Zen Buddhism

Dialogue: Two Ways to Dissolve Anxiety

By meestereric / November 28, 2024 /

Q: I’ve been suffering from anxiety.It’s been pretty bad lately. Been with me for quite some time, like decades. So bad these last few days I just take to bed and curl up in a ball. The medication, even though I can feel it in my body, and the meditation, the years of spiritual stuff…

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On Having Never Left: Being Awake to Being Awake

By Eric Platt / April 22, 2024 /

A reader asks: … there is no way for us to presume that freedom from self deception or waking up however we wish to phrase it, has any similarity for different instances of consciousness. The only similarity we can vouch for is its ineffability… The various words used to express the inexpressible often seem to have…

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Non-Duality and Suffering V. 2

By meestereric / September 7, 2022 /

A Dialogue   Q: What’s your real value, at the end of the day, after years of seeking and suffering and finding, and all you’ve inquired into and seen and practiced over the decades? Is it worth anything, or just empty at the end of the day?   Seems to me all this non-dual talk…

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Pelican Flight image

On Beyond Addictions

By meestereric / October 17, 2019 /

This article was a response to a question I received from a reader. Question: I’ve watched a lecture of Krishnamurti on addiction. He said that incorporating mindfulness in your life can help to some degree. Watching the urge can make it go away, and when it comes back, you can observe it again so it…

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True Meditation: A Quiet Mind Versus A Silent Mind

By meestereric / April 2, 2019 /

“To ask the mind to kill itself is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see where the mind rises from, and then it will cease to exist.”   ~ Ramana Maharshi, ‘Who Am…

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The Four Seals of Buddhism and The Meaning of Ott’s Jack’s Cheese and Bread Snack Lyrics

By meestereric / July 22, 2018 /

I first heard this song about ten years ago, and loved it, and was intrigued by the lyrics. Ott – Jack’s Cheese and Bread Snack   One: All composite phenomena are impermanent. Two: All contaminated things and events are unsatisfactory. Three: All phenomena are empty and selfless. And four: Nirvana is true peace.   The…

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Western Philosophy of Mind and the Problem of Life

By meestereric / February 7, 2016 /

Turning Western Philosophy of Mind on It’s Head Is life a problem to be solved? The philosophers and scientists who are trying to figure out how the mind works are basing their models on an orientation towards problems solving. They look for example, at animals in the world surviving, and see them solving problems: how…

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