oneness – Page 3 – Zen Fools

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, God, Happiness, Meditation, Mind, One, Practice, Prayer, Religion, root, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q203. If I find myself affixed to a single path to truth: the path of prayer and praise, or the path of kindness and love, or the path of wisdom and meditation, or any other path of a singular mode, am I going in the wrong way?

May 19, 2016 Zen Fools

A. No, you are not wrong at all. Feel free to choose any path that appeals to you and concentrate on seeking the root from which the path comes. Whichever path you may take, you will come to take the same way after all because they are from the same root, the truth that is not dual.

20160509_195019a_thumb

We should realise the fact that all other things, as well as all paths, are from the same root even though they may look different from each other. The root is the very truth. To realise what the root is should be the final goal of all religions.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Meditation, Mind, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q182. What is Samadhi?

April 1, 2016April 1, 2016 Zen Fools

A. There are two kinds Samadhi: one before enlightenment and one after enlightenment.

The former is the state of mind that usually occurs during practice when we are fully focused on the question. Your mind is then very stable and comfortable, and you are not conscious of time passing. You feel as if you yourself were the question and separate from reality. In brief, your meditation practice is going in an ideal way, and is close to the final goal.

_SRH6291a_thumb

The latter is the state of mind we have every day after realising what we are when our body is not us, that is enlightenment. Here you are truth itself, eternity itself and perfection itself, and so no words can be applied to it. You feel oneness with the whole universe and know that everything you can feel is made by no other than your discriminating mind. You can see things in both ways; emptiness and form at the same time. In other words, you know that all illusions are not different from the truth.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Enlightenment, Meditation, Mind, mindful, mindfulness, Zen

Q119. Does my mind use me or do I use my mind?

October 1, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Does the air move the wind or does the wind move the air? The air is to the wind what your mind is to you. You and your mind are not two but one just like the air and the wind are. As the action of the air is the wind, so the action of your mind is you.

What matters here is that you think that you are separate from your mind and that you should cultivate your mind, just like taming a wild animal. Trying to cultivate your mind can make matters worse because it implies that you and your mind are separate from each other and the former tries to tame the latter. This is a very common mistake that people make because they don’t know what their mind is.

You should try to know what your mind is before trying to control it. How can you do that while not knowing what it is? The moment you realise your mind, you will feel oneness with your mind just as the wind is with the air.

©Boo Ahm

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, Practice, true self, Truth, Zen

Q103. How can we feel oneness with our surroundings?

August 25, 2015August 25, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Why do you think we can’t feel oneness? The habit of labelling prevents us from feeling oneness. Labelling is drawing lines that divide one into many. When we label a thing as red, we separate it from what doesn’t look red. The label, ‘red’ is a line that divides one into what is red and what is not red. When labeling a thing as good, the label ‘good’ is a line that divides one into what is good and what is not good.

We have produced countless divisions and are so addicted to them that we have forgotten the root, the original shape that we come from. The labels or divisions are referred to as illusions in Buddhism because they are not real but imaginary. Zen meditation can be said to be a practice that makes many into one by eliminating all labels or illusions. The most common and difficult label to erase is ‘I’. In order to eliminate the ‘I’, you need to realise what you are when your body is not you. When we eliminate the imaginary line ‘I’, then we can feel oneness with our surroundings.