Siska, This is what all zen teaching is about - getting to that state of 'no mind'. Japanese Zen Buddhism has terms for this state. The first 'glimpse' of 'no mind' or 'no self' or 'Buddha Mind' is called 'kensho'. It comes unexpectedly and lasts only a brief time. This may be the experiences you described in your post below.
As you continue zen practice you may experience some very intense versions of this called 'satori'. After kensho and satori your continued zen practice will deepen and lengthen this state, and eventually integrate it into your everyday life (or perhaps its more accurate to say you will integrate your everyday life into Buddha Mind. Eventually you can even re-integrate intellectualizations in Buddha Mind. How do you do this?, you asked. As I said above, this is what zen teaching is about. The direct answer to your question is zazen. More indirect methods are koan study, chanting, bowing, washing dishes, mowing the lawn...anything done with your full attention and focus can be your zen practice and can lead to this state. ...Bill! From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Siska Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 1:02 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [Zen] Zen, Self, I, Me and Mine Hi Bill, Thanks for taking time to explain. > When someone has 'awakened' they are opened up to direct experience. This is > done by shutting down your discriminating, rational mind which is usually > always busy filtering, augmenting, categorizing, judging, etc... experiences. My experience so far has been the rational mind can be absence, especially during sitting or other time, but this mostly happens unexpected, out of sudden. I have no idea it can be shut down at will. How do you do that? Will I be able to do that if I do zen meditation? siska --- On Thu, 28/10/10, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: RE: [Zen] Zen, Self, I, Me and Mine To: [email protected] Date: Thursday, 28 October, 2010, 7:31 Siska, I purposefully did not jump right in and answer your question about Buddha. I knew there'd be plenty of others who would respond to that. But, your comments in the attached post prompt me to respond. Buddha does mean 'the awakened one' in Sanskrit - at least that's what I've been told. It's also a title when used in someone's name - like Siddhartha Gautama Buddha. When someone has 'awakened' they are opened up to direct experience. This is done by shutting down your discriminating, rational mind which is usually always busy filtering, augmenting, categorizing, judging, etc... experiences. The 'awakening' part would be akin to someone who has been living in a dream (samsara, a world of illusions) but has now awakened. ...Bill! From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 12:03 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Zen] Zen, Self, I, Me and Mine Hi Ed, Bill, I just remember reading somewhere, long time ago that Buddha literally means the awakened one. If I google the term for definition, I'd probably find something like this too (among others), which means that Buddha is the one who is awakened instead of direct experience. So I think I'm going to skip all the definitions and allow this mind to perceive whatever is when reading your posts. Sound like a lot more fun :-) siska ________________________________________ From: <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 10:25:33 +0700 To: <[email protected]> ReplyTo: [email protected] Subject: RE: [Zen] Zen, Self, I, Me and Mine Ed, ‘One’ does not experience Buddha. The term ‘Buddha’ and ‘direct experience’ are the same thing. Buddha is direct experience. ‘One’ (self) is not present. …Bill! From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of ED Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 1:03 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Zen] Zen, Self, I, Me and Mine Whatever one experiences 'Buddha' to be. --ED --- In [email protected], <billsm...@...> wrote: > > Ed, > > Your question: "What on earth is not an illusion?" is what zen is all about! > > All thoughts and concepts of the discriminating mind (the rational mind that > creates dualisms such as self/other, subject/object and makes judgments such > as good/bad, right/wrong) are illusions. > > Only direct experience is not illusory. 'Direct' means before the > experience goes through the discriminating mind and gets processed there > (filtered, augmented, named, categorized, assigned a value, etc...). Zen > Buddhism calls this 'Buddha Mind' or 'Buddha Nature'. Joshu called it 'Mu' > and 'The Oak Tree in the Garden'. Ummon called it 'A Dried Shit-Stick'. > Gutei just held up his index finger. I call it 'Just THIS!'. > > So I now ask you: What is Buddha? > > ...Bill! __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5569 (20101027)__________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5569 (20101027)__________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5569 (20101027)__________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5569 (20101027) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5569 (20101027) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5574 (20101029) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5574 (20101029) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5574 (20101029) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! 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