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I work as a hypnotherapist and am fascinated by the potential of the human mind. Back in the 1970s, after a lot of searching, I discovered Zen, a powerful and profound way of spiritual and self realisation.
The way of Zen is a discipline that I practi
Recent Posts Tagged With 'mind'
Zazen
Zazen (Zen meditation) is a way of realizing that mind and body are really one and the same and to sit in Zen (za=sit) is the ideal method for stilling the body, that is also stilling the mind. Another way that we can discover through our Zen that al...
A Potent and Powerful Way..
When we are mindful, we are living here and now, recognizing that nothing exists outside of the here and now. For the time we can retain this consciousness we can be unhurried and unstressed and very focused, any error will cease to exist. What a pot...
Ultimates
The only thing that stands in my way of spiritual awareness is denial, the ultimate scepticism. In contrast, “I-don’t-know-ness” is a sign that my mind is open, so a wait-and-see, is a good philosophy. But… When I get the feel...
Focus the Mind
Zazen (meditation), trains our mind to focus and when we can change our focus, we can change our thinking, and our thinking can change our awareness of what is so. It is in this way, that we create our perception of the world. In zazen, like...
“I Am” Intelligence
Many people look out to the world and constantly see something that is better than what they have or experience, and are generally dissatisfied with their lot in life. But, it is backward thinking to try and achieve things or states of being fr...
Mind and Belief
In zazen meditation, I recognise my mind as a very sophisticated machine that is programmed by decisions on past experiences, from which I formulate present-day beliefs. I’m kind of trapped in this mind machine and I fail to see that I am...
Awarness of Now
Everywhere in Zen, I am hearing, live and focus on the moment of now. Now I am seeing that even the moment of now is an illusion when compared to what was and what will be, for that depends on past and future. But that I see as the analyt...
Strange Zen
How strange and unfathomable the human mind is… Today I have been reminded of a period of time several years ago, of a series of incidents. It was during a particularly intense time of zazen practice. I seemed to be mentally “tunin...
Value Always Has and Will Be Now.
True value isn’t something we create in our ego-minds. If you look at what we think is valuable, it always devolves to indifference. True value is something that is eternally valuable, always present, never diminishing in intensity. The moment of n...
Remembering to Awaken
Why Meditate?Be present! Be now! There is something about those commanding words if I focus on them in my meditation that awakens up part of my mind to ultimate truth. I need to remember to take this meditation process into my daily activities, so t...
Empty Space
At-one-ness is realised at a level where mind [ego] does not interfere by analysis and judgement. It make take many lifetimes to realise and exist in the emptiness of at-one-ness or less time than the blinking of an eye.If I judge or analyse when or ...
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Giving is the ultimate gift to all, and includes Self. "For-giving" suggests giving in advance and what I give with forgiveness is the space for the other to be as they are in advance. So if I can do that, all is already forgiven. In Zen-speak that i...
Hard Times
I don’t blindly accept that we have to subscribe to the media’s stories of hard times, whatever impending doom they may be indicating. If I sit in my zazen, still the mind and become one with the moment, I can realise what is illusion and what is...
Wheels Within Wheels
I am thinking of the words of the song, Windmills of your Mind… “like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel” and I am reminded of the intellectual mind. What a wonderful refreshment when for a brief moment in my zazen it stops and...
No Mind
Everything begins with a thought I think for how can I act without some sort of reason. Therefore isn’t even something seemingly spontaneous the response to a fleeting thought? This is why the state of “no mind” that the Zen masters talk about...
Beyond Thinking, Beyond Words/
Idle thoughts create illusions. This can easily be verified if I think of my dreams, as they are all part of my thinking processes. Most of the day, my mind is full of idle thoughts (day dreams) adding to the illusion. I am so grateful for the discip...
How it is. How it could be.
How the mind is flooded with the past. Every time a comparison is made, it is made of how it could have been to how it was. And then on to the future, of how a negative past incident must not repeat itself, and how a positive one is desired. Am I not...
Present-Past Awareness.
Why do I live in the past when there is only now? Looking at any thing, thought or idea, I am drawing on my past experience of it. My mind obeys its conditioning, working like a machine pouring out strings of past associations about whatever I am con...
It Is.
‘It is’ or ‘being-ness’ is the only Truth. How can ‘is-ness’ be not true? Is-ness is constant whilst all else is transient, therefore illusion. But the question beyond the analytical mind is; how can that be so, when transient phenomenon...
Looking into Karma
From a discussion on myLot.com regarding KarmaI don't see that God is unjust because we are so much more than the physical body and a discursive, analytical mind. I see life with all its trials and tribulations as lessons for the soul. If we can be r...
Creators
Are we really creators of ourselves? If I did not create my body, who did? Some would say God. And if God is All, why am I separating myself? All this of course is analysis. Creation is far beyond the analytical mind....
Deciding.
Decision is a powerful force and I need to decide that my mind is not trapped in the brain in my head for it can be wherever I want it to be. If I focus on my hand, that is where it is, if I focus on some place far away, that is where it is. If I fo...
Ego Complexities
In meditation, I recognise the mind as a sophisticated machine that is programmed by decisions and beliefs. When I’m trapped in this machine, I cannot see that I am anything else but my mind – this is ego, also a part of my creation. However, whe...
Life's Lessons.
I think most people do their utmost not to cheat, but unfortunately, life and love may not be so black and white as that. It may be a person's karma to meet somebody some day that it is spiritually necessary to be with, and an overwhelming force comp...
Aspiring to an Empty Mind
In meditation the aim is to empty the mind of all thoughts, but this is easier said than done. Thoughts and ideas of what is the right way and the wrong way, and of what is good and what is bad, and of what is real and what is unreal can intrude on m...
Opposition
It seems that by our own analysis, by our own judgements we trap ourselves into a state of reduced consciousness. If we can just accept and observe, without judgement, without analysis, we can realise a higher state of consciousness. In zazen (medit...
The Machine
The ego-mind is a machine. It does whatever I program it to do. A problem occurs when I identify with my mind and lose Self in its constructs that consists of nothing more than memories that form emotions, opinions and beliefs.The mind is neither goo...
