yearning to venture beyond the horizons

teachings

for the past 2 days, other than meeting up with frens & attending YEP meeting, i attended a Zen talk by a dharma monk from Poland. this is my first time at hand with mediation and listening to such a talk.

new insights are gained. one main point i have taken away from this talk is that human often think things in a complicated way or in an intellectual way, which is often uncalled for. this first question posed by the monk was,

'what is colour of this floor?'

the answer is plainly brown.

but to some people, they cant believe the answer is that simple. they will try to think of some intellectual answer, like pale brown or orange brown.

things are very simple from the start. but in this complicated life we live in today, even the most simplest things are often looked at in the most difficult way.


is happiness an illusion, when compared to sadness? since there are always a duality in everything.

the answer is that we shouldn't even accept happiness or avoid sadness in the first place. these two emotions are interlinked. in most people's new year resolutions, people say they want happiness.

but is there such thing as real happiness? there is only temporary happiness.

rather than us chasing happiness while letting sadness catches up with us, the teaching is that we should reverse this wrong concept instead. let us run away from happiness and slowly, happiness will catch up with us.

i realise zen teachings can get very philosophical and objective too. but i left the place with a light-hearted feeling (:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment