Amazing Turmeric

Zen is the practice of awakening out of the dream of form and living in the present moment fully.  One of the great Zen masters, Shunryu Suzuki in his book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind says:

There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen.  Even though you read much literature you must read each sentence with a fresh mind.

To do this, you need to go beyond the mind.  Meaning, you are no longer lost in thought and instead very alert and connected deeply to this moment without the mind labels we usually have.  This Zen state is often referred to as ‘no mind’.  This does not mean you can no longer think.  But it means you are operating on a level above or beyond thought. This is the state of consciousness that Zen practice is.  This is Zen.  It is not achieving something, it is experiencing life in the Now – connected to the formless essence that is in everyone and everything.  You can experience this state of Zen or “Presence”  Now.   There are a number of ways to do this, one is to sit up straight, pay attention to your breath. Suzuki says “To take this posture (zazen posture) is itself to have the right state of mind.  There is no need to obtain some special state of mind”. He says this because our concepts or ideas of what presence or Zen or enlightenment is, is not it.  Direct experience is.

From a Q & A with Eckhart Tolle from his best selling book The Power Of Now:

It’s Not What You Think It Is

You keep talking about the state of presence as the key. I think I understand it intellectually, but I don’t know if I have ever truly experienced it. I wonder – is it what I think it is, or is it something entirely different?

It’s not what you think it is! You can’t think about presence, and the mind can’t understand it. Understanding presence is being present.

Try a little experiment. Close your eyes and say to yourself: “I wonder what my next thought is going to be.” Then become very alert and wait for the next thought. Be like a cat watching a mouse hole. What thought is going to come out of the mouse hole? Try it now. Well?