Posts Tagged ‘Zen’

Pleasure and pain according to Sigmund Freud, Anthony Robbins and a whole bunch of others is the great driving principle of human behaviour. We move towards pleasure and avoid pain. It seems like

I’ve been listening to Auckland Zen Centre‘s Amala sensei’s commentary on Shattering the Great Doubt: The Chan Practice of Huatou by Sheng Yen.

It was a reminder to me of how important discomfort is. I’m between homes at the moment and am house sitting a friend’s home. The break in my habits has brought a small degree of discomfort. A reminder of the rewards of not moving away from discomfort or moving towards comfort. Neither attachment nor aversion.

It also served as a yet another reminder of the importance of mindfulness. Mindful that comfort and discomfort sit lightly within the emptiness we call awareness. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with discomfort and nothing intrinsically right with comfort, except as useful information to our awareness.

Something else that’s been happening for me over the past few days is getting to a deeper realisation that the dharma is just a raft. Yes, it gets us to the other shore, but then we throw it away. Without discussion on attaining all dharmas or evening attaining no dharma. What’s the point in that?

And then there’s the great understanding, which for me is mostly intellectual, I must admit, but nevertheless it’s a beautiful understanding. I’ve been asking myself lately “What’s meditating?” It’s a very interesting question in the light of no object and no subject. Having disproved the I, just what is meditating? All I can honestly answer right now is “Don’t know.”