happiness yet. I do accept that projection is not reality but what you have described to me about happiness sounds a lot like the expanding universe. Let me try to explain what I mean, I have never understood what they mean when they say the universe is expanding, what is the space it is expanding into? Do you understand where I am coming from? If, when I reach this state of happiness, I am more than my thoughts and emotions, what is that exactly? Lets say I am disconnected from everything and there is no ebb and flow and just a stream of constant non reaction, how is that happiness? I agree that it is freedom to an extent, from pain and loneliness perhaps, but is it happiness?
Me:
Just linger a second with this question:
Who is the inner authority wanting to find the definition of happiness?…I am not playing with words?…Who is it…?
Every definition deals with “the known”, doesn´t it? Just consider: Whatever is “known” is an invariable reiteration of the old, can you see this…? Happiness belongs to the “unknown”, as it is ever “new” – It is as fresh as every single breath of yours. Thus, how can something old grasp something vividly immediate which escapes name…?
Is there any definition to be applied to Happiness…? Let´s face it – there is not. Understand that every definition is the derivative of knowledge, and whatever we know is outmoded and conditioned.
The known is constant boundary whereas the unknown is blissfully boundless. Our actual perception fails to rightly connect with “the unknown” – it´s like trying to measure the ocean with a cup of tea…not so wise…isn´t it? And yet that´s what we and our science invariably endeavour…
You come to realize more and more that our factual and perceptual instruments to measure The Unknown are totally ineffective…If you use your cup to drink tea it´s all fine, but the moment we try to empty the ocean with it, transforming the cup into The Only Instrument of knowledge, we obviously have a serious problem.
It can be fun maybe to try to empty the ocean with a cup – after all, it gives many something to do – but if you go on trying “to reach this state of happiness” through definitions, through purposely inquiring helped by your intellect – your cup of tea -, even in 10 lifetimes you will be still searching in vain…
Very few are willing to admit this – our tools to understand Life or Happiness, are preposterously inadequate. We are caught in a paradoxical hopelessness: if our knowledge and its factual and perceptual instruments are pure vanity, do we then have any ability to fathom anything at all?…
This hopelessness is a real blow for the ego…I have faced it…it is utterly disconcerting. Many cannot take it, cause who would they be if it shows that whatever they consciously believed in and struggled for shows to be nothing but futility…?
In this state of realizing the vanity of whatever “conscious strife” something happens within…You realize your impuissance, and let everything crumble. Realizing your powerlessness means “to let go”…This can cause tremendous pain, or not…It is all depending of how “heavily armed” your ego is…your so-called inner authority.
Having faced this hopelessness you begin to be quiet inside of you – there is nothing to do…You start maybe realizing that “thy will be done” are not mere words…You begin to quietly and efficiently observe you egotic “emptiness”. You understand that life or happiness is not about being either passive ar active. All concepts begin to dissipate. Neither action or inaction. Neither thought or emotion. Neither ebb nor flow…No pain, no loneliness.
But!
You´ll also realize that Life is also a sum of all these things too. Both the presence and the absence of everything there is…Immediate comprehending this is also part of the deal…
Accordingly, Happiness is not freedom “from something”…Happiness embraces all there is, and yet it has no thought, it has no mind…
It is nothing to reach. as it is there all the time…
https://julienmatei.com/2012/10/09/happiness-is-the-real-you/
Julien Matei
Mirrors of Encounters 