JM, Thank you for your education. But Bill has stated that he is an advocate of 'withered sitting'. How do you educate him? Anthony
________________________________ From: Chan JMJM <[email protected]> To: [email protected]; [email protected] Sent: Monday, 5 December 2011, 0:15 Subject: [Zen] Practice Of No Mind Good morning, Friends of Chan, Please allow me to share with you the following.. Most of us have heard the practice of "no mind", "empty mind", "no thoughts". Somehow most of the guidelines also end right about at this term and does not go further. It is so because historically the state beyond "no mind" is an "indescribable" and "unimaginable" state. Or in Chinese, it is a state of 妙(pronounce miao) or exquisite, or profound, yet wonderful, spacious and simple. In modern day terms, this state can be referred to a spiritual state beyond our mind. It is a wholesome state of being, integrating the collective wisdom and energy from every cell of our physical self, so that the pure awareness and the pure focus is far more powerful than what we are normally able to experience through our five aggregates. In other words, in such a state, our body, mind and spirit are one. In modern language, we are "in the zone". We are in a state of most natural, effortless and automatic state of being. In Buddhism, this (every cell) is labeled as every sentient being. My Teacher taught me that when Buddha saw the thousands of lights at night upon his enlightenment, these lights were not in the sky, they were inside his body. In other words, when we energize and rejuvenate every sentient beings (cells) in our body, when they reach their purest state, they emits light. As we know, light is the purest form of energy. Therefore the practice of no mind is only half way to our enlightenment. Without energizing our physical self, transform, repair and heal every sentient being within ourselves, it would be difficult for us to reach and especially to maintain the state of absolute awareness and absolute focus. Sitting without tapping into the energy of the universe, cultivating our chi, or enhancing our state of being beyond an empty mind, is labeled as "withered sitting". Without energy beyond our normal state of being, we will always stay at where we were and continue to reincarnate. Thank you for your time, JMJM Head Teacher Order of Chan
