ZEN MEDITATION: 9:00pm – 10:00pm, Wednesdays (Except Public Holiday)

ZEN MEDITATION: 9:00pm – 10:00pm, 06.08.2008, Wednesday

Last Wednesday was quite special as other than the usual attendees, Shirley, the generous owner of Lily’s Café joined us for the session. Although it was a small group but we have a lot of fun during the session because of the laughter energy was up in the air. The witty energy was tickling us while we discussed on the following basic concepts of Zen Meditation:

1) There are thousands upon thousands of students who have practiced meditation and obtained its fruits. Do not doubt its possibilities because of the simplicity of the method. If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?
-“The Practice of Meditation,” Zen Master Dogen

Quotes from group:
Lily’s quote: “I like the first one as this is true and simple”

Tristen’s quote: “We live in a city with a speeding lifestyle pace, most of us tend to focus on material level and lost our identities in it, without realising this fact. Others may fall into the flow of society by fixing up themselves with lots of plans and getting busy with the external world. Without the awareness, they forget to just pause for a while to look at their inner world or they just simply afraid to face their true self. Meditation is basically the simplest and effective way to connect with your inner self and to find out who you really are.”

2) When you ride in a boat and watch the shore, you might assume that the shore is moving. But when you keep your eyes closely on the boat, you can see that the boat moves. Similarly, if you examine myriad things with a confused body and mind you might suppose that your mind and nature are permanent. When you practice intimately and return to where you are, it will be clear that nothing at all has unchanging self.
-"Actualizing the Fundamental Point" by Zen Master Dogen

Quotes from group:
Shirley’s quote: “While I meditate, normally I see the external noise is like the choppy water. I could really dive under the choppy water into the lower layer of water where stillness exists” – this is truly a simple yet concrete quote.

Isaac’s quote: “Nowadays, whenever I go out to have a happy hour time with my colleagues, I just order a Guiness and stand there for hours while enjoying it. The point is not about having how much drinks at that time, it’s about watching the other colleagues to drink until they drop or to make monkey shows of themselves.” – Isaac, hope your colleagues can’t identify your true indentity.

Tristen’s quote: “Last time I used to make myself very busy with a full schedule day after day. I also went out for clubbing almost every weekend but luckily I can’t really drink much. Somehow, the repetitive manner of these outings started to make me wonder that ‘Am I going to do this for the rest of my life?’ Luckily, the answer is “NO”. haha! What hit me the most would be the emptiness crawling into my body after each of this outing, I just felt myself poured out and my heart was empty despite the overwhelming noise and crowd on the scene. I was lucky to have a chance to seek for substance within my inner world. Soon, I found out the secret of having a stillness in your mind while you attend to your external world and I was amazed by it. This secret simply came through the process of meditation.”

These are only 2 basic concepts which could strengthen our meditation understanding and we can always apply them in our daily lives.

Enjoy every present moment of your life, Namaste.