Month: June 2010

Creatively Engage Your Thoughts ~ Martine Batchelor

/ Debra

I think one has to be careful not to think that meditation is about getting rid of thoughts. On the contrary, I would say that meditation helps us to creatively engage with our thoughts and not fixate on them. When people say, they cannot concentrate I say “No no no, you are concentrating—too much on single thoughts!”

I think it is interesting in meditation is to start to notice all the different places that our thoughts lead us—what distracts us and what occupies our minds. It is important to notice these things in meditation because these will be the same things that occupy our minds in daily life. As we become more familiar with our thoughts in meditation, we will see how repetitive they are. We often think very similar things over and over again, and it is actually rare to have what I would call a creative, original thought.  ~ Martine Batchelor

Put the mind at ease

/ Debra

Cultivating a close, warm-hearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the ultimate source of success in life. ~ His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama

Only a Matter of Seeing

/ Debra

Yin-Tsung also asked, ” How is the Legacy of the Fifth Zen Patriarch demonstrated and transmitted?”

I said, “There is no demonstration or transmission; it is only a matter of seeing[original] nature, not a matter of meditation and liberation.”

Yin-Tsung asked, “Why is it not a matter of meditation and liberation?”

I said, “Because these two things are not Buddhism; Buddhism is a non-dualistic teaching.”  ~ Hui-Neng