Don’t Be Fooled By What You Want teaching Sep 08, 2022

Don’t be fooled by what you want. Just keep practicing. If you are only after what you want, ultimately you are going to be disappointed. It's not that your practice or discipline leads to what you want; practice leads to some clarity which leaves you more open to what’s there for...

Continue Reading...
Right Speech teaching Sep 01, 2022
Question: As far as keeping that open mind, that Don’t-Know mind, how does that relate to our preconception that it is good for me to have right speech?
 
Zen Master Bon Soeng: It would raise the question, “What is right speech?” It’s a nice idea to have right speech,...
Continue Reading...
Mind Makes Everything teaching Aug 25, 2022

I think if you look at your own life, you can see that the way you hold your mind and the way you view and perceive these situations that occur in our lives, that it creates the way we respond to them. Our responses are what create the next event. So, our likes and dislikes are really what create...

Continue Reading...
Trust Your Experience teaching Aug 18, 2022
Student: We like to say “Don’t Know”, as was mentioned in the meditation instruction today. Is there anything that we do know? Is there anything that we’re allowed to know? (laughter)

Zen Master Bon Soeng: Do you see this robe?
 
Student: Yes

ZMBS: What color is it?

...
Continue Reading...
Accepting Your Life teaching Aug 11, 2022
You have to accept your life. Accept does not mean "like", accept does not mean it's a good idea or a good thing. Accept means that's the truth. One of the important things that the Buddha talked about was that what we perceive and what we think is not necessarily the truth. Because the truth...
Continue Reading...
Everything is Changing teaching Aug 04, 2022
Everything is always changing. That’s the truth of our human world. The earth is spinning on its axis. That moves the wind, that moves time, that moves space and it creates change. We either like what we have and don’t want to lose it so we fight the change. Or we think our life...
Continue Reading...
Clear Intention teaching Jul 28, 2022

If we are not clear on our intention, then our life is haphazard and we just increase the suffering in the world. But if our intention is clear, it is possible in the moment of action, correct function can appear. Maybe in that moment, we put down our I, mine, me......our desire, anger, and...

Continue Reading...
Purpose of Zen teaching Jul 21, 2022
That's Zen mind. It's not being perfect. It's not being able to do everything right, and do it in such a way that somebody will tell this wonderful story about you that a thousand years from now people will still be talking about. It's simply paying attention, meeting the moment, and helping. Our...
Continue Reading...
The 84 Problems In Life jason quinn jdpsn teaching Jul 14, 2022

During the Buddha’s time, there was a farmer who had many problems. He told the Buddha all about how difficult his life was. The weather never cooperated with what he wanted. It was too wet or too dry, so his crops often failed. His wife was very critical of him, and his children didn't...

Continue Reading...
Clear Seeing, Clear Action teaching Jul 07, 2022
The Buddha talked about clear seeing. In order to clearly see, we have to let go of what's clouding our vision. What clouds our vision is this concept of "I". The concept of "I" fixes the world in a certain way. Let go of the concept of "I" and we can perceive the moment clearly. When we can...
Continue Reading...
What Is Enough Mind? teaching Jun 30, 2022
"Enough mind" means you’ve got enough. You don’t need anything else. The First Noble Truth states that life is suffering. Sometimes we say life is unsatisfactory. Why is it unsatisfactory? It always needs to be a little bit different. But if life doesn’t need to be any different...
Continue Reading...
Why Be In This Moment? teaching Jun 23, 2022

The question always comes to, “Why do that?” So now we’re present, now what? Is it for our own enjoyment? That’s okay, that’s nice; we all want our own enjoyment. But that brings us back to suffering because we’re only happy as long as it brings us joy. As soon...

Continue Reading...
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8