The Awakened Podcast

In this dharma talk we discover Hui Neng's journey of awakening and his understanding of the fundamental nature of mind.

Don't Know Mind is before thinking. Before thinking the mind is empty and clear, radiant and knowing.

Zen is “A special transmission outside the scriptures, not founded upon words and letters. by pointing directly to one’s mind,It lets one see into one’s own true nature and thus attain buddhahood.”

In this episode we look directly at mind and follow the teachings of Bodhidharma and see into the two aspects of mind. This direct revealing is essential for Zen practice. Without it you'll be going around in circles ane be like a Buddha in search of a Buddha.

A student is having a tough time navigating his busy life with family commitments, work obligations and personal commitments to practice. And it seems to be getting more difficult as we go into the darkest days of the year and the busiest time of year for most.

And, this is something that all of us go through right?

Our schedules have to change. The time changes. Our routines change. We need to drive differently. The drive at night is more difficult now.

It's an ever adapting practice. And the practice in general helps us become sensitive to life and how we are connected to it.

From the minute that you wake up to the minute that you go to bed, is this body spaceship, the same?

That's a good way to look at it.

You have a body spaceship.

Traveling through so called existence.

And this body spaceship isn't separate from what we call life.

And this body spaceship is prone to the external elements and the internal elements.

They're all - there's no external and internal but...

But if we see that we have this body spaceship and it's ever changing and it always needs - maintenance, it needs fuel, it needs upkeep.

You know, we can change the decals and the paint job on it right. We try to put in the good oil and everything but it leans to the left. Yeah, and this is just how it is - it’s always - it's always leaning to the left. And that's what we just work with. We just work with that, right?

And that certain times of year, especially right and this was the good thing, and probably something that, not probably, like we have gotten out of, is to be in harmony with the cycles of life.

This time of year, IS to go quiet. Is to go within. Is to go, keep it close with the home. You do less traveling less interactions because it's harder to travel, because the roads are full up with snow and the conditions have changed. So that's why people usually back in the day stored up for this time of year. Preparing for this time of year because they knew sort of in essence had to batten down the hatches.

(This episode is just Abwoon chanted 33 times)

The Christian Mystic path is probably one of the most beautiful and life transforming paths out there. And one of the practices found in it is the chanting of certain phrases - Abwoon being one of them.

They say it’s significant when you “officially” enter into the mystery. That it marks the part that you’ll play.

For me it was Abwoon. 

Was that the beginning or the end? It’s tough to say for sure because Abwoon is all of it.

When we chant Abwoon we help to unlock, unravel and melt into its mystery.

The mind doesn’t like mystery. Doesn’t like wandering. Doesn’t like to get lost.

But this is the thing - you’re never lost. It may feel like you’ve been found but it would be better to say that you - as a frozen moment of time - melted into it - like a river surrendering to the sea. Then you know for yourself that your riverness was not your complete form. You know for yourself the depth and breath and magnificence of the mystery for yourself.

To bind it with a single world like god is heresy and arrogance.

For Abwoon is the full moon in the night sky and the sun rising in the east.
It is oneness, it is flow.
It is being and beyond.
It is time and timelessness.
It is the watched, the watcher and the scene itself. Is the feeling made flesh.
It is the source of all power and the expression of that power.
It is the absolute.
A sea of dazzling light billowing throughout time.
It is the sound of a choir of angels and a child's laugh. It is breath and breathlessness.
It is rhythm and flow and pulse and play.
It is both sound and echo and the ear that hears.
It is the interior of all things and the exterior of every moment.  
Always moving though it itself is forever still.
It is the breath that fills your lungs and travels about the planet.
It is sound and vibration and meaning and gibberish.
Song and silence.
It is the unseen force that binds us, flows through us and all things.
It is the base beingness of every moment, every instance, every beginning and end.
It is that backdrop of everything.
It is energy and power in every form.
It is form and formlessness.

Abwoon is everything.

Abwoon is you.

And now after all this time I know Abwoon.

But this is not the end - this knowing.

Knowing becomes unknowing. Which become knowing. Which becomes unknowing. On and on and on...

And what is it that you think you know anyways?

And who is it that contemplates Abwoon if not Abwoon itself?

Oh the beauty of the mystery.

My heart fills with love and my eyes sting with its beauty.

A beauty that I truly got to know through his grace.

Through all our grace.

Those kindness’s that have been shown to me.

Even those not so kind things have all been love.

Love dancing with love, to the sways of love, to the songs of love and for the sake of love itself.

So sing my beloved sing.

Why do you fear to let forth the song that is written on your heart?

Present it to the mystery as your offering.

I know it will please the one that sent me.

For the one that sent me sent you too.

A student shares the challenges he's facing having his family understand and respect his choice to pursue the dharma and dedicate time for practice.

And this is a challenge that all of us face. Anytime that we're trying to take up anything new in general, let alone while we’re trying to set up Dharma practice, right and carving out, let alone time to come sangha on Wednesday night - let alone time to practice at home. Let alone time to dedicate for reading Dharma texts. For studies. 

Some of the biggest challenges that you will face is from your own family. From the people you love. You're going to start to see the people that do not respect your practice. That do not believe that it is worthy, that it's more worthy for you to binge watch Netflix for the night and to be there for that binge watch than it is to come here for two hours or listen to dharma talks or meditate. This is a fact. This is going to be what we're going to face. 

There's gonna be people in our lives that put down the practice, right? Make fun of it. Get in our face about the practice, right? 

This episode will help you know what to do when you get resistance from your family and friends about your practice and they don't value the dharma like you do.

Can true happiness ever be found? It seems that a student may have stumbled upon something and she shares her insights from her life.

Then zen master e shares a new zen koan and teaching entitled, "What is this?"

Just this.

If every moment is just this - fresh alive and new, and is uncoloured by your bias, uncoloured by your expectations, uncoloured by your hopes, your fears, whatever your barfing all over this moment.

Any moment that you arrive in is beautiful, even when it's a catastrophe.

And any moment that you arrive in, then you are free.

Is there possibly another way that we can help people grow into the best of themselves without being so aggressive about it? 

That we can nurture them and guide them and help them unfold their own beauty and their own strengths that they don't know that are there, because they've been told that they're not good enough, they're not fast enough, smart enough, making enough money, man enough, woman enough, Mom enough, insert whatever you want in here.

And it's never good enough. You finished grade school, now there's high school, you finish high school, what are you going to do? University or college or right. And what's next, and what's next. what's next, what's next. It's maddening. It is maddening.

Next, and next, and next and it's never good enough. When you get to that top of the mountain there's another mountain, and another mountain.

In that world you're never going to be good enough.

Ever.

So stop playing in that world.

In the sense of playing by their games in your mind.

You are good enough.

You're Buddha.

The story that you've been told is, “Go get it all for yourself. Build up a life for yourself. Put up walls. Get everything you can get. Make something of yourself."

What do you mean?

I'm vast open spaciousness, beauty without bounds, love that just seeks love for its own love and its own play and creative display.

Most of the time we reject our lives. We reject and fight with what's arising. But there's another way of living. 

Everyday you show up to your life. Your life is your teacher. Your life is your teaching. Your life is your Dharma Hall. And we show up. 

Try it and see what happens...

A beautiful healing practice bestowed directly from Quan Yin. The Bodhisattva Goddess Quan Yin heals us deeply with her boundless compassion.

In Sukhavati there is the heavenly healing abode of Quan Yin

This realm is surrounded by a soft healing light of white.
Emanating pure radiance

On a high plateau at the side of a mountain
Is the peaceful and tranquil healing gardens of the Great Mother Quan Yin

Peace is bestowed at the mere thought of this land and the Bodhisattva Quan Yin

All things are perfect and at ease there
And everything you need to heal and fulfill your Bodhisattva Vows are found there

We don't believe that we're better for being broken.

We believe that we are flawed beyond repair. We believe that if people would see the truth of who we are that they wouldn't love us, talk to us, connect with us, care with us.

That the story of who we are - we need to filter and post only the best parts. Show the world only the most beautiful moments and those other parts that aren't so beautiful we push down deep. We hide away and we repress and we think that they're gone but they're not. They are not. They are stuck deep within you. Deep within you.

A lot of times in our world, in our lives, wTo live in this world means many things  And one of those things is that we shall be wounded and we shall wound.  We will be hurt by others and we will hurt others  You will not get through this life without being scarred in some way and without scarring others.

Leanoard Cohen wrote and sang, 

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There's a crack a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

Ring the bells that still can ring that harkens to “Yeah - you've been hurt, you've been wounded, there's some pain there but there's still beauty and there's still much more of this story ahead so ring the bells.”

Feel the vibrations
Hear the sounds

And if in that moment those sounds are full of sobs then that's what they are. That's what they are.

It doesn't matter what the world is presenting us. It doesn't matter what a person is showing us. 

When we're in that heart space, there are no sides.

There's just love and understanding and that feeling of warmth and fullness.

And that people are showing up and presenting whatever - fear, anger, worry - we see the truth. 

They show up and we're like, “Oh, hey, Buddha ex-husband. You don't know that you’re Buddha. You're a Buddha! All right - You're gonna keep doing this - being mean or worried. All right. Well I'm gonna keep remembering - for you. I’ll remember, for you."

You're presenting this? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I see you. I really see you.

In this episode we look at instincts, what it means to live a good human life by today's standards and how instincts change once we're on the Dharmic path. 

When we hit the Dharmic path, we start to see how we're ruled by these primal instincts, primal tendencies. And we stop getting bamboozled by them, enchanted by them, dragged about by them, tossed about by them. 

Because when we're at ease…

Say you're on a beach, sipping a mojito, perfect temperature, whatever that is for you. 27.5 degrees, slight breeze, had breakfast…

Feel it right… Feels nice.

Even in this construct, of ease, it's going to take a little bit for you to be a jerk. Right? For you to freak out. For you to have a natural tendency with - somebody spills you your drink - for you to fly off the handle, right?

These moments they give you a little bit of a glimpse of the possibility of the fundamental ease that's within you.

The clarity of mind, the openness of heart, the responsiveness, that's who you naturally are.

But you've never been given the testing ground to allow that to come through.

You're missing it. It's right here but you're missing it.

Life is amazing! Miracles are every moment.

The practice opens us up because it frees us from ourselves.

Because we're bearing down on each moment with our wants, with our don't wants, with our hopes, with our fears. We're never looking at the moment nakedly.

We're always looking at it through a lens, But that lens gets clearer and clearer and clearer.

With each breath you take. Every time that you go and sit on the cushion. When you come here for Dharma talks. When you listen to the podcast - it gets clearer and clearer.

And then natural.

You become more natural.

zen master e answers questions about reconciling old friendships after practicing the dharma, what is identity, the nature of mind and Bodhisattva action and insight.

We may have some subtle biases about what it means to be Buddhists, or practitioners or what it means to be on the Dharma path. This episode will help you to see that your whole life is the dharma.