Zen meditation is a way of awakening and liberation
Pascal-Olivier Kyōsei Reynaud | Narbonne, August 2018
(How to awaken to the reality of one's existence and to be free from one's attachments)
During seated meditation in zazen, there is no more separation.
The reality of each moment, our reality here and now, is what appears, it is only "that".
"That " is the lived reality as it is, without separation.
As long as body and mind are not peaceful, we are separated.
Most of the time we are preoccupied, in pursuit of a goal, tending towards something. Most of the time we are caught up in a constant desire which is infinitely renewed. We are prisoners of our own network of desires or refusals. "I" desires what "I" likes and "I" rejects or tries to avoid what "I" does not like. Constantly.
Constantly "I" filters the reality that arises at every moment and thus "I" remains incapable of being truly. Blinded by the identification to this belief in an "I" or a central "Self", it becomes impossible to live without this chain of attachments, repulsions and
All the Buddha's teaching denounces this way of functioning and proposes a solution.
Zen meditation should be an opportunity to become aware, to become conscious of this construction, this sequence, this habit, which is like an illness and which inexorably leads to suffering. Either one's own suffering to always be caught in this loop of greed/repulsion and therefore dissatisfaction, but also, in all our thoughts, our choices, our actions, the creation of conditions of suffering for all other existences, whatever they may be: the other human beings we meet, the plants, the animals, the environment, ...
It would be enough, in order to free oneself from this and to liberate all other existences, to see clearly this delusion, this attachment, the way this identification functions. Life constantly expresses the reality of our existence, but blinded by delusion, we remain separated, locked in our beliefs and selfish emotions.
Through lack of realization, we separate ourselves from this reality, we clash with each other or with the circumstances of our existence, we criticize, judge, evaluate, belittle or overvalue. We become incapable of discerning what is true from what is false, what is right and what is wrong, what is favourable to true happiness and what is unfavourable to us. We live in a kind of fog, trying to get by as best we can, and - constantly dissatisfied - we miss the true meaning of our existence.
How can we get out of this illusion? How can we be cured of this illness? It is the whole proposal of Buddhism, of this spiritual Way and of the practice of meditation that allows us to reach another way of being, a clear, enlarged, free and truly happy consciousness, another quality of being and existence, a true compassion.
The Way of Zen, when practiced seriously, is a Way of awakening, liberation and unity.
For those who choose to walk on his path, what is proposed is to be aware of how everyone is, here and now, at every moment.
If it is not practiced seriously, attachment to the ego takes hold of it and the practice of the Way becomes a decoration; it becomes an additional cause of dissatisfaction, a cause of suffering and ignorance.
It is up to each of us, by his seriousness and strong determination, to be clarified by his practice and in his practice and thus to take care, not only of his own existence, but of all existences. Because the reality is that no existence is separate.
No existence is separate, because no existence has its own substance. Reality is just this field of “inter-existences”, it is what is realized in zazen when we really abandon ourselves and when the practice strips us of ourselves.
At every moment, it's just that.
The reality of this existence in its appearance.