When you totally rest, your mind stops differentiating. You realize the world as one and you feel it is actually pretty good to feel that way (I mean you have the peace).
Life is moving very quickly. Follow the flow. Then there is peace.
When you move, you stay with one. When you don’t stay with [...]
Archive for the ‘Chan/Zen’ Category
When you totally rest
Posted in Chan/Zen on April 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Play, learn, create, and friends
Posted in Chan/Zen on April 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
We human beings have limitation. To live in the dynamic life process, it helps to have some very simple minimum guidelines in your mind. What helps me in practice is: only three things to do — play, learn, and create (I have posted on this a lot. They are the basic living activities.); friends (Friendship [...]
Don’t learn Buddhism
Posted in Chan/Zen on April 29, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Don’t expect Buddhism can solve all your problems. This is modern time and human civilizations have accumulated a lot of knowledge. As an individual, you have the responsibility to learn the knowledge to function responsibly in this world. You need to rely on thinking because you cannot see society clearly. That is the limitation of [...]
self exists
Posted in Chan/Zen on April 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
People practicing Buddhism know that Buddhism teaches of no-self. But here I want to tell you that self exists.
Why do I say self exists? Self exits because you have it.
People like to say that there is no self because you cannot find a solid separate independent entity as self. Saying that sounds like there is [...]
The Dharma Brothers
Posted in Chan/Zen on April 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I watched the screening of this movie about one month ago. The prisoners in the movie had practiced in a very sincere way. Here are just some quotes from them (I don’t remember the exact words, so it is more a paraphrase):
“it is ok if i don’t get out of here for life. But it [...]
No solid and separate entity as self
Posted in Chan/Zen on March 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I heard of this expression a lot. When people talk about no self or no ego they often say it is because there is no solid and separate entity as self. It sounds like there are solid and separate entities of other things. If you want to talk about existence or non-existence, I can say [...]
Relationship and Buddhism practice
Posted in Chan/Zen on March 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Listened to the talk given by Purna Steinitz of the Trimurti Ashram in the IDP.
Since he didn’t leave much time for asking questions, I didn’t get the chance to ask my question. But here you are.
First I want to make some modification to his definition of relationship. He said relationship is to observe the other [...]
Driving all blames into one self–about absolute and relative
Posted in Chan/Zen on March 8, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Heard of “Driving all blames into one self” in IDP discussion. If you are not there in the discussion, this might not make too much sense to you. Or it might.
This is a good case to illustrate the meaning of the absolute and the relative. Or what you called big mind and small mind. Actually [...]
Don’t waste your life on anything including Buddhism
Posted in Chan/Zen, What is Learning on January 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I have been to many Buddhism centers in New York. What I saw is that very often the teachers were the confused ones. The teachers learned a lot of words. So they threw the words at the students. But the teachers didn’t really understand the teaching, and they mixed different things together, just making students [...]
No Self?
Posted in Chan/Zen on January 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If there is no self, what kind of mind do you have right now?
Buddha’s teaching
Posted in Chan/Zen on January 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
When I read of Buddha’s sutra, it is always very clear.
For example,
“Like smelting gold ore, the gold does not exist as the result of smelting. Though it regains the original golden quality, it is perfected only after the process of smelting. Once it becomes true gold, it cannot become ore again.”
So our Buddha nature is [...]
Consciousness/experiences cannot be transfered
Posted in Chan/Zen, Foreign Experience, Random Thoughts, What is Learning on December 14, 2008 | 1 Comment »
In Zen, it is well-known that the masters insist that they have nothing to teach. They insist that their words cannot become the students’. The students have to experience for themselves.
Yes, the consciousness/experiences cannot be transfered from one person to another. You have to experience it yourself.
What I realized after coming to US is that [...]
When you walk
Posted in Chan/Zen, What is Learning on December 8, 2008 | 1 Comment »
When you walk, you are just walking. You are not making any decision. Then the space opens up, and you experience the unlimited space that is beyond any concept. All thinking and concepts are limited space. No matter how wonderful the thinking and concepts are, they are limited and are for the convenience of the [...]
Community vs. Networking Part 2
Posted in Chan/Zen, Cross Culture Communication, Culture, Grassroots on November 9, 2008 | 1 Comment »
In China, the media is very much controlled (in a different way the media in US is controlled), so it is hard to get to know what is going on at the national level. You read the reports in the news. You doubt what really happened. You read in the news that there is food [...]
No self, no problem
Posted in Chan/Zen on October 22, 2008 | 1 Comment »
When I talk about no-self, I don’t mean selflessness. Your selflessness still has a self. No self. All Buddhism practice is for cutting off yourself. When you practice Buddhism, practice putting everything down, including that selfless self. Don’t practice in a way that keeps affirming yourself.
Knowledge is for people who have problems. If you have [...]
Two great things of human civilization
Posted in Chan/Zen on October 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It was said that the two great things of human civilization are the scientific method of the west and the meditation practice of the east.
It is interesting that I finished most of my scientific training in China, and I didn’t get a chance to practice Buddhism intensively until I came to US (intensively might not [...]
The subject and object part 2
Posted in Chan/Zen on October 18, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The subject and object part 2:
Part 1 is here: http://freestone.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/the-subject-and-object/
Below is a follow-up of IDP Saturday class this week.
There are billions of moments in one snap of fingers. There are moments you hear. There are moments you don’t hear. Your ears hear, but you don’t hear. The moment you hear, subject and object are unified. [...]
About Insight Meditation
Posted in Chan/Zen on October 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I went to listen to the talk given by Sharon Salzberg at IDP. From the talk, I can see how the insight meditation can work. Here I want to talk a little of my personal take of it. For any practice, different people can have their personal interpretation of it, and the interpretation evolves as [...]
What to focus on in sitting meditation
Posted in Chan/Zen on October 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
People like to ask what they should focus on when in sitting meditation. As I said in a previous post about the subject and object, there are billions of moments in a snap of fingers. So there are billions of moments the subject and object are unified. There are billions of moments during which subject [...]
