Article by E. Raymond Rock
The outdated Zen tale goes some thing like this: The Zen master and a student had been strolling in the woods, when they observed ducks flying overhead.
“What do you see,” the Zen master asked the college student. “Ducks,” the university student answered. “Wherever did they go,” asked the Zen grasp. “They flew absent,” replied the university student. The Zen master grabbed the student’s nose and twisted it, and as the pupil cried out in soreness, the Zen grasp said, “When have ducks ever flown away?”
One interpretation of this Zen koan is that no specific duck exists in Reality, there are only the collective “ducks,” with 1 duck being no various from another and they have in no way flown away, they have often been.
The college student could only see the ducks inside the framework of existence and time, while the Zen grasp could see their eternal nature… therefore, they could by no means fly away. The portion that the pupil assumed flew absent is the individual part that we see when we separate ourselves from the rest of humanity.
The university student, in her thoughts, struggled with the duality of existence I am right here now, but some day I will be lifeless and gone, and then what? Whereas the Zen grasp sees no endings or beginnings, only the consistent movement of existence inside time, a flow that is irrelevant. Practically nothing genuinely matters or changes, though within the constrained vision of the pupil, every little thing modifications continuously.
This ongoing battle and conflict for the college student is the student’s basis of struggling and her confusion of lifestyle that prohibits her from the freedom that exists past her structured believed. Nevertheless, she cannot break out of the patterns she has formed from her knowledge she can not break out of her prison. If she could, she would see that the ducks could in no way fly away.
Likewise, we imprison ourselves as nicely. Demise to us is a total ending of all we hold dear, and we concern death. Our religions aid small, and even with huge faith, we even now are unpleasant with leaving at the rear of all that we have accrued our relationships, our achievements and our home, but we cannot get any of this with us, and we see ourselves as individuals, going through this stop of lifestyle predicament by yourself.
This is a horrible misunderstanding. We are never ever an specific, apart from in basic conventional phrases that allow us to operate within existence, but when we get earlier existence and into the true Actuality that is the basis of all existence, there is no differentiation, we are all actually 1. We can expertise this fact it is not difficult to do, just give up all that looks important to you. Not that you leave your family, but give up your attachment to them, and embrace them with a actual really like that encompasses all of humanity.
Be watchful of the insurance plan policies, the beliefs, and religions that guarantee our separate small selves a survival after loss of life, and as a substitute have the courage to look in one more direction. Break by way of the emptiness of the reduction of worldly pursuits, and into a planet that can not be imagined – that of correct Reality. All that we are and all that we have will vanish when demise separates our illusions from this Reality, and if we can distance ourselves from our attachments before this takes place, ahead of the recycling, then we will not have to return to these same varieties of attachments in yet another life span we will be free of charge to go on.
The Zen master, in a couple of phrases, was trying to notify his student about these points, but the student was not nevertheless ready to listen to. She had not emptied her mind of all the confusion and illusions that kept her in turmoil, she had not but discovered true meditation, where the pupil was no more time a university student, but rather was nothing more than a duck, that could in no way fly away….
E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Perception Center, https://secrets2meditation.com/goto/?url=http://www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-eight many years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, like two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His guide, A Year to Enlightenment (Occupation Press/New Web page Books) is now obtainable at significant bookstores and online retailers. Check out https://secrets2meditation.com/goto/?url=http://www.AYearToEnlightenment.com
About the Writer
E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal instructor at the Southwest Florida Insight Middle, https://secrets2meditation.com/goto/?url=http://www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com. His ebook, A Calendar year to Enlightenment (Job Press/New Page Books) is now obtainable at main bookstores and on-line stores. Visit https://secrets2meditation.com/goto/?url=http://www.AYearToEnlightenment.com