The matter is the matter of zazen. Here is a clarification to you about what zazen is. The question is: what is zazen?
Zazen is a practice, a practice of Zen Buddhism, a meditation practice of Zen Buddhism. It is possible that you know something about zazen, the verbal, theoretical aspect, by reading something about this or listening to a lecture about this subject. I want to talk today about zen, especially zazen, in a close relationship with Spiritual Awakening.
So, the subject with you today is zazen, Spiritual Awakening and Kundalini Awakening.
Let´s see their relationship.
First, I want to start with a little story. The story is told of a Zen master. One night he had a dream and in that dream he was a butterfly flying, seeing the whole landscape in that flight, and his shape was the shape of a butterfly. And the story goes that when he woke up from the dream, he began to cry. The disciples approached and said, "Master, why are you crying?" The monks approached him and asked him this question, and he said, “I don't know who I am. Tonight there wasn't a man, it was a butterfly that was flying. I had no doubt about who I was. In that beautiful flight, I saw everything from that butterfly, and now I am here."
And he cried again... They said, "Master, why are you crying anyway?" He said: “Because I don't know anymore… Am I a man who dreams of being a butterfly or am I a butterfly now dreaming that I am a man?” And he touched his body and said, "After all, who am I?" This is a Zen story.
I want to show you a path to Kundalini Awakening, to Spiritual Awakening, to the Awakening of Consciousness. The direct path to This is the path of Zazen. I do not speak of the practice of zazen, the ritual, ceremonial, religious and philosophical practice of zazen, I speak of the Real sense of Zazen. The word zazen simply means “to sit down.” Just that: sit down. So, zazen means “to sit down.”
It's not sitting down and thinking, it's not sitting down and imagining, it's not sitting down and worrying, it's not sitting down and breathing in a certain special way, it's not sitting down and changing the natural movement of the breath, it's not sitting down in a silent space without any noise so as not to be internally, psychologically, disturbed… Zazen is simply to sit down.
So, let's find out today, in a direct way, here, together, what Zazen is. Here, I will refer to it in a slightly different way. I don’t want to refer to the practice of zazen. You can learn the practice of zazen. This is valuable, this is important, for sure. Of course, you will have to learn some rituals, the specific way of sitting, the position of the hands, etc. So, there's a ritual way, there's a ceremonial way, there's a technical way of doing it, but that's not what I want to talk about. I don't want to talk about the practice of zazen, I want to show you what the practical zazen is. What is Zazen in practice? Zazen in practice is to be seated without the mind, without the past, without the future.
Zazen originated in China. They called it "chan." When it came to Japan, they called it chan, which is zen… zen in Japanese. So, this school of zazen came from China to Japan and took on this name “zazen,” and it refers to this simple thing to sit down. It's just that. Zazen means “to sit down” – to sit down without the mind, to sit down and enter the Void Meditation, to enter the Void, to disappear into the Void, to be… to be the Void.
There is nothing more powerful, nothing more direct to Spiritual Awakening, to Spiritual Enlightenment, than this direct path of Zazen, which is sitting still.
Another interesting aspect of zazen is the koan aspect, which you may have heard of. The koan is a dialogue that takes place between the master and the disciple, and a question without a logical solution is presented.
Now, notice what an interesting thing we have here. Ramana Maharshi, the Sage of Arunachala, worked for over 50 years with those who came close to him as a Zen master. Nobody ever said that! Nobodyhas ever said what I'm saying: Ramana was the greatest Zen master of all time, because he gave everyone the most unique, profound, and simple of all koans. Ramana Maharshi's koan was his prescription for zazen meditation, in his format. And Ramana's koan was "Who am I?"
People came to him and started telling about their problems: “My husband left,” “My son died,” and he remained silent. And when he opened his mouth, he said: “And who are you?” And the person said something about himself, about what he himself believed to be. He would say, "No, I want to know who you are."
So Ramana would prescribe this koan: "Who am I?" So, “who am I?” is a koan! There is no logical answer to this. Each and every answer you have is not real, no answer you have is real to “who am I?” Each and every answer will always be based on thought and will not be dealing with or referring to the Truth.
So, this is within the practice of zazen. But note: Ramana had no such preoccupation, neither ceremonial, nor ritual, nor religious. He gave it to everyone! We are here also doing a work on this level. We are not prescribing ceremonies, rituals, religious practices... We are putting to you the importance of Kundalini Awakening, the Awakening of this Presence, of this Energy, capable of operating a change in the body and in the mind for the establishment of that Real Natural State of Being, which is the State of Pure Consciousness, which some call Spiritual Enlightenment, and here we are calling it Spiritual Awakening.
So, here, some subjects are being put to you, within this speech. I have just revealed to you that Ramana Maharshi was the greatest Zen master in all of history, outside of Zen Buddhism itself.
Our work together is to pay attention to What we are here and now. So I also say to you: just sit down, without the mind. Notice how simple this is, but that carries a depth of extraordinary efficiency. Just sitting down… I'm saying that Real Meditation – Real Meditation as I've always talked about in these meetings – is what happens from this koan, the koan of Ramana Maharshi: “Who am I?” So people would go to Ramana and he would say, "Who are you?" It was like he was saying: “just be still,” as he always said – “Sit down and be still, and investigate this,” just like in Zen Buddhism.
The Zen master presents a koan to the disciple, to the monk, and says “look, here is your koan, give me the answer. Sit down, just go into zazen, just sit down and give me the answer.”
Then the master gives a koan. Now I have just reported here, as well, a story that is actually a koan. The master wakes up at that moment… at that moment, he wakes up and cries. He is giving those around him a koan when he says, “Who am I? Who am I? There was an absolute certainty in being a butterfly and now there is no certainty of anything anymore! What is here: a butterfly dreaming that it is a man or is it a man here that dreams of being a butterfly? Who am I?"
Our work together, note this, is to go beyond the mind, because just beyond the mind is a non-answer, which is the real answer. So, the work of Realizing the Truth of who You are is a work that happens from a change, from a transformation in this structure that is the body and the mind; and this transformation is simple, it is natural, it does not require rituals, it does not require ceremonies, it does not require ascetic practices, it does not require anything! The only thing that is needed is to be still, to sit down and be still. To remain in your Being is to remain still. So, this attention to the movement of the mind gives you the Vision of Reality of the Void.
So, notice: it doesn't matter if it's Hinduism, if it's yoga, if it's Zen Buddhism, there's only one work going on... whether it's kundalini yoga meditation, whether it's zen meditation, the practice of zazen, or the practice of contemplative meditation of the first Christians, the Christians from the first century, from the first 3 centuries… This art of meditation was called “the art of contemplation,” the contemplative state. You look at the image of the saints and realize that their gaze is on a point outside the world. We can see this in the images even portrayed in old paintings, found… they are looking at the Void. It doesn't matter whether the body is literally sitting or standing, but there is this Void Meditation.
So, the purpose of the koan is to put you in this new psychological and physical condition of being, in the Void. This I have called Real Meditation. Unlike meditation practice, I've been calling it "Practical Meditation" and from now on, instead of zazen practice, I'm going to call it "Zazen in practice" - just sitting there, without the mind, without psychological time, without all the confusion that the mind produces.
Do you understand this?
Here I refer to Real Meditation, to Zazen in practice. By standing in that Space which is the Void, which is the Silence, which is Consciousness, You are in your Natural State of Being, and now I am going to call this Natural State of Being "the Real Zen State."
People use the expression “so and so is zen,” “he woke up so zen.” What they mean is that so-and-so is calm, he's relaxed, he's calm, he's not stressed. Is it not that? “So-and-so is so zen today,” that is, he didn't fight with anyone. He usually wakes up “not zen,” so now, today, he woke up zen.
I want to call this Natural State now – I have called it, in the last years, “the State of Pure Being, of Pure Consciousness,” that is what I have called this State –, now I will call it the Natural Zen State, the Real Zen state. And the direct path, which is the Atma Vichara prescribed by Ramana, we have just discovered that this Atma Vichara has, as a principle, a koan: “Who am I?” And we have just seen it, this Zen master seemed to have heard Ramana somehow. Ramana, if he were there, would say: “Is it a butterfly or is it a man? Who are you?" And it seems that he even heard Ramana saying this, and now he asks himself, "Who am I?" Started to cry…
This matter of crying is beautiful too. Few are crying for This, few are crying for this answer, very few are crying for This, very few are realizing they are dreaming. This master is giving us a lesson. He is suspicious of a dream. The bulk of humanity, the mass, the vast majority of people, do not realize that they are in a state of sleep and dream. That is why the expression “Spiritual Awakening,” “the Awakening of Consciousness,” “Kundalini Awakening,” all these expressions proceed, they are perfect!”
The word Buddha, you know, is "the one who has awakened. "Buddha is "awakened." Few are crying because, first, they do not suspect that they are dreaming. The human being does not realize that this is all a dream, he takes everything very seriously. Just like when you dream: you don't know you're dreaming. Not knowing that you are dreaming while dreaming is what the sages call maya.
The human being lives in a psychological condition of internal disorder, of internal confusion, of sleep, of complete hypnosis. Unaware that he is dreaming, he is not disturbed, he is not restless, he is not crying.
Those who are coming to this work, to this work of Kundalini Awakening, of Spiritual Awakening, it is because they have already realized that they do not know, they have already recognized that they really do not know, and they are asking themselves the question “after all, who am I?”
To come across What You are, here and now, is only possible when you cry, when there is pain there. I've been talking to people about the importance of Happiness, but they already say "I'm happy." I have talked to them about the importance of ending ignorance, and they say “no, I have a degree, I have a PhD in Chemistry,” “I have a PhD in Physics.” They don't understand! I'm talking about ignorance about the Truth of what they are, ignorance about them. The question is “who are you?”, “who am I?” The answer to that lies in that encounter with the Reality of your Being, your Natural Zen State, your Natural State of Consciousness, the encounter with your own Being.
There will be a time when you will feel the pain. At that moment, you will be touched by the Power of this Grace, this Divine Presence, this Divine Love, and that is when you are ready to receive a koan. So, at that moment, there will arise – in the midst of these tears, this pain – the suspicion that you are living in a state, in that state, which is a state common to all, in a state of sleep, of unconsciousness. This is the common state of humanity. Unless you wake up and leave the sleep, the dream will continue, and that dream state is the illusion state, which is the state of the sense of ego identity, which is the state of separation between you and God, between you and Real Happiness, between you and Real Peace, between you and Real Love, between you and Real Life.
So, that's our subject here… and that's all.
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