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Eudaiku's Everyday Zen Blog

  • Bypass operation for the closed heart

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    06-07-2012

    The closed heart hears all the good advice - "open your heart - feel the love - create loving kindness" - and then the closed heart retires back into the safety behind the protective walls of the brain and the heart's fortress. - To open your heart is not always an easy operation, so here is some advice if you want access to a by-pass operation for the closed heart:

     

    Take a look at the smile of Buddha, the smiles of the ancient Greek statues and the smile of Mona Lisa: The archaic smile - the same faint smile greeting us through the centuries. Now smile to yourself - not the "Say Cheese-smile" of our modern camera-focused time, but the smile of Buddha and Mona Lisa - a faint upward curl of your lips - notice the effect on your eye-muscles and the effect on the muscles in your neck and throat - did something happen to your breathing when smiling the Buddha’s Smile to yourself? Take a few moments to smile to yourself and notice the muscles in your throat and neck, the muscles in your abdomen and your stomach and the muscles surrounding the center of your body at the level of the heart - try to follow the smile on its journey into your body.

     

  • The anatomy of letting go

    02-01-2012

    Letting go of old stuff is not an easy discipline - Letting go of old quarrels, old sorrow, old attachments. How do we actually do this?

     

    During a meditation-evening we talked about the art of letting go - If we look at the process of letting go, what elements does it consist of? If we sliced the "letting go" up in small slices, what would the different elements be?

     

    In the beginning there is nothing but anger, sorrow, defence, remorse, attachment - whatever the dominant feeling is.

     

    If you are doing a spiritual practise, you might even put another layer of quilt on top of this one - why am I not able to be more forgiving - why can't I let go? So you weave another web of emotion on top of the first situation.

    Now we have served ourselves a menu of guilt - Guilt as entree, guilt as the main-course and for dessert: Guilt Flambé.

     

    So how do we cut our way through these webs of emotion?

     

    In stead of starting with the original situation and ending up endlessly going over this situation in our head and in our memory, we could start by looking at letting go of our second web of guilt - if we develop a little understanding and compassion towards ourselves in our "stuckness" and acknowledge where we are, maybe we will be able to introduce some movement into the stalemate situation. To me being stuck is a lack of movement - a lack of movement of thoughts, ideas and emotions.

     

    To me there is also a secret ingredient involved in the pr

  • How will you be?

    05-12-2011
    To be or not to be - That is that the question?
     
    Most of the time, we do and act out our different roles in life: I am a jurist, a mentor, a coach, a supervisor, a mother, a wife, a woman, a father, a husband, a man.
     
    We are driven by our ideas and thoughts about what to be - looking ferverishly for the label that fits - may-be I will feel more authentic ,more myself, if I were a therapist instead of an accountant?
     
    What would happen if we started looking for ways of being instead of looking for what to be.
     
    How will you be?
     
    When you are in a state of being - what state is your mind in?
     
    Are our minds emanating confusion, restlesness, frustration, anger, remorse, revenge?
     
    How will we be if our minds emanate friendliness, calm, nearness to others?
     
    What place will the Earth be then?

  • Letting go of the day

    05-12-2011
    Today has been a difficult day - nothing worked out the way I wished for - And now December-darkness rules Copenhagen.
    I thought I was going to write something nice, smart and Zenny about capturing the moments of joy and meaning of a December-monday in Copenhagen. Instead I am writing about how to let go of my expectations of a more "interesting" life when focusing on everyday Zen.
    As I sit here writing I feel the letting go of my idea of "a special Zen-day" melting into acceptance - acceptance of this day with all its small disappointments. This "letting go" is not a very conscious process - maybe thats the grace of letting go?

Everyday zen brings us closer to ourselves, the Earth and the beings we share our time on Earth with