Everyday Mind Is The True Way
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- Опубліковано 18 сер 2021
- Zen Master Bon Soeng talks about how we can use our experience to help us wake up. We have Dharma talks every Wednesday evening at the Empty Gate Zen Center in Berkeley.
Website: emptygatezen.com
Facebook: / emptygatezen
Twitter: / emptygatezen
This talk has helped me so much, thank you Bon Soeng
Best wishes and thank you from England. Much love for Bon Soeng
What a wonderful talk. Thank you, very very helpful
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It'd be great to put these episodes on Spotify.
We will be working on that!!
@@EmptyGateZenCenterBerkeley great :)
thank you
You are welcome!
Great respect. Hapchang 🙏
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What if you have anxiety disorder?
If you like I can say something about that. I have suffered from anxiety disorder myself, and I can answer you as someone who has a lot of first-person-experience of AD. But I'm not a master or teacher of Zen. Your choice. Just let me know... In any case all the best to you! 😊🙏🏻
@@xiaomaozen I'm happy to hear what you have to say. One doesn't need a title to have wisdom, especially when gained through personal experience.
@@yoya4766
I absolutely agree. But others might think different. That's why I asked. 🙂
I'm gonna answer you later. Just one question for now: Is it a fear of something special, or rather a "nameless" (without any special trigger) fear/anxiety that you suffer from?
@@xiaomaozen both
@@yoya4766
Okay. Then here we go...
What I'm gonna say here is only based on my very own experience(s). If it works for you, too? Maybe. Maybe not. No guarantees. Okay, enough of that advisory-disclaimer-thing. 😂 You know what I mean.
Furthermore, anxiety/panic disorder can be a gigantic topic. But for a start, I try to keep things as simple and concise as possible. If you wanna know more, please just ask... 🙂
Anxiety and fear and panic can be extremely unpleasant experiences for us. Our normal reaction consists of avoidance, suppression, resistance. We just don't wanna feel unpleasant things, thus we bypass or ignore/suppress or fight them. What I can say for sure is: none of these strategies will work. Quite the contrary. Especially fighting fear and panic is like adding fuel to the fire. I tried that for at least 8 years. Resistance, rebellion, open battle was my method. And where did it get me? Only deeper and deeper into the quicksand...
But then - to put it in a nutshell - Zen (and also cognitive behavioural therapy, but mainly Zen) taught me acceptance. Now "acceptance" sounds very nice, and these days they sell it at every corner, but what does it really mean, what did I really do (or not do)?
When panic/fear arose, instead of resisting, trying to get rid of it, I allowed it to arise and gave myself completely to it. "Ah, there you are again. How are you? Come closer and let me have a look at you - and do with me whatever you want." (I didn't literally say that every time, but that was my attitude.) And then I did exactly that: I took a closer look at the fear/panic. Tensions, cramps in my body, racing heartbeat, faster breathing, accompanying thoughts etc. In short: I allowed the fear to arise and be there, I experienced it fully, became one with it - and it lost its grip, its power over me.
I know that sounds as if it were easy. It's not! Simple, yes, but not easy. It takes time, it takes practice. But I think that can be the way. So if Yo Ya asks, "What is the way if you have anxiety disorder?", I'd say, "Anxiety disorder is (part of) the way."
Here's an old story I'd like to share with you. As a kind of rounding off of my nutshell-thing above:
_One evening Milarepa returned to his cave after gathering firewood, only to find it filled with demons. They were cooking his food, reading his books, sleeping in his bed. They had taken over the joint. He knew about nonduality of self and other, but he still didn’t quite know how to get these guys out of his cave. Even though he had the sense that they were just a projection of his own mind-all the unwanted parts of himself-he didn’t know how to get rid of them. So first he taught them the dharma. He sat on this seat that was higher than they were and said things to them about how we are all one. He talked about compassion and shunyata and how poison is medicine. Nothing happened. The demons were still there. Then he lost his patience and got angry and ran at them. They just laughed at him. Finally, he gave up and just sat down on the floor, saying, “I’m not going away and it looks like you’re not either, so let’s just live here together.” At that point, all of them left except one. Milarepa said, “Oh, this one is particularly vicious.” (We all know that one. Sometimes we have lots of them like that. Sometimes we feel that’s all we’ve got.) He didn’t know what to do, so he surrendered himself even further. He walked over and put himself right into the mouth of the demon and said, “Just eat me up if you want to.” Then that demon left too._
(From: _Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living_ by Pema Chödrön)
Be well, my friend, and dare to ask me whenever you have any questions... 🙏