This space has become a little ‘Zen corner’ to facilitate introspection, primarily for myself, but all kindred spirits who chance upon here are welcome to it.
As part of my meditation practice, every now and then I post wisdom words from beloved masters. For me, the masters’ works and words are rays of sunlight radiating from their Buddha Mind, kind fingers pointing to the moon, powerful catalysts available to anyone longing for radical inner transformation. Basking in the wisdom and compassion of these realized beings, is one blissful way to get the day started.
Everything I put up here is purely out of love – simply I just love doing it. It has no purpose other than to assist myself in practice. Although I do hope it might also contribute a little love to the infinite void …
All ‘like’ buttons are hidden. By human nature I would try to get more ‘likes’ if such a button was on. I might even succeed in making people overestimate me, by telling stories to make myself appear smarter or nicer, avoiding being overboard honest. So if I want to be true to myself, I have to disable that button.
I make all comment box disappear as well, thus I wouldn’t deal out sweet talk like strip mall freebies, to anyone who cared to leave a comment, only because it’s a game we play.
The game of reciprocity could get compulsive, while self-love and vanity certainly are the most addictive. At the end of the day though, it would seem all pointless and wearisome. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life grasping cotton candies in air.
Besides, nonfunctional and recurring blathers would only reinforce ideas prejudiced, discriminating and judgmental (in brief – conceptualized mindsets of all sorts), and keep us perpetually in bondage to the dualistic state, therefore in bondage to suffering.
The cause of suffering in life, as the Buddha has discovered, is attachment, aka grasping or clinging. Induced by desires or fears in the first place, attachment then gives rise to further desires and fears – the cycle goes on and never ends on its own. Fundamentally, the root of cyclic existence, or samsara, is duality – our likes and dislikes, pursuits or rejects, self-centered opinions for or against something …
People take self-actualization quite seriously. But it appears undoubtable to me that the self is empty, lacking of solid entity. That what we’ve been holding on to is just some false identity. That striving for self-actualization would be like fishing for the moon in a cracked water bucket. And if I let myself perpetuated by the desires for self-expression or recognition, constantly driven by the needs to make my point across as if it’s really something worth saying, or spurred on by the wants to get validated as ‘somebody’, incessantly compelled to pursue the so-called happiness or freedom of speech, then I would never be free.
If one wishes to put an end to the continuous dissatisfaction in life, one must free oneself from the habitual dualistic mind-patterns, which have been keeping humans forever in shackles. The only way to realize such complete transformation, is through meditation – the Buddha has concluded.
So in here I am not exactly blogging. Rather, I am carrying out a meditative practice that needs to get done. I let this personal space stay open just in case someone else might find it a solace to their own journey.
“Knowing yourself is the most important responsibility you have in life. You have limited time in your life, therefore you must try to teach yourself, not others. You must conquer yourself, rather than the world.” ~ Ajahn Chah
“When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. The best way to understand everything is to study yourself.“ ~ Shunryu Suzuki
“We have to work with what resources we have. We have to begin small, in an ordinary and simple way. Our actual present situation is our stepping stone. We start from breathing and walking. This is by no means expensive. It is a natural thing. We have to breathe anyway; we have to walk anyway. That seems to be the starting point of meditation.” ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Yes, I can begin small. I can carry on in a simple and ordinary way. I can remain in my little corner, to breathe, to appreciate, to study it all, as long as life goes on … This life, while one still has it, is a sacred opportunity to realize the empty nature of all things, to stabilize the flickering mind, and hopefully to eradicate the cyclic existence, ultimately.
If I could say anything for sure, I would say mind is the creator of samsara and nirvana. Mind is God. Mind is everything. (心能造业，心能转业；业由心造，业随心转。) To realize the nature of mind is to realize the nature of all things. To master the mind is the only way of life, the supreme art of living and dying. Fortunately, I’ve found refuge in the mind of The Buddha. I may not necessarily be an outright Buddhist, but I am a grateful and faithful follower of Gautama Buddha.
The wisdom mind of Buddha has proved to be comforting and liberating. For me, Zen practice is the most helpful way to turn the agonizing life into an enjoyable process. To activate the Buddha Mind is to activate a world of miracles and wonders – it may sound cliché, but no words would be adequate anyway, when it comes to indicating the inner depths and fullness of the Buddha Mind.
Before arriving at this stage, I’ve been through other phases, and here are my previous ‘About’ pages, just for anthropology records:
https://buddhamind.works/the-ordinary-mind/
https://buddhamind.works/the-middle-way/
At last, feeling delighted to sit back and set forth, I wish the new journey would bring me closer and closer to home –
On A Mountain Top – Buddha Mind
~ December 2020 ~
Buddha Mind 