A digest for conscious living
I woke up this morning early enough to have time for a deep meditation. The clarity and emotional stability that I lost over the holidays has returned. This is a much better way to live.
I began reading a book again yesterday that was pivotal for me in my spiritual development when I first read it about 6 years ago. Zen Training by Katsuki Sekida literally changed my life by introducing me to the intricasies of Zazen and Zen philosophy.
Although the beginning of my Lucid Living journey was inspired by the realization that I described in the original static page introduction, the actual spiritual Practice that I have undertaken has brought me to a new understanding of the Zen prespective on life. Its not that I have stopped subscribing to the Dream model of the Universe- the two philosophies are not mutually exclusive, the are actually complementary. The Dream model is still the most accurate way to describe my perception of this existence. It relates however to a grand world view that comes from a cosmic, extatic state of mind. In actuality, the bulk of life seems to be marked by a rather, ordinary, state which seems better addressed by the Zen view of existence.
One explains our place in the Universe, the other informs us on how to live our life from moment to moment.
“Emptiness is a condition in which internal mental pressure is totally dissolved. When a thought appears in your mind, it is necessarily accompanied by internal pressure. Even when you think, “It’s fine today”, a certain internal pressure is generated in your mind, and you feel you want to speak to someone else and say, “It’s fine today, isn’t it?” By doing this you discharge the pressure…” “In Zen texts the word mushin occurs. Literally this means “no mind” (mu, no ; shin, mind), which means “no ego”. It menas the mind is in a state of equilibrium. We think every moment, and an internal pressure is generated, and we lose equilibrium. And in Zen we train ourselves to recover equilibrium every moment. The ego is built up from a succession of internal pressures. When the pressures are dissolved, the ego vanishes, and there is true emptiness.”
– Zen Training by Katsuki Sekida
Goodnight,
Kikta