Time Out – Meditation – Since you can clearly see the path, you should make a firm decision to move forward quickly!

Welcome to the Honora Zen Monastery in Switzerland. The monthly meditation week offers you a break, time out meditation and peace.

Contemplation - time out meditation

If you have to go somewhere on a dark night, it is very difficult to clearly see the path in front of you. They do not know whether the path will consist of mountains, deep ravines, swamps, thorn forests or rocky ground. One by one, you may have to encounter and traverse each of these difficult terrains. But if you don't stop and walk carefully all night, eventually the faint light of dawn will appear in the east and gradually grow brighter. When the sun rises, the path becomes clearer and the difficult passages become easier to overcome.

Wisdom  - Tranquility

It is similar when practicing meditation. Whatever difficulties you face at the beginning, you should learn to endure them all. Whether you are plagued by wandering thoughts, overwhelmed by sleepiness, or aggravated by pain in your legs or back. You should never let them distract you from meditation. If you persevere uninterruptedly, your firm hold on meditation suddenly appears as a wide and limitless path before you. Since you can clearly see the path, you should make a firm determination to move forward quickly. Now, while maintaining a firm grip on meditation, you can confidently allow the mind to be as it is.

In due time, your original nature will shine as brightly as the rising sun. As you ponder the question, you should be as serious as someone trying to put out a fire burning on his head; like a thirsty man looking for water; like an infant who thinks of his mother's breast; as an old man worried about the extinction of his line; or as a cat intent on catching a mouse. How great is our despair when we cannot find safe refuge and find ourselves completely lost and disoriented at an intersection?

Zen Order of Switzerland