The mind often acts like a child. It wants attention, to be the centre of attention and in our busy lives it's easy to give in and let the mind have reigns. And we've convinced ourselves that the mind is everything. Thinking is revered. He's a great thinker. Our minds, our inventions, ideas and thoughts, … Continue reading Thinking
Suicide
Life is in constant flux. No two seconds are ever the same. But just as true is the fact that everything is always the same, as everything is now. Just as you or I may change from moment to moment, within us there is something that is constant. The world changes around us, things seem … Continue reading Suicide
Intention
"Full of great intentions..." how often have we heard that? On a daily, hourly basis, we are brimming with conscious intentions, whether we act on them or not. "I'll finish work on time today", "I'll make a cup of tea in a minute", "I'll spend more time with my sister" - whatever the level of … Continue reading Intention
Emptiness
"Doors and windows are cut in the walls of a house. And because they are empty spaces we are able to use them. Therefore on the one hand we have the benefit of existence. And on the other we make use of non-existence." (Tao Te Ching) When we cut a window in our wall, we … Continue reading Emptiness
Perception
When we walk a path we've taken over a thousand times, and one time it is enveloped by a thick blanket of snow, we cannot recognise a feature in it. The path is a stranger to us, the landscape suddenly unfamiliar. The same can be said when darkness falls and we are plunged into the … Continue reading Perception
Breathing
Using Zen's paradoxical logic, great importance must be attached to the way of breathing, while at the same time one is merely the observer. Breathing is a process in which both control and spontaneity, voluntary and involuntary action, exist. We need to breath, to stay alive, and most of the time we forget we are … Continue reading Breathing
The Answer
When you think of a maths puzzle, and you work your brain to solve the equation - the answer doesn't just suddenly exist because you've thought of it. The answer was always there, existing in its own right, to be discovered or not. Discovery does not affect its existing, just as a tree will still … Continue reading The Answer
Laws of Physics
What do we know about the laws of physics? Gravity, time, space, atoms, molecules, particles, pressure, waves, energy...all this is relative. There are enough anomalies if we want to see them, to realise that we don't know, but generally we don't even know that we don't know, so we think we know. How can we … Continue reading Laws of Physics
Unique
Each and every one of us, since existence began, is unique. Infinity pervades all aspects of existence, implying there was no beginning, and our own uniqueness will have no end. We all exist in this same time and space, but this time and space has boundaries in our minds. Infinity, by definition, has no boundaries. … Continue reading Unique
Experience
Buddhism can be studied, taught in schools, colleges, universities. One can have a 'masters' in Buddhism, yet that does not make one a 'master' of Buddhism. The intellect can only take us so far. One can read about the delicate scent of a flower, the feel upon the skin of a gentle breeze, the taste … Continue reading Experience
Zen musings 