Friday Philosophy…Zen

Zen.

What is it? Do we achieve it, like Nirvana? No, not the grunge bank, the transcendental state of being after deep meditation. Or, as one teacher explained it: the state of no longer thinking.

If you look up the word “zen” in a search engine, you find out quite a bit about Buddhism. And, if you’re a bookworm like I am, you get links to “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.” 🙂

Zen, in essence, encourages us to do what we believe we have no time to do, in the Western world: meditate and use our intuition.

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.” ~ Buddha

“In the stillness of the mind, I saw myself as I am – unbound.” ~ Sri Nisargaratta Maharaj

“If you have inner peace, no one can force you to be a slave to the outer reality.” ~ Sri Chinmoy

“If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.” ~ Zen proverb (Seriously, I need to focus on this one more – I spend a lot of time trying to “understand” when I should probably just accept and move on.)

“You are truth; you are love; you are bliss; you are freedom.” ~ Osho

Happy Friday, and blessings to you all. Never give up!

I’ll be here like Master Shifu:

Leave a Reply