PARADOX in seeking the ZEN

 

I wrote in previous post, to reach Zen, how it is crucial to block the Emotion.

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Though, Zen or Buddhism in general, it is a strange maze of the Paradox =

the more you try to see it, you can’t see.   The harder you put the effort,

you can’t achieve. (—– I think, I wrote the same subject before, while using a metaphor

“You can’t run, as long as you got legs” 😀 )

This trouble is, all comes down to the existence of the Emotion or Emotional thinking.

Because of the strong intention or will is always accompanied by the strong

Emotion. The more you are serious, the more your mind is stack to the subject

though, ironically, the art of Zen is how to make you detached from the subject.

—– You can’t detach yourself from the subject when you are studying it —–

you may say.

(If you ever read the book of Zen Mondo / Koan, then if you read it again while this paradox

in mind, you will see the point, or it will make sense in each answer.

= They are in the matter of this paradox.)

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So that, there is a trouble to understand such as “what the Mindfulness is” =

the harder you try to be Mindful = you are falling into a Clu-de-sak or strays away to nowhere

because of your mind = Emotion is just stack to the subject. Emotion blinding You !

—– There is nothing else but the subject, and you can see it clear detached eyes.

= This IS Mindfulness. = because of your eyes are detached from your Emotion, there

couldn’t be any wishful thinking or a greed to succeed etc kind of destructive rubbish = you can

see the true nature of the subject. = therefore you can do the perfect job, hence you will succeed.

This state of mind, detached from the subject, = as there is no Emotional

attachment, hence the mind is blank but only eyes are gazing at =

This is Mushin and in Selflessness = This IS Mindfulness.

Why Selfless here ?  Because, only eyes and the subject are here.  Not your Mind.

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Sound easy ? —– or you may utterly bemused, how to do ? How far to be detached 😀

Because of this confusion, ancient Buddhists invented [Middle Way] 2,000 years ago.

While saying “Not too close, still not too far” — Because, they themselves haven’t experienced

real Mushin 😀

= It seems, the vast number of Mantra Authors are not necessary understood the Buddhism.

= That was why so many fancy stories of it was added to the original teachings to cover-up  😀

(Good in writing is not necessary knowing the subject 😀 = The Monks are familiar with sitting

in the temple, but they may not be any expert of DOING something — this is a reason why the

Zen was invented = Zen put an emphasis to DO something and prohibit Thinking)

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When you DO something, subject is very front of your eyes.

If it was cutting a lemon, lemon and a knife are there. —– So, just cut it. You don’t need to think

anything else.  After cutting 10 lemons, 100 lemons, (what to do those mountain of lemon slices =

may be better make Marmalade and use one or two for a cup of tea 😀   Or if you are short of

money, cut potatoes instead and make crisps ? —– though, I don’t like to use oil )  you will

run-out anything to think about (NO Thinking) = you will cut it almost like an

automatic machine (NO Emotion),  hence your eyes sees nothing else of Lemon

and the Knife = this is the Mindfulness.   And the brain is in the state of Mushin.

Then, applying this eyes and the Mind-set to see other things in the Life.

By actually DO something, there is NO PARADOX (Paradox is created in the

Emotional Thinking = such as Intention, Will, Gain / Loss Calculation, etc etc =

not exists in Doing )  —– This is the ZEN.

( So, it is a great mystery, what the people is doing while sitting and doing

so-called meditation ?  😀  😀 ) 

___/\___

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Return of Chilean Miner

The return of Chilean Miner is one of the most extraordinary story in resent human history.

It was an exceptional raw human endurance, and the typical technological solution of today.

( I have no idea, how to drill a hole into solid granite and hit the target 2,000 feet away.  What sort of

guiding / detecting system, technology there.  When Doctor insert a probe through blood vessel, he can

see it by X-ray image, even in 3D.  Though, can Radar does the same function towards under ground ? )

That is why the Chileans are so proud of its achievement. ” We can do this “.

In Buddhist’s view it was also the proof of that the Buddha’s insight was bang right.

——- You might say, no, they are the devoted Catholic that’s why God saved them.

I’m talking  not about their God,  but the Universal Dharma / fundamental nature of Human Psyche.

Even though,  their motivation to go down the notorious hell mine is derived by the better money

than the other safer mine,  in other words greed and the ego,  yet still,  if they couldn’t overcome

much more fundamental ego / survival instinct / fear of the death = negation of the self,  they

couldn’t go down to the hell in the first place.

Without this State of Non-self /  Anatman, they couldn’t keep the discipline / diligently follow their

leader / foreman and managed to keep peace in the utterly desperate condition.

If they were just greedy egoist,  there could be easily the fight over the food ( can you imagine, just

one spoonful of tuna fish per day,  under the utterly uncertainty of the fate, for 17 days ).

If , Survival of Fittest was the rule, some of them, much stronger than the leader, could have broken off

and took all the food only for them —— but no such fight occurred.

They had accepted the fate,  there could be the possibility of all of them may die, one by one,  still

without fallen into the madness facing the coming death,  play together and kept Hope

—– waited, and waited, —— 17 days ! ! !

This is nothing but the typical sample of the  Buddhism Paradox / The one

who survived was the one who accepted the death. Non-self is really the key of the survival.

And the Non-self was the foundation of the charity / kindness / compassion —— so, they helped

weakest, and  ALL 33 survived together and came out the hell.

It was not the Dharma helped them.

They followed and kept the rules of the Dharma / they are the Dharma.

( You may say,  why non-Buddhist could know and follow the Dharma —– Dharma is the universal Rule

therefore it rules every body, and all the human being has it in them, whether a person aware of it or not )

Congratulation.

___/\___

—

Great —– or Rubbish ?

One of my friend who is a Computer-Otaku read the latest three posts in my blog  (this blog  🙂   )

And questioned me  ” Obviously you are not try to sell anything by the spin,  though what actually

you are appealing ?     Try to expose flaw of Buddhism or How it is useless ? “.

———— ” Yes I know. You are absolutely right though, this is what the very Buddhism is.

I’m trying to show it “ ” Show what ? ”   ” Paradox in Buddhism “ ” Such as ? “

” All about Buddhism is in its state of Musin.

To be in absolute Mushin,  one can not have even a notion of Buddhism  or any expectation.

Expect its benefit or super natural power is nothing but the one’s greed and the arrogance.

Expect benefit such as I can change and find true Self and get Enlightenment is one’s thinking.

And see the Buddhism in such expectation  is nothing but a delusion.

All the benefit and the phenomena of the Buddhism would come beyond this,  never before.

So, it may come 10 years later or may never come “

” What a mean religion isn’t it ”   ” That’s why it was seen as an Enigma “ ” Rubbish “

———  ” Ha ha ha,  So, somewhere in the earliest post saying  Dog Shit “

” How many people ever reached Enlightenment ? ”   ” I guess, historically may be only handful “

” What ?  In whole Buddhism history ? ”    ” I think so,  may be less than 100 “

” Utterly Rubbish isn’t it ”   ” So, it’s a Dog Shit.  Ha ha ha   😀 “

” So that, it’s really Great, isn’t it “

” So,  you are selling  iPad  saying Don’t expect this one would work “ ” Thaaaat’s right. And

when people smashed it, it start working and show all the fancy things “

” That’s nice.  So, this is the Zen ? “ ” Thaaaaaat’s right ! “ ” How fascinating ”  😀

Most crucial Paradox

” You can’t run as long as you got legs “

This is THE most crucial Paradox in the Buddhism.

” As long as you have an intention to attain  Selflessness or  Enlightenment,

you can’t get it until you loose its intention.”

This sound almost like ” You can’t run as long as you got your legs ”  isn’t it.  How funny ! ! !

But this is true, you can’t run as long as you got legs. Ha Ha Ha   😀

——————–

Why this is true is, its true in the Buddhist’s context.  In the Buddhist’s context, when they says

anything about ” is there or not there ” it is not Physical existence of the object,

but  subjective conscious of its object.

So, as long as you are conscious of the legs or noticing its existence, in another word,

if you are thinking of it——– you can’t run (in its full potentials )

So, the Buddhist says, as long as you are conscious of your Self, and conscious about

your life, you can’t achieve its maximum potential.  Neither you get your Enlightenment.

( They are quite harsh aren’t they.   😀  )

In fact, there is an answer, leave the business to your subconscious.

Selflessness demonstated

” This is the Demonstration you can discover the Selflessness On The Spot “

In this post I’m going to demonstrate what is the Selflessness and

what is the Meditation should be in the simplest and clearest term.

—— m m m ?      Interested ?

Until here, to read those lines, did you noticed, your eyes has been reading this ?

I don’t think so.

Unless you got poor eye sight and struggling to read the screen, your eyes is

out of your scope, out of your mind. ————-(So, the Mantra says, Its exist as not exist)

When we read, we just read without noticing the existence of the eyes, let alone

a knowledge how visual signal running and processed in the brain etc etc.

——————-

Until you have read and get the meaning of what I am talking about,

your eyes is just taking the pattern of letters.  You are not thinking.

Neither you are noticing who is reading this.

———-As I asked you and you were alerted, then you start

to think ” I AM reading this, who else ”

(so there was a Zen Mondo ” Who was reading this, minute ago ? “)

——————–

Then, try reading a line of words alphabet by alphabet.

In this input your brain has to work harder to make sense of the word, what was written here.

As you try to think and process the word, it takes much longer time.

Here, you must be convinced, the automatic process of the Reading Routine is much quicker.

——————–

Now you must be convinced, how most of our activity was carried

out without we are noticing it. We are doing it unconsciously,

and because of the teachings of Buddhism is based on this subconscious activities,

the argument of ” Who did this without my conscious ” is

persistent all through the history. (And some are doing even today  😀 )

——————–

When you read those first few lines, YOU were just reading, nothing else,

otherwise you couldn’t concentrate to read—— its mean you were in the

Mindfull state.

As you been doing this without even noticing that the eyes are reading NOR

having the conscious of  ” I AM reading “.  This is the Selfless state.

———-Do you think is this too simplified and lost the glory of Holy Grail ?

Don’t over glorify.   It is your arrogance and the delusions.  Truth is always simple.

——————–

To apply this condition to the sitting, as sitting is supposed to be just sitting nothing else,

(in Theory  :-)), it must be the best practice to practice not thinking

or selflessness——– so the ancient Guru thought.

But we are here in such noisy destruction full world, it is very hard

to vacate the brain.  Even worse, we are accustomed to sit to think.

——– So, if you are struggling to attain selfless meditation, don’t worry, relax, sit on

a sofa, forget the Notion of meditation and play a non-vocal  slow music to just fill the atmosphere.

Keep you eyes open and fix it on something, insignificant object on front of you.

(As the visual signal of insignificant object stays the same, the brain start to ignore the signal all together)

But as your eyes has been fixed to the object, brain couldn’t visualize anything else, and soon

it become empty. (but don’t fallen asleep  😀 ) ——But ! getting sleepy is not necessary bad, it is

the sign of your brain found nothing to do, its mean its empty ——though, if you fallen asleep,

you lose the opportunity to see the Dharma of which you may only able to see it in this state.

It is the Paradoxical state, almost sleep but fully awake, without even knowing you are awake.

This is the reason why many of the primitive religion (?) resorted with hallucinogenic drug.

Any how, have the emptied brain  is more important than the posture.

——–Don’t torture your legs. It’s no good to your body which was given by the Dharma.

If you happen to live near the sea or river, go there and absorbed by

the atmosphere and the sound of water which is persistent but not

in the exact pattern. (So, the Brain wouldn’t bother to decipher the meaning—–its just the noise)

Or the woods is also good to be there in the same effect.

The Nature is where we came from.  So, just relax.

——————–

Don’t struggle to attain something in the Buddhism. Intention itself is bad.

Don’t worry , there is nothing there.   So that you don’t need to even

boast that you are The Buddhist, just be it.  Never think you are anything special.

If you are born to go to the Hell, go to the Hell.

Once you accept this, you don’t need to worry anymore while you are still alive.

The matters in the Buddhism is to live now in peace and with confidence.

So that, struggle to find something in the Buddhism is the silliest thing.

Since, as long as you  want to do intentionally, its mean you are THINKING.

When you sit, without noticing even you are sitting, this is THE sitting without thought.

Forget Buddhism, forget Enlightenment, forget the notion of Meditation. Just sit.

——– Use the words from Michael  ” Let it go ”

When you let it go, you will get whole of your life.(strangely ! )

This is the Paradox in the Buddhism.

Mindfullness

” Understanding the Buddhism by the translated word carries the burden “

The most fundamental difficulty in the approach or to seek

Buddhism is lie in its English translated word.

From the word such as Fully minded or Mindfullness the people start to

think  ” What is the Mind ? ” and end up in the endless puzzles.

The trouble is, the mind has hundreds of layers like an onion. We only see

its outer skin.

Especially if the one thinks  ” The mind is where the thought is being processed ”

it would end up against the wall.

The mind in the Buddhism is  not exist or not noticeable.

It is deep inside of the onion. (To see it you have to shed a tear or two.  🙂 )

Or in human term, it is in the subconsciousness.

——————–

So that, the word  ” Mindfullness ” is, in fact, has to be exercised  subconsciously.

This is the fundamental trouble to think about the Buddhism and this is why the

study or aproach to the Buddhism by way of thinking or try to understand it,

is utterly wrong.

And this is the reason why all the Buddhism sects employ the practice.

The practice is there to teach or lead the people to learn to do it

without thinking or empty the mind.

——————–

The another trouble or misunderstanding lie in the word  ” Meditation “.

The word Meditation is almost a synonym of the Buddhism though,

the popular understanding of its meaning  ” Think deep ” mislead the people too.

As one of the practice in the Buddhism, the Meditation is also the way to lean

to do it without thinking.  This is why even the Master Dogen said ” Just sit “.

And this is why the Buddhist has to get rid of even the notion of the Enlightenment.

When you forget to reach to the Enlightenment and get on your life, You are Enlightened.

This is the biggest Paradox in the Buddhism.