There are times when I need to recognize that I live with the relentless tyrant of the conditioned mind. To claim that I have master of this tyrant is just what the ego ordered! To accept, acknowledge and allow this tyrant to be fully in my awareness, is to transcend it, which does not mean to control or destroy it, for that would just be another of the ego’s ploys to gain satisfaction from such an accomplishment. In fact, in Zen, all accomplishment is transient and illusory, so I aspire to accomplish nothing and go nowhere.

If I look closely in zazen, holding my focus strongly in the hara, I can watch the tyrant at work, accepting it and integrating it back into the wholeness of my being. I need to give up trying to get anywhere with such conditioning, for if I try to change the circumstances, I will surely get more and more stuck.

The Will of a Tyrant
by Derek Ayre.

Within each soul there is a power
Of human potential
An unopened flower
So infrequently is it used
    Are we machines?
      Being abused?

By poor self-opinion and oppression,
By propaganda and unwanted lesson?

Who is to blame for this counter-production?

Everyone?
    No-one?
        A contradiction.

Take courage
  Face a fact.

Things are as they were chosen to be
Long ago
In our infancy

Over ages
Many an aphorism
    Infringed the mind
      With steel-like precision

The will of a tyrant
    Who needed control
Of our lives
    Our hearts
       Even our souls?

But a collective created the world as it is
And wait…

If all are to blame
Each one is all
    All is each one
    It’s the same

Self or other?  Transcend blame.

© Derek Ayre 2001

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Trust is what is needed that all things are the way they because they are that way. Accept fully and move on… Accept fully and move on… 

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This post has been inspired by a blog I have visited today. I would say me finding  mypurpleblog.com was random, but is anything really random in this life? A Zen answer would be yes and no, that it makes no difference. What is, just is.  The past is gone, therefore an illusion.

I always live by the philosophy of acceptance being at the core of mastery in life. What I mean by this is that we are all teachers and mastery comes from total acceptance (witnessing) our experience and the experience of others and there is no greater healing power than to allow another to be as they are. Accepting them and putting our own opinions (shouldisms) to one side if only temporarily and, just walk the path with them. Both people can grow through this interaction, for I believe it is an honour to receive such a deep sense of spiritual knowledge.

Technorati Tags: acceptance, spiritual, zen

This post has been inspired by a blog I have visited today. I would say me finding  mypurpleblog.com was random, but is anything really random in this life? A Zen answer would be yes and no, that it makes no difference. What is, just is.  The past is gone, therefore an illusion.

I always live by the philosophy of acceptance being at the core of mastery in life. What I mean by this is that we are all teachers and mastery comes from total acceptance (witnessing) our experience and the experience of others and there is no greater healing power than to allow another to be as they are. Accepting them and putting our own opinions (shouldisms) to one side if only temporarily and, just walk the path with them. Both people can grow through this interaction, for I believe it is an honour to receive such a deep sense of spiritual knowledge.

Technorati Tags: acceptance, spiritual, zen

Acceptance is the key to unlock the door to realization.

As I sit in zazen, if I accept all that comes into my awareness, I am resolving the conflicting thoughts and ideas my mind generates and resolving them into a one-ness. Once I attain a strong level of acceptance, it is a certain indication that I am focusing my awareness.

The aim of zazen is stilling the mind, but we cannot experience such stillness if we resist the darting activity of our thoughts. We need to sit in acceptance and observe all that goes on and at the same time, maintain that resolve for perfect stillness of no-mind.

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In this world of opposites it appears that we are all in a state of flight. We try to flee from where we live, what we do, and even who we are… Thinking that the grass is greener on the “other side”. 

In Zen it is said that total liberation from this flight, has to be total acceptance of what is here and now in our experience. Forgiveness of all that is held in resentment, if you like Then we can heal and move on…. Naturally.

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