Natural Way of Meditation

Natural Way of Meditation

People are inherently enlightened.

People are happy as they are.

You cannot pass the truth of existence to people by teaching them, nor can you see it by being taught.

You can realize the truth of existence only through your own real experience.

I have repeated this many times in this blog.

I have also talked about some ways to realize it.

This time, I’ll explain its very essence, the “Natural Way of Meditation.”

I gave it that name myself.

There might be other meditation methods with the same name. They’re probably different, although I wouldn’t mind if they were the same.

The Natural Way of Meditation I propose is a method of doing nothing that requires no effort. I think it is the most natural method.

First, switch off your mobile. Turn off your home phone, or put the answering machine on.

Sit on a soft floor cushion, a sofa, or an armchair.

Sit in a comfortable position that doesn’t create tension.

Seating in the seiza position (with your legs under you) or in the fold-legged zazen posture is fine, but if you feel your knees or legs tense, then sitting cross-legged is better.

Don’t lower your head too much, or you will have clouded thoughts and also become sleepy.

If your head touches a wall or the back of a chair, you will be concerned about the area, so keep your head apart from surfaces.

Close your eyes. You may practice meditation with your eyes open once you are fully used to it.

Just be here and now, as you are, without doing anything.

Simply observe sounds that reach your ears, thoughts that come into your head, emotions, and sensations of the body, as they are, without analyzing or criticizing them.

When it comes to “observing,” you may think that you have to concentrate. Just relax however, because concentrating means tensing up.

If an analytical or critical thought appears following an emotion or thought that comes to your mind, do nothing but watch the thought as well, just the way it is.

Our brains are always divided by conflicts that arise between facts and thoughts, such as “it’s supposed to be this way” or “is this OK?”

The conflict is very subtle, but causes tension and a feeling of uneasiness.

The conflict itself prevents us from seeing the bare fact.

The thought that “it’s supposed to be this way” or “is this OK?” is also a fact happening here and now all the same; accordingly, watch the thought as it stands.

Thinking that it should be removed adds another thought: “it’s supposed to be this way.”

You therefore only need to observe everything happening here and now, as is.

This is exactly the truth of here and now, the one and only truth; there are no other truths.

Realizing this fact will bring you great peace of mind and sheer bliss.

You will then find complete silence.

Moreover, you will know that this silence is your true self.

Everything is simply happening in complete and utter silence.

You will see everything—the sound of a refrigerator, a voice, the sound of a car, a thought in the head, an emotion, and sensations of the body—happening in complete silence.

And you will realize it is everything happening that is silence.

Everything is one.

There is no inside or outside.

There are no boundaries.

There is no self; there are no others.

Here and now lacks nothing.

Everything is just happening.

Everything is perfect.

How to see your self properly

How to see your self properly

The Self-seeing Method is the practice of simply seeing thoughts (ideas and emotions) that arise and then fade away, as they are, without any criticism or judgment. You can do it in your everyday life, just like watching scenery, for one to three minutes (or longer when you get used to doing it).

The purpose of this method is to realize the following: it’s the “great being,” not the body, the thoughts nor the emotions that is exactly what your true self is; and your true self exists permanently, without death or harm, under any circumstance.

Once the above has been clarified, you’ll be free from all suffering.

The Self-seeing Method is an excellent practice anyone can perform easily.

This is why I recommend this method to many people, some of whom say they can’t do it properly.

Asking them how they do it, I find that most people seem to do it the wrong way, based on assumptions or preconceived notions.

The preconceived notion is to see thoughts while being conscious that it is “you” that are thinking these thoughts when they arise.

That is to say, the concept of “yourself” is attached to thoughts that appear, right from the beginning.

For this reason, people see thoughts in such a way that makes these thoughts almost equal to the self, which prevents them from seeing at a distance.

The fact is that thoughts simply arise from nowhere, stay for a while, and then fade away into nothing, in the same manner that white clouds appear on their own in a blue sky, stay there for a while, and then fade away into nothing.

However, because people unconsciously take it for granted that “I” am thinking so and attach the idea of self to thoughts that appear, they cannot clearly define their true selves apart when seeing these thoughts from a distance.

You do not personally create white clouds, and neither do you create thoughts, likewise. Thoughts simply arise by themselves and then fade away.

When you see white clouds in the sky, the clouds and the self that is seeing them are clearly separate from each other.

When you feel pain in a part of your body, the pain in the body and the self that is seeing it are obviously separate, as long as you don’t have the preconceived notion or assumption that the body is “me.”

The point of the Self-seeing Method is to realize the wrong assumptions, “my sensations” and “my thoughts,” and simply see the sensations of the body or the thoughts arise, stay, and fade away by themselves, just like watching the scenery.

If a thought arises, followed by a critical or judgmental thought regarding the first, the only thing you should do is simply see the latter thought.

World of truth and world of illusion (part 2)

World of truth and world of illusion (part 2)

The world of truth is laid bare here and now.

This crude reality is exactly what the world of truth is.

Separate individuals or your self are nowhere to be found in reality.

Life simply manifests itself in various ways.

There’s no good or bad.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t think something is good or bad.

Thinking something is good or bad is neither good nor bad.

Originally, there’s no good or bad. I’m just stating the fact.

In short, the world is merely happening beyond every (good or bad) thought, every (sad or happy) emotion, and every notion or concept.

The world is thus complete as is with various things happening (there’s a limit to what words can express).

Everything is just happening in this completeness.

This doesn’t mean I’m saying you should do something, or you don’t have to do anything.

In reality, it’s a very simple world.

Complete freedom, serenity, and joy are here.

It’s really easy to enter this world because you’re already here.

All you have to do is admit it: “Oh, so this is how it is.”

For example, quitting smoking is said to be very difficult.

That’s because people take it for granted that their life won’t be enjoyable without cigarettes, which they absolutely need, and so they try to suppress their desire to smoke.

Even those current smokers should readily understand that smoking is not necessary at all, if they can recall that they never originally needed to smoke in the past.

So, no desire to smoke occurs. If you don’t feel like smoking, you don’t need any suppression or effort to keep you from it.

As described above, in order to quit smoking, you only need to realize that everyone is a nonsmoker by nature.

Likewise, you have only to realize the idea that the existence of individuals and your self is an illusion.

Humans aside, animals have no sense of individuals or self.

When we were babies, each of us never had an idea of individuals or self. As we grew up in this society where people firmly believe in separate existences, we automatically came to have this sense.

It’s actually easy to realize that there are no individuals or self.

Without a pressing awareness of the issue however, you might end up understanding it only intellectually.

That’s not the way to do it.

Anyway, it may be that humans are designed to need to tread a paradoxical path, unlike other animals and plants.

Nonetheless, realizing the truth is such a simple thing because that’s essentially how it is.

The truth of existence is here and now, in a truly simple manner.

World of truth and world of illusion (part 1)

World of truth and world of illusion (part 1)

The world of truth is the world of “life.”

Only life really exists; nothing else essentially does.

This is one inseparable world where life weaves various tapestries moment by moment.

There is not a single thing separate, nor is there an “individual,” or a “self.”

Humans have a cerebrum (brain) that can only think relatively, perceive through the five senses, and recognize the world as a patchwork of individual things.

In other words, humans tend to be deluded that countless individual entities exist, one of them being themself.

Conversely, if you see the world of truth assuming your self exists, then it looks like a mixture of separate individuals.

That is merely the world of illusion, however.

How can we see the world of truth?

The world of truth becomes visible once the sense of self disappears and blends into the whole.

Humans aside, plants and animals have no human-like thoughts, and human babies have brains that are still developing; they live in a straightforward manner in the inseparable world without a sense of self.

Actually, at the instinctive level humans also live in a straightforward manner in the inseparable world of truth, independent of the brain and the sense of self.

You can observe this fact instantly from the various instinctive functions of the human body.

Humans are aware of the world of truth not only through the body but also by instinct or somewhere beyond, while perceiving the world as fragmented by their brains.

Even though the perception is an illusion, it is also true that humans live in the world of truth, including the illusion.

This is because nothing leaves the inseparable world of truth.

The only fact is that it feels somehow unsmooth.

Nonetheless, that is also a manifestation of life.

Perhaps, life manifests itself in a human way with some kind of intention.

How does the sense of self disappear and melt into the whole?

That is unknown.

One cannot say when or how because it just happens when it does.

It might be triggered by meditation.

It might happen when you reach a literal dead end of something.

It might happen while you’re walking casually in an absentminded manner.

It might happen while you’re washing the dishes in the kitchen.

Still, it is not that the world of truth exists somewhere.

The world of truth exists here and now.

Here and now is the world of truth.

It’s never been separated.

In the world of life, everything is complete as is and everything is fine beyond thoughts of good or bad.

Accept people’s feelings

Accept people’s feelings

In the world, it seems to me that quite a few people are apparently happy in their own ways, but have actually suffered over time from problems with someone in their families, such as their parent, child, brother, sister, husband, or wife.

In addition to family relations, so many people seem to suffer in friendships, or even interpersonal relations with colleagues, bosses, subordinates, or neighbors, for example.

Above all, troubles with family members are particularly distressing because of their close, inseparable relationships.

Although people try not to care about it as often as possible from day to day, they never really have a clear frame of mind: the trouble stays in the back of their heads constantly.

They are sometimes forced to face this fact and can’t help having the sense of despair each time.

I imagine many people live their lives without hope of ever solving the problem.

It’s such a waste to live this way.

Actually, the people who think so the most are those in question. They feel more uncomfortable the more they think about it.

Is there no road to a solution?

You might say, “In my own way I think I’ve done my best, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

I think I fully understand the feelings from my own experience.

But still, I mean, I’d like you to reflect on the following questions for this reason.

Isn’t it the other person you blame for the problem?

When the other person said something you didn’t like, didn’t you instantly judge them and refuse what they said? Didn’t you think they were saying something weird? Something wrong?

Didn’t you jump to conclusions, thinking they meant something else, without trying to grasp, to the uttermost of your ability, what the other person really meant?

Didn’t you say what you wanted to say first without trying to hear the other person out, or even if you didn’t say anything, didn’t you want to?

When you listened very closely to the other person and they really were saying unreasonable things, didn’t you blame and judge them for that reason only?

Did you try to accept feelings of the other person when it was hard for them to avoid saying such unreasonable things?

Troubles over personal relations are not caused only by either one or the other person, but by both people in most cases.

A source of trouble is not attributable to a single person one-sidedly.

Have you tried your best to sincerely accept the other person’s feelings of wanting to say such things, instead of judging who is right by reason?

If any of these questions are hitting home, can you overcome any reasoning about who is right or wrong and sincerely apologize to the other person, at the earliest opportunity, for always refusing their feelings without trying to accept them?

Do you want to live your life, forever prolonging the problem with this person so close to you?

All good!

All good!

We have seven cats in our house now.

One of them is an approximately one-year-old female cat called Chibi. It means “tiny” in English.

Actually, she is blind.

She was able to see things normally up until about three months after she was born, when she suddenly contracted a viral disease (like a cold) and became drastically debilitated.

Believe it or not, both her eyeballs fell out.

She recovered miraculously at the absolute edge of death.

Her other body parts still function normally, and she walks around and sleeps relying on sounds and smells.

Although she seems to vaguely feel light and shadow, she’s lost the ability to see things.

When she was small, she didn’t know where the cat toilet was, so we held her and took her there whenever we caught wind of it.

Only recently, she’s learned to be able to go by herself.

She seems to know roughly where we feed the cats.

However, she tells us by meowing when she wants to be fed because she’s usually somewhere else.

Every time it happens, someone brings her to be fed.

She can’t live without our help.

On one occasion, we suddenly found that she’d disappeared. She was nowhere in sight in the house.

She’s gone outside the house without anyone noticing.

Once she goes out by herself, she can’t return home.

We split up and looked for her all day, but we couldn’t find her.

She may have strayed into the forest because our house is in the mountain and there’re few houses around.

Miraculously, we found her sitting on her own in the middle of the path about 300 meters away from the house next day.

She was safe.

If she had been missing for any longer, she would definitely have been dead within a couple of days.

I think I’ve given you an idea of what Chibi is like. Every time I see her, I think:

“All good.”

She has no sight.

This fact doesn’t make her lack a single thing, however.

She’s complete as she is.

Chibi is blind. So what? Are there any problems?

The same holds true for you.

And that’s all good.

Do it right away

Do it right away

When I was a child, I never used to readily get things done, even if I knew I should do them.

Against my better judgment, I used to postpone my school homework for quite a while, finally starting it at the last minute.

When it was over, I couldn’t help repeating the same sort of thing even though I ran into trouble each time.

These tendencies lasted until I was 26 years old, though one day I learned the knack of giving up my habit and sorted things out.

Come to think of it, human psychology is really troublesome.

For example, you might be thinking, “Whichever way I look at it, smoking is not good for my health. I want to quit. I should quit.” But then again, you end up thinking “I’ll stop someday before I get sick. But I’ll keep smoking until then. Anyway, I’d rather not to stop now.”

The same applies to thoughts such as “Drinking too much alcohol or eating too many sweets or too much meat isn’t good for my health, so I should quit.”

In addition to this, the same is true when you dilly-dally and put off things to do from day to day, like I did with my homework.

Getting rid of bad habits is also the same.

Even though you know for sure that you should do something right away, you can’t help but postpone whatever it is, thinking to yourself, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

Then tomorrow comes and you put it off again, thinking “I’ll definitely do it tomorrow.”

And you end up putting it off until the last minute and start it in a rush.

Rushing often leads to mistakes.

Sometimes, in the end you might not even complete it on time.

In the case of cigarettes, alcohol, and food, it is highly likely that it will be too late, and you may be prone to serious illness.

Such mentality represents what is known in psychology as “procrastination.”

I cordially advise you, from my own bitter experience, to severely reflect on how much you might be impairing your life by putting off what you absolutely think you should be doing from day to day, if you think this may be the case.

At the same time, one of the root causes of procrastination is that even though you think you know that you should do it and you have to do it, you may be lax about considering it deeply.

Another root cause might be that procrastination has grown into habit.

So, the most important thing to do first is thoroughly determine what will really benefit yourself and everyone else.

Next, thoroughly discern how foolish procrastination is for the things you think you should really do.

Then be resolute, put it into action right away, and keep it up, without being chained by any preconceived ideas.

In this way, your life will dramatically change for the better.