SuZen YinZen

Ancient Steps to Mystery . . . and the Nonsense of Sense or Order

It’s only human beings and their need for orderly minds that would have the audacity to assume that the Universe can be ordered and structured.

Maybe, maybe not—there is no seeming “sense” in the chaos-order-cycle of Divine Consciousness played out in our Cosmos, and of course by the Mother of Existence—Nature. But what I say here might explain a little of why I teach both Yoga and Zen, and why I guide you in this way: I prefer to say that I don’t really teach you, I guide you . . . it is Love that teaches you.

Nonsense of Order

It may seem a bit nonsensical in our seemingly ordered, logical and linear world that we could jump into something as vast as self-realisation through At-one-ment with the Ultimate Mystery in maybe only 10 minutes of meditation, as we do in our zen practice and definitely as we do in our YinZen SoMa practice. But Yoga has been described as a many threaded tapestry, all threads of which ultimately lead us to our Union, Samadhi . . . and on this Ancient path, we learn that the sacred place is where we are, and what we are doing is opening our spiritual vision to see our life in that way. This is a path of practice that is further than the Yoga that many of you know: and it carries with it the roots of Zen . . . which is why I’m a multi-dimensional teacher.

As I teach it, Yoga is the practice which enables us to live with Divine Communication in our lives . . . or the zen of divine presence in all things.

“It’s only human beings and their need for orderly minds that would have the audacity to assume that the Universe can be ordered and structured.”

Initiation and Transmission

In our practice of yoga meditation we follow ancient steps taking us from self-acceptance to the necessary inner peace and balance for our conversations with the Divine . . . Yoga, your Union with the Divine . . . Yoga as we know translates as “union” or “communion” but it also means discipline—the discipline in our practice. So we’re bringing a form to our meditation practice through discipline . . . the path which leads us to the At-One-Ment, or transcending to the mystery. Yoga also means “to bind”—it is what your Soul is “bound to” or your Bliss. And it is a process of initiation, opening and growing our consciousness individually so that the vastness of the Ancient knowledge can be transmitted to us. Because none of this is orderly just for the sake of pacifying a human being’s day-to-day mind, and most of the time “making sense of it all” is a futile path.

Simple Practice

Simple practice is important: so, for example, practice in breath flow through the subtle bodies, our Koshas, and perhaps with an ancient centering meditation, as centering brings us into the balance we need to open awareness of consciousness, and the inner peace we need for our Conversations with God/Goddess . . . keeping the channel for Divine Communication open. I teach you the ancient centering meditations in the Initiation process of Membership, and I call the 100-day process The Eye of the Daughter of the Moon—an “unclustering of the living mind”.

“It’s a process of initiation, opening and growing our consciousness individually so that the vastness of the Ancient knowledge can be transmitted to us.”

Contemplation

And, for contemplation, mainly for Westerners not familiar with this from the Upanishads, Ancient sacred Indian Spiritual texts, there are a few lines here which I’ll leave you with:

A Reading From The Upanishads

I do not know god

nor can I say that I don’t know it

If you understand the meaning of . . .

“I neither know nor don’t know . . . “

you understand god

Those who realise that god cannot be known

truly know

Those who claim that they know

know nothing

Namaste, Suzen

You can Donate to support the Teachings! Everything helps!

The SuZen YinZen blogs are published on New Moon and Full Moon every month . . . to get notification directly into your inbox, scroll down to bottom of the page, enter your email address and hit subscribe . . . looking forward to having you with us! Namaste

3 Simple Steps to Growing Spiritually Every Day

We’ve just had the Autumn Equinox and it’s a changing point the year, here in the Western world . . . and this year we have a powerful eclipse season following the Equinox. For the world, I feel this is meaning the very end of the Age of Pisces, the end of the era of dominant religions, Patriarchy and Saviour/Messiahs. This blog is the result of my insights into how much a year can change your life . . . and this year really is the first year for the growth of the individual and our enlightenment through our own integrity and handling our own issues . . .

Simplicity and grounding will be key . . .

Simplicity and grounding will be key, I feel, and so my suggestions below are for those of you who’d like to evolve and grow on a daily basis throughout the coming year: may the buds of your Buddha-hood open and blossom.

But, first a bit of a story: I was living in Saltaire, Yorkshire (UK) in the mid-90’s, intensely into my Yoga and Meditation training and dreaming of the day when I could be independent as a Meditation Teacher. I had made my bathroom in my apartment very soothing and beautiful. I had a few Meditation “clients” coming on a regular basis. By 1995 I had found a few simple ways to incorporate zen into my daily life. And I had been given a little book for xmas 1994 – Daily Meditations for 1995 by Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov.

I put the little book in my bathroom, made a lovely bookmark, and started 1995 with the intention of reading my meditations every morning for the year so that I would be the sincere and dedicated student my teachers deserved. I resolved to grow and evolve steadily and patiently and to look back through the book every two or three months to assess my progress.

What I didn’t expect was that everyone who visited me in my apartment during that year, was enjoying doing the same thing! I got used to people asking if the bathroom was free as soon as they arrived and disappearing for 5 minutes or so quiet time on their own . . . .

Before I give you my 3 simple insights for (almost) effortless spiritual growth, I’d like you to know one very important and fundamental thing to guide and support you on your path of development. And it is this: Your teacher, guru or your master knows you are not neurotic. Your teacher knows that all you have to do is sit . . . . meditate, sit in stillness or contemplation, practice with honesty and integrity and your Buddha nature will awaken—your Divine self will shine through. And you must be sincere in your practice, for you do not come to your Guru on your ground . . . you come to the teacher or Master on his or her ground. And they will allow you to have evolved a little more every time they see you. To become your own Master is your journey to maturity and freedom.

So, 3 very simple ways to grow and evolve on a daily basis.

Read daily inspirations: Choose a source of inspiration that you can draw on consistently: you could follow one or two poets—my suggestions would be Rumi, Pablo Neruda or Kahlil Gibran.

Give up one weakness and grow one strength every day: You were born with wisdom. You are a being of energy. You were also born with “shadows”. Your shadows are your weakness or neuroses—we all have them. You can consciously take control of your self and keep moving from the shadow to the light by strengthening the good stuff and letting the weaknesses wither away and die.

This practice takes a few minutes contemplation every day and keeping a journal helps to see what makes you feel bigger than you are and what makes you feel smaller.

An example of wisdom energy would be: having a profound sense of spaciousness; and the opposite weakness would be: getting very absorbed in a small world. Another wisdom would be: seeing the big picture and having a largeview; and the corresponding weakness would be: being rigid and tight and dogmatic.

Give up one expectation—especially about relationships—every day! As you now know, you are a Buddha with the potential to awaken, and not a neurotic to your teacher in Zen as long as you are sitting in Meditation regularly. Your friend, “other” partner, lover etc is also a Buddha . . . give up one expectation in your relationships every day and give the people in your life the respect your teacher gives you in allowing them to have evolved a little every time you see them.

So, I’ll leave you with this thought: evolving and growing spiritually creates magic in our lives, so that we can know the miracle of setting ourselves free . . . and here’s one of those Daily Meditations I told you about to set you on your path for the coming year, . . . enjoy!

“Knowledge must be lived if it is to remain with you for all eternity.

The only thing that will not disappear, the only thing that you can take with you into the next world, is the knowledge that you have proved for yourself in your own life; the knowledge that has become an integral part of your being.”

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, Daily Meditations, February 19^th 1995.

Namaste, Suzen

You can Donate to support the Teachings! Everything helps!

How Goddess Came Calling on Zen . . . or, the zen of tomorrow

I want to tell you today in my Virgo New Moon blog about the influence of the Tao on Zen . . . and how “The Regarder of the Cries of the World” became a Goddess: so, as I say it “Goddess came calling on Zen”.

This is part of my continual teaching on the roots of Zen and Yoga: both growing from the same source of ancient teachings in India: Tantra—and part of my initiating you into an understanding of how zen has always changed with the culture, because culture changes zen. “Culture” is Dharma, or the Way . . . it is both what culture needs of us, and what uncovering our true selves brings to the Way: our blossoming.

“The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms.” Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

As Zen travelled through Oriental Asia with the patriarchs in Ancient times, at around the Buddha’s time, mysticism, deeply rooted in the ethics and discipline of Yoga and India, merged with the spirit of emptiness of Buddhism, the mystery of the One-ness of the true nature of the Tao—the way of Heaven that permeates and guides everything—and the earth-iness of Confucionism,the way of Earth, into a deep spirit that is Zen . . . the Way.

As the Bodhidharma, Buddha’s follower, taught, everyone has a buddha mind that’s part of the One-ness and which is uncovered in meditation: there is no hierarchy or superiority and anyone can become a Buddha through meditation’s transformation. The foundation for learning Zen, direct transmission, mind to mind with the teacher, became the Spirit of Zen.

Korea’s greatest Zen Master, Chinul (1158 -1210) taught that there is a sentient intelligence within each person, the principle behind seeing and hearing: the individual mind, the buddha-nature. This principle is what makes it possible for human beings to become enlightened—human beings are capable of using all aspects of their intelligence for enlightened living. Each has its place in the grand scheme of buddha nature.

Master Chinul also taught that all external sign-oriented phenomena are invitations to experience a truer, deeper understanding at the absolute level of wisdom: in other words, as we say, in meditation a solitary person can open their heart and mind to signs from heaven which show you the way to living from your wisdom mind. The path of enlightenment is here and now, through symbols and words, as well as through experience.

And, experientially, by the time Zen reached Korea, via China, the mythical Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara had changed gender. By now the god had become a “she”.

Myth and Culture

That the Gods of Yoga could be both male and female, and there being no sanskrit male/female pronoun for divinity in India, was a strange concept when Buddhism arrived in China. But as usually happened with myth in culture, benign deities could be easily assimilated, and so when the Buddhists imported statues of Avalokiteshvara to China, the Chinese didn’t have a tradition of bisexual gods containing all the divine male/female energy of creation, they understood the figure to be female. He/she became the “Goddess of Compassion” Kwan Yin, and “The Regarder of the Cries of the World” in the Zen tradition became “she”. Goddess had come calling on zen.

The Yin and The Yang

There is an ancient Taoist story of the separation of the yin and yang, which seems to be an origin for the Tao version of the Avolokiteshvara myth, The Regarder of the Cries of the World, and it’s about the origin of The Cry: tens of thousands of years ago just as humankind was beginning to be able to think, we were also beginning our separation from the One, in order to evolve and develop. The Yin and the Yang separated and the pain of separation was expressed in the deep cry of the heart of mankind—a hunger and a yearning. In the story, our cries are always heard and our yearning to return to the whole is watched over with great compassion. And in order to return to the whole, we must learn to surrender our thinking-mind back to the One Reality, consciousness.

The early Chinese Zen patriarchs were well versed in the Chinese classics, and they integrated Zen with the accepted philosophies of China, particularly Taoism. Each of the patriarchs contributed in their own way to integrating Buddhism and Taoism to form the uniqueness that is Zen: Taoism sees all phenomena in the world as yin and yang opposites, whilst Buddhism views all as emptiness, and Zen blends the two in the “vast Great Way that is neither easy or difficult” (Zen Master Seng-ts’an).

As usual, Zen changed with the culture and the culture changed with Zen.

Caring for the Whole

And so, compassionately and non-judgementally, caring for the Whole and all the while watching over the innumerable, countless numbers of humanity, the Goddess/God of compassion had made her way through India, through the lands of the Tao and Confucious, to Zen in Japan and, in listening to our cries of hunger . . . to us in the West. Namaste, SuZen

“My teaching, writing, and Spoken Word anthems as the artist SuZen, is about dedication to practice. “As founder of SuZenYinZen, I’m delighted to be your teacher and guide during these exciting times in human existence: a time when we are so close to a new dawn of re-balancing our world—and my aim is to teach simply and with inspiration and hope. Practice may not be easy, but it’s the only Way for some of us.”—SuZen

You can Donate to support the Teachings! Everything helps!

The YinZen Way . . . Peace in Chaotic Times

There are 2 schools of thought about how we ought to be in life . . . one of them has definitely been very popular, and it’s dominated human thought in society for many hundreds of years, even if not thousands . . . you could call it an effect of the Matrix. And that is, that it’s all to do with the survival of the fittest: you’ve got to be tough and strike out before somebody strikes out at you—you better be on the defensive and you better look out at every turn for trouble, guarding against people who want to take advantage of you. In fact, just keep your barriers well in position.

And then, there’s the idea that you can give and keep giving, that you can be generous and that you can be kind: you can forgive and “turn the other cheek” and do all of these things that often it seems only the most holy and saintly people seem to recommend. But a lot of them—saints—seem to come to a sticky end, so that’s not a lot of an advertisement for the belief that “kindness matters” is it?

Or, is it?

Motivation by kindness

It’s not just a philosophy. It is the idea that somehow if you find kindness in your heart and let yourself be motivated by that, letting that manifest in your world then you’ll be a better person. It is a fact. It’s a reality.

And the idea that somehow you’ll be a pushover, or you’ll be walked all over, with other people only noticing how quickly they can get what they want from you and just going ahead taking “it” unscrupulously, is neither here nor there. It’s the same kind of principle that says, if you’re angry with somebody and if you can’t forgive them for something then you hurt yourself far more than you hurt the other person. You are the one that carries that great emotional knot of hurt inside yourself and for your own sake you have to let go. Even letting go of the things you have a justified right to feel bad about is important for your own inner peace.

Or, rise above?

And so it is, I suppose with this whole idea that if you do your best, if you give of your best, think the best of others, then somehow it will bring out the best in them. It is what happens, and it is an important thing to be aware of now, right here and now particularly because so much seems to be growing so intense in our lives—so many challenges seem to be arising and there are so many difficult choices we seem to be facing all the time. Choices like “do I over-dramatise this” or “do I find the fault with it” and “do I get on my high horse and allow myself to rage against unfortunate circumstances” . . . or complain, fight battles, the list goes on. Or, do I somehow just rise above it all?

Which is not to say that if there are injustices they shouldn’t be addressed. Or that imbalances shouldn’t be redressed. Of course they should. Of course you’ve got to function. And of course part of functioning in the daily world is part of being aware that there are some battles you just can’t walk away from. But even battles that you have to be fighting, you can fight with kindness and you can fight with gentleness and some sensitivity to the person who’s on the other end—who probably doesn’t want to fight any more than you do. That’s the most important thing to be aware of now: where it seems we’re up against antagonism or conflict or a contentious issue, what you’re actually up against is somebody else’s fear.

Where you can bring pleasantness to a situation that seems relatively unpleasant, you can actually bring down a barrier that looks as if it’s inpenetrable.

Divine forces at our disposal

The forces you do have at your disposal now are charm, gentleness, sensitivity and kindness: even politeness. They are the forces of the Divine Feminine. Bringing them into play channels primal force as a means of change in our world: focusing Shakti energy as a force for change. These are advantages we can draw upon because of our world emotional climate at the moment and our collective need of humanity for balance and harmony. It’s the Zen “way of peace”, and I call it the YinZen Way—and it enables us to bring forth what might seem like almost super-human qualities. They come from within ourselves, because our true selves are our god-like selves, transcendent and human at once—so “super” and “human”.

Give peace a chance?

What’s wrong with that? Maybe the time has come for us all living through uncertain times and seeming world chaos to just give it a go, or “give peace a chance”? Let there be light, let there be hope, let there be happiness—we activate these elevated vibrations through living in our virtue, through radical devotion to practice. Let there at least be an attempt to bring all of that into our individual unique personal world: and you could be amazed by what transpires around you now, transforming you in the process.

Goddess is calling you

I talk all the time about us having a “calling”. But how do you know that Goddess is calling you?

She comes in your dreams and visions, making her presence in your life known. And also you might feel drawn to a region or part of the world, and you can’t explain it . . . this place can be a starting point for your journey, as has happened to me. And animals, as messengers of Goddess, you start seeing a lot of one particular animal in a way that’s not usual for you.

But in your dreams, appearance of Goddess energy can be strange, strong and not at all subtle: with messages actually spoken in words, or you are told Goddess’s name as has been my experience so I could research it . . . you might see an image or a book—listen and pay attention to all of these.

Goddess wishing to work with you can make approaches through your meditation—as is our practice of being open and receptive—when we’re open and connected to Source, more easily receptive and open to energies and messages.

As I guide you, Goddess is a cluster of virtues that you open your consciousness to, and direct your life-force to, bringing these primal energies down here and now because you act as a channel for hope for Humanity’s future advancement.

Namaste, SuZen

You can Donate to support the Teachings! Everything helps!

No Soul Left Behind

For this New Moon in Leo blog, August ’23, I took a Tarot reading in order to ask for your guidance. This is part of the message and guidance for you and all of us as a Tribe:

Energy:

Intuition and a lot of work, time and investment going into an uphill battle . . . this is certainly the current outcome of my energy over the last 30 years! The outcome of this energy is a well-earned, unconventional wisdom: a wisdom that is not known to many . . . truthful but not obvious [you could also read that as “hidden”]— resulting in finding something valuable. And we can interpret that as “the jewel within”, as I teach you, leading to a growing excitement.

A Gathering coming together:

This gathering adds to the growing excitement of finding an unconventional “treasure”—a “hidden” treasure that is triggering a radical change. A trigger point for Transformation. A “Pooling-together” of resources and wisdom.

This means much to me, as my destiny as your teacher is to distill the wisdom of the Ancients and make sure you know of your “Divine Child” identity. This is powerful. Almost like “Master-minding” resources and wisdom, gathering all together and joining collective power, intention for care, our light-shower energies: joining all of this to gather a power from the group that forms at the center—at a focal point.

And so it becomes one larger, more powerful energy. And with “No Soul left behind” . . . Namaste, SuZen

My “Genius of Nature” Dedication for you: Within your own nature you have genius of Nature . . . “Attention with Divine Focus on your mind, and the Source of your mind—learn its nature and it becomes the diamond faceted jewel which reflects your own Buddha Nature: changing forever the way you perceive our World . . . mind becomes pure, strong, clear and beautiful—capable of changing our future radically.” SuZen Follow the link below for “New Here” if you haven’t started your daily practice yet.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: