Episode 29 – Thoughts and Tips for Cultivating Gratitude.
Kristina and myself talk about how we both practice gratitude through the week. For example Kristina looks at the dogs and feels gratitude, and learns from them, from their joyous being, their …
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http://zazensuite.com – Tour of Zazensuite Meditation and Mindfulness Timer for Android or iPhone. A short tour of what you can do with this meditation and mindfulness app.
In this Periscope session, I show you:
How to change the meditation timer settings.
How to set the timer to go off at however many minutes you select. How you can also use 4 different kinds of bell sounds for the free version of the app.
How to set the timer to ring a bell at a certain time of the day that you select, like an alarm.
How to set the timer to go off every so many minutes, like a mindfulness bell.
How to set the meditation timer to go off randomly, like say 3 times per hour after a random amount of minutes go by.
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In this episode I offer some thoughts on what it means to me to meditate and how it brings about a stillness and settling of mind. I also mention this imprint (Guidepost; Inscription) of Silent Illumination (Shikantaza or Just Sitting) which is recited in some Zen meditation practice centers.
Silent and serene, one forgets all words:
Clear and vivid, it appears before you.
When one realizes, time has no limits.
When felt deeply, life becomes vibrant.
Singularly illuminating is this bright awareness;
Full of wonder is the pure illumination:
Dew in the moonlight, a river of stars,
Snow-covered pines, clouds hovering on mountain peaks.
In darkness, it glows with brightness;
In shadows, it shines with a splendid light.
Like the dream of a crane flying in the frosty mist,
Like the clear water reaching the autumn sky,
Endless eons dissolve into nothingness,
Each indistinguishable from the other.
In this brightness all striving is forgotten.
What is this wonder? Alertly seeing through confusion
Is the way of silent illumination and the origin of subtle radiance.
Vision penetrating into radiance is weaving gold on a jade loom.
Subject and object influence each other.
Light and darkness are mutually dependent.
(In the audio Youtube clip below you can hear what happens when gigantic cumulonimbus clouds start to build up that will have thunder and lightening as well. Normally we think of thunder sounds after lightening, but in this case, out here in the desert, this rumbling thunder sound can come just from the friction of cloud building) The episode ending has a shorter clip of this sound. Below you can listen to the sound for 8 hours!)
There is neither mind nor world to rely on,
Yet the two mutually interact.
Drink the medicine of correct views,
Beat the poison-smeared drum.
When they interact silence and illumination are complete;
Killing and bringing to life is a choice to make.
At last, through the gate, one emerges.
The fruit has ripened on the branch.
Only this Silence is the ultimate teaching;
Only this Illumination, the universal response.
The teaching, not heard with the ears,
And the response is without effort.
Throughout the universe all things glisten,
And each expounds the Dharma.
They attest to each other,
And accord in dialog responding in perfect harmony.
But when illumination is without stillness,
Then distinctions will be seen and harshness will arrive.
If within stillness brightness is lost,
All will become wasteful and dull.
When Silent Illumination is complete,
The lotus will blossom, the dreamer will awaken.
The hundred streams flow to the ocean,
The thousand mountains face the highest peak.
Like geese preferring milk to water,
Like bees gathering the choicest pollen,
When Silent Illumination reaches the ultimate,
It penetrates from the most subtle to the greatest.
I embody the original tradition of my lineage:
The body, sunyata and the arms, mudra.
From the beginningless to endless, only one task,
though expressed in 10,000 shapes and forms.
The basic matter of our line
hits the mark straight and true.
Pass this on in all directions
without a wish for gain.
This is the practice called Silent Illumination.
By Hongzhi Zhengjue; translated by Sheng Yen; adapted by Mountain Lamp
In this episode I talk a little about Silent Illumination and play a segment of Rolling Thunder in the lower Sonoran desert.
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It is our cognition, which is in essence an interpretation system, that curtails our resources. Our interpretation system is what tells us what the parameters of our possibilities are, and since we have been using that system of interpretation all our lives, we cannot possibly dare to go against its dictums. Juan Matus
I’ve never seen a 100% white or 100% black person. Have you?
I have however all my life seen so called “whites” clearly showing a multitude of colors on their skins.
Sunburned,
frostbitten,
yellow with fever,
energized,
blushing and embarrassed with pinks and reds,
sickly off colors,
unevenly browned,
speckled,
ghostly,
freckled,
etc, etc.
Just as TV technology started out as black and white, and is now millions of colors and pixels in resolution, so do I think to a large extend our world views, went from two-dimensional (earth is flat, that person is white, or black) to 3-dimensional with many shades of colors.
There has been an increased interest in seeing reality more fully in higher and higher definition. The higher resolution, the better and clearer we can see things as they really are.
As I mentioned on Episode 25 when chatting with Charlie, it really helps to slow down in order to process that higher resolution of life.
If you’re rushing from one thing to the next thing, it will prevent you from fully seeing what is right in front of you though! So does thinking or worrying about the past or the future. Or playing tapes and records about what should be or how good or bad we are.