ZEN… The ZEN of Zen... O! ZEN
Experiencing True Zen
1) Those who Experience TRUE ZEN (i.e. their Pure Transcendent Nature, beyond the activities of the mind),
they don't "think" about it (their "understanding"),
nor do they "comment" on it (to compare it with other situations),
nor do they try to "transmit" it (by pretending to be "teachers")…
So futile are all these activities (they do not belong to the True State, but to the activity of the mind).
2) THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE SAGE (Experiencing ZEN) is Free,
centerless (ego),
always Present (but without "continuity" in time),
without memory and without destination… but with Full Awareness…
COMPLETELY FREE… like the flight of a bird in the sky…
3) CONSCIOUSNESS IS HERE... It does not come from anywhere, it does not go anywhere, it is in its "Home"... and all the Infinite Space is its own... and wherever it "is" it is in its "own space"...
4) CONSCIOUSNESS, SPACE, EXPERIENCE, have merged into the Oneness of Existence, the Eternal Undifferentiated State, which "distinguishes" but does not "involve" the varieties of experience...
5) THE SAGE does not "teach" or "interest", and does not "do"... he simply LIVES Reality... And precisely because of this attitude he becomes a Light and a Guide, and an Example, and thus (without "teaching") he teaches the "greatest lesson"... He is like the Sun that lights up the world...
6) The "teachers" who "possess" Zen, who "transmit" it, are like people who have found a torch and, holding it in their hand, go around the world thinking they are enlightening it... sometimes the torch may be "lit" … most of the time it is “off”…
7) TRUE ZEN is You, it is Within you, in your TRUE NATURE (when you Let It Manifest).
TRUE ZEN needs no effort… on the contrary, it is the end of all “effort”… the “supreme renunciation” of all…
TRUE ZEN is to be a Clear, Clear Mirror of Reality…
TRUE ZEN is Being, Knowledge, Truth… It is Virtue, Justice… It is Life…
TRUE ZEN is to LIVE and not to interpret life...
TRUE ZEN is the Resounding Silence that is heard throughout the "universe"... It is the SONG of your NATURE, of your "heart"...
TRUE ZEN is the fruit of your "humility", the greatness of your Being, and the immensity of your Nature...
TRUE ZEN is the All, the Beginning and the End, the Cycle and the Completion, Time and Eternity, Truth and Falsehood, All and Nothing...
TRUE ZEN is not found in these words unfolding here… IT IS IN THE SILENCE THAT FOLLOWS…
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Zen without Zen
Reality Is One, for those who have Full Awareness... and there is no ignorance, no division into enlightenment and non-enlightenment...
For those expressed in the language of men, duality, there are two states, Enlightenment and non-enlightenment, which are not connected (in terms of their characteristics) but are two aspects of reality, two possibilities of consciousness, two paths, two ways perception and life...
A "Gate" separates and unites two realities. You can be inside and look "out", or you can be "out" and look "in"...
There are two ways to Experience ZEN and talk about it: Either be inside and look "out", or be "out" and look "in".
One who "truly perceives", perceives that there is nothing within, there is no enlightened one, there is nothing realized, there is nothing to be imparted. So, he has nothing to say... And if he does say something, it will be about human stupidity, which is left "outside"... Such a person, even if he finds himself in the position of a "teacher", does not teach anything (what teach?), he doesn't help anyone (who should he help?), he simply "handles" the human folly that approaches him seeking, in vain, wisdom... For him there is no "Gate", it is the Impenetrable Gate...
There are others who, when given the opportunity, have something to say about Zen, something to teach, something to inform... and there are also some who are deluded into thinking that they are someone who needs to be enlightened, that there is enlightenment, salvation, another life... Blind leading the blind... If they do not fall into a pit, they will turn around, or wander into nothingness... They try in vain to pass the "Gate", they do not understand that there is no "Gate"...
So, what is ZEN? Who exercises it? To what enlightenment can it lead? Which activity or activities should it perform?... When one tries to analyze it, one has lost it...
ZEN is non-thought, like a flowing State... not like an activity!
Is ZEN non-thought? Any activity? Deconstructing dialectical thinking, logical analysis, the duality of perception, which manipulates opposites? It may be... but this Zen leads to imagination...
Is ZEN the calm contemplation of what is happening in thought, in perception, in the world, without getting involved? And the stones are not involved but they are not illuminated...
No matter how hard you look, you can't find it... Not because it doesn't exist, but because you're looking in the wrong way... the Zen you're looking for is a fantasy...
ZEN is Something much more substantial. It is so simple that no human being can easily perceive what is actually happening... When you try to understand, you do not understand. When you try to realize you don't realize. When you try to "give up" all efforts, you get even more confused... When you try to explain you're just babbling...
ZEN is a Step into the Void! What will happen? Will you stay where you are, one with the world, or will you fall? There is an answer to this. Give it... or do something else! Total resignation has no return...
ZEN is Instant Shift, in Full Perception, it is not a process! How is time abolished? The Secret is not revealed to you unless you decide to do it!
ZEN is not a practice, it is not an exercise, it is not an activity, ZEN simply does not exist. All external activities, za-zen, zoriki, kenso, musodo...satori, are not ZEN, they are a parody...
Searching in books, on the net, you can find a lot of information about Zen... All this is not about Zen, but about "what" people think Zen is.
Who will pass through the Impervious Gate? This is the only koan there is.... Who is free? There is no answer to this...
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ZEN… the ZEN of Zen... Oh! ZEN
The ZEN
Real Human Nature IS. It IS from the beginning and through all (outside the cosmic process, beyond space and time...). It is what it is. It does not evolve, it does not change, it does not "fall", it does not awaken, it does not materialize... The Space of Zen is Silence. Infinite Silence... of Perception, of Speech and speech, of action (sacred and not). Nothing but Silence... When you ARE (outside of every process) how can you become what you ARE?... Every activity is "ontological redundancy", every activity shows only lack of understanding and stupidity...
When "some don't understand Zen but think they do" they smile at all the fools who think about Zen, talk about Zen, practice Zen, and teach it to others... How can you teach Zen? When "those who don't understand but think they do" see others, the fools, talking about Zen they smile. You're lucky they're not stupid like the others. But are they different from others? Even a smile is an activity (from the edge of the world)... Unfortunately...
And the others who understand Zen without actually understanding it? They are "enlightened" (in their "sleep")... Certainly they are Enlightened in Nature's Way (from the beginning and throughout), but not in their own way (in their "sleep"). They think they are "enlightened" (in their "sleep")... In the middle of Nowhere they think they are somewhere, or they are trying to get somewhere, to lead others to their somewhere. They do not understand that the somewhere is based in the Nowhere, and that the Nowhere is Somewhere. They get confused and don't understand that they have already reached where they are trying to get to and that it is all mind games...
The ZEN of Zen
Nature Is Silence, Zen Is Silence, Zen is practiced in Silence, with Silence for Silence... all else is nonsense of the mind... No one can speak of Zen and he who speaks of Zen, only for Zen does not speak... But everyone will reasonably ask, now, here, are we not talking about Zen? Wrong… Personally, we don't understand Zen and that's why we talk (about Zen). If we understood it we wouldn't be talking... But we talk nonsense only for one reason. For the other person to understand that we are talking nonsense and to stop reading nonsense...
The True Master is always alone, he has no disciples. And if any student approaches him as a student (the Master drives him away or) he quickly leaves. Why? The True Master Knows. And the student knows. A Master who has disciples is not a Master.
O Master who teaches! What do you teach? Do you teach the sun to rise? Do you teach the breeze to rustle? Do you teach the smells of the earth to travel? Do you teach life to live?
O disciple! You are your own Master. Life does not need guides, Life Always Finds its Way, it has no dead ends. Your Understanding is your Teacher... and when you Find the Teacher within yourself you will quickly run away from all the deceitful merchants of "knowledge" (which is not Knowledge, but ignorance).
The True Master does not Teach. The Real Disciple needs no Masters. Nature Moves on its own, without deviating for a single second from its Course.
Oh fool! what are you trying Fix Nature? Do you think there is a difference between Silence and the noise of your mind? You can neither add anything nor take anything away... So why are you confused? Collect your mind and leave Nature alone...
Oh! ZEN
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Zen, the five steps
Consciousness Is One. This is a conclusion of a spiritual integration and not an axiom on which a system of thought, a theory, an intellectual commentary, etc. could be founded... Consciousness cannot be Defined... Because it escapes all limits and all descriptions ... and not because it's something unknown...
Consciousness transcends Being (It is Pure Being) so it can be and not be, be like this, be anyway, be here and not be here, etc...
Consciousness is a Stream of Awareness without boundaries, but which can fit anywhere, not some limiting activity or substance...
So to say, Universal Consciousness and individual consciousness are the same, can be absolutely true since it can be confirmed…
So, within the Present Consciousness (whatever consciousness we are) there is the One Consciousness, the Absolute Consciousness, the Liberated Consciousness, but also limitation, and separateness, and the ego, and the limited, all...
Certainly, the Natural Consciousness (the Liberated Consciousness, the Expanded Consciousness) cannot be identified with anything "limited" (but at the same time it can function by absorbing the limited)...
Therefore we should define Spiritual Awakening (Effort, Action) as liberation both from (metaphysical) limited activities of Consciousness (such as existence-being, intellect, energy, etc.) and from the perception that results from our association with a material carrier (brain, nervous system, body, world, as an extension of the senses)...
Spiritual Awakening lies precisely in perceiving spontaneously, directly, clearly... and not through paranoia, misconceptions, hallucinations...
1. Since Consciousness (as a Single Open Dynamic Space of Awareness) Within Which Everything Can Happen) is the Only Space in which we exist and function, it must be understood that Consciousness (as Pure Consciousness, as Physical Consciousness, as Absolute Consciousness) It is Always the Background, whatever happens... We are not separated from our Nature when we operate in one way or another. So, whatever happens, it happens, it is grounded in and presupposes the Same Universal Background that we all are, even if we don't understand it... No matter how far one wanders one will return. Return is always Nature's way.
2. When we try to approach Reality (not to let Nature work Spontaneously but), to "reach" through personal effort we actually move away from our goal... All willful personal effort is by its nature limiting and leads to in commitment and not in liberation... So, even the most spiritual effort, act, is limited, restrictive, and leads to the limited... So, we must understand that those who try are in the movement of the world, in ignorance, in paranoia, to misunderstand, to hallucinate...
3. In reality, Consciousness Is One. Pure Consciousness, limited consciousness, enlightenment, ignorance, here, there, everything happens in the Same Space of Consciousness... All separations are not about Consciousness, they are only about perceptions, what we perceive... When Nature Works, It Works as One, does not make divisions, the divisions are made by our own intervention, our own activity, our own perception... All this does not concern our Nature but the activity... Within the One Consciousness, as in a clear sky, the shadows again fade away, all is fleeting and passing... Leaving them alone they go where they must... dissolve again into nothingness... True Life Is in our Nature and not in activity... When this is understood it has no it matters not whether we are at rest or in activity... There is no difference... We do not perceive activity through activity (as something different)... We are completely outside the movement of the world...
4. When we understand our Essential Nature, when we Experience the One Consciousness, Free, Expanded, out of motion as thought, of the world... When there is no difference between stillness and activity, we are free to act within the heart of the real ... Absolute and relative, Eternity and time, Limitless and limited, have no meaning... All in Consciousness is Light and all within Light transforms into pure, is pure life, pure perception...
5. Having reached this State, we live in One Consciousness, having completely forgotten ourselves. The awakening of consciousness, the course of enlightenment, the attainment, the return, all seem like a dream. Our dream? Human's? Of nature? Of what nature? Nature works without thinking of itself...
What we have described above are the five steps into the void... Awakening is the Only Real State... the dream has no substance... but whoever dreams and believes in the dream must walk... five steps... no step... in the dream...
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The Zen
(From the "point of view" of orthodox Buddhism)
Zen is perhaps the "model" of Decentralizing Meditation (as opposed to Concentrating Meditation, of Yoga)...
Zen is not simply a historical development of Buddhism, but rather a "metatheory" of Buddhism... not simply as an investigation of the epistemological theory and epistemological methods of Buddhism, but as the actual epistemological method that responds to "things"... Understanding, the Buddhists, (in the historical development of Buddhism) that True Nature (Mind) Is completely pure, empty, transcendent... realized that one need not "realize what one already is"... on the contrary, the notion that we are something else turns out to be fundamentally untrue and imaginary... All engagement with Nature, enlightenment, realization, thought, etc., belongs to the imaginary...
The Taoists had reached a similar understanding, that the Ultimate Nature (the Tao) remains pure and unadulterated, even when it follows the path of creation (i.e nature)... "Nature" follows its path and emerges again in the Its Primary Purity... And so not only do we not need to interfere with the "work", the "actions" of Nature, but on the contrary when we intervene, we are diverted from Nature, towards the non-natural, the imaginary...
Thus, from the two religious currents of perception arose, as a supreme experiential truth, the Perception of Zen, in which Reality, Enlightenment, evolution, life, time, all merge into "full awakening," a State that comes from nowhere, does not it is based nowhere, it is directed nowhere, it exists beyond time, in an "immovable reality" alive, within which everything moves... and the natural world...
Mind, There is, Pure, Void, It is the Only Reality... There is no one to experience anything. There is nothing to experience. Nothing to be imparted (as a secret experience)... Nothing to be realized... All this so-called evolution, belongs to the imaginary space... True Awakening is the realization that Mind is always (and forever), Pure, Empty... but Alive...
The Natural Mind
The Mind, the Self-Self Mind, the Absolute Mind, the One Mind, which constitutes the "Essence of the Buddha" and the Essence of all existences, the Ultimate Reality, the Source of all... It is the Emptiness, the Infinite Unobstructed Space, Within Whom all "emerge" and in Whom they "disappear" again, when their circle is closed... It is the Self, the Essential Nature... It is the True Mind, Unconceived by the intellect, the Non-mind (go- sin)...
All that “exists” is only Mind, only “representation”, phenomenon (Vijnapitamatra). All "varieties" of Consciousness (Vijnana) are only "functions", processes, phenomena. The objects of vijnana, “discriminations” (vasana) are but “phenomena”... even “matter”... All arise in Mind and disappear in It... In Universal Consciousness (AlayaVijnana), the "all-containing consciousness" all the varieties of vasanas (discriminations) that create the phenomena are kept latent...
Mind Is All-Existence, encompassing the 'I' - the complex of imprinted perceptions, perceptions, habits, etc. - which is but an “event” ... The mind, the empirical mind, the ego (sin) is nothing but a complex of vijnana which sustain a flow of suffering, within the space of relative existence, and fuel a continuous activity...Sin does not belong to the Nature of Mind, but arises from the relation to the "phenomenon", when it is considered as something "external"...
Physical Mind, Being, and "Biological Organism"
Mind, Self-Self Mind, Absolute Mind, Is in Its Nature, Transcendent, out of space-time...
In Its Cosmic Existence, It is represented by AlayaVijnana, the Universal Consciousness, (which has three levels of operation) ...
In Its Individual Existence, It becomes Vijnana (individual existence, individual mind) … It exists as a “person” in the cosmic space, as a “Samskara” (personality, soul)…
But when it is "connected" with the biological organism, "rupa", new functions (phenomena) "mano-vijnana", "samskaras" (mental impressions), "samjna" (perception of the external world) "vedana" emerge from this relationship (senses of the external world)...
Three streams of consciousness
Three streams of consciousness are thus created: The stream of vijnana (sin, ego, personality), the "subordinate" stream of samskara (mental impressions, intellect, mentality, etc.), the "subordinate" (in the previous two) stream of samjna (perception, with the help of the senses) ... These three currents of consciousness work simultaneously and are distinguished in particular functions... (A lower function presupposes a higher one, while a higher function is sufficient for itself and does not presuppose a lower one...)...
In order to really free the Mind, the Consciousness, from the lower functions that immerse it and keep it in the imaginary, the perceptual stream of consciousness (the perceptual flow) and then the mental stream of consciousness (mental flow) must be progressively freed, and finally the egoic stream of consciousness (egoic flow)... Then only the Mind is released into the metaphysical space...
In reality, these are all imaginary, but as long as a consciousness perceives them as reality, we conventionally accept this perception to lead the consciousness to awakening.
Freeing the perceptual flow
In normal conditions when we are in contact with the body, with the world (through perception), all three streams of consciousness (ego – intellect – perception) are functioning but the “burden” falls on perception... Consciousness actually exists only in the present, in what is happening, in this moment...
Consciousness spontaneously handles everything that falls within its scope and can react to everything... But when it concentrates on something and is absorbed in it (either simply in the perceptual thing, or by "placing" it in the perspective of imaginary time - past, present, future, or giving it a special meaning for the ego), then this process makes us stop at that object, Consciousness goes out of the normal flow of the present... to the point where we even become unconscious of the rest environment. This stopping (grabbing from the object) introduces us to the realm of the imaginary... This is useful as a point in practical life but often creates problems and entanglements and confusion (as to the perception of reality)...
When we try to find a solution, to control the process of perceptuality (the flow of perception), to possibly stop it, to channel it somewhere consciously, etc... we will fail... because the "observer" is not something different from observed, the flow of perception, is of the same nature... this leads to a vicious cycle...
So, what can we do? Absolutely nothing. We just have to not get absorbed in something. We must let Consciousness itself handle all this spontaneously, react to everything, without getting absorbed in anything. This is not difficult for one to do, nor is it something mysterious... our "nature" does it... When we do this then consciousness ceases to be absorbed in things... it has been transferred to the very stream of perception, it flows along with the present, he perceives what is now here, at this moment, without stopping anywhere...
But this is but a step beyond absorption, a second view of perceptual reality. Actually, the Consciousness, the Seer, is simply seen, sees, it is the sight (the perceptual awareness) that flows, not the Consciousness. Consciousness is still, outside everything and simply perceives everything that happens and reacts to everything. It is not the Consciousness that flows but the "content". This is the third view of perceptual reality...
Consciousness has shifted to the Self, neither following the external flow, nor grasping at things... Now can Consciousness deal with the innermost processes, the mental flow, and the egoic flow then...
Freeing the mental flow
Release of egoic flow
The Attainment (partial release)
When the Mind, the Self-Mind, the Absolute Mind, the Consciousness is freed from the three lower streams of consciousness, it reaches a State of Self-Knowledge, of the Real Nature of Consciousness, a Perception of Consciousness that transcends the body (but can also function within in the body)... It is a State of higher awareness, within which Reality, the Higher Implicit Reality and the physical world unite together... Mind and object without any distance between them. It is the Universal Objective Consciousness (in which the subject-object distinction has been overcome)... It is the State of Immovable Wisdom (fudochi in Japanese) which considers through eternity what happens in the lower worlds... and at the same time the Entrance for the higher metaphysical realms, of inner "being"... From the point of view of the ordinary man this State is Wu-xin, no-mind. It is the universal spirit, the spirit without consciousness...
The Depth of Reality
Beyond the external practice of Zen which is intended to lead to Still Wisdom, i.e. the detachment from the current (the three currents) of consciousness directed towards the external world... there is an internal path, three internal stages of meditation, in which the Consciousness is freed from all conscious process, all related perception...
It is gradually freed from “Samskaras” (soul)… by renunciation of all “inner desires”…
Then Freed from the "Vijnana" (individual mind)... (by practicing the Four Dhyanas, in orthodox Buddhism)...
Finally Immerse in “AlayaVijnana”… (by practicing the Four Samapattis, in orthodox Buddhism)…
The Final Achievement
The Final Attainment, the Truly Enlightened Mind Experiences Its Own Essence, directly, without process... Even the Consciousness of a Universal Existence is dissolved...