Saturday, February 22, 2014

Chan even puts down the present!

According to many Self Help spiritual guru's, to be 'present to each and every moment' has become a central tenet of how to live a fully embodied spiritual life. Upon trying to practice this call to presence, one finds it can be a very difficult task. Often, the result of our quest is a conceptual confusion. 

Here is a traditional method that has withstood the test of thousands of practitioners. The guiding text that follows is taken from a retreat Master Sheng Yen gave in Wales to members of the Western Chan Association.

"As time passes, you witness the passage of thoughts. As thought succeeds thought, you experience the passage of time. In your practice it is important to make every thought the present moment. If you make yourself one with the moment, you stop the thought. There is simply experience without time because, without thought, time becomes a continuous present. You have to discover for yourself what being one with the moment actually is. 

When you make every thought a present moment., there is no continuity of time, no carry over from moment to moment. Everything is continuously fresh, like the water of a spring endlessly bubbling up into the open air. In such practice, every moment is a rebirth. Here we have no thought succeeding thought,  rather there is endless re-creation without discrete moments. As one master has said, 'One thought for a thousand years.'....from pg. 39/40 Illuminating Silence by Master Sheng Yen.

1. MAIN WEBSITE: Cosmos Chan Zen Community at http://www.cosmoschan.org/
2. Master Cheng Yen in Facebook;
3. Chan Community Canada at http://chancommunity.ca/
4. Listen/download audio talks from the Tallahassee   Chan group at  http://www.tallahasseechan.com/talks.html
5. the Western Chan Fellowship at  http://www.westernchanfellowship.org/
7. Audio downloads at Dharma Drum http://www.dharmadrumretreat.org/teachings.php?id=av_changwen
8. Questions?  Adrian at 250 650 9055; adrian2@shaw.ca and http://comoxvalleyzenchan.blogspot.ca/