Ups and downs in everyday affairs is zen teaching. Don’t attach to either. Try to become aware
of the stillness that is already within you. At every opportunity, access this stillness.
Know in your heart that it is readily available in each and every moment. We choose to abandon
it.
Somehow over the years through education and parental prodding, we have drawn a conclusion
that “empty mind space” has to be immediately filled. Remember growing up and hearing the
adage “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” Wrong! In all kinds and disciplines of creative art,
empty space is both important and encouraged. Feng Shui Masters for instance have been
known to spend up to thirty years contemplating and refining their understanding of subtle
energy flows through time and space, refining their awareness of energy as it converges and
dissipates through empty space. The prerequisite to this implies becoming quiet and receptive.
Without engaging silence and a clear space for life energy to function, our inherent creative
energies are compromised. In a word we become stagnant and resort to dumbing down mental
constructs.
One noticeable criterion of clear space is the degree of peace that you feel within.
A famous zen axiom I have used from time to time is the rewards of cultivating a “Still Body, Still
Breath, and Still Mind.”
Still Body: Learning to sit still – no physical movement – do this as best you can and begin to
observe the calming affects.
Still Breath: Embryonic breathing. Loosely translated this means very slowly breathing deeply
in and out of the abdominal area.
To the casual observer, there is little or no diaphragmatic movement, yet deep and full cell
oxygenating breaths are occurring.
Still Mind: This points to observing and cultivating noticeable gaps in the stream of our
thinking. The stillness and inner space referenced above suddenly appear and are now
accessible. The mind becomes quieter and quieter. Caution – Do not be concerned with the
length of these gaps – a few seconds is enough. More important is to encourage their frequency
throughout the day.
Human beings in general spend far too much time engaging opposites, like and dislike mind.
Politics, national pride, race, religion, and ideologies can all be defined as identified with
thought. I suggest throwing it all away. Great love and great compassion, the key components in
solving the existential problems we now face globally, can only be solved when we let go of our
judgements and work together on behalf of all species. The glib dismissal of other life forms on
this planet as defined in the Old Testament when it references “having dominion over” is simply
an abomination. In the future, providing human beings survive, religion as it is now practiced
through dogma and belief systems will historically be viewed as an unfortunate period of
evolution that alas caused centuries of oppression and suffering.