Freedom thinking is freedom. Attachment thinking is hindrance. Suppose your parents say, ‘Your shirt is dirty; you must change it!’ If you say, ‘No, I won't change; I am free!’, then you are attached to your dirty shirt or to your freedom itself. So you are not free. If you are really free, then dirty is good and clean is good. It doesn't matter. Not changing my shirt is good; changing my shirt is good. If my parents want me to change, then I change. I don't do it for my own sake, only for theirs. This is freedom. No desire for myself, only for all people.

Zen Freedom

Words are not a good way to help others. It shows attachment to words, forms and concepts. A truly great man has no words or speech—only action.

Help people through actions not words 

To understand the truth, you must let go of the situation. A clear mind has no inside and no outside. A clear mind is clear of thinking. 2 Buddhist monks were fighting over a flag. One said the flag was moving. The other said the wind is. The master however said it was neither the flag nor the wind. "Your thoughts are the only ones moving."Nature has no contradictions. Our problems exist just in our head. Our thinking is making us deluded. One had to let go of 🤔 to understand Zen.

Before thinking

All in existence is made of the same substance. All the names and categories are made from our 🤔. Thinking takes away from the Substance. Some said this substance is energy, God or matter. The Substance is Absolute. This idea is a blend of Taoism combined with Buddhist concepts.

The Substance

﻿﻿Craziness is good. Crazy people are happy, free, they have no hindrance. But since you have many attachments you are only a little crazy. This is not enough crazy. You must become completely crazy. Then you will understand.

What are you? You don't know. There is only "I don't know". Always keep this don't know mind with you, and your mind will become clear. And only then you will understand.Throw away all your opinions and only keep the mind that does not know. That is the mind before thinking. That is your substance.

The don‘t know mind

The Buddhist sage Lin Chi told a monk, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." He meant that those who think they've found all the answers in any religion need to start questioning.Religion keeps the students dependent on the leader. That is an extreme form of attachment. Not Zen.

Meet the Buddha, Kill the Buddha

Zen can be explained through a ⭕. There are 5 points on the circle. Let's see how each point answers if a 📚 is different from a 🖊️:<ul><li>O°: you start from full attachment and suffering. The book and pencil are different.</li><li>90°: no more thinking. The book is the pencil and the pencil is the book. </li><li>180°: True emptiness. There are no words to describe the objects.</li><li>270°: freedom. The book is angry and the pencil sings.</li><li>360°: all things are just how they are. The truth is like this. The book is red, the pencil is yellow.</li></ul>The zen circle starts from full suffering and ends in the same place with full embrace of the truth. You start with forms based on attachments and you end up with forms but not based on attachment but love.

Zen Circle

If you say "the same" I will hit you 30 times. If you say "different" I will hit you 30 times. Why? Before thinking there are no words. "same" & "different" are opposite words, they are thinking mind. The right answer can only be obtained by keeping the don't know mind.

Are the mountain and you the same or different?

When the wind 🌬️ comes, there are big waves 🌊. When the wind dies down, the waves become smaller and smaller. Until finally the wind disappeares and the sea is clear like a mirror. Then all mountains & trees & all things are reflected on the surface of the sea. There are many thought waves in out minds. We have to practice don't know mind our mind will become clear like the clam sea.

The mind is like the sea

Are two different things. There is an "I" when you say "I want to get enlightened." This is desire. Ego. Small I. But aspiration transcendens the idea of self. It is desire without attachment.

Desire & Aspiration

Mind is the tendency of the self which goes out to do actions. When it goes inside, it becomes the self, and when it is outside, it does things in the world.The mind is no separate entity, it is not a modification of anything, it is nothing but consciousness. When the universal consciousness becomes contracted and takes the form of outside objects, then we call it mind. And when the same mind goes inside and becomes the self, again it becomes the consciousness itself. It contracts and it expands.

Mind has no inside or outside

<ul><li>First Enlightenment: understand that form is emptiness and emptiness is form. "Is this a stick or not? If you say it is you are attached to form, if you say it isn't you are attached to emptiness." </li><li>Original Enlightenment: no form, no emptiness. Words are useless. </li><li>Final Enlightenment: understand that form is form & emptiness is emptiness. "the stick is brown and the sky is blue"</li></ul>

3 levels of Enlightenment

How can you help people who don't understand? People who are not listening? These types of questions releveal a strong ego. Why should you change people? Why should they listen to you? One has to keep a beginner mind and have a mind like a mirror. When red looks into a mirror it becomes red. Kill your strong self and find clear mind all the time, then save all people from suffering.

Helping other people, the Zen way

A student asked master Huang Bong to teach him Dharma but the master said it is too expensive. The student offered him all the money he had only to get the same answer. After intense study he offered his life, then his mind but got the same answer. Finally he said that the sky is blue and grass is green. Getting the same answer from the master he replied back telling him to shove his Dharma in his ass. The master laughed and told him: "Don't loose my Dharma." The student was enlightened.

My Dharma is too expensive 

“Somebody comes into the Zen center with a lighted cigarette, walks up to the Buddha statue, blows smoke in its face, and drops ashes on its lap. You are standing there. What can you do?” This is a problem that Zen Master Seung Sahn is fond of posing to his American students who attend his Zen centers. Dropping Ashes on the Buddha is a delightful, irreverent, and often hilariously funny living record of the dialogue between Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn and his American students. Consisting of dialogues, stories, formal Zen interviews, Dharma speeches, and letters using the Zen Master’s actual words in spontaneous, living interaction with his students, this book is a fresh presentation of the Zen teaching method of “instant dialogue” between Master and student which, through the use of astonishment and paradox, leads to an understanding of ultimate reality.

philosophy

Philosophy

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

mindfulness

Mindfulness

books

Books

meditation

Meditation

The classic guide for Zen students pursuing the true way.   “Somebody comes into the Zen center with a lighted cigarette, walks up to the Buddha-statue, blows smoke in its face and drops ashes on its lap. You are standing there. What can you do?” This is a problem that Zen Master Seung Sahn was fond of posing to his American students who attended his Zen centers.   Dropping Ashes on the Buddha is a delightful, irreverent, and often hilariously funny living record of the dialogue between Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn and his American students. Consisting of dialogues, stories, formal Zen interviews, Dharma speeches, and letters using the Zen Master’s actual words in spontaneous, living interaction, this book is a fresh presentation of the Zen teaching method of “instant dialogue” between Master and student which, through the use of astonishment and paradox, leads to an understanding of ultimate reality.

Stephen Mitchell was educated at Amherst College, the Sorbonne, and Yale University, and de-educated through intensive Zen practice. He is widely known for his ability to make old classics thrillingly new, to step in where many have tried before and to create versions that are definitive for our time. His many books include The Gospel According to Jesus, The Second Book of the Tao, two books of fiction, and a book of poetry.Mitchell’s Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke has been called “the most beautiful group of poetic translations [the twentieth] century has produced.” William Arrowsmith said that his Sonnets to Orpheus “instantly makes every other rendering obsolete.” His Book of Job has been called “magnificent.” 

Before thinking

Similar ideas to Before thinking

Moving Mind

Short Zen Stories: Moving Mind