Thursday, August 19, 2010

Zen Koan August 19th 2010

My favorite Zen type Koan is one that one of my teachers gave me along the way: He said,
"If you want to live forever you might die right now But if you are ready to die right now you may live forever."

This symmetry of this Koan has always worked for me. It reminds me a lot of the native American Warrior slogan, "It's a good day to die."

Yes. It's hard to be brave in life, especially if you are young and have many years (at least theoretically) before you.  There is another saying, "Life springs eternal if you die daily". If you are not a soldier or policeman you may be able to relate to this saying  better. For the "dying daily" here refers to dying to God. On hundreds of nights in my life I wished for death to take me. But what I said to God was always, "If it is your will God I will go on with my life. Show me, God."
And always in the morning I was always reborn as someone new in the hands of God.

The world and the universe is too big for any human to understand with his or her mind. But we can encompass and understand the whole universe easily in one lifetime with our hearts and intuition. I guarantee you this. It is possible to understand everything with your heart and instinct and intuition.
There is nothing really to be afraid of except fear itself. That is the truth.

No comments: