Zen Meditation Center – Honora Zen Monastery – Zen Master – Retreat – Switzerland – Mysticism
Zen Monastery - The Phoenix must die, so that it can rise again!
Grüezi and welcome to the unconventional, rustic and small Honora Zen Monastery in Switzerland. A place of meditation in stillness and fullness so we can examine life and death wholeheartedly. Zen and Mysticism meet, so to achieve a truly meaningful and responsible life and to discover the Logos again.
Life & Death is the great matter, be awake because everything is transient and passes quickly, time waits for no one. A thousand paths lead to the gateless barrier; once through and you are free from life and death.
Dear Son, Dear Daughter; it is not the path of convenience but the path of Sacrifice. The Father doesn't want words, but actions and evidence.
Zen eliminates confusion and is not a way to teach. It's about the breakthrough from the I to the SELF!
Monastery - Church in one's own mind and God in one's Self!
After ten years of training in Japan and Korea, the Honora Zen monastery (Latin for honorable) was founded by Zen master Reding in the happy year of 2016. It is intended to be a place of inner fullness and silence for those seeking the divine spark within the self. In the search for completeness and meaning, the Zen monastery is a refuge for all determined people. Our family tradition is to find “Church in one’s own mind and God in one’s self.” A traditional teaching of self-cultivation, long forgotten by many in the East and long lost in the West.
ZEN - Mysticism & Religious Experience in a Fatherless Time
Zen: Religious experience and mysticism in a fatherless time. It is the living core of every religion, in which the only thing that matters is practice - religious experience, realization. And here in the West, religious experience has the language of Christianity. This way we can find our father again and free him from the belly of the beast. It's not about proof of God but about experiences of God! The Logos - The Word that awakens my soul!
Koan & Logos - Breakthrough from the I to the Self
The LOGOS, the unmoved mover, the living word, the sword of wisdom, which brings to life and kills at the same time. The word that awakens my soul to life. Zen meditation with paradoxical questions (Koan, Hwadu) aims at a breakthrough of a consciousness limited by the I-form into the non-I-like self. An experience of religious transformation and a mystical experience, with its preliminary stages consisting of “letting go” and “emptying images and ideas”.
Meditation - Humility & Voluntary Sacrifice - Respect
As soon as one has the courage to completeness of the soul (voluntary sacrifice), life and death will take on a meditative and religious character. The center of one's own life becomes more and more conscious and attentive. However, in the search for completeness we often get off track and pursue the goal of perfection. Perfection is the tyranny of the mind that should be avoided at all costs. In this regard, the feminine (anima, chaos) helps the spirit to constantly practice humility.
Meditation Stay - The Fire Phoenix
MEDITATION is very difficult in a fatherless and respect-less time. We are aimless, divided and are feeling lost. Meditating means first penetrating your own shadow and then diving into the deep, chaotic and dark source. Take a deep breath and think the unthinkable. Sit like a mountain and penetrate into the depths of the deep so that your true self awakens. Then the fire phoenix can rise again from the ashes with its thousand-colored plumage.
Monthly Zen Retreat - Encouragement
The Zen retreat (meditation week) takes place every first week of the month. It is very important for the Zen student to practice the strenuous practices of the predecessors. Nevertheless, today many ignorant brothers and sisters ignore such an important matter; They forget the efforts of their predecessors, waste valuable time and are just proud to stay in the monastery. What a sad thing! You who practice in my monastery, study diligently!
The Mountain Week - Through Death to Life!
Seven days count as one! Mountain Week takes place twice a year to commemorate the enlightenment of the saints and sages. During this week we will not lie down and devote all activities to meditation. Concentrate carefully until the doubt that has arisen is broken so that you can jump out of the cave of life and death and experience the spirit that those before you have experienced. If you can achieve this, you will enjoy your own emancipation and be able to thank the saints and wise men for this gift of excellent teaching. How can we spend our lives without experiencing this excitement? Study hard! Study hard!
Meditation in the Cemetery - Living & Dying
Public meditation takes place in the cemetery twice a year (spring and autumn). The cemetery offers a striking contrast between life and death to meditate on the true self. The cemetery is a place where many people feel a meditative or even spiritual atmosphere.
Counseling - From Heart to Heart
Understanding our role in the world means recognizing the attainment of wisdom as our goal and setting out to achieve it. Zen master Reding is available to give you life advice. If I know where I want to go, I can find out where I stand. How can a frog in a well know the vastness of the blue ocean? How can a baby fox understand the lion's roar? If we take refuge in the truth, we will be able to have a righteous life.
Ritual & Ceremony - Prosperity & Meaning
Ceremonies mark an important phase of life or an event so that one can consciously enter into the new responsibility with the change. Baptism (welcome), coming of age, parenthood, wedding, blessing, vow renewal ceremony, midlife and funeral. As you are born into the new responsibility, you transcend the past, the present and the future. They transcend both time and space.
Online Meditation - The Battlefield of Wisdom
Welcome to zen master Reding’s online meditation. Every Monday at 8:00 p.m. (45 minutes). Sometimes we sit, sometimes we listen to the master, either way, it's always together. Give up jealousy and meditate. With an absent mind, not thinking about the approach of death, caught up in such senseless actions, returning empty-handed would now be complete delusion. What is needed is to recognize the truth in meditation. So why not practice the truth right now?
Zen Pilgrimage - Step by Step
The two-day Zen pilgrimage in Switzerland takes place twice a year (spring and autumn). Step by step towards the goal. The four big elements break apart. The eye and its visual object move away from each other. Do you know where they are going? After discovering your destination, you reach the jeweled palace. Do you have any of these gems in your own home? Faced with these six thieves, you'll need the courage of a frontline soldier.
Almsround - Homeless & Homeowner are in Harmony
Almsgiving or begging is an important part of the maintenance of the Honora Zen Monastery and exchange with the community. Not everyone has the determination to completely sacrifice their life and death to the search for wisdom and truth, so it is a great opportunity to thank the monks and nuns for their efforts.
Return - God literally means "I AM HERE!"
What the saints and wise men in West and East have sought and expressed since time immemorial is this absolute “I AM HERE”. The now, the moment, it's the feeling of being in the right place at the right time. We always want to know where we belong. But in a fatherless time we are aimless, divided and alienated from our own true selves and are lost. The search for the true self without rank and name begins in this I-AM-HERE.
ZEN WARNINGS - Nothing is free!
Following rules and regulations means binding yourself without rope. Acting spontaneously and without restrictions is diabolical and heretical. Paying attention only to the interior to purify it and disappear into silence is the false Zen of silent glow. Anyone who arbitrarily ignores causal connections falls into a deep pitfall. To abide in absolute clarity without darkness is to carry a yoke of chains. To think of good or evil is to be in heaven and hell. To harbor ideas about God and the Way is to sit trapped in two iron mountains.
To immediately become aware of the emerging consciousness is to waste your mental power. Simply practicing concentration while sitting quietly (Zazen) is the work of the devil. Anyone who strives forward misses the core of the matter. Anyone who goes backwards spoils the path. He who neither moves forward nor backward is a breathing corpse. Well, tell me what you want to do? Make every effort to achieve complete enlightenment in this life! And don't stay stuck in your misfortune forever!
Properties Wanted - Monastery & Family Life
The balancing act between monastery operations and family life is not always easy to master. The Honora Zen Monastery and Zen Master Reding are looking for a new home in which both are more spatially feasible. Such as a former hotel, monastery, farmhouses or similar properties.
Dear Honora Zen Monastery,
I wanted to thank you for the Zen retreat from last week! At the beginning I had no idea what to expect, which was the whole point. Therefore I'm happy that even if I asked what's next, you just responded: "step by step". Furthermore, I'm not used to waking up at 4am, but it's incredible how you get used to things. The hike in the snow was challenging, but I am proud I made it. Now I understand what you said about physical exhaustion helping to meditate better and be more in tune with yourself. Stacking the wood was also a long process but satisfying after seeing the result.
The exceptional experience of this meditation week also has a lot to do with your entire engagement, from the 1-1 talk we had the first night and all the different discussions on the hikes, plus during the break.
Please keep doing what you are doing; it brings so much to the people who are willing to do the work to understand themselves better. Learn to accept the inevitable and be conscious of our own death. I remember we talked about the different phases of life, which really spoke to me. The Phoenix has to die; die thoroughly and to the core to be reborn in something new and powerful. The dying process can be excruciating by letting go of the old self, but it's the only path to enlightenment of the new life phase.
So now I'm back to the "normal" life, but I will not forget this experience.
All the best,
Nicolas
Dear Father Reding,
I would like to thank you and your family once more for letting me experience the intensive meditation week. A lot was new to me, and it was all the more important that I had to / was able to leave my comfort zone.
Unfortunately, nowadays a lot of people give up all too often and much too early, but it's always worth fighting and persevering. You went through and experienced this yourself in the Honora Zen monastery, but never gave up.
I think your attitude towards the family is brilliant, although today unfortunately we almost only see the opposite.
Thank you very much for your guidance.
Stefan
Trinity - In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
Our Father who art in heaven, blessed be your name. Your kingdom come to us. Your will be done, as it is in heaven, so also on earth. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us in temptation and deliver us from evil. Amen (So be it!)
NB: In men the animus (the masculine) is larger relative to the anima (the feminine) and in the woman it is vice versa. So it's about the animus in both genders.