If the Global Consciousness is going to make a leap shortly, as we’re expecting, we as teachers are here to say you will be making quantum leaps forward in your own consciousness—and we are also here to say: “ . . . cope with it by doing this and this and this . . . “
This blog 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.
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“At a time when the world seems to be at a loss, rejecting past values without being able to establish new ones, Yoga is the most valuable inheritance of the present. It is the essential need of today…..and the culture of tomorrow…”
Swami Satyananda
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We can each one of us only ever be of the generation we’re born into. The culture of tomorrow in our world will be experienced by each generation differently. For myself, I see this experience of tomorrow in helping shaping the new culture, the new values. Practice for many years has proved to me and other teachers, that the values of practice, time and dedication work for us very beneficially.
Lao Tzu said: “I have only 3 things to teach: simplicity, patience and compassion – and with these 3 you can go a long way.” As a teacher, I think I too have only 3 things to teach: meditate, exercise the body-mind, live simply.
My own appreciation of the qualities of my own generation and the teacher I’ve become as a result, has brought me to conclude that a quantum leap in our consciousness as human beings is probably more imminent than we think; and it will change our thinking entirely. However, the generation that will change this world vastly for the future will not be mine, nor the parents of the present, but the children. Only they have the minds that are capable of evolving to be able to think of new solutions for our future.
Personally, I’m shaping my values for the culture of tomorrow by believing that I’m here as a teacher to teach the children well, and to teach their parents and assorted grown-ups in awareness to guide them. And of course, as ever, here for the new wave of aspirants and hungry seekers of consciousness.
I hope the following will uplift and inspire you on your path:
When asked by Alan Watts what his Yoga was, Joseph Campbell replied: “My Yoga is underlining sentences in books!”
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Sheldon Kopp: “We must live within the ambiguity of partial freedom, partial power, and partial knowledge of life . . . but every so often it all seems so worth it.”
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I like this from one of the astrologers I’ve followed since the ’80’s, Jonathan Cainer: “ ‘The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms.’ So said philosopher Lao Tzu, who lived a long time ago by our standards. But by the standards of the Universe, he was here just a moment ago. Time takes on a very different meaning if we stop to think about our existence in relationship with the Universe as a whole. So does hope. And happiness. “
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I’m precis-ing Deepak Chopra here: . . . countless generations have cared deeply for the future of the world that you now experience, and it’s now up to us in turn to care for the future of humanity.
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And, Dainin Katagiri says: “Zazen is to realise exactly who you are. This is all you have to do. You will know true peace and tranquillity. This helps not just you but others as well. Just experience zazen as perfect harmony – harmony that must be shared with all beings.”
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And finally, the Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, he replied: “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”
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Oh God
I have discovered love!
How marvelous, how good, how beautiful it is! . . .
I offer my salutation
To the spirit of passion that aroused and excited this whole universe
And all it contains.
Rumi
Susan’s note: Sources: Swami Satyananda Saraswati: Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha; Sheldon B. Kopp: If you meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him!; C. Alexander and Annellen Simpkins: Simple Zen; Dainin Katagiri: You have to Say Something; Deepak Chopra: How to Know God.
My teaching— writing, and Spoken Word anthems as the artist SuZen—is about dedication to practice of Zen, Meditation and Yoga: it stands for spirituality, understanding, Zen, energy and nutrition through practices: we live daily and simply with zen, YinZen, in the imminent experience of sacred feminine flowing through the mystery of life.
“As founder of SuZen YinZen, 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 I aim to teach simply and with inspiration and hope. Practice may not be easy, but it’s the only Way for some of us.”
Western Civilisation is at the end of its life-cycle . . . even though our enlightened leaders—whether spiritual or political—are advocating “progress” as the way forward out of the mess we’ve landed ourselves in: we could call it “The Matrix”?
But, progress only means a “better” version of the reality we’ve got at the moment . . . and being attached to progress only means being held back by ideas, beliefs and patterns that are dying, or at least past their “sell-by date”: current ideals of progress actually would mean that to engage with the concept is to be depending on acceptance and approval from the “thing” we’re trying to change . . . the Matrix. Progress is not radical change.
Think about the story of Gulliver’s Travels
A normal person with all his love of adventure, culture and abilities finds himself washed up on a beach and having been tied down by hundreds of tiny occupants of this unknown place. You can think of seemingly enlightened authorities tying you down with hundreds and thousands of tiny ideas, rules and expectations to keep Western Civilisation in “progress” mode. But all these tiny ideas, rules and expectations have been born out of dead culture, outworn social norms and unworkable energetic intentions: is this reminding you of the Matrix and its energy?
Now let’s think about the difference between “progress” and radical change.I don’t know, obviously, how aware you are of social revolution in Europe: well, at a time when peasants had to move from rural communities and villages to become city dwellers what happened was Bio-Social-Psychic change. The peasant of medieval Europe, so let’s say the 16th century, who under the pressures of the new type of national organization was transferred to the state of dweller in the metropolis of a large modern nation, had to experience a change in the character of his relationship to other men and to all kinds of factors in his new environment. This was radical change.
So, now think about transforming a way of life for Humanity on a Global level and what radical change would entail. The change from the national-cultural Western consciousness to an all-inclusive global or planetary participation in a world-society can certainly be expected to be as drastic as was the change for those medieval peasants.
But let’s back track a little . . . how did we get into this mess? The Matrix had a use: chaos doesn’t happen in a vacuum, nothing changes in a vacuum . . . our Universe operates an ordering system, a collective pattern.
The Womb of our Development
Just as we need a material womb under natural conditions for our growth as an embryo into a viable organism—a baby—our society and the culture constitute a “Matrix” which is needed for the early development of a mind. A mind, your mind, is an organized “field” of conscious activity operating according to functional principles of its own; but these principles obviously, inevitably have firstly a social-cultural character. And this early developing mind needed a “womb of development”.
Consciousness appears within the holistic field of activity of our human organism once its characteristic operations have become stabilized, structured and formed into a mind: but it represents another level of activity, and this new level can acquire a definite independence from the organismic field—our independence from the Matrix means developing awareness of “We”, a higher spiritual level of “I”, our collective Humanity Being, or the Humanity Soul.
So, we need the collective . . . or rather we needed it to develop and evolve us, and it also holds and nurtures us to a degree, a limited degree: because what I’m saying to you here is that the Matrix is the lower collective, and those of us able to live and function at the level of the “We” consciousness are tuned into the higher collective—as I’ve said, the Humanity Soul.
Once we leave the womb and draw our breath, we’re already on the path of developing our highest potential.
Evolving and Growing
As we’ve read in the story of the peasants and their need to change which led to transformaton of society and culture—and this would be 500-ish years ago in Europe—our consciousness started changing, it had to change. This abrupt change in consciousness meant that “we” as society were psychologically buying into the concept that the development of the Matrix was Western: starting with the changes in society and culture that led up to the Industrial Revolution, and most definitely pre-development of the North American culture and subsequent society, with its very dominant traditions in our world today.
Dominance is the issue . . . when certain ideas and behaviours are approved of because they make a society “work” then we as individuals are bound by unspoken, psychic rules and mores making sure we’re accepted and approved of: bringing us security and stability. Whatever thoughts, ideas, ideals and behaviours dominate, “cluster” in our minds as we develop and grow to maturity as individuals. Think about your ideas on money, for example . . . where did they come from? Are they healthy, or a bit confused and messy emotionally? Quite probably your money mind-clusters are mixed up with your society’s traditions on status and ownership, or your family’s expectations of education and work/career. These are not straightforward thinking habits, but they’re part of the unseen glue that fixes you in your place and time . . . to whatever is dominant at the time you grow to maturity.
Guilt . . . if we can’t measure-up, adapt and survive?
What has been dominant for the last 2,000 or so years is Patriarchy, or male domination in our world . . . and I’m going to say a better term to use is probably dominant weak masculine energy. Remember I said the Matrix is the psychic unity of the lower collective of Humanity? It’s not psychic unity at its highest vibration of Spirituality . . . and Patriarchy is certainly not the highest spiritual vibration of masculine energy!
When collective masculine energy is weak, feminine energy is weakened: suppressed and undervalued. So, many of us today sense we’re living with the negativity of the Matrix. I sense it, because of the Mother Wound. The Mother Wound describes a cluster of maternal abandonment effects that derive from “under-mothering”, from generational neglect or abandonment passed down as a result of weak feminine- caring-nurturing energy in our maternal lines.
One effect of Mother Wound is guilt. I also sense many, many people today are shouldering guilt because we can’t measure-up to Matrix expectations . . . leaving us with unspoken mind-clusters around adapting and surviving.
This is not a healthy mix. It’s certainly not a strong mental or emotional foundation for building a future for our world that needs new ideas, new thinking, spiritual growth . . . and spiritual audacity: balance.
Blame?
It might surprise you to read what I want to say here now that “everything is not bad about the Matrix”.
While we as individuals have been evolving from the peasant culture of medieval times to successfully functioning in our demanding world today with all it’s expectations of us, the Matrix does actually support us—until we realize we need a bigger life, with more growth and less dependence on small, rigid rules . . . less of having to develop our individuality while still experiencing new personal energies to emerge. Our society and culture, wherever-it-is, has acted like the womb we needed as the embryo and that is definitely not “bad” . . . but we’re grown up now, and realizing we need radical change in the way we live our lives causes us to need a different, bigger, higher perspective for our growth.
We’re here, right now and change is happening as humanity evolves, and some say “metamorphs” . . . this is not “progress” we’re experiencing but a call to those of us who can, to live a transformed life.
So, in living with zen, we don’t forgive . . . there’s no need for forgiveness because we’re all living in one-ness—each of us alive on this planet today is collectively growing a new consciousness for Humanity. There’s nothing to forgive, because there is no blame.
Living with acceptance and bigger spiritual vision is all the healing we need: compassion is vital. And, as I always say, zen is a sublime healing.
No solution . . . only an antidote
Where are we now? In a mess . . . but we do know we’re moving forward, as Humanity, into a new age with new thinking and people willing to be enlightened about being their own masters, having self-mastery and living their own truth.
The reason why I say there is no “solution” to the Matrix . . . is, because what we’re talking about here is a complex of psychic bonds that hold us together—the “glue” of ideas, beliefs, behaviours, cultural traditions, thoughts, hopes and dreams of our families, ancestors, heritage, unfinished business from past lives and the karma we’re living through from past group-think and national identity.
There is no solution to how the Matrix affects our lives . . . only an antidote. The “Maya” is the substance-less-ness of the Matrix: illusion . . . there is no solution to illusion.
In the tradition of the Eastern Wisdom Paths to Inner Freedom, the antidote to the Maya is Upaya: Upaya is the opposite of Maya. It’s a practice, we practice in silence—in the Mauna, the silence, which grows our brain power—and it’s an expedient or convenient way of sending illusion into the Void. In the Void, our guides, guardians, angels, ancestors and our higher being nature will take care of neutralising Maya . . . dismantling the Matrix and its psychic bonds.
The strong mind of Zen is important here, and the practice involves a lot of “ignoring” and not being bothered. Inner peace is essential: it leads to acceptance—we wouldn’t be here, here and now and evolving the way we are with so many people opening up more and more to their spiritual practices, especially meditation, without having had the Matrix as strong dominant and dynamic energy challenging us. And we are here now, living our own truths more and more, in a reality that can support us if we let it, in awareness and with the inner strength that peace brings us.
I have 3 steps to teach you leading to peace with Zen: detach and see with the eyes of your Soul, go into “don’t know” mind, and most importantly live with loving action in your heartspace. This will allow you to let go consciously, letting go of the effects of the Matrix, visualising them in any way that suits your mind, and letting the Void take care of it . . . trusting we’re all evolving in the most positive way possible and for the benefit of all.
And go slowly, taking time and being patient in your practice is essential . . . unclustering your living mind is a delicate process, and your mind is important to all of us.
As we say, “all is well” . . . Humanity will be okay as long as we “hold the space” with faith.
. . . we need a new “womb” to evolve in for a rebirth . . .
My sense is, it’s almost as if we need a new “womb” to evolve in while we metamorphose for a rebirth . . . because we’re just not ready yet for a rebirth of Humanity. I hold that simple image in my mind and in my heart constantly, and not only in my meditation time, and I affirm that we have infinite potential for our rebirth.
Change . . . and I mean radical change
Detaching from the illusion of the “reality” the Matrix has manifested, means no longer buying into the concept that “progress” is what we need . . . we recognise the need for radical change: remember the medieval peasants in Europe and how radically their lives changed?
What this means is that we change the way we relate, change our own perspective and move on. And changing the way we relate can be as simple as not reacting to negativity that doesn’t suit you, or toxicity that affects you in hidden ways.
For example, I grew up in a toxic family and when I was old enough to I moved away, focussed on my education and then my calling and self-healing, and I haven’t spoken to many of them for over 20 years. That’s how I changed the way I relate to them . . . I ignore them, and I got very good at ignoring.
And as we change the way we relate, for those of you having followed practices in the Eastern Wisdom Paths to Freedom—Tao, Zen, Yoga, Mindfulness—don’t get confused here with our Western needs and the Eastern needs to conform to cultural norms which formed their need for ego-less-ness: that could just be another mind-cluster that deadens your living mind. Our Humanity rebirth in the West probably is going to depend on us forming a new spiritual identity, with accelerated Spiritual Vision.
Retracing my own steps . . . on the path to being unbothered
To guide you to a place of healing, I’ve retraced some of my own steps here: going back through what helped me and teaching you what I learned on the path:
One of the most important virtues we need to live consciously, practising and living with zen in our lives, and with a lifestyle as vegetarians or vegans, is compassion. We may need it by the bucketload in going through the changes we face during the next few years: without compassion how can we possibly thrive?
A very small insight: This week I’m practising the short contemplation in “listening to the cries of the world” a way of opening up to compassion with a pure, kind heart: acknowledging that we can all hear the hurt in the hearts of all human beings. You sit quietly and let the cries in.
This practice comes from the zen concept that “the Regarder of the Cries of the World” is always present and listening: in the journey of Zen from India to Japan, by the time Zen reached Korea, via China, the mythical Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara had changed gender. By now the god had become a “she”, Kwan Yin the Goddess of Compassion.
Humanity’s heart is broken—I like the way Lynne McTaggart says it: we’re suffering from unrequited humanity . . . in her book The Bond. My own insight today is that humanity has also given itself a big headache, but then that’s been building for centuries.
Spiritually we say our breath “touches and opens our heart”, then we thrive.
The Regarder of the Cries of the World: Humanity has a broken heart, a hunger and a yearning. In the myth of this name, our cries are always heard and our yearning to return to our Source is watched over with great compassion by the Goddess Avalokiteshvara. Practising a short contemplation in “listening to the cries of the world” is a way of opening up to compassion with a pure and kind heart: acknowledging that we can all hear the hurt in the hearts of all human beings. You sit quietly and let the cries in.
“Lao Tsu: I know this to be true for I have looked within myself”
A Spiritual Practice
This is a simple daily practice in the video : opening up to our noblest of qualities with the Spacious Heart Meditation.
After a month long period of working on creating a new spiritual zen and yoga program, focusing on teaching gentle breath awareness has been wonderful . . . and mainly because awe and wonder come as always in remembering and entering into the beginner’s mind, as we are continually supposed to as zen teachers.
Personally, I love the concepts of Buddha Nature, Nirvana or the Bliss State, the stillness of the Ultimate Mind of the Divine which accepts us totally—and the Mother of the Breath which breathes all of us and breathes life force energy into us. One breath, One mind.
We can live for quite a long time without food, water or sleep – but our life is cut short quickly without breath. With breath we connect, we nourish, we flow and we find peace. Spiritually we say our breath “touches eternity”. We thrive.
Lao Tsu: I know this to be true for I have looked within myself
Air can be the finest tonic to the soul. And Ayurveda in its practice of elements, guides us that air needs space to move in—so breath needs to flow into us to fill the spaces within . . . breath and joy co-exist in Yoga. And with zen we know breathing in zazen, zen meditation practice brings us a great rest and a great joy.
The practice of zen meditation and yoga take a few minutes of your day to focus on the essential act of breathing.
A relaxation with slow breathing as in a Yoga Nidra, is a relaxation of the mundane, conscious mind and intended to bring the sweetness of relaxation to your mind and body so you can experience the joy in your practice. A long walk, a set of exercises can also bring our attention to bringing oxygen back into our systems. There’s no need to join a gym or embark on a grueling workout regime that can never be incorporated into our daily life. Simply take a quiet moment in a favorite chair or a stroll around the block, with only the word “in” and “out” in your head as you breathe. Let’s get into some simple daily practice here with this short practice video: my 10 minute Gentle Calm with Rainsticks . . . as you listen to the rhythm of the rainsticks, breathe with the flow.
Some reasons to breathe are:
Breathing in takes no effort . . . that is so Zen. So in tune with Osho, the Zen Master’s contribution to both zen and Yoga—relaxed effortlessness! The inbreath just happens as the breath breathes you—atmosphere makes it happen as air has to flow in to fill space within. And as the Buddha said: “you can just let short breaths be short breaths, and long breaths be long . . .” One of the most powerful reasons to learn to breathe with our practice as far as I’m concerned, is for the relaxation because this builds so much inner confidence.
Breathing makes you feel light . . . because you’re breathing in light – and it makes you feel happy enough if you do enough controlled practice of it . . . for happiness, focus on heart chakra breathing.
Breathing makes you feel strong . . . and of course, I’m talking about controlled breathing practice with awareness on the breath and breath flow. The Ancient Yogis learned that they could control and master the emotions with the breath and they passed this knowledge onto the zen masters . . . and you will need to control your own tidal waves of emotions to follow your heaven or bliss with your spirit!
Breathing may be simple, but it’s powerful – controlled use of the outbreaths releases toxins, helping you balance your inner subtle energies. Control of the breath releases tension from the “pain body” and trains your brain that you are in control. Enjoy! suzen
Starting a daily journal at Full Moon is powerful as we’re at the culmination of our current moon cycle – you can start making notes of your feelings, emotions and drives without any knowledge at all of astrology or the bigger Cosmic cycles, just trust and be yourself then maybe in the next monthly cycle you can add deeper insight?
In Vedic Astrology this is called “living with our Nakshatras” or, the lunar Mansions of the Goddess where we find our joy [or not] and our ability to be less stressed-out or stretched-out through pressure of time. Learning to live with flow.
We came here to be happy
We came here to be happy, and for many of us today we simply need to slow down, live with Cosmic rhythms and cycles of Nature: which means our return to innocence. One way of getting in touch with, and healing the Mother Wound many of us are experiencing as the effects of after 2,000 years and more of Patriarchy, is expressing . . . which we do with Journaling practice as a conscious way to thriving with new energy for our changing world. The big changes that are happening in our world right now can seem overwhelming, but we can empower ourself by making small changes within – practice is powerful.
In this video I’m talking about Journaling and reading from Vicki Noble’s book “Shakti Woman” with her advice and guidance.
A short blog for this full moon, but incredibly powerful for your life,
This blog 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.
We can each one of us only ever be of the generation we’re born into. The culture of tomorrow in our world will be experienced by each generation differently. For myself, I see this experience of tomorrow in helping shaping the new culture, the new values. Practice for many years has proved to me and other teachers, that the values of practice, time and dedication work for us very beneficially.
My teaching— writing, and Spoken Word anthems as the artist SuZen—is about dedication to practice of Zen, Meditation and Yoga: it stands for spirituality, understanding, Zen, energy and nutrition through practices: we live daily and simply with zen, YinZen, in the imminent experience of sacred feminine flowing through the mystery of life.
The SuZen YinZen membership here on the blogsite is coming soon: to get updates by email on progress as and when I have news, send me your email in the contact form on the page here.
A very small insight: This week I’m practising the short contemplation in “listening to the cries of the world” a way of opening up to compassion with a pure, kind heart: acknowledging that we can all hear the hurt in the hearts of all human beings. You sit quietly and let the cries in.
After a month long period of working on creating a new spiritual zen and yoga program, focusing on teaching gentle breath awareness has been wonderful . . . and mainly because awe and wonder come as always in remembering and entering into the beginner’s mind, as we are continually supposed to as zen teachers.
Starting a daily journal at Full Moon is powerful as we’re at the culmination of our current moon cycle – you can start making notes of your feelings, emotions and drives without any knowledge at all of astrology or the bigger Cosmic cycles, just trust and be yourself then maybe in the next monthly cycle you can add deeper insight?
SuZen YinZen 