Gaia Community: Laurens' Blog

Creativity is our birthright

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:18:30 -0000

Creativity is our birthright.

"It is an integral part of being human,

as basic as walking, talking and thinking.

Throughout our evolution as a species,

it has sparked innovations in science,

beauty in the arts,

and revelation in religion.

Every human life contains its seeds

and is constantly manifesting it,

whether we're building a sand castle,

preparing Sunday dinner,

painting a canvas,

walking through the woods,

or programming a computer.

The creative process, like a spiritual journey,

is intuitive, nonlinear, and experiential.

It points us toward our essential nature,

which is a reflection

of the boundless creativity

of the universe."

John Daido Loori Roshi

The Zen of Creativity

Taken from the introduction of this inspiring and practical book. Highly recommended to anyone who is engaged with the creative process that we call our life.

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Laurens

A continuous dance

Wed, 07 May 2008 08:06:41 -0000

A continuous dance

“Life is nothing

but a continuous dance

of birth and death,

a dance of change.”

“It is only when we believe things

to be permanent

that we shut off

the possibility to learn from change.”

Who we really are

“Perhaps the deepest reason

why we are afraid of death

is because we do not know

who we are.”

“We are fragmented in so many different aspects.

We don’t know who we really are,

or what aspect of ourselves

we should identify with or believe in.

So many contradictory voices, dictates, and feelings

fight for control over our inner lives

that we find ourselves scattered everywhere,

in all directions,

leaving nobody at home.

Meditation, then,

is bringing the mind home.”

Sogyal Rinpoche

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Something to ponder as new life is blossoming all around us (^-^).

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Laurens

What is Zen?

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:44:02 -0000

What is Zen?

"Zen arises spontaneously,

naturally,

out of the human heart.

It is not a special revelation

to any person,

class,

or nation."

"Zen is the essence

of Christianity,

of Buddhism,

of culture,

of all that is good

in the daily life

of ordinary people."

"Zen is looking at things

with the eye of God,

that is, becoming the thing's eyes

so that it looks at itself

with our eyes."

"In speaking of Zen,

it is necessary always to bear in mind

the difference between Zen

as a "system" of paradoxes

evolved in India and China

during a period of three thousand years,

and Zen as Zen,

that is, the spontaneous,

individually created

timeless activity-in-time

of an undivided mind-body."

"Zen speaks only of this moment.

Indeed, Zen is this moment speaking."

R.H. Blyth

Zen and Zen Classics

Some quotes of this original and inspiring book with beautiful illustrations by the editor, Frederick Franck.

From the introduction by Mr. Franck written in 1974:

"Zen is no longer an exotic import. If there ever was a Zen fad, it wore off long ago in the fifties and sixties and has been succeeded by newer fashions. It has survived, however, as an ever-deepening influence. In some form or another - often completely unrecognized - Zen ideas and Zen values have percolated and deeply affected Western consciousness. They are exerting a powerful, pervasive influence on the world view, the spiritual attitudes and the quality of religious experience of innumerable people of different religious affiliations or none"

Reginald Horace Blyth was born in London in 1898.

As a young man he moved to India, and in 1924 from India to Korea where he became deeply interested in Buddhism. It is here that he started his study of Zen under Kaiama Taizi Roshi.The study of Zen would remain his central concern for the rest of his life, and in 1940 he moved to Japan.

He started out teaching English, but when the war broke out in 1941 he was interned as an enemy alien. When the war ended he moved to Tokyo and after several positions at colleges and universities he became English tutor to the Imperial Crown Prince.

He died in 1964 at the age of sixty-six.

All that we behold

Is full of blessings.

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Laurens

Beginner's Mind

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:06:37 -0000

Beginner's mind

"The goal of practice is to always keep our beginner's mind.

The most important thing is not to be dualistic.

Our "original mind" includes everything within itself.

It is always rich and sufficient within itself.

You should not lose your self-sufficient state of mind.

This does not mean a closed mind,

but actually an empty mind and a ready mind.

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything;

it is open to everything.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities;

in the expert's mind there are few.

There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen.

Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind. You should not say, "I know what Zen is," or "I have attained enlightenment."

This is also the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.

Be very very careful about this point.

If you start to practice zazen, you will begin to appreciate your beginner's mind.

It is the secret of Zen practice."

Shunryu Suzuki

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

When do you experience beginner's mind?

How does it feel?

Wishing you a beautiful day (^-^)!

Warm regards,

Laurens

The present moment

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 19:21:35 -0000

The present moment

"There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment.
A man's whole life is a succesion of moment after moment.
If one fully understands the present moment,
there will be nothing else to do,
and nothing else to pursue.
Live being true to the single purpose of the present moment.

Everyone lets the present moment slip by,
then looks for it as though he thought it was somewhere else.
No one seems to have noticed this fact.

But grasping this firmly, one must pile experience upon experience.
And once one has come to this understanding
he will be a different person from that point on,
though he may not always bare it in mind.
When one understands this settling into single-mindedness well,
his affairs will thin out."

Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai
Translated by William Scott Wilson

Have you noticed?
And how often do you bare it in mind?

Wishing you a beautiful day,
Laurens

Japan's Spiritual Heart

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 21:19:09 -0000

The Essence of Shinto

"The union of the sacred and the mundane is a distinctive feature of Shinto.

Shinto is the consciousness underlying the Japanese mentality, the foundation for Japanese culture and values.

In Shinto, heaven, earth, and humanity are different manifestations of one life energy.

It can attune us to see the connection between the well-being of the natural world and our own spiritual well-being.

Many of its outward forms and practices are specific to Japan, but its essence is valid for all of humanity and very relevant to us in our present predicament.

Shinto's understanding of the intrinsic value of the natural world is linked to an emphasis on purification, which has a dual physical and spiritual significance.

Shinto sees everything in existence as generated by and transformed from the ultimate origin of life.

We have felt that plants and animals , as well as mountains and rivers, have lived with us and have been deeply connected to us. This love and reverence toward nature is a quality that should be reinstalled in our hearts, if we want mankind and earth to survive the ecological crisis that has resulted from excessive materialism.

This means that no creature can operate without regard for fellow-creatures. It can only exist and survive in a state of balance with other living organisms.
Nature is the constant interplay of living organisms. It is the continuous search for and restoration of balance."

Yamakage Motohisa
79th Grand Master of Yamakage Shinto

The Essence of Shinto
Japan's Spiritual Heart

A spiritual tradition that has so much more to offer than meets the eye.
Pregnant with subtleties and layers of depth.

Perhaps not unlike the culture of which it is supposed to constitute the heart.

Wishing you a beautiful day,
Laurens

Teaism and imperfection

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 21:13:30 -0000

Teaism and imperfection

"Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful
among the sordid facts of everyday existence.

It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect,
as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible
in this impossible thing we know as life.

.....

For life is an expression,
our unconscious actions the constant betrayal
of our innermost thought.

Perhaps we reveal ourselves too much in small things
because we have so little of the great to conceal.

The tiny incidents of daily rouitine
are as much a commentary of racial ideas
as the highest flight of philosophy or poetry."

Kakuzo Okakura
The Book of Tea

Something to reflect upon during your next cup of tea....

Wishing you a beautiful day,
Laurens

May 1938

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:31:42 -0000

May 1938

'Looking for serenity
you have come
to the monastery.

Looking for serenity
I am leaving
the monastery.

Kwatz!

Stop running about seeking!

The dusty affairs of the world
fill the day,
fill the night.'

Soen Nakagawa

Endless Vow
The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa

From the backcover:
"Soen Nakagawa Roshi (1907-1984) was an extraordinary Zen master and key figure in the transmission of Zen Buddhism from Japan to the Western world. A man of many faces, he was a simple Japanese monk, a world traveler, a spiritually realized being of the highest order, a poetic genius, a creator of dynamic calligraphy - and a notoriously eccentric teacher who, for example, was known to conduct 'tea ceremonies' using instant coffee and Styrofoam cups."

I was deeply moved and inspired by the beauty and energy that flow out of this book so generously. A Zen teacher of the highest order with such a wonderful way of expressing himself it makes you marvel.

Wishing you a beautiful day,
Laurens

Exploring what is hidden

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:51:03 -0000

Exploring what is hidden

"Our meditation begins to investigate
what is hidden.

We go from the level of concept
to the level of direct experience,

whether it's bodily sensations
or sight or sound
or smell or taste;

we begin to experience
the nature and process
of thoughts and emotions,

rather than being identified
with their contents.

As we connect
with what we are experiencing
in each moment,

we begin to discover some things
that may have been previously hidden or obscure."

Joseph Goldstein

Seeking the Heart of Wisdom
by Joseph Goldstein & Jack Kornfield

What have you discovered?

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Laurens

God as Reality

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 21:57:44 -0000

God as Reality

"God is as concrete as the concrete under your feet
and as insubstantial as the memory of your first kiss."

Brad Warner

Sit Down and Shut Up

Another quote about God, this time by a Japanese philosopher called Nishida Kitaro:

"I have argued that nature and spirit
are not two completely different kinds of reality.
The distinction between them results from differing ways of looking
at one and the same reality.

Anyone who deeply comprehends nature
discerns a spiritual unity at its base.
Moreover, complete, true spirit is united with nature;
only one reality exists in the universe.

And as I said before,
this sole reality is both infinite opposition and conflict
and infinite unity.

It is an independent, self-fulfilled, infinite activity.
We call the base of this infinite activity God.
God is not something that transcends reality,
God is the base of reality.

God is that which dissolves the distinction
between subjectivity and objectivity
and unites spirit and nature.

Regardless of the historical age or the cultural group,
everyone has a word for "God."
Due to differences in the level of knowledge
and the diversity of demands,
the word is interpreted in a variety of ways.

God is the great spirit of the universe.

How can we verify the existence of God in facts of our own direct experience?

An infinite power is hidden
even in our small chests
that are restricted by time and space;
the infinite unifying power of reality
is latent within us.
Possessing this power,
we can search for the truth of the universe
in learning,
we can express the true meaning of reality
in art,
and we can know the foundation of reality that forms the universe
in the depths of our hearts --
we can grasp the true face of God.

The infinitely free activity of the human heart
proves God directly.
As Jakob Boehme said,
we see God with a "reversed eye".

Nishida Kitaro

An Inquiry into the Good
translated by Masao Abe & Christopher Ives
God as Reality (Chapter)

Some interesting thoughts and perspectives on an interesting subject.

Verifying God in the facts of our own direct experience,
the concrete under our feet,
and the memory of our first kiss.

Wishing you a beautiful day (^-^),

Laurens

Mind Training

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:40:28 -0000

"Mental cultivation, or mind training,
is the essence of the Buddhist path of practice.

We are not talking about manipulating our everyday experiences of consiousness
in some purposeful fashion.
In a way, we are trying to bypass that mind
and access a state of consciousness that is undeluded
precisely because there is a sense of perspicacity or clarity within it already.

According to Buddhist thinking,
such deliberate maneuvers would still stem from everyday consciousness
that is not at all that conscious,
due to the delusions that we constantly carry around and reinforce,
producing diminished awareness and a dull, incapacitated mind.

There is another way of being ourselves.

We are not at all familiar with this other way in our normal state of consciousness, because we perceive and experience things
from a limited, myopic, egotistic perspective.
In fact, this is the only way the deluded consciousness
will ever be able to perceive things.

Through mental cultivation, we can rise above deluded, egotistic perception.
This is the attainment of wisdom consciousness,
a level of consciousness that is literally lit up or illuminated
so that our ability to perceive things increases exponentially."

Traleg Kyabgon

Mind at Ease
Self-Liberation through Mahamudra Meditation

Must admit my mind seems a bit dull and incapacitated today.
I was kinda hoping it was the night shifts I've been working this week.
Maybe not.

Who couldn't use some illumination and clarity?

Wishing you a beautiful day,
Laurens

Seperation and Oneness

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:12:45 -0000

Seperation and Oneness

"There's a tendency to think that Buddhism is about leaving this world of distinctions for some nebulous ill-defined imaginary someplace where everyhting is all the same.
But actually the idea that all is one and the idea that everything is seperated are equally important. Reality includes both.
What is needed is a balance of both views, and that's tough to find.

To adopt the Buddhist view doesn't mean getting all blessed out and saying everything is one. You need distinction.
You need to know the difference between your ass and a hole in the ground, between Hostess Ho Hoss and dog turds, between your boyfriend and your sister's boyfriend. Disctinctions are very important.

Contrary to popular belief, Buddhism is not about doing away with all distinctions. It's about seeing distinctions for what they truly are. That does not mean you throw them away and start eating dog turds instead of Hostess Ho Hos. Like I said, you gotta be careful!

Just because there is no absolute immutable eternal substance we can call evil does not mean that right and wrong do not exist.
Right action is doing what needs doing right here and right now.
Wrong action is doing what doesn't need doing.
Knowing the difference requires mental and physical balance.
To become more balanced, you need......zazen."

Brad Warner

Sit Down and Shut Up

The realms of duality and non-duality and embodying them in a non-dualistic way.

And some interesting thoughts on dog turds and Hostess Ho Hos.
Seeing distinctions for what they truly are.

What helps you to see with clarity and directness?

Enjoy your day,
Laurens

The wordless teaching

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 21:41:03 -0000

Water and stone

"What's softest in the world
rushes and runs
over what's hardest in the world.

The immaterial
enters
the impenetrable.

The wordless teaching,
the profit in not doing --
not many people understand it."

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching
translated by Ursula K. Le Guin

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Laurens

Part of the Journey

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:06:53 -0000

There is nothing that is outside of our practice.

'The different experiences of physical sensation,
of pleasure or pain,
the different emotions of happiness or sadness,
depression or elation,
interest or boredom,
all are part of the journey.

Is it possible to open to open to each one of these states,
to become mindful of each one in a balanced way so that we can begin to understand their true nature?

Meditation practice is neither holding on nor avoiding;
it is a settling back into the moment, opening to what is there.

And this balance of mind,
where there's no preference,
no attachment,
no clinging or condemning,
but just being present for whatever arises,
makes possible a connection with a deep rhythm.

Every activity has a rhythm appropriate to it,
and when we find that rhythm,
a sense of effortlessness, ease and grace arises.'

Joseph Goldstein

Seeking the Heart of Wisdom

I'm currently jobhunting in the Netherlands.
Still searching for the appropriate rhythm (^-^).

Wishing you a beautiful day,
Laurens

Seeking the Heart of Wisdom

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 21:59:37 -0000

Seeking the Heart of Wisdom

Whatever we do,
however we act,
creates how we will be,
and how the world will be
around us.

Wisdom is not one particular experience,
nor a series of ideas or knowledge to be collected.
It is an ongoing process of discovery
that unfolds when we live with balance
and full awareness
in each moment.
It grows out of sincerity and genuine openness,
and it can lead us to a whole new world
of freedom.

Meditation has to do with opening what is closed in us,
balancing what is reactive,
and exploring and investigating what is hidden.
That is the why of practice.
We practice to open,
to balance,
and to explore.

Joseph Goldstein & Jack Kornfield

Seeking the Heart of Wisdom:
The Path of Insight Meditation

Some fragments from another insightful book I bought on my trip to Bangkok last week.

I'm now back in the Netherlands (after living in Japan for the last two years),
swinging between familiarity and slight alienation.
It's good to be back, but also a bit strange.

New possibilities, new challenges, familiar faces.

A good opportunity to practice being open, balanced, and explorative.

An unfolding process of discovery?
Let's hope so (^-^).

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Laurens

Correct view

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:08:48 -0000

On cultivating an adequate spiritual vision

'Initially our perspective is limited --
it is tainted by habitual ways of viewing and experiencing things.

Wishes, desires and expectations are all projected outward,
and all sorts of preconceived ideas are hatched about what our spiritual life and goals should be.

We should note from the beginning that our views are distorted and heavily biased.
This will protect you from having absolute conviction in your opinions about what a spiritual life should be and how it should proceed.

We do not begin the spiritual journey with clarity,
and as we proceed we find many of our expectations are unmet or frustrated.
Other expectations may be exceeded.

Nothing about the spiritual journey is predetermined.'

Traleg Kyabgon

Mind at Ease
Self-Liberation through Mahamudra Meditation

I found this extremely insightful book at a small bookstore in Bangkok last week.
Had read about it in Ken Wilber's 'Integral Spirituality'.

I'm now enjoying it on my flight back from Tokyo to the Netherlands.
Two years working and living in Japan have officially come to a closure.

What will life bring next?

Here's another quote/poem I liked from the same book:

'The one who meditates without the view
Is like a blind man wandering the plains.
There is no reference point for where the true path is.

The one who does not meditate, but merely holds the view
Is like a rich man tethered by stinginess.
He is unable to bring appropriate fruition to himself and others.
Joining the view and meditation is the holy tradition.'

Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye

How do we individually make our journey all inclusive?

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Laurens

The Owl's Understanding

Sat, 12 May 2007 00:38:21 -0000

The Owl's Understanding

The hawk said to the owl, "When I look at you, I see that you have a strange shape -- a small beak on a round face. Wearing a black hood and a hemp over-robe, you look like a tengu from an island of pygmies.
Although you have large eyes, you're blind as a bat during the daytime and could not even recognize the orb of the sun. You loiter about and are laughed at by other birds, but you crouch in the thickets by night, catch half-sleeping little birds and eat them.
Miserable bird! Of all the forty-eight hawks, I think you must be the most pathetic! I break into a sweat just thinking about you."

The owl turned its head and retorted, "Lord hawk, you are greatly mistaken.
Between heaven and earth there are those who fly in the sky, those who live in trees, those who run on land, and those who swim in the water. There are those who are beautiful and those who are unpleasant to look at.

But each and every one of them received the command of the Creator and was born. It is not as though they had their own choice. If a person could pick physical freedom as he wished, would anyone choose to be handicapped in any way?
That I look strange and have eyes that cannot see during the day is the nature allotted to me by Heaven. How could I be exempt from what the Creator has done?

Moreover, the long-tailed maggot makes its home in a pile of shit while the pinworm lives in a dust heap, and they think of these places as palaces and towers.
A snake has no legs, while the earthworm has no eyes or nose. One can see, however, that they get along quite competently.

Each and every thing given birth by the Creator hs been granted food and a lodging place that will not cause it problems. To go beyond itself and envy other beings would be turning its back on Heaven.

Though my eyes cannot see during the day, they can see quite efficiently with the coming of night. I look for a suitable meal and never go hungry.
Although the little birds think I have a strange shape and laugh at me, it's nothing to get mad about. And no matter how much they laugh, it doesn't bother me at all.
It's just being laughed at."

The Owl & Lord Hawk

The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts
Issai Chozanshi
Translated by William Scott Wilson

This beautiful little book contains so many profound and humorous teachings that it marveled me when I first read it.
Infused with Taoism, Shinto and Zen, it's a delight hearing these words of wisdom being spoken by owls, hawks, snakes, cats, toads, mayflies and demons. Each representing a different level of understanding and realization.

Wishing you a beautiful day,
Laurens

Covering the ground

Thu, 10 May 2007 14:14:03 -0000

Covering the ground

"Each and all,
the subjective and objective spheres
are related,
and at the same time independent.

Related, yet working differently,
though each keeps its own place.
Two faces on a single die.

Thus, no thing ever falls short
of its own completeness;
wherever it stands,
it does not fail to cover the ground."

Dogen Zenji

The True Dharma Eye
Translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi and John Daido Loori

Wishing you a beautiful day,
Laurens

What do you see?

Tue, 08 May 2007 14:22:41 -0000

What do you see?

"Responding to the myriad things from the perspective of the self is delusion.
Manifesting the self from the perspective of the myriad things is enlightenment.

From ancient times to the present,
people have regarded the myriad things as seperate from themselves,
not realizing that the universe is the body of the Buddha --
this very body and mind itself.

What do you see when you behold the mountain?
Can you see the real form of truth?
What do you hear when you listen to the river sounds?

Can you hear the subtle gathas of rock and water?
Or are you trapped in the superficiality of sound and form?

Mountains, rivers, and the great earth are ceaselessly manifesting the teachings,
yet they are not heard with the ear or seen with the eye.
They can only be perceived with the whole body and mind.

Be that as it may, how do you turn the self and return to the mountains, rivers, and the great earth?
Indeed, where do you find your self?"

Dogen Zenji

The True Dharma Eye
Translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi and John Daido Loori

Wishing you all a beautiful day,
Laurens

Supernatural powers and marvelous activity

Tue, 01 May 2007 01:42:53 -0000

Supernatural powers and marvelous activity

My daily activities are not unusual,
I'm just naturally in harmony with them.

Grasping nothing, discarding nothing,
In every place there is no hindrance, no conflict.

Who assigns the ranks of vermillion and purple?
The hills' and mountains' last speck of dust is extinguished.

My supernatural powers and marvelous activity --
Drawing water and carrying firewood.

Layman P'ang
The Roaring Stream:
A New Zen Reader

What are your supernatural powers?

Enjoy,
Laurens