“Zenfully Quool Quotes”
Currently featuring “The Art of Living”
By Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh
YOU ARE ENOUGH
The renowned ninth-century Chinese Zen master Lin-Chi taught that
“humans and buddhas are not two,” and declared,
“There is no difference between you and the Buddha!”
He was saying that you are already enough.
We don’t need to do anything special to be a buddha
and cultivate our buddha body.
We just need to live a simple, authentic life.
Our true person,
our true self, doesn’t need a particular job or position.
Our true self doesn’t need money, fame, or status.
Our true self doesn’t need to do anything.
We just live our life deeply in the present moment.
When we eat, we just eat.
When we wash the dishes, we just wash the dishes.
When we use the bathroom, we just enjoy using the bathroom.
When we walk, we just walk.
When we sit, we just sit.
Doing all these things is a wonder,
and the art of living is to do them in freedom.
Freedom is a practice and a habit.
We have to train ourselves to walk as a free person,
sit as a free person, and eat as a free person.
We need to train ourselves how to live.
The Buddha also ate, walked, and went to the toilet.
But he did so in freedom,
not rushing from one thing to the next.
Can we live like that?
Can we use our time just to live true to ourselves?
If we are still seeking or pursuing something else,
something more,
we’re not yet aimless.
We’re not yet free, and we’re not yet our true self.
Our true self is already there within us,
and as soon as we can see it, we become a free person.
We have been free from beginningless time.
We just need to be able to recognize it.
I once had a chance to visit the Buddhist Ajanta Caves
in the state of Maharashtra in India.
They are entirely carved out of the mountain rock.
There are living quarters, with holes dug out for monks to put their alms bowls and sanghati robes in.
The day I visited it was very hot,
and I lay down to enjoy the pleasant coolness and freshness of the cave.
Nothing was brought from the outside to make those caves.
The temples were simply dug out of the rock.
The more rock they removed, the larger the caves became.
Touching our true self, our true nature, is like that.
All the things we think we’ve got to find on the outside
are already there inside us.
Loving-kindness, understanding, and compassion are there within us.
We need only to clear some of the rock obstructing the way
in order to reveal them.
There is no essence of holiness we need to seek outside.
And there is no essence of the ordinary we have to destroy.
We already are what we want to become.
Even in our most difficult moments,
everything that is good, true, and beautiful is already there,
within us and around us.
We just have to live in such a way that allows it to be revealed.
Zenfully Quool Quotes Quommentary
by rog
It all comes back to the statement:
“Be Here Now”.
It really is as simple as that.
Often we hear the phrase:
Do your activities ‘Zenfully’…
If you do this earnestly…
You will find how peaceful it is.
You’ll be amazed at how rich and fulfilling each precious moment becomes.
This is often difficult to do when we’ve arranged our lives to
always be jam packed with activity.
There are many phases of life that require just about every moment of our waking hours.
But,
Even in the busiest phases of life…
There are countless ‘mini moments’ of realitive ‘down time’….
Waiting for the traffic light,
an elevator,
a meeting to start,
a Dr appointment…
These ‘mini meditation moments’ can add up to
significantly keeping your groove going in a mindful ways.
If you have already established a depth of meditation in your ‘Practice’…
Then you’ll be able to quickly settle into a flow.
We can assume that life will be long…
If not…
It won’t matter, since
Everything is Always Already Alright…
As far as our eternal being goes.
That’s not ‘we’ are trying to work with…
All we know is the ego ‘we’ think we are.
Once ‘we’ become Liberated…
It becomes know experientially that there is no such “self”.
There is only pure conscious…
It plays out as Awareness.
Similar to how a mirror naturally reflects what is in front of it…
Our True Nature is aware…
The mirror does not think about what it reflects…
It does not add biase or mental dialog like our thinking minds do…
So,
When we abide in our True Nature…
We just allow whatever is… to simple be.
In the phase of life in which an aspirant dedicates themselves to deepening their perspectives of mindfulness…
One way is to drop out of our busyness…
And engage with a spiritual retreat that shelters us from all distractions.
However,
A “house holder” can do the same by arranging their days and nights in such a way that they can achieve a very deep ‘one pointed mindfulness’ in meditation.
A long morning sit.
Some yoga which flexes the body and keeps the mind ‘on point’.
The point is…
Staying in the ‘I am’ state of pure awareness.
Then having a morning meal, in which
there are no distractions such as the news or social media.
Then another mid-day meditation.
More yoga or walking meditation.
Anything during the day can be a meditation…
So long as the mind stays on point on pure awareness
without the monkey mind adding biases and endless thought tangents.
A sunset meditation…
Can be either sitting or sunset gazing…
With no thoughts or mental contemplations.
After dinner and before bed,
A form of Yoga Nidra… or
a form of the Buddha’s ‘sweeping meditation’.
Then,
Just before sleep,
Set a strong intention of following this Practice in
sleep, dreams and the dreamless state.
Often,
One will then dream of continuing the meditation practice.
Becoming lucid during the night
will add a profound effectiveness to the ‘Practice’.
Before long,
The effort of meditation will slide into …
The effortless aspect of “Insight meditation” …
The Jhana states of higher human consciousness.
When the first ‘breakthrough’ is experienced…
It will be profound.
During these states…
No thinking is happening… nor possible.
It feels like you are blissfully floating away on a cosmic raft…
Floating, drifting, weight less, timeless…
And most profoundly…
The sense of there being a “self” that is in control and
calling all the egotistical thoughts…
Becomes replaced with a ‘disembodied’ aspect.
But,
None of this will register while in this higher state of consciousness…
Only later,
After the Parvastha ‘after glow’ fades…
Can one even start to contemplate what just happened.
This Parvastha ‘after glow’ can itself feel like
the cosmic raft is still taking you away.
In this groove…
You can’t move… yet, you don’t want to move.
Physical and mental ‘pliancy’ is the blissful nature of this state.
Even once this first breakthrough is experienced…
And numerous others follow…
There is stil a long way to go to achieve the final fruition of the ‘Path’.
But,
The chaos of the material world will never have the crippling grip they had before.
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