Those who know do not speak
Those who speak do not know.
Mostrar mensagens com a etiqueta * zen. Mostrar todas as mensagens
Mostrar mensagens com a etiqueta * zen. Mostrar todas as mensagens
18.9.17
17.8.13
Zen Meditation: It’s Not What You Think!
In fact, words do not exist that can accurately describe what happens during the “inner alchemy” of deep meditation, that opens localized fields of consciousness well beyond the reach of words and rational thought. The true intention is to sit quietly without doing anything. It consists of completely emptying the mind of all conceptual thoughts and to leave the spirit to dwell in the emptiness, the silence and the calm.
In Zen meditation, there is nothing mysterious magical nor; is it a mental exercise as precise, practical and effective as is physical exercise and breathing for energy. Most important, it is a discipline and to learn the techniques that facilitate the accomplishment of this mental exercise, you can find it in books, but it is better if someone with experience guide you;
What is Zen?
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The answer that my grand teacher would always give to this question was, “Zen is very simple. What are you?” In this world today, as it has been since human beings began to discriminate and to think, we all began searching for satisfaction outside of ourselves; however, because it seems almost counter-intuitive very few of us ever seek to find happiness within ourselves. Listening to typical conversations we hear others speak of this thing that is labeled “I.” Also, if we have enough internal witness and we listen to our own speech it may surprise us how many times we also use the word “I’ in our conversations. We all talk about this “I” as if it had a separate self, as if this “I” were somehow existent outside of us. We say things like, “I want this,” or “I am like this” but how many of us truly understand this “I” of which we speak, and where does our “I” come from?
In Zen we sometimes ask, “before you were born, before your mother and father conceived you, what was your original nature?” Along these same lines we might ask; when we die, where will we go? If we can sincerely ask ourselves, ‘What am I?’ Eventually we will run into a wall where all thinking is cut off. In our Zen Lineage we call this ‘don’t know;’ however, this state of perception is not exclusive to Zen and other traditions call this state by different names. Christians may call it Christ Consciousness, Jews may call it, YHWH, Daoists might call it the Great and Ineffable Dao, the great twentieth Century Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki Roshi called it Beginner’s Mind, consequently each path has a separate name for this one state of mind. So, Zen practice is about keeping a don’t-know mind always and everywhere.
when walking, standing, sitting, lying down, speaking,
being silent moving, being still...
at all times, in all places, without interruption–what is this?
one mind is infinite kalpas. Zen Master Seung Sahn
We define meditation in Zen as maintaining a don’t-know mind when bowing, chanting, as well as during seated meditation. Yet, for us in this modern twenty first century it is highly important to keep this don’t know mind every minute of our waking life. There are no special forms of existence or places that will take us out of our current situation or condition; this is the place where we try to escape reality by using drugs, alcohol, video games, the company of others, etc. In and of themselves, these actions are not good or not bad, it is just that it all boils down to a simple question. “Do you control your thinking, or does your thinking control you?” For most of us we have a constant dialog going on in our heads, but who is it that we are talking with? We create this separation inside our own heads. If we can stop this endless train of thoughts, this constitutes what we call formal Zen practice, and it isn’t what we think. We may think that we must meditate, or go off to a mountain top in silence to find ourselves; but Buddha taught that if we are ever to wake up to our own humanity it must be in this very moment. By keeping a don’t know mind when we are doing something, we can just do it. When driving, we just drive; when eating, we can just eat; when working we can just work.
Eventually our don’t know-mind will become clear. Then when we see the sky, there is only blue—when we see the tree, there is only green. Our mind becomes like a clear untarnished mirror—if red appears the mirror reflects red; if white appears the mirror reflects white. If a hungry person arrives, we can give some food; if a thirsty person arrives, we can give something to quench their thirst. In the end there is no desire for myself, only for all sentient beings. This mind is already enlightened; it is what we call Great Love, Great Compassion, and the Great Bodhisattva Way. Zen is very simple, it is not difficult!
Posted by Rev. Paul Dōch'ŏng Lynch Zen Mirror: What is Zen?
Understanding is the essence of love.
13.8.13
breathe | zen habit
The Jiangyou Figure Hill Temple. Simple iron chain bridge, China, 1930's
smile, breathe & go slowly
♥
The Art Of Imperfect Beauty
Wabi-sabi (侘寂)
O expoente máximo de todos os valores estéticos: encontrar beleza em tudo, tal como são na verdadeira essência... depois disto o conceito de arte (como se conhece) deixa de ter qualquer importância... ficam uns links para quem quiser saber mais
7.3.13
22.2.13
14.1.13
o tabaco da vida
Se soubesse que amanhã morria
E a Primavera era depois de amanhã,
Morreria contente, porque ela era depois de amanhã.
....
Às vezes ponho-me a olhar para uma pedra.
Não me ponho a pensar se ela sente.
Não me perco a chamar-lhe minha irmã.
Mas gosto dela por ela ser uma pedra,
Gosto dela porque ela não sente nada,
Gosto dela porque ela não tem parentesco nenhum comigo.
Outras vezes oiço passar o vento,
E acho que só para ouvir passar o vento vale a pena ter nascido.
...
Podem rezar latim sobre o meu caixão, se quiserem.
Se quiserem, podem dançar e cantar à roda dele.
Não tenho preferências para quando já não puder ter preferências.
O que for, quando for, é que será o que é.
...
Se, depois de eu morrer, quiserem escrever a minha biografia,
Não há nada mais simples.
Tem só duas datas – a da minha nascença e a da minha morte.
Entre uma e outra cousa todos os dias são meus.
Alberto Caeiro
Fernando Pessoa, Obra Poética e em Prosa, ed. António Quadros. Porto, Lello & Irmão, 1986.
18.12.12
18.6.12
13.6.12
zen habit
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler
Albert Einstein
Illustration by Steve Calvert from the collection Betweeners - Middle Worlds
2.6.12
100 Ways
1. Do the Thing You Fear the Most.
If there’s one thing that will change your thoughts quicker than anything else, it’s facing your fears.
2. Stand up For Yourself
A lot of people have difficulty in standing up for themselves. The first time you do it can be very empowering and your thoughts about yourself will change forever. See Dealing With Confrontation
3. Stop Talking
It’s great to be silent for just a little while. Our thoughts turn inward and we begin to appreciate ourselves just a little more.
4. Strengthen Your Strengths
Sometimes we focus too much on trying to strengthen our weaknesses when we should be concentrating on strengthening our strengths.
5. Take A Walk Around an Art Gallery
You might not appreciate art or participate in it but it’s great to see the thoughts of others on canvas. It can give us a tiny glimpse of what goes on in other people’s minds.
6. Blindfold Yourself for a Day
Walk in the shoes of a blind person for 1 full day, it will forever change the way you think about life.
7. Stand on a Chair for 5 Minutes Per Day
Building self discipline is a great way to take control of your mind and your thoughts. If you just get up and stand on a sturdy chair your mind will be wondering what the hells going on and try and force you to get off the chair. Disciplining your mind is a great way to start changing your life. See Self Discipline
8. Dance When There’s Nobody There
It’s a strange sensation to dance on your own, although when I have done this I look like a dog having a seizure, nonetheless it’s a great way to let go of your inhibitions.
9. Give Money to Someone Unexpectedly
Whether it be on the internet, or in the street, just give a larger than normal donation to someone. This again is liberating and your thoughts about money will change for a few moments (that’s all it takes to start the process of changing your life.)
10. Strengthen Your Thoughts About Yourself
Reinforce your thoughts about your good points. If you are good at talking to people, tell yourself this often. If you are good at maths, tell yourself often. This has the benefit of reinforcing and strengthening your self image.
11. Take A Risk
Life would be boring without ever having taken a risk in your life. Do something that you didn’t want to do because you thought you wouldn’t be any good at it. This totally smashes the boundaries of your comfort zone and your life could change forever. Read This Post by Robin Easton
12. Talk To A Stranger
Again this is breaking our comfort zones, but just saying hi to stranger in the street or good morning can have an enormous impact on your day and the person you said hi to.
13. Walk Around The House Naked
I can almost feel the shock at this. I don’t mean when you’ve got guests in, I mean when everybody is out. Lock the door and totally liberate yourself and your thinking of what’s right and what’s wrong. I wouldn’t advise doing it all the time, but from time to time, it’s a great feeling.
14. Read A Book By An Author You Most Avoid
reading books by authors we avoid gives us a chance to take control of our minds and lets us see another side to our thinking. We’ve got to ask why we avoid them in the first place, is it something within us that we are avoiding?
15. Write An Article About Yourself
Imagine a newspaper has asked you to write an article of 1000 words or less about yourself and your life and they want to know what motivates you in life, now write the article. This helps put your life into some perspective and gets you thinking about your childhood and growing up.
16. Stop Contact With Your Down People
If you have people in your life who constantly drag you down, or are negative all the time, drop them. Honestly drop them from your life, you are not serving them and they are not serving you and they are dragging your thoughts down. Read This Post by Dan And jennifer
17. Believe In Yourself
A lot of people believe their life has been pre-destined and there’s nothing we can do to change it – absolute rubbish. YOU are the only person who controls the universe, yes I did mean universe. Your universe is different from mine so you control your own universe, think about that and start acting upon it.
18. Meditate Every Day
Another powerful thing that has the power to change your life and your thinking for good. Retreating into your mind for a few minutes every day will do you a power of good. Read How To Meditate
19. Ask For A Discount
When you buy anything from a shop that is over $100, ask for a discount. Tell the salesman you’d like a 10% discount on the item. Most people are so afraid of doing this but it’s a great way to empower yourself and let go of another inhibition, what’s the worst that can happen?
20. Risk Embarrassment
Imagine if you had seen the person of your dreams on a bus, or at the store and you didn’t do anything about it how much would you kick yourself. If this happens to you, do something about it, don’t keep it hidden. Just say to them you thought you would come over and say how attractive they looked and felt you had to tell them. You never know what will happen and how much your life could be changed. Obviously don’t turn into a weirdo and do it with every good looking person on the street.
21. Work Toward, What You Think, Is An Impossible Goal
If you work toward a goal without expectation you don’t care about the outcome as much. When you don’t care about the outcome, you don’t have as much expectation.
22. Practice Gratitude
We all know what we don’t have in our lives because we spend a lot of time wishing we had them, but are we really thankful for what we have? Spend time every single day being thankful for the good things we do have in our lives. read The Post at ZenHabits on Gratitude
23. Do Something Nice And Don’t Tell Anyone About It
We tell others about our acts of kindness to let them know how nice we are and to seek approval. If you keep your act of kindness to yourself without ever telling anyone the feeling of positive energy lasts much longer.
24. Share Your Skills
Everybody has a skill of some kind. When you share it you not only have the power to help others, but you enhance your own skill by owning it.
25. Don’t Talk Just Listen
Enhance your listening skills by not talking when someone is speaking to you. Resist the urge to speak your views when someone is talking to you, just listen to them and ask them more open ended questions at the appropriate times. This has two benefits: a) You can really listen if you are not formulating the stories in your own head when someone is talking b) you will make the other person feel great as you are actively listening to them.
26. Write Your Future Life Story
Start from the age you are just now and start writing your future life story as you’d like it to be. Be as outrageous as you want and just write about your ideal life and how you interact with it. Words on paper are powerful and can help shape your goals.
27. Give Someone A Gift For No Reason
We always assume someone buys us a gift for a reason whether it be a birthday, christmas or special occasion. Buy someone a gift just because you know they would like it.
28. Pass On Your Good Books
If you’ve read a book and it changed your thinking or life in some way, pass it on to someone else who might benefit.;
29. Spend More Time With Your Kids
Your kids will grow up very quickly, spend as much time as you can with them.
30. Forgive Behavior
The way we behave doesn’t necessarily reflect our true thoughts. Remember this when someone acts out of character and behaves in a way you don’t approve of.
31. Allow Yourself To Be A Lazy Git
We are so used to filling our time with useful things to do and being productive we have forgotten the art of laziness. Being lazy is good every ONCE IN A WHILE and it allows our mind to slow down and relax.
32. What Is Your Best Quality Today
Every morning for 10 seconds just state, out loud if you can, what your best quality is. Try and change it every day. This reinforces your strengths and weakens your perceived weaknesses.
33. Write A Comment
If you visit a blog you like, leave a comment and join in the community of people. Or, if there is not much of a community, be part of starting it.
34. Tell Your Friends And Colleagues How Good They Are
If a friend or colleague does something good, tell them how good they are at that particular task. This reinforces someone else strengths or strengthens their weaknesses and makes them feel good about themselves.
35. Make A Video Of Yourself And Post It To Youtube
Why on earth would you do this? Just because you can!
36. List All Your Worries
Make a list of every single worry you have at the moment. You will notice that you don’t have as many worries as you thought. Worrying consumes our thinking and we think our whole life is one big worry. When you get it down on paper it’s extremely surprising that you don’t have as many as you’d thought.
37. Work On Each Worry In Turn
Now that you have all your worries listed. Go through them and start acting on them in turn. If you find worries you cannot act upon it means there is nothing you can do to change the outcome of that worry, so forget it, why waste mind energy on something you cannot control at all? Read This Post for More Info
38. Read About Successful People
If you want to change your thoughts and change your life read about people who have already done it and use them as guides.
39. Tweet Your Moods
If you use twitter why not tweet your moods daily and see if there is some kind of pattern after a few months.
40. Stop Watching Soaps
Soap operas actually have the power to alter your state of mind. People get so caught up in the emotions of the soap that they experience what the actors and actresses are doing.
41. Have A News Break
What would happen if you never read a newspaper for a week? nothing at all, your life wouldn’t change, you wouldn’t run out of things to talk about, you would still be as up on the world as everyone else. Newspapers sell because of their doom and gloom, read it and you are buying into it.
42. Do Something Spontaneous
Jump on a bus without looking at the destination, book a holiday, take time off work, take your partner away, buy your kids a gift; do anything and make sure it’s out of character, (expand that boundary).
43. Write To An Author
Authors are people just like you and I and they love getting feedback about their work. If a book touched you in some way or changed you, take time to write to the author and thank them. Don’t look for a reply, just thank them.
44. Follow your instincts
We don’t trust ourselves nearly enough as we should. Follow your instincts more and pay attention to the signals your body is picking up and see where it takes you. You might find that your conscious brain gets in the way of your body signals a lot of the time. Read This Post for More Info
45. If You Find Some Money Give It To Charity
If you find money in the street don’t pocket it, give it to someone who is homeless or better yet buy them a meal with it. If it’s a suitcase full of money, that’s obviously a different story.
46. Your Thoughts Really Do Have Power
When you realize this, it will change your thinking in so many ways. I can’t tell you that it’s true you have to experience it for yourself.
47. Always Admit It When You Have Made A Mistake
Don’t blame others or hide behind someone else. Hold your hands up and admit you made a mistake, no matter what the consequences are. You will be much more respected this way. However, don’t take the blame for others.
48. Do Something Every Day To Improve Your Mind
Learn a new word, do an anagram puzzle, sudoku your mind, read a book, read a stimulating blog post, anything that will help your mind just a little. Just a little turns into something huge.
49. Change Your Thinking Style
If something is not working out, try and change your thinking style and come at it from another angle. This is true of everything in life.
50. What Do You Really Want To Do In Life
You will find most people cannot answer this question simply because they are plodding along with life. When you know what you really want to do with your life then your life takes another path. read This Post by Dragos Roua
51. Pass On Your Knowledge
Knowledge is for sharing, let others know what you know if it’s appropriate.
52. Ask For What You Want In Life
If you don’t ask you won’t get. Asking for your wants puts it out there. I mean literally ask and metaphorically ask. When you want a big house or a mansion, ask out loud and send it out there. When you want the smaller things in life, ask for them from people who can give you them. Always pay it forward.
53. When Someone Does You A Good Turn Pay It Forward
If you receive a compliment, thank the person and look for an opportunity to give someone else a compliment. If you receive a gift, give a gift to someone else at an opportune time.
54. Always Have A Good Breakfast
We underestimate the power of food to keep our brains healthy and our minds alive with energy. If you don’t eat that much, make sure you have a good breakfast to set you up for the day. Read this post on eating by Vin Miller
55. What Would People Say About You If You Died
This is not a morbid thought, but I often think about what people would say about me at my funeral. The thing is the ones who might say something bad, I can’t really not invite because I’ll be dead. However, the important people are ones I would care about most and I would like to develop my life’s values based on what people would say about me at my funeral; he was a caring man, he was a family man, he always told the truth no matter how hard it might seem, he had integrity etc.
56. Sing Your Heart Out
I love to sing, I hopeless at it, but I love it. We have a radio station over in the UK called gold http://www.mygoldmusic.co.uk/ and it plays music from the 60s, 70s and 80s and I sing at the top of my voice as there is always something on that’s good. My sons are not very pleased about it though 
57. Love The One You’re With
Always let your partner know how much you love them by telling them and showing them. This way your mind is focused on them for at least part of the day.
58. Pacing Whilst Studying
This has helped me a lot over the years. I paced my way through university. My theory is that the body and mind is being stimulated with the exercise you are doing whilst walking, this makes the blood flow. Blood flow to the brain help you to study and remember.
59. Make New friends
Whether it be online or offline. Keeping yourself busy socially is stimulating for the mind and lets you see the world from others peoples perspective.
60. Make Love Regularly
Releasing the feel good chemicals, endorphins, into your bloodstream is a great way to stimulate the mind. I have to admit to feeling much more creative after making love.
61. Listen To Music
This stimulates the mind and can have tremendous benefits for your thoughts, therefore your life. I love listening to Baroque music whilst driving at night, I love rousing rock driving during the day and dance trance music at the weekend whist driving
62. Listen To A Book Instead Of The Radio
Getting downloadable books from Amazon.com or Audible.com is a great way to spend long journeys and learn something at the same time.
63. Have A Sleep In
I am not a big fan of sleeping longer than I have to, but sometimes it’s great to lie in bed for a few hours longer than normal. It helps the brain recuperate.
64. Turn Off The TV
There’s nothing more brain numbing than having the TV on all day every day. Exercise your mind and read a book, or at least watch something educational. Read this post by Vin Miller
65. Look For Evidence Of Your Beliefs
This will develop your mind and your critical thinking. If you look for evidence of your beliefs such as ‘what is the evidence that sea water is blue or green’, you’ll discover some great information on during your research.
66. Take Micro Naps
Taking a micro nap for 10 minutes a few times a day does wonders for your brain energy. read this post on Micro Naps
67. Travel Often
Travel really does broaden your horizons especially if you really get into the local food and culture.
68. Tidy House Tidy Mind
There really is nothing better than clearing your house or office space to clear your mind. When the house is not tidy there is always a niggling at the back of your mind. When the house, office and workspace is totally clean and tidy it frees your mind to concentrate on work or your family at home. read this post at DumbLittleMan
69. Exercise Your Mind Not Just Your Body
We all know the benefits of exercising the body but exercising the mind by doing crosswords, maths puzzles, playing chess, reading, anagrams, sudoku etc, all help to increase the minds capacity for learning.
70. Read Philosophy
the beauty of philosophy is that there is no right and wrong. However, reading different philosophers views about the world will stimulate your mind. Read this post by Tim Ferris
71. Ditch The Credit Card
We have forgotten how to wait for the things we want in life, if we see something we like we want it now and using a credit card is too easy. Make the object of your desire more precious by saving up for it. This will discipline your mind as well as your money spending habits.
72. Watch A Motivational Video On Youtube First Thing In The Morning
This is a great way to start the day. Just type in motivational into youtube search box, sort by view count and watch a few videos.
73. Keep Up To Date With New Theories
Whatever field you are interested in keep up to date with new theories and discoveries. New theories in psychology are especially interesting albeit quite thin on the ground.
74. Take One Action Toward Your Goals Every Day
Your Self confidence, self esteem, and goals can only be reached by taking action. The more action you take the more your mind will help you to keep going.
75. Never Let Your Mind Go Out Of Fashion
Keep up to date with the latest research on health, beauty and intelligence. Only those whose thoughts keep searching will stay intelligent for life.
76. Confronting Your Stressors
Whatever you are stressed about the most tackle first. The less stress you have the less your mind has to cope with. Tackle the biggest stressors first and work your way down. Read this post by Jonathan Wells
77. Drink Coffee And Tea
Despite evidence to the contrary coffee and tea have been shown to help the brain. Antioxidants and/or caffeine may help fight the onset of Alzheimer’s by 30-60% drinking 30 cups a day is obviously not good but 3-5 cups per day is okay.
78. Carry Yourself With Confidence
People can tell by the way you walk if you are confident or not. Walk with purpose and have a purpose to walk. Read this post by Brandon Lindell
79. Make Up Your Own Mind
When reading or listening to the news, do your own research and make up your own mind. The government and large corporations, whether deliberate or not, is a propaganda machine feeding you information to manipulate your thinking.
80. Take Up Yoga
This is meant to be one of the best ways to relive stress and exercise both mind and body. watch this video to get you started
81. Change Your Hands
Practice doing this with your less dominant hand. If you are right handed start doing things with your left hand and vice versa. If you are ambidextrous, start doing it with your feet
82. Eat Plenty Of Fish
There is an abundance on new evidence that eating fish is great for our brains and keeping them healthy.
83. Reduce Your Alcohol Intake
I had to say this, I am an addiction worker. Don’t cut it out just reduce it to the recommended safe level.
84. Quit The Smoking
Yep it can be one of the hardest drugs to give up but it is worth it. I feel so much better for giving up smoking and have a lot more energy than normal and my mind can function a lot better.
85. Practice Deep Breathing
Getting plenty of oxygen to your brain is key for a healthy mind, deep breathing can help with this.
86. Get A Dog/Cat
If you live alone why not go to one of the pet rescue centres and get a dog or a cat. People who have pets are shown to be less lonely, more active, and show fewer signs of stress. read this article by elizabeth Scott
87. Break your Pattern
If you are the one who always goes shopping swap the routine with your partner. Or if you always go to a particular store, change it and go to the same store in another area. Do anything to break the patterns you have in life. This way your mind is kept more active.
88. Try New Food
We have trained our palettes over the years and have gotten used to eating certain foods day in and day out. Try new foods and train your palette to eat better foods.
89. Stimulate Your Brain By Going To A Concert
Whether it be a rock concert or am orchestral concert, getting out and hearing music live and being with people who enjoy the same music stimulates your mind and your emotions.
90. Join An Internet Group
Join an internet discussion group to further your education on topics of interest. Want to start a business? join a group and get ideas for best practice. Want to know more about tropical fish? join a group. This educates your mind, gives you ideas and lets you meet people who are interested in the same topics as you.
91. Volunteer To Help Others
Volunteering is a great way to give back to the community and help others learn the skills you have. Even if you don’t think you have skills you can still help someone out in your community just by talking or doing their shopping for 1 hour per week.
92. Read The Tao Te Ching
Has to be one of the best books, in my opinion, for developing your mind. read this blog by Naoto Matsumoto
93. Practice Patience
Waiting in queues, traffic jams, on a telephone call can be very frustrating sometimes. If you use the time to develop your mind and focus on your goals your frustration will dissipate very quickly. Use free time like this constructively instead of getting angry and putting yourself in a bad mood.
94. Practice Divergent Thinking
This is the practice of looking for multiple solutions to problems or issues that arise in your life, whether they be at home or at work. Don’t judge your solutions just put them down on paper until you can’t think of any other ways. get others involved in this as well. Read this article on divergent thinking
95. Put On A New Hat
Edward De Bono wrote a book called Six Thinking Hats in which he proposed you to put on a different, mental, hat for each area of your life. For example you put on your parent hat when talking to your kids, you can also put on your child hat for playing around with your kids. mentally putting on different hats allows you to better go in and out of different roles in your life.
96. Stop trying To Multitask
Multitasking can’t be done except with unconscious processes such as walking and talking. If you try to consciously multitask like make the kids lunches, have a telephone conversation and try and get the kids ready for school it can’t be done nearly as effectively as doing each task separately. Multitasking stresses out minds and helps to produce bad results. read this article by Dave Crenshaw
97. Write A Short Essay On The Books Your Read
Doing this will keep your mind active and helps your to read in a different way as you are analyzing books instead of just reading. this way you retain more information and in a few years time you don’t embarrass yourself by saying ‘yeah, that was a great book but I can’t remember what it was about.’
98. Allocate Time For Worrying
If you are a recovering worrier and you need some help, allocate a certain time each day to worry about everything. Once you’ve done the time of worry, leave it until the next day.
99. Stop Faffing And Just Do It
Faffing is the art of doing small things to avoid completing a bigger task. I am constantly getting on at my son and saying ‘Stop faffing!’. We spend too much time faffing instead on concentrating on the task at hand. Read this Article at Lifehack.org
100. Read The Dictionary
Learning a new word every 2 -3 days will increase your vocabulary by 120 – 170 words per year.
101. Always Over deliver On Your Promises
If you say your going to do something, don’t just do it and get the job complete, make sure you over deliver on everything you do.
14.5.12
“Wabi Sabi?”
Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
Wu Men (1183-1260), translated by Stephen Mitchell
The perfection of imperfection, and the beauty in what’s aging and changing.
...everything is passing memory, all of life is just a dream as we row these boats.
...everything is passing memory, all of life is just a dream as we row these boats.
“Wabi Sabi?” you ask.
It’s the Japanese term, originated from the beauty of decaying, ancient tea houses, that connotes the perfection of imperfection or the beauty of passing memory. So what better topic than transition because, at its heart, Wabi Sabi is all about transition: dwelling in the mysterious change and unfolding that’s always happening despite our human desire to have some sense of control.
What did we learn and share about transition? Here’s what I’m remembering this morning:
▪ Each moment has its message, and all we need to get through it until we arrive at the next moment.
▪ The older we get, the more skilled we get at navigating transitions without excess stress (I mean, the transition itself could be stressful, but we don’t have to pile on it fears of how we’ll get through it as much because we know we can get through it).
▪ As our bodies change and seem more limited in some physical ways, they also can lead us to other kinds of grace in stillness and motion.
▪ Sometimes when you least expect it, you can look up from your computer and see a coyote out the window.
▪ In moments of great pain when there’s nothing we can do to stop the pain, we can breathe into and through it, and make peace with whatever is happening until the pain changes into something else.
▪ Grandchildren are wonderful, but the love and bond isn’t automatic. Even this lovely transition takes time and presence.
▪ Being in the flow is what calls to us as we get older much more than accomplishing goals or crossing things off a list.
▪ Most of us love arriving at moments and times in our lives when we will have no plans.
▪ When embarking on a transition, it’s good to simply let yourself not know how you’ll feel, and then ride the waves.
▪ Our bodies are marvelous amusement parks.
▪ The permission fairy lives in all of us, and gives us full permission to live our most true life, something necessary for meaningful transitions.
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19.4.12
Meaningful identities
Being In The World
a film by Tao Ruspoli
Once upon a time there was a world full of meaning, focused by exemplary figures in the form of gods and heroes, saints and sinners. How did we lose them, or, might they still be around, in the form of modern day masters, in fields like sports, music, craft and cooking. Are these masters able to inspire us and bring back a sense of wonder, possibly even of the sacred?18.4.12
Zero Mind
In our Zen Practice no meaning is great meaning, and great meaning is no meaning. It is sometimes called zero mind. So what is zero mind? If you go around and ask, “Is zero a number?” You will get very interesting responses.
If someone says zero is a number, then you can do anything with zero. To examine this we can look at the following calculations. 9 x 0 = 0. Then, 9 = 0/0. O.K.? Then, if you say it’s a number, then 0/0 = 1. So 9 = 0/0 = 1, and 9 = 1. As a computer programmer I so often come across the ‘divide by zero’ error in one of my queries. So if we can’t divide by zero, is it a real number?
This state of mind exists outside of logic, it exists in a realm of universal consciousness. Our ‘don’t know mind’ isn’t held by the law of mathematics, yet math wouldn’t function without zero. The rules governing the use of zero appeared for the first time in Brahmagupta's book Brahmasputha Siddhanta (The Opening of the Universe), written in 628. Here Brahmagupta considers not only zero, but negative numbers, and the algebraic rules for the elementary operations of arithmetic with such numbers. In some instances, his rules differ from the modern standard. Here are the rules of Brahmagupta:
The sum of zero and a negative number is negative.
The sum of zero and a positive number is positive.
The sum of zero and zero is zero.
The sum of a positive and a negative is their difference; or, if their absolute values are equal, zero.
A positive or negative number when divided by zero is a fraction with the zero as denominator.
Zero divided by a negative or positive number is either zero or is expressed as a fraction with zero as numerator and the finite quantity as denominator.
Zero divided by zero is zero.
It took another thousand years for Western Mathematics to catch up to this ancient Indian concept to sunyata. Zero mind can do anything. If you say zero is a number, then zero is a number. If you say zero is not a number, then zero is not a number; this simply doesn’t matter. Zero contains everything; and everything returns to zero. This is Zen mathematics, so zero mind is very interesting. If you keep zero mind, then you can do anything.”
The Conscious Universe
"The greatest impediment to discovery is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."
Daniel J. Boorstin
"The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life. For it is only through meditation that you can undertake the journey to discover your true nature, and so find the stability and confidence you will need to live, and die, well. Meditation is the road to enlightenment."
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying , Sogyal Rinpoche
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