Category: Slowing Thoughts

Reasons to Meditate – Zen Practice, Trust, Spiritual Support

—An Interview with Seikan Čech, Part Six—
>>> Part One: Just Sitting – Meditation Practice (Being in the Body, Experiences with Zen)

Meditation How: I have got so much out of this discussion. There is a strong level of trust behind all of what you have shared here. You spoke about despair as one particular instance behind our being drawn towards meditation practice, reasons to meditate. This despair in contrast to trust is so great, and yet what is it that we are trusting but a mystery? What is it that supplants despair, and how do you view what I am referring to as trust? I also want to invite you to speak about what you are doing there in Melbourne in terms of teaching, classes, retreats, or any other meditation-related activities.

Seikan: Yes, trust is very important – both in relation to whatever despair that may have brought us to engage with Zen in the first place, and in relation to letting go fully into the practice and into life itself. Again, to say this is just another idea, and as an idea it may well appear to be “but a mystery”. But in practice its application very concrete and simple, not mysterious or mystical. Zen practice involves being engaged in very concrete ways, here and now, again and again.

As I remarked earlier, the structure of Zen provides a live picture frame whereby we can let go of trying to control and comprehend the nature of the picture itself. So we adopt the picture frame – in sitting, bowing, working, eating, sleeping, and sitting – and we choose to trust it. So when there is despair there is despair, when there is joy there is joy, when thoughts arise thoughts arise, and when there is stillness there is stillness. Having and trusting the frame enables us to accept the present painting as it is – and gradually or suddenly we realize just to be that painting, now and now and now.

In my case, there is a number of community projects that I am involved with here in Melbourne. One is Melbourne Zen Meditation (www.zenmeditation.org.au), which I run with the aim of engaging people from all walks of life in “just sitting”. There are different meeting formats, as well as talks, courses, etc. Then there is the Melbourne Zen Hospice (www.zenhospice.org.au), which is an organization providing free practical, emotional, and spiritual support to patients nearing the end of life, including their careers and families, across Melbourne.

I also have some interest and involvement in some other areas, such as drug rehabilitation, homelessness, prisons, corporate training, and private counseling – partly as income generating activities. Generally speaking, I am most interested in being engaged around the roadblocks which all of us encounter at different times and in different ways. As a web portal for all of the above there is www.zen.org.au, which is itself a registered non-profit org, and has as its mission to develop and operate “projects that offer practical and spiritual support to individuals and the community in ways expressive of Zen”.

>>> Part Seven: Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form (Koan Practice, Duality, Metaphor)

The Subconscious Mind, Conscious Mind, Thoughts

"The Power of Your Subconscious Mind"
A Book Review, and meditation interview, with Dennis Reffner

Meditation How: This book was written in the 60’s?

Dennis: The book came out in 1963.

Meditation How: I have heard you refer to this book in passing, so what I would like to ask you is what fascinates you most about it.

Dennis: The subconscious mind is fascinating to me, partly because I can’t get a handle on what it really is. What is this mind? And how can we learn to open up to it? The author, Joseph Murphy, gives it the attributes of infinite wisdom, infinite power, and infinite supply. He points to the duality of our mind, with each part having separate and distinct attributes and powers. The conscious, and subconscious, or the surface self, and the deep self, or the voluntary and the involuntary.

He goes on to give an analogy that is quite useful: that your mind is like a garden, and you are a bit like a gardener, planting seeds (thoughts) into your subconscious mind all day long. The thoughts we plant all day give us a harvest. I am reminded of the opening lines of the Dhammapada, the sayings of the Buddha. “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with an impure mind, and trouble will follow you as the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.”

Meditation How: How do you feel that this material compares to, for example the Hick’s or Louise L. Hays’ material on programming ourselves or sending messages to the “cosmic kitchen”?

Dennis: There are an amazing amount of similarities. I think they are all talking about the same thing, just using slightly different language and emphasis. Your subconscious mind will accept whatever ideas you feed it through your thoughts and emotions, providing you really believe what you are thinking. And you may not believe it, at first. But repeating something to yourself, over and over, easily, seems to gradually shift your beliefs. I practiced with the simple saying, “wealth and prosperity.”

For a few minutes, it didn’t do much, but after a while I felt my “vibration” began to gradually shift, and I started to feel more and more aligned with the truth of wealth and prosperity. I could start to really feel what wealth was, in a way that was much more intimate. It was like it was gradually becoming real for me. Now, I haven’t won the lottery, or become wealthy, but I can see how this changes your mindset. Keep affirming, and it is much, much more likely to become a reality in your own experience.

Now, can you believe your subconscious mind will take these affirmations (or prayers) and somehow bring things, or people, or synchronicitiy into your life. I can believe it. Murphy lists two reasons that you may fail in getting results: Lack of confidence, and too much effort. You can’t coerce your subconscious mind. You may repeat over and over “I am now living in abundance and prosperity”, but if deep down you don’t feel that way, deep down you feel and believe you are hanging on by a thread, then your are sending conflicting messages.

So one thing to watch for is what are you saying, feeling, and believing the other 23 hours of the day when not affirming what you would like to manifest? The Hicks’ speak of going “downstream”, Murphy says, “easy does it”. Your intellect will try and get in the way, try to force the issue, but Murphy says to persist in maintaining a simple, childlike, miracle-making faith. Cut out the red tape from the process. The simple way is best. He also quotes the bible, Matthew 7:7 ” Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

Meditation How: Did you find it an easy-to-read book, and would you recommend it to seekers?

Dennis: This book is quite easy to read, and I found it very enjoyable. The author has a clear understanding of his subject, and writes with passion! I would recommend it.

About Dennis: Dennis lives in Northern Colorado and is a long time student of Zen and eastern thought. He is also a certified Yoga Instructor. He is an avid reader of books on the subjects of self-realization, and mindfulness.

Stopping the Mind, Thoughts – Meditation, Paying Attention

—An Interview with Benjamin Dean, Part Four—
>>> Part One: First Meditation – Meditation Experience (Self, Identification)

Meditation How: What is your response to folks who may “desire” to wake up and yet, they feel that they don’t have the time or it is too late to devote 30 years to the process. Do you have a recommendation for another person who “thinks” they are ‘just beginning’ this process to awaken?

Benjamin: I have to offer another annoying quote here and that is “infinite patience produces immediate results”. There is some confusion about whose quote this is. I believe it was originally part of “A Course in Miracles”. There are also many Zen parables about the monk who is comfortable if it takes forever and the monk who is in a hurry. Of course the first monk awakens the following day. I also remember this actually coming out of someone’s mouth towards my wife and I at one point in our travels—the words (and I quote exactly) “I can’t afford to be generous”.

Before I earnestly began slowing the traffic of thoughts in my mind through meditation I believed that it was a black and white issue—that at some point in the future when I had completed the process I would experience the result. I was excited to discover that improvement occurs by degrees—the slower the traffic the greater the joy. I have a poem that I like and I believe it goes like this— “Time is for those who need something to happen”.

So people who don’t have the time to devote to meditation are basically choosing to chase after the carrot on the stick. They will never get the carrot and be miserable chasing it the entire time. My advice is to forget about the carrot. There is usually a deeper pain that has us chasing the carrot in the first place and when we drop the carrot all of the other more painful issues descend and must be dealt with and processed. Once some people see all of this they remember why they started chasing carrots and the attraction to vegetables begins again, usually spinach and cauliflower, LOL.

The advice I would give to those who believe they are just beginning is to realize deeply that there is nowhere to go. Krishnamurti insists that “self-knowledge is not cumulative” and I agree with him. Who wouldn’t? It’s not like you have a basket with a bunch of “you” in it and you are shopping for the rest of yourself. You never go anywhere. You can only be found now. You can only find yourself now— but only if you stop looking. Then the seeker and the sought can reconcile the whole problem together. Development and growth are biological only.

You NEVER change so stop looking for yourself in the future. The will is an interesting thing—motive—desire, etc. It is an imposed thing. When motive or desire is dropped then one becomes absolutely receptive. Motive can be dropped in any moment. Motive is synonymous with thinking. Mind and desire are one. Without these there is no longer any division and one is whole. Absolute receptivity is the same as being whole. Everything is yours. By giving up everything you become everything and so the way to get what you want is to stop wanting it. We stop wanting it by stopping the mind and its thoughts. Full unbridled awareness is what remains.

Meditation How: So, in my experience, I say: “Why meditate?” And in your experience, you say: “Why not?”

Benjamin: So, why meditate? The value in meditation in terms of sitting still is to begin where you must start… with self. Yes, you take yourself with you everywhere you go and as soon as you start walking motive kicks in almost automatically. I am interviewing a friend about walking meditation. It is really interesting to start paying attention to movement and the “why” of it. For me, sitting still allows healing to take place in my body. The clearing of chakras and the sometimes subtle bodily responses are not confused with other physical activity. Everything works. People have diverse needs. My path has had a lot of healing as part of it. This is an important benefit for me.

The clearing of chakras is the cleaning out or residual un-lived life and fears held in the energy centers. Depending on the level of fear or trauma experienced this can take some time. I want to add at the risk of making a gender-based faux pas, that walking around and being receptive is likely to feel more natural to women, whereas for men we immediately resume the hunt. Sitting still reminds us that we are not after anything… physical at least. Again, gender really is not the issue here as both sexes may be inclined to either.

Meditation How: Yes, I know this is not a gender faux pas, in the least. There is deep truth involved with the masculine/feminine energies… of which we all contain both. The collective conditioning with regards to the female form…is deep indeed… and therefore a woman will have a very different experience with this.

Stopping the Mind, Thoughts - Meditation, Paying AttentionAbout Benjamin: Benjamin lives in Northern Colorado. He has been meditating off and on for thirty years. He writes articles on meditation and natural healing as well as short form prose and poems. His blog on natural healing (from an esoteric and holistic perspective can be found at www.hownatureheals.com, and you can find his short zen poems at www.short-zen-poems.com.