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description= Zen Master Albert Low s articles, continued by Jean Low (after Jan 2016) from his recorded teishos.;
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Text of the page (random words):
osted on december 30 2020 by albert low before jan 2016 jean low after jan 2016 teisho 1246 2011 we have become fascinated by the content of experience we have learned how to extend our experience through the medium of books television films one could even say we are hypnotized by it and you could say that our practice is to break that hypnotic trance what is it about the content of experience that is so fascinating people have left the farms and gone to live in crowded cities because the stimulus from a variety of different experiences is so attractive but there is not only the content of experience there is the fact of experiencing there is no experiencing without the knowing of experience so much of what we experience is discordant contradictory and this brings about a heightened sense of awareness it is by trying to make sense of chaos that our awareness is heightened it is not the content of experience itself that is so sort after it is this heightened sense of awareness in our practice we are going directly to the source instead of looking for a stimulus from outside instead of needing a variety of experience we are drawing upon our own resources this heightened sense of awareness indicates that what is basic what is real is awareness it is not any content experience itself cannot give happiness only stimulation one of the features of experience is that we have to be able to know it as something this conceptualization is a way by which we fix experience into what we call the world the room the car the film the cup without that naming that fixing there would be no content to experience nisargadatta says your burden is a false self identification the claiming to be something he says there is only one mistake you are making you take the inner for the outer and the outer for the inner what is in you you take to be outside and what is outside you take to be in you thoughts and feelings are external they are something you experience and therefore are outside you say i am angry i am uncomfortable i hurt and now you have internalized it you have made it into what it is not and then you cannot work with it you need to detach yourself from the thoughts they are not my thoughts you should look at your thoughts as you would look at the traffic going by in the street in the same way one needs to detach oneself from feelings if you sit and allow anxiety to arise sooner or later you will see that it is not i am anxious but there is anxiety a completely different experience i am anxious means the anxiety takes on the absoluteness which is your birthright i am is absolute this is the dominating feature of negative emotions there is not you the room and experiencing the room this is what happens when you freeze it with the magic of words but if you look at it as is it is just experience people feel they should ultimately get into a state where they are always in pure being that they will leave behind the world of experience the world of phenomena that they will be able to live in a kind of purity but there is nothing wrong with living in the world with enjoying living in the world enjoying the whole process of life all the ups and downs of life posted in teisho 3 comments life is suffering posted on december 9 2020 by albert low before jan 2016 jean low after jan 2016 teisho 675 1999 you have a point of view which is fixed it is the fixity that is the problem not the point of view life is constantly giving us challenges that make us feel vital and energetic when we don t have these challenges we wilt and fade creativity comes out of conflict it is this creative power which is buddha nature it is not any content that is produced by buddha nature it is in the aroused mind brought about by conflict that there is the possibility of seeing into true nature anxiety is where one is caught up in a yes and a no do not waste this conflict it is like an archer drawing a bow the yes is at the top of the bow the no at the bottom creating a condition of tension in which one is suspended the challenge is to keep that tension at an optimum level the tension that you feel in life situations is the fuel for practice you must bring all your anguish your longing all your suffering to the practice life is a challenge and the koans give a manageable form to the suffering that we call life you could say that the koan you are working with is the tip of an arrow the rest of the arrow is the pain of your life one koan starts off cease and desist when the action of the mind is stopped the iron tree blooms as hakuin says from dark path to dark path we have wandered in darkness how can we be free from the wheel of samsara the eternal wheel of samsara this going from yes to no is the way we pass through the pilgrimage of existence one gets to a point where one is able to stop the eternal circling when working with a koan you are not looking for a solution for an answer the koan is trying to awaken a sense of bewilderment of confusion trying to awaken that creative power to awaken you the creativity is awakened by the doubt sensation and once it is awakened it has the capacity to see into itself cease and desist there is that moment of release which is not an action which is not a movement of the mind not another thought not another concept it comes from the conflict of yes and no you may not even know what the content of the conflict is you can have a releasement from tension and not know what the tension was about when the action of the mind is stopped the iron tree blooms the miraculous power of creativity which opens to itself stop taking everything for granted and come home to yourself posted in teisho leave a comment the doing of no doing posted on november 19 2020 by albert low before jan 2016 jean low after jan 2016 teisho 1170 2009 nisargadatta says that all happiness comes from awareness it is interesting to explore what this word happiness means a lot of the time it is associated with being transported caught up in in an excited response to something like a soccer game or a new year s eve party but what nisargadatta means here is something quite different he is referring to a subsidence of the sense of self leading to a feeling of serenity of just allowing it to be as it is pure awareness openness there are these two contrasting ways by which one is transported beyond the limitations of the self one is violent the other is peaceful the more we are aware the less there is of cause and effect of any kind of separation this gives an indication of the direction in which the practice should go allowing the sense of self to subside the problem is that the sense of self has been built up as a way of reconciling the conflicting elements of our personality so allowing the sense of self to subside brings a feeling of tension and dissatisfaction nisargadatta says that acceptance of pain non resistance courage and endurance opens deep and perennial sources of real happiness of true bliss if we are asking the question who am i in a true way then we are letting go of the sense of self but very often people feel that to see into who am i they need to become more identified with the sense of self he talks about courage which is the willingness to let the sense of self subside courage in the face of fear of anxiety means that one is no longer trying to find a way to resolve the fear the anxiety one is just open to it one goes on in the midst of the difficulty of the discomfort this work of arousing the mind without resting it on anything without resting it on the sense of self is very hard work but it is a special kind of hard work the doing of no doing in zen it is called shikantaza just sitting it requires endurance and courage a willingness to just go on when all the time one wants to relax into the comfort and security of the sense of self one needs to maintain an alert interest with the intention to understand rather than to judge posted in teisho 3 comments the silver mountain posted on october 31 2020 by albert low before jan 2016 jean low after jan 2016 teisho 1013 2006 when you have not penetrated the great way it is like silver mountains and iron cliffs one of the descriptions of working on oneself is that it is like climbing a silver mountain that has no handholds or footholds it is that sense of the impossible the impenetrable when you penetrate the great way you find you are the silver mountain and iron cliff this gives the feeling of it all dissolving one moment you are completely confined and the next one sees that what one had felt as confinement is vast limitless space it is as it is and this is why you are told to start from where you are this mind of ours is convinced it is in control there is a claim to omnipotence omniscience fundamentally the claim is justified but when it is expressed through form it is futile this claim is implicit in all that we do and when we come to practice we cannot understand being totally thwarted there is the belief that we have to change things improve things it isn t enough as it is we do not see that the greyness the dryness the monotony the uninspired quality come from this futile attempt to change things it is only when we see it as it is that the sun breaks through when we are working on ourselves we are opening up to a flexible fluid kind of mind a mind that can float freely a mind that is fixated with the absolutes of good and bad is a frozen mind all the opposites freeze the mind an unfrozen mind is capable of ethical appreciation one is not confined by rules by absolutes by right and wrong yes and no one is now confined by the needs of the situation if one is totally responsive to the situation one is totally determined by that situation and yet that being totally determined is complete freedom what is there outside you what is there you lack it keeps coming back to the same thing you are posted in teisho leave a comment coming home to what you are posted on october 9 2020 by albert low before jan 2016 jean low after jan 2016 teisho 1343 2014 nisargadatta the reward of self knowledge is freedom from the personal self there is general basic awareness which in its purity has no reflection and then there is self awareness it is a sort of tunnel vision limited by what is appropriate to maintain the sense of self there are many subtle ways by which this sense of self is established we feel that without it we are nothing that we must have this sense of self in order to exist we are afraid that if the sense of self should disappear everything would go with it one aspect of practice is to get to know thoroughly this sense of self when you work with who am i on one hand you are exploring the sense of self and on the other hand you are allowing knowing to shine through you are knowing there is no agent involved there is no one that knows the word bodhisatva expresses this it means knowing being there is no self involved everything fundamentally is knowing knowing and being are one i know myself by being myself this is the ground of our lives or what we call the world but on top of that is the search for something which reflects back on the search for the self we look for the self in the same way as we look for something but to be able to respond to the question who am i one must drop everything every something what does it mean to be yourself the only way you can answer that question is by being yourself practice is not about trying to understand words and ideas and it is not about trying to get a new kind of sensation a new kind of experience it is simply coming home to what you are and what you are is knowing when you see the room or smell the flowers this is how knowing manifests what is most fundamentally taken for granted is that you are it is a given the fact that you are never enters your mind throughout the day it is not questioned examined or considered there is nothing outside you you are a totality a whole a completeness there is nothing that stands against you you are not part of a causal chain you are not the effect of something you are original you are complete you are not part of the whole you are the whole all beings are buddha all the misery of life comes from our turning our backs on this truth and separating being from seeing so that now the world is over there and i am over here suffering comes when being and knowing are separated posted in teisho 1 comment we need to shift our attention posted on september 20 2020 by albert low before jan 2016 jean low after jan 2016 teisho 735 2000 we take so many things for granted we set up certain habits ways of reacting and repeat them over and over again gurdjief used to say that the curse of human nature was the mechanicalness of human nature it could be said that there are three things that go together taking things for granted mechanical life and seeking immediate gratification he used to introduce shocks into the running of his institute he would get people up in the middle of the night to do exercises he bought bikes on one occasion and everyone had to ride around the institute on one he was trying to shatter brake up the mechanicalness of human nature how can we do this for ourselves on beginners courses one of the things we do is ask people to wear an elastic band on their wrist or a finger for a week some people protest it is a foolish thing to do it is this very sense of foolishness that helps to derail their habitual ways of reacting by just being aware bringing deadening habits into the light of awareness one can melt away obstructions we do not have the choice as to whether we are going to suffer or not but we do have the choice of how we are going to suffer one of the problems with pain is that alongside it is another pain i hurt it is this i hurt that we can do something about our practice is to see into this i that is constantly seeking comfort instant gratification and ways to avoid issues nisargadatta says begin to question this will help to break up habitual reactions working on a koan gives you a pneumatic drill to break up the concrete of habit which deadens our life a question many people carry with them is what is the point does it matter what difference does it make a feeling of hopelessness and inability to do anything usually accompanies this questioning if instead of letting it sink into the background of one s life one gives it one s attention bathes it in awareness this is working on yourself all religions assure us that there is something beyond mere experience all express this differently zen simply says from the beginning all beings are buddha the experience that we call life is experienced there is knowing in which all experience comes to be there is a light in which every form takes its place this knowing is not experience it is not subject to the changes of experience it doesn t come into being experiences come into being within the light of knowing it doesn t die experiences come to an end within the light of knowing...
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