Читать книгу Dot to Dot Zen a Primer of Buddhist Psyc - Gerald Ericksen - Страница 7

THE DEVIL OF CONFUSION

— The Path, Dhammapada

One beginning, many forms

Our path begins with a realization that suffering arises from confusion. The nature of this confusion is not knowing where to begin to understand the reality of our self.

Focus on the breath passing through your nose...

Time flees, going nowhere

What is the boundary between then and now? If now touches the future, is it before? If time flees everywhere, to where does it return? If forms are one at their center, are centers everything? From endless speculations about time and space, shifting uncertainties arise in our mind. Such speculations do not lie on our path of direct experience that leads away from mental anguish.

Don't force breathing, just focus on it.

To know reality is to know that all beings are bent with suffering

The degree to which we are bent with suffering changes with the observer. Our task is to let go of old perspectives and to let fall away enslaving attachments with prescribed beginnings and endings. Our own thoughts are what make us suffer for our weaknesses. By understanding our thoughts and our weaknesses, we can learn from them. In this way, enemies become teachers.

If your mind wanders, bring it back to breathing...

Clear pools of water, deep thought

Meditation, as a technique, is a clearing of our vision to see reality as it presents itself, from unifying moment to unifying moment. In this way, specks of imperfection in perceptions of our self, as well as of others, tend to dissolve in a flow of choiceless awareness, undistorted by our own emotions.

If there is outside noise, note it, and return to breathing...

Lulled, the waves sink

Meditation, as a technique, is a calming and centering of our complex mind. We attempt to focus our mind in order to experience an ever changing reality.

Just breathe...

Look upon the world as you would a bubble

The experienced reality of breathing is taken as a first line of attack on the suffering of the mind, for, without breath, the mind cannot work; feelings, perceptions, emotions and ideas vanish. Resting upon such an insubstantial, impermanent reality as breath, the seemingly complex mind bares its hollow core.

If thoughts arise, let them arise and fall away...

If sensations arise, let them arise and fall away...