SLC Mtg notes 11/30/10

Doen would like to finish up with the Ox Herding pictures at our next meeting.

5th Ox herding Picture
All of our lives we use our mind. We may question a particular aspect as we don't know how we use our mind. What someone discovered is that there is an area of mind that we don't go into--no thought.  This can happen when we see something amazing or we hear beautiful music. No-mind area is forgetting the self. Our practice is to cultivate that area of no-mind. In our ordinary and analytical mind is where fear is. Getting a glimpse of no-mind is getting a glimpse of no fear. At first this feel like peacefulness; not thinking or worrying. Your are where you are. The Ox is that state: no mind. The minute we start to look at no mind, we look at it with our mind!

Think the thoughtless thought.
As the person is searching for the ox, he is able to suspend the mind: what the ox is is everything. What you see is that you are everything and everything is one thing and no one can describe what the one thing as you have to go into no mind to do it.

Buddha means the awakened one. Historical Buddha discovered that this was the way to relieve pain. 

Zen is the only spiritual practice that uses the scientific method, however, it takes time. It will work but it takes a period of time. We are talking about this intellectually, but there is a gap between this deep understanding. Closing this gap is called practice.

Ocean/Wave theory:
We go through life as a wave. Different shapes. Each wave is different according to cause and effect. However, all waves are ocean. That's what the experience of seeing the Ox is. Suddenly the wave reveals itself to be the ocean; it always was. When you  leave the wave state, you don't leave the ocean state. Wave is the content of the mind, while ocean is the container/consciousness.
A person that begins to understand more and more deeply they are the ocean becomes a wave. And you then realize that you are leaving soon. The practice of the ocean comes from the gut--you don't figure it out. You can stop trying. If you haven't figured it out now, you are not going to. Practice will reveal to you who your real being is.
