ZEN | Honora Zen Monastery

ZEN eliminates confusion and is not a way to teach. It is the unmoved mover, the living word, the sword of wisdom, which brings to life and kills with one stroke. In ZEN people often meditate with paradoxical questions (Koan, Hwadu). These are statements or actions of the Master. They consist mainly of questions that are presented in the form of anecdotes.

Zen & Logos - The word that awakens my soul!

Zen Meditation with these paradoxical questions 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”

When the great Zen masters came into action, they were like galloping dragons and charging tigers: heaven and earth turned, and nothing could stop their revitalizing people. They never dragged themselves through the muddy waters of emotionalism and intellectualism.

In the beginning was the Word, and the living Word was with God, and the Logos was God. If you understand that there is no way to say it, then you should know how to say it, because in the beginning was the Word. (Zen Master Pohwa Sunim)

Active Zen Meditation

The elders worked hard for the great cause. Their determination is indeed worthy of respect and they served as an eternal role model for later generations. When you place your body on the meditation bench, it is nothing other than silencing and emptying the mind and exploring with your whole being. Just clear your mind and thoughts and calm down. A good place for active Zen meditation is in the midst of confusion and restlessness. When you meditate actively, you have to push through the ups and downs without leaving anything out. The entire being appears finished before you and no longer arises from anywhere else.

It is simply this one great potential that turns gently and steadily. Why talk more about “worldly phenomena” and “enlightened truth”? If you maintain an even balance over months and years, your point of view will naturally be true and solid. You will experience the realization of how water is poured into water, how gold is exchanged for gold. Everything becomes balanced in a Suchness, deeply clear, real and pure. This means knowing how to live. Just don't give birth to a single thought: let go and become crystal clear.

As soon as there are any ideas of right and wrong, of self and others, and of profit and loss, do not follow them. Then study in person with your own truly enlightened teacher. If you do that, what concern is there that this work won't get done? You have to see it for yourself!

ZEN - The Gateless Gate

Since time immemorial, those with great knowledge and enlightenment, once they have been able to penetrate the Supreme Zen, have been like swift falcons and hawks - riding in the wind, shining in the sun, with the blue sky behind them. They went straight in and freed themselves completely 24 hours a day as their knowledge permeated everything in every direction, coiling up and down, capturing and releasing. Didn't even live at the level of a sage, so how could they be willing to stay in the ordinary current? Their hearts were washed clean and they embraced both the present and the past.

They picked up a blade of grass and used it as a golden body, and they picked up the golden body and used it as a blade of grass. For her there was never a better or a worse or a grab and a reject. They were just full of life and rose to the occasion. Sometimes, when guiding learners, they took away the person but not the world, sometimes they took away the world but not the person, sometimes they took away both, and sometimes they took away neither. They went beyond convention and dogmatic boundaries and were completely clear and free.

Grounding

For the sake of this great teaching, the ancients gave up their bodies and their lives and endured endless immeasurable hardships and toils until they thoroughly understood its profound, essential message. They treasured it like a precious jewel and guarded it like their eyes. They worked diligently on it and never let it be taken lightly or tarnished. As soon as the slightest hint of special understanding appears, it is like clouds casting a veil across a clear sky, like dust darkening the surface of a mirror.

By forgetting the conditioning mind and cutting off the conditioned consciousness, you arrive at the true realm of suchness in practice. You have nothing in your head and no understanding of things. You are equanimous and free from artificial actions, transcendent when you carry on alone. Only those who walk on the ground of reality can help people by resolving sticking points and breaking ties. They free everyone, even if there is actually no one who could be freed. You have to use the last word. Then they will have a way out everywhere and in everything.

Be indefinable - Zen as mystical wisdom

For students of mystical wisdom, recognizing the true nature of things, awakening to the true pattern, and following in the footsteps of the saints and sages is everyday eating and drinking. You should be aware that at the top of the head of enlightened adepts there is a miraculous opportunity to “change the bones” and transform your existence. Only then do they transcend conventional categories and denominational boundaries and behave like a transcendent person, so that even great Zen masters would have no opportunity to use their blows and screams on themselves.