Living and Dying in a State of Readiness

Living and Dying in a State of Readiness

Bibliography

• Author: Minnesota Zen Meditation Center - Sunday Talk Archive
• Full_Title: Living and Dying in a State of Readiness
• Category: podcasts
• URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/a9f11ac8-17fa-413b-bd46-0c848c48e67f
• Last Highlighted Date: 2024-09-14 07:47:37.229874+00:00

Highlights

• Steep in Silence for Growth Summary: Meditation practice is akin to steeping tea in silence, requiring time and patience for development. Initially, the experience may seem bland and uneventful, much like water before brewing. However, as time progresses, flavor emerges, symbolizing personal growth and insight. Discouragement may arise during this process, leading to a sense of something missing if persistence wanes. Embracing both the silence and the discouragement can ultimately contribute to profound understanding and readiness in life. Transcript: Speaker 1 Morning. Good morning. Good morning. You two dimensional beings. You multi dimensional two dimensional beings. So there’s a chapter in my second book, the last chapter before the epilogue, titled, this is my second book, it’s done in the age of anxiety, titled Living and Dying in a State of Readiness. And I’m gonna dip into that a little bit, but not really very much. I’m mostly gonna just do material that’s occurred to me in the ensuing years, that book was published. So our meditation practice is about steeping ourselves in silence. That’s basically what we do. We steep ourselves in silence. That’s basically the whole thing. The whole thing is steeping ourselves in silence. And maybe like a kind of tea that takes a while to brew. For a while it’s just like water, nothing is happening at all. But you just keep steeping it. You just keep steeping it. Just keep steeping it for shorter times, for medium times, for long times. Then, its flavor changes. It develops real flavor. And of course, we can get discouraged. And if you don’t get discouraged, sometimes, you just keep getting discouraged. And of course, we can get discouraged. And if you don’t get discouraged, sometimes, you just keep getting discouraged. And of course, we can get discouraged. And of course, we can get discouraged. And of course, we can get discouraged. And of course, we can get your sitting, I would say something’s missing.
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• Patience Brews Depth Summary: Growth and transformation often require patience, much like tea that must steep to develop its flavor. Initially, progress may feel absent, and discouragement is common. However, persistence in practices like meditation can unveil deeper awareness, revealing feelings and fears that are typically obscured. Through continued effort, the noise of thoughts can clear, allowing for genuine moments of stillness and insight. Transcript: Speaker 1 And maybe like a kind of tea that takes a while to brew. For a while it’s just like water, nothing is happening at all. But you just keep steeping it. You just keep steeping it. Just keep steeping it for shorter times, for medium times, for long times. Then, its flavor changes. It develops real flavor. And of course, we can get discouraged. And if you don’t get discouraged, sometimes, you just keep getting discouraged. And of course, we can get discouraged. And if you don’t get discouraged, sometimes, you just keep getting discouraged. And of course, we can get discouraged. And of course, we can get discouraged. And of course, we can get discouraged. And of course, we can get your sitting, I would say something’s missing. Something’s missing, because if you really steep yourself in this in meditation, sometimes you only have, it will feel often will feel like you only have fleeting moments of stillness. Only very tentative moments of stillness. But you do it, you do it. And you begin to see how it chatter covers up your deepest feelings, including underlying fear that human beings seem to have, underlying fear. And eventually, our thoughts become transparent,
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• Embrace Stillness Amidst Change Summary: Thoughts, experiences, and feelings will come and go, much like clouds or ripples on water, and it’s essential to allow them to pass without resistance. Achieving a deep stillness at the core of our being is possible when we engage in practices such as meditation and simplifying our lives. Immersion in nature also facilitates this process, as it demonstrates the beauty of emerging and being present in the moment. Transcript: Speaker 1 So the flavor of the water begins to change. And we see thoughts, experience, feelings float by without getting whipped up. And we don’t avoid or deny whatever passes through. We just let it pass through like clouds in a clear blue sky or ripples on the day Mokask go on is totally transparent to the bottom and sometimes it is sometimes although not as much as it Was i won’t get it yes it used to be So this is where I, I often use the term for those of you who’ve heard me talk over the years, the still point of the turning world. This is what we settle into a real stillness here, this is the center of our being. And we settle into when we least expect it, and we least expect it. And it only requires meditation, simplifying our lives. And so it’s good to be immersed in nature too. Nature shows us, nature shows us. Emerging in nature, meditating and simplify.
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• Finding Stillness Amidst Turmoil Summary: Life often feels chaotic and out of control, resembling a spinning world or a roller coaster. Despite this tumult, there exists a still point that remains constant. Recent political developments may provide temporary relief, but the fundamental nature of the world involves unpredictability. True wisdom lies in embracing the reality of change and letting go of unnecessary presentations of self. By acknowledging our true needs and shedding superficial concerns, we can cultivate a more authentic existence. Transcript: Speaker 1 And that turning world sometimes seems like it’s out of control. It sometimes seems like it’s a spinning world or a roller coaster world. But the still point is still there. And politically, it seemed recently, the last couple of years like though, it’s so spinning and we can’t do anything about it. Now we have a little bit of a subsiding of that with what’s happened with Kamala Harris. Many of us do. But we can’t trust the outer world. It’s always going to be spinning somewhere or another. It always has been and always will be. Bye. So we can learn to die to ourselves to life. That’s the life that we create through all these images we have, all of how we should be. Oh, I want to present myself to you. I want to present myself to myself. We just let that stuff fall away. We don’t need much. We need a little bit of that. I did call my hair a little bit.
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• Embrace Ego Death for True Awareness Summary: Experiencing ego death, often sought through psychedelics or meditation, allows individuals to transcend their thinking minds and access a deeper vital energy. This state of ego dissolution is crucial for personal growth and understanding, as it shifts perception beyond mental limitations. Engaging in practices that induce this experience can facilitate profound insights and a more authentic connection with oneself. Transcript: Speaker 1 So we took this, we took psychedelics down and we did our Zen prophets way, way back before most of you were born, because we wanted to experience ego death. And if you remember this, nobody talks about it. Ego death, ego death, ego death. All of that was Suzuki, but I want, I don’t want to come sit with him every morning. I’m just going to go take some acid. My friends would take acid and then they’d come sit in the Zendo. It’s true. So ego-death, that’s the type of death that actually occurs in meditation. When our thinking mind just subsides, we think of this deep chi, this deep vital energy that’s beyond the limitations of our thinking.
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