Short Story: The Zen moment
By emptychair
@innertalks (23736)
Australia
May 29, 2022 3:55am CST
The old Zen master, Gerdler Zerloksku, was talking to his students about the idea of the present moment, or now.
He said to them that the Zen moment is the moment of Zen.
Without Zen awareness of the moment, you are not actually in the moment, but in your thoughts instead.
The master said then that the greatest moment of your life is this present moment, and even in death, you do not lose it, as your soul lives in it constantly, but your body and mind live from time, so until you live as your soul, in your mind and body, you are not in the present moment.
The Zen master then went on:
"Now someone as illustrious as the Buddha, said this:"
'"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."'
"But, he was wrong."
"Our mind can never concentrate on the present moment, as it can never know the present moment. It, like your body, and brain, lives within time. Only your soul awareness brings you also awareness of this thing that we refer to as the present moment."
"Believe me, and you will then turn each moment into a Zen moment, and then you will be in your moment of Zen, then too."
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
Be in the moment. Be you, your soul self now.
We are a soul having a bodily experience, not a body having a soul/spiritual experience.
4 people like this
2 responses
@Nakitakona (59987)
• Philippines
29 May 22
The moment is no moment in itself when there's no time on it.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23736)
• Australia
29 May 22
And yet, some think that a moment is outside of time, when time stops still for a moment that we are in, and so time just moves from one moment to another, but each moment keeps its roots outside of time, but blossoms within time, when we live it from time, but from outside of time, at the same time.
In the Christian Bible, in the book of Acts, chapter 1, verse 7, says this, though:
'Jesus said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority."'
And so, this would imply, that even God follows some type of a timeline, but his time, is different that our time, so time is relative, but a moment is always a moment, either for God, or for us.
The Apostle Peter agreed that time is relative, when he said this, in 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 8.
"But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."
@Nakitakona (59987)
• Philippines
30 May 22
@innertalks Yes, it's the Lord that sets the time. And that time is too different from the humans.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23736)
• Australia
30 May 22
@Nakitakona Yes, God built our world in only seven days of his time, so his time must be different than our time.
@innertalks (23736)
• Australia
29 May 22
That line has been said in various ways before.
I have heard it said that, we are not a physical being, having a spiritual experience, but a spiritual being, having a physical experience.
The line cannot be that old though, as it appears that the Buddha had not heard of it, by his remark, as made there, about our minds.
"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience."
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, (1881 to 1955) the French philosopher, and author, was quoted as saying it like this too.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23736)
• Australia
30 May 22
@Shiva49 On the other hand, to differentiate like this can cause a divide sometimes too.
We shouldn't undervalue our human experience because we are thinking that really we are spiritual beings, which trumps our human experience.
Our human experience must be more important while we are living it in one way, as we are living it for real, more really.
Most self-help armchair philosophers tell us to be our real selves.
Most people interpret this wrong.
They want to be their real self as a human, and so they forget about being their real self as their spiritual being altogether.
The Australian tennis player Ash Barty, gave up tennis, because she was thinking that her real self was not just as a tennis player. Actors change roles because they do not want to be typecast either.
Our real self is way above anything that we think that our real self might be just within our bodies, though.
@Shiva49 (28377)
• Singapore
30 May 22
@innertalks That quote of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin drives home the point loud and clear.
We need to believe in the long term rather than to finish here in a hurry and be done (to hell) with it.
A quote attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” “Finish each day and be done with it.
Having a spiritual outlook gives us a meaningful take on our experiences here. Otherwise we are just skimming the surface hardly doing justice to our innate talents.
1 person likes this
