Questions.

Posted on March 22nd, 2009 by admin

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The mind is programmed to answer questions. The answer to simple everyday questions comes in the form of practical do-able answers.

The Zen koan (USA link) on the other hand, forces the questioner to transcend his/her mind and the answer comes in an abstract spiritual form. An experience, that cannot really be explained by words but is a direct spiritual experience.

Take forgiveness for example. We can know when we have forgiven but the way we get to feel liberated from our negative feelings. It is something that we experience. We have “done” forgiveness without knowing or being able to explain intellectually, how we have done it. We have the experience of having forgiven by the way we feel detached from the issue we had felt previously hostile towards

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Another Zen Koan Perhaps…

Posted on October 29th, 2008 by admin

Filed under enlightenment, spiritual awareness, zazen, zen | No Comments »

A Zen koan can only be answered with the Self, and not with the intellect. So according to Zen, this post holds nothing at all. But it just may point to the answer, which is the Self.

I begin to see life on earth as an illusion because no sooner is an experience experienced, than it’s gone. The past, whether a nano-second ago or a decade ago is now a dream, a mere mental image. I can recognise this, and perhaps a little harder, I can accept it as truth, when I am not stuck in my mental imagery.

I need to remain aware of my mind functioning in this way, without trying to change it or resist it, so that I can merge and become one with it, erroneous as it sounds.  But… There is no error or needed correction on this level of awareness for that exists in time and what I seek it the timelessness. I need to quit seeking though….  Maybe!  Another Zen koan perhaps…

The next step through my zazen is to see the reality that is now.

 

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