A small child walks into a hardware store with his parents. He doesn’t register the screws and nuts or any of the other materials he has no prior knowledge of, but does see the display of brightly coloured buckets and spades and is instantly drawn there. The father, who has been working on a DIY … Continue reading Awakening
Tag: awareness
Stardust
How are we connected? It is said that the human body consists of 60% water. As for the rest of it, almost 99% is made up of six elements; oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus. Over 70% of the earth's surface is made up of water. The earth's crust is over 46% oxygen. Most … Continue reading Stardust
Illumination
Imagine being a in pitch black room, of which you have no comprehension of its size or contents, or even if there are other people present. Then imagine you have a candle, and with this small light you are able to see pockets of what the room contains. As you move around, you light up … Continue reading Illumination
Brave New World
My daily walk this morning was shrouded in mist – a beautiful damp whiteness that hung in the air obscuring all, blowing in clouds across my path. Instead of seeing the valley and gently rolling hills I have become so accustomed to, my path was hidden from view and I could not look ahead. Instead … Continue reading Brave New World
Mind-Body
Mind-Body We cannot separate mind from body nor body from mind in this realm within which we dwell. When we are hungry we feel it in both, just as when we are angry our mind flares with the emotion as our heart race quickens and our stomachs clench. When we train our bodies, we train … Continue reading Mind-Body
Sleep walking
What is it to be aware? To be awake? We believe that at night we fall asleep and dream, and when the light comes we wake and are conscious beings, interacting with the world around us. We use our senses and feel emotions, we reason and use our intelligence to solve problems, or grow our … Continue reading Sleep walking
Purpose
When we sit zazen, we are sitting facing a wall, inert, and often people who do not sit question why we do it, what we are doing, what are we trying to achieve. Zazen is all about balance. Physically we are balancing our bodies, not leaning too far forward, nor too far backwards, but straight … Continue reading Purpose
Fear
Have you ever noticed how one single person who does something differently from the rest of the crowd is often labelled as strange, eccentric, bohemian? The crowd, who all do the same thing, the same way, give it validation and acceptance. If we, each of us, contain the whole universe within our beings, then it … Continue reading Fear
The Watcher
For a split second the grasp on an ice cold metal clasp can burn the naked skin exactly as if it were red-hot. There is self-consciousness and there is un-self-consciousness. This latter is a state of wholeness whereby the mind functions freely, easily, without the ego colouring it. It is the letting of the body … Continue reading The Watcher
Zen musings 