It only takes a moment of bravery to change your life forever.
Be Brave
30 Jun 2014 Leave a comment
in Zen Thoughts Tags: bravery, inspiration, life, Philosophy, rules to live by, writing, Zen
Work Hard
29 Jun 2014 Leave a comment
in Zen Thoughts Tags: inspiration, life, Philosophy, Poetry, rules to live by, Zen
If you try and don’t succeed, at least you won’t have any regrets.
Awareness 4
21 Jun 2014 Leave a comment
in Zen Thoughts Tags: awareness, breathing, Eastern Philosophy, inspiration, Meditation, writing, Zen
Are there better kinds of awareness? Is there a better subject for awareness that whatever happens to catch at our attention? If by chance we happen to learn or are taught to anchor our attention on our breath, we gain a valuable advantage – to see one thing clearly rather than magpie-like, alight our attention only on scattered things. We can be assured that:
1. breathing is always present;
2. once learnt the trigger will regularly bring our attention back to the breath; and
3. unless in a highly charged state one will always have enough concentration to spare to watch our breathing. Indeed the very watching of our breath can act as a control over our more unconscious and irrational states of mind.
Awareness 3
21 Jun 2014 Leave a comment
in Zen Thoughts Tags: awareness, Eastern Philosophy, inspiration, writing, Zen
How does one know when one is not aware? It is impossible! For that we would need a thought to arise that states that we have been distracted. But by its very existence it proves that we are aware. The thought might claim there was a point in the past when we were not aware, but that is just a thought occurring now, within our awareness. We only have thought’s word for it that there was ever a past moment, when we were not aware.
Awareness 2
21 Jun 2014 Leave a comment
in Zen Thoughts Tags: awareness, concentration, Eastern Philosophy, inspiration, writing, Zen
Also, do we really have a choice about when we are aware and what we are aware of? One becomes aware of something only when the following are satisfied:
1. that thing is in the vicinity;
2. we are prompted by an unconscious trigger to notice it; and
3. there is sufficient mental energy or concentration to spare, I.e. we are not distracted by something else.
Awareness 1
21 Jun 2014 Leave a comment
in Zen Thoughts Tags: awareness, Eastern Philosophy, inspiration, writing, Zen
Awareness is all very well, but awareness of what? There is no awareness without something to be aware of. One cannot simply be aware of awareness, there is nothing there!
The Breath
20 Jun 2014 Leave a comment
in Poems Tags: inspiration, life, Philosophy, Poetry, writing, Zen
Life is the breath
We breathe it in
We breathe it out
What room for choice in that?
We can only hold it
Too long in, afraid to let go
Too long out, afraid of life
Far easier just to give up
Let it in, let it go
And receive it again and again
For free
This too is Freedom
14 Jun 2014 Leave a comment
in Zen Thoughts Tags: Hopes and dreams, inspiration, Philosophy, Poetry, Zen
It is so easy and tempting to lose oneself in the future
Deduce patterns, finish sequences
Think about the end result of your actions,
Hopes and dreams
But ultimately it is exhausting
And self defeating
We can never live up to the life
That ‘should’ have been
Even though ‘should’ is just a thought!
This ‘should’ ruins lives
Yet in itself it is harmless
Just a thought, infinitely repeated
Yet the answer is so, so simple
Simply let go
Give up
Relinquish the control you never had anyway
To be set free
Forever
With no time but now
And if you cannot let go?
This too, is freedom
Chores
09 Jun 2014 Leave a comment
in Poems Tags: inspiration, Poetry, Zen
Unnoticed rainstorm
Drip and puddle
Dirty bins next to a mossy wall
The sky is pink and purple in the West
I have too many chores
To write these words down properly
The Mirror of Truth 