Flow in Mindfulness Meditation

      Shinzen Young defines 'flow' - the technical term in Basic Mindfulness Training (not Csikszentmihalyi's construct) - "as the movement, change, energy, or force present within a sensory experience. ... Flow is not something separate from specific sensory experiences; it is a characteristic that appears within a specific sensory experience as a result of continuously bringing clarity and equanimity to that experience."

     The downloadable pdf "What is Flow" found under "For Students", then "Further Reference",  

http://www.shinzen.org/index.htm contains very useful information for those deeply engaged in meditation.

pocoloco   www.dpreview.com

 

Basis of Mental Illness & Suffering from a Buddhist Perspective

     These four are distortions of perception, thought & view:
               • Sensing no change in the changing, 
               • Sensing pleasure in suffering, 
               • Assuming "self" where there's no self, 
               • Sensing the un-lovely as lovely.

     Delusion is a mental illness that causes all sorts of suffering; mental health can be restored by correcting the flaws in how the mind operates.

       "Vipallasa Sutta: Distortions of the Mind" (AN 4.49), translated from the Pali by Andrew Olendzki. Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 2 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.049.olen.html .

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The Problem of Evil - a Zen Perspective

     "In Zen language, 'the great death' stands for the nondual sense of life as one. All things, good or bad, desirable or undesirable, express that oneness. To experience the great death is to see, face to face and for oneself, that everything is real, everything is true, everything is just as it is. ...
     The great death, oneness, enlightenment, total acceptance of reality beyond good and evil - this is a necessary step in Zen or any other profound spiritual practice. But although this may be ultimate, it is only a step. Zen calls it 'the great death' for a good reason. It is a kind of 'death.' It requires a complete letting go, a complete relinquishment, in trust, of everything that one has identified as one's life.
     To be truly alive, as Zen sees it, one has to die - to let go of life. But until we are physically dead we can't remain dead. We have to be alive. We can't remain in the darkness and purity of beyond-good-and-evil. We have to arrive in the daylight of this physical, limited world of distinctions and moral choices. Difficult though it may be, there is no escape and no alternative. And yet we celebrate. Having died the great death, we know what a miracle it is to be alive, and how strange and marvelous it is - even with its difficult and sad challenges, which are themselves miraculous."

       Norman Fischer "The Problem of Evil" Shambhala Sun, May 2015. http://www.lionsroar.com/category/shambhala-sun/


     The 'great death' also appears in other wisdom traditions: 
     “At three o’clock, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which is translated, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46)
http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Apr2004/Feature1.asp

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Everyone Acts from their Buddhanature

     “In Suzuki Roshi’s book Not Always So, he says, 

‘A Zen teacher must recognize that everything the student says or does comes from their buddhanature. If the teacher doesn’t know that, he can’t be a Zen teacher.’ 

     This is deep teaching …”

       Lewis Richmond, “Zen Lessons for a Lifetime” Shambhala Sun, May 2015.

 

Akos Stiller   www.stillerakos.com

The Essence of Zazen - and Life

     "Zazen is the practice and realization of manifesting our body as Bodhi, as enlightenment. It is both the practice and the realization, for when we truly do zazen, there is no distinction between practice and realization. It is wisdom as is, as things are. This zazen, the practice of the Buddha Way, is none other than the practice of one's life.
     The best way to practice is to forget the self. By forgetting the self, we can appreciate our life not in the narrow, restricted, isolated way that we usually live but rather as a life of unity, a life that is unsurpassable. Another way to explain what we mean by forgetting the self is that we are transcending the subject-object relationship or the I-Other relationship. We are transcending duality."

       Adapted from "Appreciate Your Life: The Essence of Zen Practice" by Taizan Maezumi Roshi, Shambhala, 2002.
       Shambhala Sun, May 2015                      www.lionsroar.com/category/shambhala-sun/

Yeow Kwang Yeo FRPS   www.dpreview.com

Embracing My Own Mortality

     "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. 
     Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. 
     You are already naked. 
     There is no reason not to follow your heart."  

       Steve Jobs (Feb 24, 1955 – Oct 5, 2011) co-founder, chairman, & CEO of Apple Inc.

 

Erez Marom   www.dpreview.com

What Do I Really Trust?

     What do you ultimately trust? What do you truly believe in? In what do you take refuge from life's craziness?

     You probably didn't immediately come up with things like: eating, coffee, texting, gossiping, ethanol, wealth, fame, sex, shopping, working compulsively, etc. Whatever we immediately turn to for comfort is our refuge - what we actually trust.
     Our choices may embarrass us, even privately. We may vehemently deny our addictive relationship with the "substances" we abuse. But what happens if we try to end these relationships - either suddenly or by tapering off? 

     Ultimately, this is not a matter of morals - we're not "bad" or "sinners." The problem is one of frustration. We're "looking for love in all the wrong places." We exhaust ourselves sucking on pebbles, while starving for profound nourishment. Hitting rock bottom is finally realizing, not just intellectually, but ACTUALLY GETTING THE FACT that what we need is not in the pebbles.

     See: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/11/self-defeating-behaviours-repression.html
     and: http://www.johnlovas.com/2014/11/fear-based-rigidity-wisdom-paths-to.html
 

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