Showing posts with label zen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zen. Show all posts

Thursday, March 29, 2012

"Rebirth" - Will I be reborn a rat?


A samurai once asked Zen Master where he would go after he died.
He answered "How am I supposed to know?"
"How do you not know? You're a Zen master!" exclaimed the samurai. 
"Yes, but not a dead one," He answered.

According to Zen, Karma and Rebirth are an essential part of life. However, we shouldn't be too attached to the idea of an afterlife. The Buddha constantly reiterated that awareness in the here-and-now is much more important than speculation on the afterlife.

Zen advises people to live each moment as though it were their last, which leads us to live a life of greater awareness of our actions; and that causes less suffering for us and those around us. In this way, we will live a healthier spiritual life to where any concerns or fears about a possible afterlife will naturally fade away.

"Will I be reborn a rat?"
"I don't know. I am not yet dead!"











--

Monday, December 26, 2011

What is Life ?



I was watching this movie named: The Bucket List and found this piece of dialogues about Life, in the starting of the movie, very interesting. I thought of noting it down somewhere but then I thought of blogging it. So here it goes...

"It's difficult to understand the sum of a person's life.
Some people will tell you it's measured by the ones left behind.
Some believe it can be measured in faith.
Some say by love.
Other folks say life has no meaning at all.
Me?
I believe that you measure yourself... by the people who measured themselves by you."

What I am thinking now.. What is this Life about... and how this question can be simplified?

Lately I was reading about the Zen way to simplify the Life. They gave some tricks.

First one was to clean the room or more precisely declutter the room. It gives clarity in thoughts.

Second was to create a no-distraction zone. It involves not using phones, emails, no-coworkers, nothing on walls, no IMs or facebook, no web. Only use of stuff one is suppose to do the work and nothing else. It creates a kind of focus towards work and increases concentration.

Third was to create a short-mylove-list. It gives big picture about the life. If one is confused in getting life to something truly simple, one should create a list of things he loves doing most. Then try to eliminate everything in the life which is not on that short list -  this makes room for things he love.

Fourth one was finish current or pending work, take a break from new work and divert all the new work requests to next week. This will reduce the pressure of finishing old work and later on, one can accept new work with happiness.

Fifth was not to follow any schedule - leave the day wide open! At the start of day pick a few things, focus on it and try to finish it. No need to schedule any meetings, if any meeting is required, call them and meet. This will break the monotonicity cycle of work.

Sixth was to concentrate on single task. No need to switch between multiple tasks or do things in parallel. It will create clutter and tension in mind. Instead of that focus on single task and finish things one at a time.

These steps can simplify life, make us happy but my question is what exactly this life is and what am I?
If one can understand what is the true meaning of being self then happiness, sadness, etc is mere an illusion of emotion. The steps pointed above will automatically come from inside.

Some of my thoughts and concluding inferences on "what is self" till now...

All is One:    Wrong
All is Nothing:    Wrong
Just be Yourself:    Wrong
Follow Your Heart:    Wrong
All is illusion:    Wrong
All is Love:    Wrong
Be Here Now:    Wrong
I am God:    Wrong
I am nobody:    Wrong
Bliss, Being, Consciousness:    Wrong
All is Mind:    Wrong
All is Emptiness:    Wrong
All are Enlightened:    Wrong 
Tick Tack Toe:    Wrong

Then Finally….

I Don’t Know:    RIGHT

... and my journey continues for one question: What is Life?

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