self - knowledge is the direct means for enlightenment,
just as fire is the direct means to cooking.
Without self - knowledge enlightenment is impossible."
Verse 2 of the Atma Bodha by Shankara.
"He who knows himself knows his Lord."
The Prophet (SAW) of Allah.
I am breathing...
Take a deep breath, breath slowly and deeply in and know that you are breathing in, Zen Teacher Thich Naht Hahn, once taught at a ten days Vipassana Retreat at Green Gulch Zen Cente, its Dharma name, The Green Dragon Temple. and when breathig out know that you are breathing out, breath in breath out and that all there is to it, this is Zen; I just realized that this evening. Afters a week or so stopping from making a post on my Blog, I felt free from the need to justify anymore of who I am: I Am who I AM. The discovery I felt upon this matter sank into me and it was like being thrown back to square one, how I have forgotten that I am breathing and breath is all that keeps me here in the form energy that keeps this body alive and functioning up your standard. This energy permeates throughout the whole body , from the tiniest of atomic particles to the major organs, skin and bones and helps to keep a good balance and alignment of the whole physical form.
A Zen Proverb,
Breath is like a swinging door,
You breath in, it swings in ,
You breath out.
You stop breathing and you are dead.
The human form is most sustainable piece and systematic piece of equipment, very versatile, flexible, hard, smooth and soft, this piece of equipment we have evolved into our physical self is about as perfect if not the perfect instrument from every aspect for our survival. We are Lovers and killers, saints and sinners, we are still evolving towards our own self destruction or enlightenment, this physical for of our carries eons of genetic evolution to arrive at this point in space and time to express itself; I am, That I am. But I am not the body, not this physical form, I am the master of my body, it is my tool of expression. I care for it like I care for my car, my car is an extension of who I am while on the road and seldom fail to ask for Allah's or God's Blessings and protection as you are scared of the car breaking down or anything worse, old habits die hard; fear is the key. Perhaps we fear genuinely of letting go, we like to cling on to and attach ourselves to every single manifestation the happens around and within us through our senses, conscious or unconsciously.
When lost in a state confusion or uncertainty, stress or lost in a Twilight Zone of the subconscious, take deep breath and know that you are breathing in and let go of the breath out you know you are breathing out, and that's there is all to it, the rest is what we call life or living. This thought is a projection of my mind as I breath in and out making this Blog entry of my present experience of meditation in action. entry is my effort of recording my thoughts and understanding how it functions at all levels and dimensions, albeit physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual level. Science has been making all kinds of discoveries and theories of how thoughts are generated and where do them come from, for example in your lucid dreams. We are more and more getting addicted to thinking and sooner or later we will out-think ourselves by being overloaded with thoughts, ideas and feelings, images and visions and further more we keep feeding ourselves these already collected baggage. We have become the sum total of our conditioned mind.: I am not the mind; I am the Master of my mind.The mind is the creator of my mental formations, projecting my image my personality my emotional and spiritual being; I am not my projected image as I am not the mind, however my mind is my tool just the inner workings of my car's engine functions when the engine starts. The human mind has evolved through the course of endless eons to become free from the very act of thinking; not mindless but not of the mind. Humanity today more then ever has taken a giant leap of faith in trusting the workings of the human mind. The human mind has become the master upon man himself as he gets sucked into every desires and whims, fears and distortions; we become slaves to our own conditioned mind.
Attaining to the state of silence is one sure way of keeping our minds from slipping off into the deep end with thoughts overdose and the one sure way to attain this is through the concentration upon breathing...breathing in...I am breathing in...breathing out ...I am is out...our journey on the physical plane is over when the breathing stops. ...and our journey into the mental and spiritual realm begins. Most have been preparing themselves of what is to be expected when we die, primarily; heaven or hell? How well have we worked out our Karma in this life or have we accumulated more since the last time we were here, in this each to his or her own as it is between me and my Maker. This is how the mind attaches itself to any given topic and it will create a story to go with; mind is the story teller. Watch your mind in meditation as it rise and falls ever changing one after another, one of the ways of stilling the mind from its incessant chattering is through mindfulness breathing. This is what my Vietnamese Monk Zen Master was pointing out to me during the Vipassana Retreat.
# Vipassana,#Thich Naht Han,#Atma bodha, #Shankara,# Zen
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