by Daniel Doen Silberberg | Aug 19, 2012 | Uncategorized, Zen

Looking back over these seventy years and more
The human world of good-and-bad
completely dissolves before my gaze
A late-night snowfall blurs
the footsteps of the last passerby
I light a stick of incense
and sit and meditate beside my old window
Ryokan
How many years I spent parting the wild grasses
to penetrate the inmost depths
Then suddenly I understood my teacher
and came back to my native place
You go there and come back again
Yet everything remains the same
Cloud’s covering the mountain summit
Streams flowing by your feet
Ryokan
Trying to change into someone or something else
is unnecessary
Changing into oneself
Is practicing the true Way
Looking for meaning misses the mark
Finding the world of non-meaning
Is attaining the true Way
Doen
by Daniel Doen Silberberg | Aug 4, 2012 | Uncategorized, Zen

Our practice is about seeing things as they really are. Seeing reality. Seeing things as they really are is true intelligence. This seeing includes our view of ourselves, our world and the relationship between them. By removing the blinders of emotional and intellectual conditioning we can gradually see reality clearly, that is, just as it is. So we can say that Lost Coins’ practice is the practice of reality.
In order to look at this practice of reality in a systematic way, we can divide it into three basic aspects: the spiritual, the psychological and the scientific.
The spiritual aspect comes from seeing the depths of who we really are and the wonder of knowing that like infinity, it is ultimately unknowable.
The psychological aspect consists of developing objectivity, seeing our mechanical conditioning and in congress with the spiritual, freeing ourselves from introjected patterns which stem from ignorance, habit or negative emotion.
The third aspect is scientific, like physics or behaviorism. It is the study of the cause and effect of our actions. The study needs to be accurate. It took a long time for people to understand that no matter how many rams, cows or first born they slayed it did not deter the plague or famine.
Real intelligence is both intellectual and emotional. When our practice develops, both clarity and empathy evolve. Fear recedes.
It is my sincere belief that in practicing with these understandings, Lost Coin can create a culture of practice that is appropriate to this time and place and the emerging intelligence that is the future.
Ready?
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