| There was a city in which all the inhabitants were blind. One
day a king arrived with a great elephant. As the inhabitants did
not know what an elephant was, some of the sightless went forth
to find out. They did this by each touching part of the elephant.
Each thought that he knew what it was, because he could feel a
part.
When their fellow citizens asked about the shape of the elephant, each one who touched it spoke. The man who touched the ear said, "It is a large, rough thing, wide and broad, like a rug." The one who had felt the trunk said," It is like a straight pipe: hollow, awful, and destructive." The one who had felt its leg said, "It is mighty and firm, like a Pillar." Each had felt one Part out of many. Each had perceived it wrongly. No mind knew all: knowledge is not the companion of the blind. All imagined something, something incorrect.
The eye of sense is only like the palm of the hand: the palm
has not the power to reach the whole of the elephant. The eye
of the Sea is one thing, and the foam another: leave the foam
and look with the eye of the Sea." - Hakim Sanai
.......... |
There are many meditations: an infinite number. Yet there really is only one meditation. It is the heart made manifest - and beyond. It is the mind knowing and seeing the soul reaching into the silence of the sound - and more. It is the One. Be this, in life, in practice. For is there any practice, or is all practice life? Seek not beyond, seek not within; Be.
You are meditating when you are not aware you are meditating. If you are aware of yourself you are not meditating. If you try you are not doing. If you do you are not trying. If you are yourself you are meditating. If you are trying to be yourself you are not meditating. If you are sitting in posture and waiting you are not meditating. If You drop your glasses, or step on a hole, or jump across a wide ditch, you are meditating. If you are forcing yourself to focus you are not meditating.
R E L A X . Breathe out. Sound whewww. Relax. Breathe out. Sound
HUUUU. Let it reverberate in the heart. Relax.
| "When one
goes to Obaku temple in Kyoto he sees carved over the gate the
words, "The First principle". These letters are unusually
large, and those who appreciate calligraphy always admire them
as being a masterpiece. They were drawn by Kosen two hundred years
ago.
When the master drew them he did so on paper, from which workmen made the larger carving in wood. As Kosen sketched the letters a bold pupil was with him who had made several gallons of ink for the calligraphy and who never failed to criticize his master's work. "That is not good," he told Kosen after the first effort. "How is that one?" "Poor. Worse than before," pronounced the pupil. Kosen patiently wrote one sheet after another until eighty-four First Principles had accumulated, still without the approval of the pupil. Then, when the young man stepped outside for a few moments, Kosen thought: "Now is the chance to escape his keen eye," and he wrote hurriedly, with a mind free from distraction: "The First Principle."
"A masterpiece," pronounced the pupil." - Zen story
(Paul Reps) .......... |
| "The only sin is tension. " - Samuel Lewis (S.A.M.) .......... |
