Japanese Zen Tea Master Sen Rikyu wrote…..
“The Way of Tea is naught but this:
first you boil water,
then you make tea and drink it.”
Out of the centuries old Japanese Tea Culture came the phrase wabi-sabi – which roughly
translates as satisfaction with simplicity.
When we align body, breath and mind, our relationship with the world becomes like a mirror. –
effortlessly reflecting the situations, conditions, and relationships of our life without intention,
some built in agenda, an attachment to results or a constantly opinionated like/dislike mind.
We are able to respond to and interact with others in a completely relaxed and effortless way.
With this realization,time has no limits, and when experienced, your surroundings come to life.
Although right now you are reading these words, with presence in Being, the mind begins to
automatically drop the compulsion to fill itself with words, it becomes bright and clear. This
simplicity is Buddha Nature.
When word silence is achieved, time has no duration. You become one with the sublime ever
changing universal dynamic which at it’s core is emptiness and impermanence of all conditions.
Timelessness is the essence of samadhi.
One night Zen Master Tai Hsu had just sat down to meditate when he heard the Temple’s
evening bell being struck.
As the story goes, immediately afterwards he heard the distinctly different morning bell
sequence.
The true meaning of “non-thinking” is allowing thoughts to come and go without clinging. The
whole night had passed during which Tai Hsu had no tangible sense of any time duration.
Hongzhi Zhengjue, the founder of the Caodong School of Silent Illumination once wrote,
“Compassion is the function of wisdom
Illumination is the function of silence.
Silently and serenely one forgets all words,
Clearly and vividly, everything appears then disappears.”
The breath practice encouraged now for months in this space is a splendid method for
becoming settled.
Similar in a sense to practicing a musical instrument, you must first make a firm decision and
resolve to practice meditation every day.
A sporadic approach to music or any discipline for that matter will produce mixed results
The amount of time spent in meditation is not as important as a consistent daily regimen,
preferably at relatively the same time.
Our true purpose in this life is to realize our “Buddha Nature” as it is sometimes referenced.
There is no Zen exclusivity in making this comment. In Christianity it is known as embodying
“The Christ Mind.”
“The ancestors true meaning is simple. It can be found on the tips of each blade of grass.”
Layman Pong’s daughter described it this way. How wondrous!
Time will not wait for you.
See clearly that your incessant mind meanderings of non stop thoughts and feelings are not
who you are. You will never find the truth of the tips of each blade of grass while attached to the
continuously arising and passing thought constructs. Undo the illusion of a separate self entity. It is no more than an
unstable collection of ideas and images in your thinking.
No more than a phantom and a dream as the Buddha taught in the Dhammapada.