An illusion of enlightenment

I hear the song of the nightingale.

The sun is warm, the wind is mild,

willows are green along the shore -

Here no bull can hide!

What artist can draw that massive head,

those majestic horns?

Is there a bull at all?

I hear the song of the nightingale.
The sun is warm, the wind is mild,
willows are green along the shore -
Here no bull can hide!
What artist can draw that massive head,
those majestic horns?

Looking for The Bull

In the pasture of the world,
I endlessly push aside the tall
grasses in search of the bull.

Following unnamed rivers,
lost upon the interpenetrating
paths of distant mountains,

My strength failing and my vitality
exhausted, I cannot find the bull.

I only hear the locusts chirping
through the forest at night.

Monkey Mind Training

THE MONKEY MIND

The Monkey Mind resists the natural state of mental harmony.

To use effectively, Energy requires reclaiming, taming and refocusing.
Peace of mind is the lock on the gate to Awareness.
Awareness is the gate to lives fully lived.

Energy is the fuel driving life.
Pressures of modern life are in constant battle with the effective use of available energy.

Monkey Mind awareness suggests no drastic changes in our lives.
No fundamental transformations in ways of living.

Monkey Mind awareness simply explores the way  we habitually think and of what we are aware. 

It does this by allowing the examination of how we move, sit, walk and react.

Monkey Mind awareness allows us to ask which bits we can let go and then gives us permission to drop energy sapping habits.

Monkey Mind awareness is not psychotherapy.

It is moving meditation based on exercises derived from taoist breathing practices.

Monkey Mind awareness calms thoughts.
It helps discriminate between what is essential and what is simply too much information.

Monkey Mind awareness is letting go of what need not be held on to.

You may come to the Zen Garden in London W12 or we can come to you.

The only requirement is 1 hour of uninterrupted space and time.

Fees - 1 to 1 sessions: 1 hour - £45.00 per session

Groups - 2 people  - no more than 4 people -   1 hr session - £30 per person 

Sandy Strallen teaches Monkey Mind awareness.

He is a professional dancer.

He has been instructing, studying and living taoism for 40 years.

Please call -  07808 328686

or email -  ergodance@gmail.com

Emptying The Hands

Hold on - let go.

How many things can one do at one time?

How many things can one accomplish at one time?

How many things do we hold in one hand at one time?

How many things do we need to hold in one hand at one time?

How many things can we let go and create more space in our our hands?

How much more useful to us is an empty relaxed hand?

How often are we aware that our hands are too full?

Simple

Zen living.

Walk well.
Eat well.

Sit well.
Speak less.
Sleep longer.
Smile more.
Breath slower.
Eat more raw.

Bend often and softly.

Stretch often and gently.
Give often and easily.

Pureland -

When you look at the landscaping here imagine that it was once
a flat field full of cattle.

Every hill was made from the earth of the ponds.

Every path cut provided  a mould for a bridge.

Each feature connected to every other one.

No energy was wasted, and the only gardening tools,

spades, rakes, shears and lengths of timber to lever bridges into place.

Wind and the water have been allowed to

find a natural way through the spaces.

The garden is a living extension of elemental potential.
The design, an understanding of simple

Self-actualisation by the gardener.

On a visit we took photographs.

Over tea, Sensei Maitreya asked if we would like a photograph of the entire garden.

We were surprised - we thought we had it covered from every angle.

Showing us to the car, Sensei stopped very still and looked out.

We followed his point of view and the entire garden appeared as if framed.

This had  been his first view of the space when it was still a patch of scrubland

littered with old farm equipment.
He did not arrive with a vision to impose.
The picture was all there and always was.
The space was  always there.
No matter its manifestation.
No matter - just energy, potential and its own inherent nature.

Sensei redirected the energy already there; simply redistributing it using natural forces.

He has removed nothing. It has all been gently nudged up, down or sideways.
No lorries have burnt carbon carting waste away. Nothing has been brought in that could not be carried by one person.
Everything already existed in the space, whether bricks, stones.
Discarded farm equipment was recycled.

Maitreya has negotiated with what is there by its nature and incorporated what might be allowed by artifice. He uses his own natural tendency to constrain nature's anarchy but not to tame it.
It is not his to tame.

The space does not provide answers. There are no answers.

Pureland helps clarify which of the questions are about Monkey mind
and which are about pure mind.

Constrain and redirect your nature - it is its own master and cannot be tamed.
This is the message of chasing the bull.

http://www.buddhamaitreya.co.uk