It’s really hard to be the better of you and you’ll start over thinking when anxiety and stress hits. But, here is a great piece of advice from Zen Master Shunry Sazuki that will be helpful for all of us.
When you try to control your thoughts, you may have realized that more thoughts seem to arise. Even though it’s like a logical thing to do, it’s like putting out the fire with fire.
The Strategy Zen Master Shunry Sazuki Recommends
According to Zen master Shunry Sazuki, “if you want to obtain perfect calmness in your (practice), you should not be bothered by the various images you find in your mind. Let them come and let them go. Then they will be under control.”
We just watch our thoughts giving them plenty of room. But we don’t try to control or shove them aside. We tend to act like a more casual observer rather than treating them like we were the thought police.
The advice is echoed from Zen master Annamalai Swam:
“If you can be continuously aware of each thought as it rises, and if you can be so indifferent to it that it doesn’t sprout or flourish, you are well on the way to escaping the entanglements of mind.”
The underlying principle we need to adopt
The underlying key is to accept change, said Sazuki:
“Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transiency, we suffer.”
The fundamental law of the universe is that everything changes. But, still, we find it hard to accept it. We strongly get attached with our fixed appearance, our body and our personality, when it changes, we suffer.”
According to Sazuki, we can overcome this by recognizing that the contents of our minds are in perpetual flux. If you can realize that everything about consciousness comes and go, you can diffuse fear, anger, grasping and despair. You can’t stay angry when you see anger for what it is. So, Zen teaches that moment is all that exists.
“Whatever you do, it should be an expression of the same deep activity. We should appreciate what we are doing. There is no preparation for something else.”
The point of Zen practice
Appreciating each action with our full being is Zen practice. Express our simple human nature in daily life is the whole point, the essence of Sazuki’s teaching. “We just think with our whole mind, and see things as they are without any effort, just to see, and to be ready to see things with our whole mind, is (Zen) practice,” said the great Zen master.
sources : ideapod.com