WRDZ – Wake Up, Reconnect, Dharma, Zen | Wake up to your real Self!

“How sweetly the lotus grows In the litter of the wayside.
Its pure fragrance delights the heart.”

Here is a different interpretation:

“Upon a heap of rubbish in the road-side
ditch blooms a lotus, fragrant and pleasing.”

Dhammapada – Flowers

Let me paint a picture here. We are following the teachings of the Buddha, cultivating each precept, but then Mara attacks us using all kinds of past illusions, trying to awaken our old cravings, our old desires. Images start to pop up, and we feel a little weak, but we turn away and take no heed to Mara, and the army of illusion and then reenact the Stanzas of Victory. We want to do nothing but follow the pure and holy path, but sometimes Mara seems stronger than our determination. See the truth is this, the more you seek the pure path, the more you want and intent to do good, the forces of Mara, the ego, the false self, will try to awaken and try to fight back, because you are killing it softly. In the second verse in the Stanzas of Victory, the Buddha fought using His patience and “self-control.”

SELF CONTROL, what does that mean?

The Buddha used self control, and this is “virtue” a huge and powerful virtue that will determine your success in walking the the eightfold path.

As I started to learn more and more about meditation, I find its fascinating and very powerful. The way I look at meditation is like a way of training the mind to be control without forcefulness. Learning how to quiet the mind, and all its illusionary thoughts. When I get into zazen posture, I take a deep breath and then bow down to the Creator, my Buddha Nature that lives within me. While I am in bowed position, I say within me I give my entire being up, I give up all my concerns, all my issues up right here and right now, and I sit here and absorb the greatness from inner being, my Buddha Nature, letting the joy, the peace, the compassion to radiate inward and outward, letting go all things, right here and right now. And then I try to shut my mind off, by not trying to think of anything,

In all my years I was taught from my parents and spiritual teachers and pastor what was the Way, what was the Truth, what was the Life, and I swallowed it with out any questions, because I was taught questions were taboo or a sign of unbelief. As I grew up and got married and moved away from all doctrines and teachings from my parents and people, I finally broke free to discover what was the Way, what was the Truth, what was the Life. I dared to ask questions. I entered the Path with a blank canvas, without any names or labels, and finally I discovered great Wisdom

Our Daily Life

We wake up, and do our daily routine, either go brush our teeth & shower, eat breakfast, do yoga, pray or meditate, read the Bible/Sutra/Gita/Koran or whatever you read, and prepare for our day. Breathing, seeing, walking, talking, living life.

We feel thankful for all these beautiful things, well at least I hope you feel thankful for these simple things, that not all people can enjoy on their daily basis. Some people cannot walk, talk, see or are breathing in a coma at this precise moment. At this precise moment someone is starving having no food or water or even shelter. Some people from

The Stairs, The Light, The Window, The TV & Table

I was holding my baby nephew who is only 8 months old, he is the cutest little thing. Lately his new thing is that he likes to point at things.

While I was holding him, he started the point at these 5 things the stairs, the light, the window, the TV and the living room table. In my mind, I didn’t think anything of it, because he loves to point at things now. But when he pointed at these things, it resonated in me as if it was something I should pay attention to. I started thinking about these things and these are the thoughts that came to my mind about these objects.

Master Yourself

Why kick yourself to the ground? Why feel inadequate?

Do you not realize how precious and valuable you are?  We are like diamonds in the ruff.

Who is perfect?  Not ourselves, but our True Nature within us is perfect.

The master within us is perfect, our inner True Self, our Buddha Nature, the Holy Spirit, the Light inside of us.

The voice inside of us that complains and cries of feeling inadequate is not the voice of our True Self,  in fact its the voice of the False Self.

Why pray a prayer of remorse or constant apologizes? But rather pray a prayer of thankfulness, and realize how blessed you are, look at the bigger picture.  Our small mind likes to look at the small picture, but our big mind always looks at the bigger picture.  The big mind is the mind of the master, the Buddha, the mind of God.

Pick your head up and see the gem that you truly are.   You need to know this, you need to learn this, you need to cultivate and understand your true nature.  Your true nature is not sorrowful nor prideful.  Your true nature looks beyond the

In the mind you receive two kinds of thoughts, one group of thoughts are from the True Self, which is your real self, the likeness of God, your Buddha Nature, your Christ Nature. And the other group of thoughts is from your False Self, which is the ego, the polluted nature that produces greed, lust, pride, hatred etc. As an awaken person, one who realizes and walks in the Spirit, one who is in tuned to

Desire knocks on the door of the master, disguised as a friend.
She carries a bottle of poison, hoping to give the master a drink.
She looks to enter the house of the master, either through the eyes of the window, or from the roof of the  mind.
She seeks and seeks until she finds an opening.
Once an opening is found, and she grabs the attention of the master, she looks to cut right through the heart, until the soul bleeds.
Wisdom wakes up and comes to the rescue of the master, handing him over the sword of truth.
The master takes the the sword of truth and fights her until she runs out.
As she runs out, she wipes her mouth and says, “I will return.”
The master is victorious, because he is guarded by wisdom, knowledge, and truth.
If the master doesn’t fight, he will lose his crown, his kingdom and jewels.
The master must fight in order to protect his life.
The master is a warrior, the master is you.
Don’t give in to desire, no matter how inciting the offer may be.
Desire offers a rotten fruit, filled with wormwood.
Desire offers temporary comfort and in the end it is filled with sorrow.
Do not say, I will just do it one more time and that is all.
Do not feed desire, don’t do the act, runaway into meditation, read the dharma, seek the strength from the divine within you.
You are free!

Dhammapada – Desire 24
“If you sleep
Desire grows in you
Like a vine in the forest.

Like a monkey in the forest
You jump from tree to tree, Never finding the fruit -
From life to life,
Never finding peace.

If you are filled with desire
Your sorrows swell
Like the grass after the rain.

But if you subdue desire
Your sorrow fall from you
—
O seeker!
Give up desire.
Shake off your chains.”

When you walk the path of zen, the path of truth, the path of purity, you cannot worry about results. Enter your practice of zazen without expecting anything.  

Do not walk into a place with your hands out, begging.
Do not give a gift and expect something in return, because then its not genuine giving.

Do not pray or meditate and worry about results, because that is attachment.
You need to detach from EVERY idea, object, thought, notion of any result.
You may think, “I will do this, so I can feel this, or get this or that.”  That is wrong, because you are allowing desire to want something. Want nothing, expect nothing, and you will receive, that is how the law of attraction works.

Do good, receive good.  Do bad, receive bad.
Enter meditation or prayer without your hands out begging.
God is not a genie in a bottle.  Zazen, is not a magic carpet.
The magic comes when you are not expecting it.
Seek and you shall find, but you must seek in total emptiness. Be empty of thought and expectation.

The farmer dosen’t plant a seed and stand there in front of the crop waiting and expecting it to grow, because the framer AUTOMATICALLY knows it will grow.  The crop in the ground grows regardless what you may think, its automatic.  So save your energy, and get rid of your worry, and expect nothing.

In the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12: Loving God
it says:
“You will become perfect just by doing things for My sake.  If you cannot manage even this, then just remember not to worry about the results of what you do.
Do not  plan for things to turn out the way you want them to, but simply do your best. Do your best and don’t think about what will happen next.

Knowledge is better than practice and thinking steadily of God is better than knowledge.  But best of all is doing your duty for God’s sake.” 

Walking the good path, the pure path of love and peace, the holy path, the righteous path of God, the way of the Buddha, what ever you want to call it, its all the same and leads to the same place, this path is our daily practice, it is our daily duty, this is called zazen.  Zazen means practice, and it becomes a natural way of living, when you do not attach yourself to it.  You entered the path full, and then you end up in total emptiness, that is the goal.  When you practice this way of life, you just have to practice and do your best that is all.  Practice makes perfect, and that is what strengthens the master.  In baseball, if you go into the game with the attitude of just playing and without occupying your mind with just winning, then you will have a good game even if you win or lose because you are doing it for the love of the game.  If you enter a profession and only caring about money, then you will not really enjoy your job, if you enter you profession, loving the work because it is your passion, then you will do very well.  Enter the path without expectation and do it for the love of it.

There is a book called “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” a book about informal talks on Zen meditation and practice, by Shunryu Suzuki, which impacted my life very much.  His teaches are phenomenal, and there is a chapter that I happen to think of that will fit this writing.  The chapter is called “Right Practice: Nothing Special.”  He talks about how zazen, which is our daily practice of our walk in the good path is nothing special.  Many would say, “No my walk with God or my daily practice is something special to me,” but this is not to take away the value of our practice, but to take away the value that we attach to, which binds us to the thought of expectation.
Many people pray to feel something, many people meditate to feel something, when this approach is absolutely wrong, because our practice goes beyond our feelings and emotions.  Some cry, “God where are you, I do not feel you,” or some cry and say, “I cannot completely clear my mind during meditation, this was not a good meditation, its a waste of time.”  In reality, that was a good prayer, that was a good meditation, because you are doing it for God sake, you are doing it to walk the good path, you are doing it to practice zazen, you are doing your daily duty.  Nothing is done in vain, it all counts, but you shouldn’t be keeping tabs, let God keep tabs, let everything be done for the love of it, let it be done for zazen.  Your practice should be like breathing, you do not always realize that you are breathing, but you are always breathing even without paying attention to it, because its an automatic thing.

Here are some passages from the book “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind,” by Shunryu Suzuki:
“If you continue this simple practice every day you will obtain a wonderful power.  Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you obtain it, it is nothing special.  It is just you yourself, nothing special.  As a Chinese poem says, “I went and returned. It was nothing special.  Rozan famous for its misty mountains; Sekko for its water.”  People think it must be wonderful to see the famous range of mountains covered by mists, and the water said to cover all the earth.   But if you go there you will just see water and mountains.  Nothing special.

It is a kind of mystery that for people who have no experience of enlightenment, enlightenment is something wonderful.  But if they attain it, it is nothing.  But yet it is not nothing.  Do you understand?  For a mother with children, having children is nothing special.  That is zazen.  So, if you continue this practice, more and more you will acquire something-nothing special, but nevertheless something.  You may say “universal nature” or “Buddha nature” or “enlightenment.”   You may call it by many names, but for the person who has it, it is nothing, and it is something.

When we express our true nature, we are human beings.  When we do not, we do not know what we are.  We are not an animal, because we walk on two legs.  We are something different from an animal, but what are we?  We may be a ghost;  we do not know what to call ourselves.  Such a creature does not actually exist.  It is a delusion.  We are not a human being anymore, but we do exist.  When Zen is not Zen, nothing exists.  Intellectually my talk makes no sense, but if you have experienced true practice, you will understand what I mean.  If something exists, it has its own true nature, its Buddha nature.   in the Parinirvana Sutra, Buddha says, “Everything has Buddha nature,” but Dogen reads it in this way: “Everything has Buddha nature,” it means Buddha nature is in each existence, so Buddha nature and each existence are different.   But when you say, “Everything is Buddha nature,” it means everything is Buddha nature itself.  When there is no Buddha nature, there is nothing at all.  Something apart from Buddha nature is just a delusion.   It may exist in your mind, but such things actually do not exist.  

So to be a human being is to be a Buddha.  Buddha nature is just another name for human nature, our true human nature.  Thus even though you do not do anything, you are actually doing something.  You are expressing yourself.  You are expressing your true nature.  Your eyes will express; your voice will express; your demeanor will express.  The most important thing is to express your true nature in the simplest, most adequate way to appreciate it in the smallest existence.

While you are continuing this practice, week after week, year after year, your experience will become deeper and deeper, and your experience will cover everything you do in your everyday life.  The most important thing is to forget all gaining ideas, all dualistic ideas.  In other words, just practice zazen in a certain posture.  Do not think about anything.  Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything.  Then eventually you will resume your own true nature.  that is to say, your own true nature resumes itself.”

I hope this blessed you and encouraged you as it did to me.  Take care.

Dhammapada – Flowers: 4
“The bee gathers nectar from the flower
Without marring its beauty or perfume.
So let the master settle, and wander.”

Lets learn from teachings of spiritual and scared books, but do not get marry to it.  Learn the meaning of the teachings, apply it, practice it, make it a reality to yourself, but do not let it become an idol in your mind.  The goal is to have no attachment to anything, even spiritual teachings.  Because attachment, lead to problems, doctrines, dogmas, divisions,  pride and ignorance.  Do not be like the old man that yells in the village, yelling “Drink water now! This is the only way to the well. And if you do not drink from this well, you will surely die.” And after 90 years living, the old man died, his young son discovered that the water from the well that his father was preaching about, was actually flowing from a river bank down the road, that all people had access to.  Every body in the village had different ways of collecting this water, with buckets, with boxes, with jars or bags, but they all collected the same water and drank from the same river bank.

Drink and drink some more, but be open to other river banks because they flow out the same water.  Be open minded and drink the water of truth with other followers of the truth, and become ONE with the village.

Do not label yourself, just be, or just “bee.”

The Master Is Stronger Than His Thoughts

The Master is you, the one who is fully awaken, the one walking the path of purity and truth.
He is the one who has renounced the desires and passion of self and submitted to the way.
The Master gains great power and strength by following such way.
Like a balance scale who has two sides, the Master has one favorite side.
The sides of the balance scale are the pure path and the other side is the impure path.
The Master favors the pure path.  The thoughts that occasionally arise are considered the voices behind the gate.
The voices behind the gate are also known as the army of illusion.  The Master resides within the garden of peace, where all pure seeds grow, and all fresh waters flow.
The thoughts are statements that the army of illusion speaks while they peek behind the gate at the Master.
The Master sits in pure peace, observing every statement that comes across the gate and watches it as it slowly dies out, given it no attention and no power, because it is powerless.
The Master knows who he is, he knows the power he possesses.  The army of illusion spits out more statements, but they travel across the mind of the Master, and the Master just observes it, and continues in his blissful calm state without giving it any power.  If the Master gives attention to the statements, the statement will cling to the mind of the Master like a leech sucking out the power from the Master.  If this ever occurs the Master immediately cuts the power sucking statement with its sword of truth and wisdom, but practicing mindfulness.
The Master understands and knows that the thoughts from the army of illusion is not stronger than the Master.

Dhammapada – The World 13

“Swans rise and fly toward the sun.
What magic!
So do the pure conquer the armies of illusion
And rise and fly.”

Dhammapada – The World 17

“The wise have mastered Body, word and mind.

They are the true masters.”

When I sat down to meditate, I experienced something beautiful. As I crossed my legs and closed my eyes, and started to concentrate on my breathing, my little dog came out from underneath the table and went straight to me, because he saw that I came down to his level, thinking I was going to play with him. My dog started making sounds, poking his nose on my hand, looking for me to pet him, but I chose not to open my eyes and to pet him or acknowledge him because I was trying to meditate. As my little dog tried to grab my attention for a couple of minutes and I didn’t, it quietly walked away to the corner and sat down. Then a thought came to my mind, “The mind will always try to get your attention with thoughts to distract you, craving for attention, throwing you all kinds of ideas or images, but you just have to observe it and let it be, and watch it die out.”

While I was meditating, I experienced a beautiful blissful quietude of peace within. Suddenly, I thought to myself, wow its pretty quiet, what is my dog doing? I slowly opened my eyes and gave my dog eye contact and it immediately got up and started to poke me again with his nose begging for attention. Suddenly, a a second thought came to me, “Sometimes while meditation, the thoughts that you had previously can awaken again, if you give it attention, but you have to ignore it and continue to keep your mind empty.

I hope this writing has blessed you.

The mind is very hard to perceive, extremely subtle and wanders at will. Let the wise person guard it; a guarded mind is conducive to happiness.
Dhammapada – The Mind Verse 36

The mind is like a garden. All throughout our lives we had no other choice but to allow and trust our parents or guardians to plant seeds into our own garden. In time the seeds were sprouted and produced into many kinds of plants. In these plants you can find attributes, characteristics, beliefs, religion, politics, likes, dislikes, opinions, way of speech, way of dressing, way of thinking etc.. These plants usually constitute who we become and ultimately who we think we are. Some parents or guardians even push there child to a certain profession, and do not allow the child to pick and choose his or her own occupation, passion or goal. Not only are the plants of the parents or guardian planted or growing, but also whatever the child hears or sees through friends, family members, strangers, TV, Radio anything that produces or transmit opinions, ideas, doctrines, beliefs or thoughts. These plants are really not our own plants and not all plants are not necessarily bad plants. The problem is that the the child needs to grow his own plants, but the garden can be filled with so many plants that he or she have no other choice but to accept the plants that were already planted because there is no room for his or her very own plants. By having all these many plants planted in the child’s garden (mind), will prevent the child from fully flourishing and experiencing his or her life as it was destined. As parents or guardians, we do not want to create a carbon copy of who we are, because that is just not fair for these unique little individuals who just entered this world. As the child grows up and if he or she decides to question the already planted ideas, opinions etc.. that are already planted, he or she will have difficulty understanding and might raise confusion. A child should be able to receive a limited amount of plants into their garden as a started kit from the parent orguardian, and then the parent or guardian should teach the child how to plant his or her own garden. What are the things the child need to look for when and what to avoid when planting (morals). And these teaches cannot not be bias, it must be universal and bipartisan.

What a parent or guardian need to do is only implement the principles or morals, not doctrines, dogmas, partisan opinions, ignorant notions that are set up to divide, but only things that will unite, spread love and peace amongst himself or herself in this life and in this society.

What the child needs to learn is to guard his or her garden (mind) from people, TV, Radio or anything that produces or transmit opinions, ideas, doctrines, beliefs or thoughts; that is what makes a good gardener.

Realizing that this body is (as fragile) as a jar, establishing this mind (as firm) as a (fortified) city, he should attack Mara (negative thoughts) with the weapon of wisdom. He or she should guard his conquest and be without attachment.
Dhammapada – The Mind Verse 40

Sometimes in order to guard your garden (mind) from people planting seeds of their opinions, ideas and doctrines, you have to flee from their conversations or presence, leave the room or change the subject. Matthew: 2:13 “An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying to “Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I bring you a word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.” You need to flee, avoid, protect your garden, from anything trying to destroy your seeds. Always be open minded to everybody’s thoughts, but retain a filter and guard or block any fanatical, radical, divisive conversation, belief, doctrine, political view and flee, avoid and protect your mind from people that try to destroy your love, peace, and understanding. The main principle and doctrine is to love and respect God with all your heart, mind, body and soul to love, respect and help all God’s creation like you would want someone to do to you.