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Now and Zen
by Brad Jensen
Copyright 1996 Brad Jensen All Rights Reserved Permission
is hereby granted for any publication in electronic form.
PART 3
Zen is Now
We have murdered time, and must unwillingly die as a result. Who lives
in this moment, lives without end.
If man has consciousness, all of existence has consciousness. Teilhard
de Chardin fooled with old mens bones, and was haunted by their ghosts
also. Perhaps, Pierre, consciousness has man, as consciousness has all
the universe!
Time is a circle, that begins and ends in this moment.
The true teacher does not tell you what to think, but reminds you where
to look.
Every conclusion is a little bit of death. Pray to begin instead of
conclude!
The moment it is begun, it is done.
There are those who know nothing and are certain of everything, and
there are those who are certain of nothing and know everything.
I could make these words easier to comprehend, but then they might be
impossible to understand.
Zen is not lack of commitment, but completely willing commitment.
Dualism, the artificial separation of subject and object, is powerful
and useful at times, but you can't carry water with an ax.
The dunce who sees the cause is better off than the genius who analyzes
the effects.
When you learned to speak, you gave meaning to the language. Don't forget
this!
God lends us one moment of life, that moves forward, creating experience.
It is up to us to use this experience to create understanding.
Until you can make a mistake, you cannot make anything of your own.
More words will not reveal God to you, but only if you seek God within.
Within this moment!
Your ability to analyze a situation is not the limit of your ability
to be transformed by experiencing it.
There is no one so strong in the whole earth, that he can hold on to
his limitations forever.
How does the paradox come to be one?
It is so easy to get caught up in the performance, but even while you
are enjoying yourself, don't forget that you are the puppetmaster.
Zen is Now.
Simplify
Here is a large red inflated balloon. I prick it with a pin. Where is the
ballon now? Where it always was.
When you know the answer, whisper it, so the listener must strain to
hear you.
Be ready to receive truth without condition, and no one can lie to you
for an instant.
No one worships the paper and ink, do not confuse the message with the
messenger.
The world is constantly full of beings experiencing awakenings. Watch
for it, and share in their joy.
When enlightenment comes, you will not get it, you'll give it.
Once a king told his general to send him a message of when and where
he needed reinforcements to win the battle. At the appropriate time, two
messengers approached the castle, dressed alike. One said, ``All is lost!
Flee for your lives!'' The other said, ``Victory is almost won! Send the
reserves now to ensure our triumph!'' The king realized that one of the
men was an enemy agent, sent to trick him. But which was the true messenger?
Everything that exists in your consciousness depends on a thousand things
of which you are not this moment aware.
Here is a path that seems to lead up the mountain to my goal. How do
I know if it is the true path?
A cardiologist and a proctologist were arguing over whose services were
more essential to healthy living. The cardiologist said, ``Without a healthy
heart, the man will not have the strength to accomplish anything.'' The
proctologist said, ``If his bowels don't work, he will fill up with waste,
and die!'' What a paradox!
How can you forget that you have given existence to all the world, and
that it is yours to do with as you please?
Those who can believe that some souls persist forever onward in the
torments of hell, do not reveal God's lack of charity towards man, but
their own.
The unexamined life does not exist.
When I am angry at someone, that anger is like the ringing of churchbells.
It is a call to awareness. That person is a mirror to my attitudes and
mind. What can I see in this mirror? This question clears the echoes of
alarm away.
Simplify the questions that you ask yourself. Simplify the conditions
you place on your awareness. Simplify the statements you make about your
life. Then you will experience true understanding and even enlightenment.
Every Raindrop
The recipe is clear. Release all heaviness and attain enlightenment.
Most skepticism is like a stationary exercise bicycle. It was never
meant to go anywhere. Your primary purpose is to avoid weathering criticism
from the outer self.
It is silly for one part of yourself to fear criticism from another
part of yourself. It's as if you painted little faces on your fingertips,
and asked them to be your jury.
I hear people argue about whether Christ was man, or God, or even myth.
What foolishness! It doesn't matter what he did then, for there is no ``he''
or ``then''. What can you do with Christ within you now? That is the question,
and it can only be answered by diligent experiment, or decisively continued
ignorance.
Do it, and you will have the power, says Emerson. To which we can add,
don't do it, and you also have the power.
God, who is all powerful and wise, restrains himself from attempting
to control the thoughts of men. How are you made in the image of God?
I give you this awareness of yourself. Tag! You're It!
Trying to determine the value of your life by analyzing your experiences
is like trying to chop holes in a lake with an ax.
Create mental images of your problems, then manipulate the images as
you desire to manipulate the problem. Your mind will respond to the manipulation
as a computer does to a program. Respect the will of others as you do this,
to make the results more satisfying, prompt, and complete.
There is no thought to the world so thrilling, as when you take hold
of your mind, and declare ``I am willing''.
Schools and religions teach as great mysteries things that the mind
uses every day without effort.
The same thing makes airplanes and the spirit fly free from the bonds
of earth -- principle.
Remember always that God is LAW -- Love And Will.
What we offer to the higher self in our meditation, returns as the enlightening
power of dreams.
Imagination is the only real force in the universe. Heraclitus said
we can't step in the same river once. I say, what is a river? What is a
step? Everything is motionless but thought.
Be yourself. All the people around you who give you back your approval
and disapproval will one day be gone, but the effect of your submission
or awareness will live on and on.
Every raindrop forms around a dust particle, gathers moisture from the
winds, and falls to soak the earth. Every thought, feeling, and action
has a point of perfect stillness within it, that is the value of your self.
The seed of greatness is your decision to be aware.
Hot Air
Your mind is a large brass gong, of greater or lesser tone. Your thoughts
are the ringing of the gong. What is the sound of the gong, when it is
not being stricken?
Awareness and responsibility are one. The price of your uniqueness is
that you are alone in this world. But together and apart is a part of the
"this and that" of the world, it is not your inner nature.
Let go of vainly placing value in this and that, instead be still, and
be.
We think we want someone to decide for us, until the instant they do.
With your mind and your thoughts, you are like a small child who is
given a new toy. You hold on tight, possessed by your possession, not understanding
why it was given to you, and fearful that it may be taken away at any moment.
How funny to declare, I must hold on to this forever, because it is mine!
In the dream, look for what does not change.
There is a morality based on the fear of men's opinions, and a morality
based on the respect for your own true worth.
Self-doubt leads to self-pity, self-pity delays awareness. Take a deep
breath, and take ahold of life. Release it, and you complete the cycle
of awareness. When you aren't sure what to do, focus your attention on
your breath. What others need to do seems so obvious and plain. Why don't
they do it? I should tell them, but they won't listen. They are too busy
babbling some irrelevant nonsense about what I should be doing!
Being busy feeling sorry for yourself is a convenient occupation of
your mind. While you are doing that, you have no time or energy to be aware.
Hush! Listen! What you think, becomes what you have. So think about
what you want, and make it yours.
Accept freely. Give freely. Then you are free. Love is like the hot
air that fills a balloon. The more that you love your world, the higher
you are lifted, so you can see farther and more clearly.
Enlightened, should becomes could and can't becomes won't.
God Is The Power To Choose
Even if you do not believe in a life beyond the physical, there are things
here for you. You know the inner workings of your mind are beyond the limits
of speech, and that whatever the workings of your brain, your mind is shaped
by thought even as it shapes thought. There are thoughts here that serve
to unlock greater potentials within your mind, however it is that they
work.
No matter how we explain things, we always end up referring back, consciously
or unconsciously, to our own thought and experience.
The purpose is not to turn the senses off forever, for that is merely
suicide. The purpose is to be able to turn the senses on and off at will,
and to be able to evaluate the truth of the messages they give us.
What can I do to express more truly who I am? Holding this question
in mind leads to right action. The outer being must reflect the inner nature.
It is said that the enlightened person becomes invisible, like the wind.
No one can see him unless he chooses to reveal himself.
Resisting your thoughts just leads to greater clashes of contrary thoughts.
When you release this resistance, the need for resistance passes. The mind
becomes calm, like the sea at sunset. The moon rises and your true nature
is revealed. To take back the meaning you have hidden in the outer world,
and use it as you wish, placing it where you choose. This is one way to
see enlightenment.
You have been given the power of life and death over your own thoughts,
feelings, and actions. Use this wisely.
No one can make you less than you are. No one can make you greater than
you are. What could be more wonderful than this?
Forget to remember to forget you are enlightened. All power comes from
the power to choose.
You have the seed of greatness within you. Don't settle for anything
less.
These Are Not My Words
It is one thing to be aware of consequences. It is another thing entirely
to try to motivate through fear. Fear is love without awareness. No truth
is complete when presented through fear.
Thoreau says, any fool can make a rule. A wise man can follow even a
fool's rules, and remain enlightened.
I have split my enlightenment into small pieces, and thrown it to the
winds. I have given it to the authority who tells me what is right to believe,
to the driver who annoys me on the road, to the sister or brother who I
believe I must compete with for my parents' love. Like running a movie
of an explosion backwards, I may regain my inner nature. All of Shakespeare's
sonnets seem like a glib and artificial fabrication when compared to one
moment of true love.
When I say (God) I must be aware, and avoid the tendency to make a separate
object of what experiences no separation. I call God what leads me to a
larger and clearer view of myself. The true laws need no enforcement, because
they can never be broken. A miracle is not a failure of the law, but a
break in our limited understanding of the law.
Undivided attention is the secret key that unlocks the door to who I
really am. I find ways to practice it every day.
Alive in a sea of air, I no longer fear being submerged in reality.
If you were planning an extended journey where you could take no possessions,
not even your clothes, how would you prepare yourself?
These are not my words. Whose are they?
The book is so dusty you dare not open it. Blow away the dust!
The nothing of Zen is not the nothing of empty space. It is the nothing
of space before it is empty, before it is space. When we let go of all
meaning, all becomes meaningful. Zen speaks of no mind. No mind is not-mind,
not not mind. Where being begins and ends, the tongue cannot follow. These
words are intended to act like a catapult, to launch thought beyond the
reach of words. The next step is to use thought the same way. Beyond that,
it is impossible to even hint.
Words are just hints to the crossword puzzle of being.
[Now and Zen Part 4] [Now
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