Around 2500 BCE and after intensive 6 years of meditation a young prince named Siddharta Gautama became awakened or enlightened. He discovered that the origin of human suffering, dissatisfaction and unhappiness comes from our ego mind and he proposed the solutions to reduce if not to eliminate suffering.
His followers gave him a nick name “Buddha” meaning the “awakened one”.
When Zen literature speaks about the “walls or gates” blocking access to our inner serenity and happiness it uses the word “poisons” since these walls are, most of the time, like poison pills that we swallow continuously without being fully conscious of their effects. Of course many sources of our suffering, sadness, sorrow, grief come from outside self such as loss of a loved one, accident, war, loss of job, verbal/emotional aggression, disasters, etc. However we shall see that most of our hindrances against achieving serenity and happiness are self inflected.
The Buddha 2500 year ago talked about causes of human suffering many times during his 50 years teaching. The term “suffering” is now better translated as dissatisfactions/ unhappiness You will see that the main source of our suffering and dissatisfaction is our ego-self controlling our mind. Suffering and dissatisfaction are caused by numerous poisons. The list of our poisons is endless and varies greatly with each individual. The following is a short one.
| Statement | Traditional Mind | Zen Mind |
| Life can be better | Yes | Life is what it is |
| Life is unfair | Often | Life is what it is |
| I am unique | Yes | What is this? |
| Happiness is found | Mostly outside ourselves | Mostly inside ourselves |
| Success is happiness | Happiness is success | |
| I control | Almost everything in my life | Almost nothing |
| Most things are permanent | Yes | Everything is transient |
| Time is | Past – Present – Future | Only the present exists |
| I am | Unique, Separate, Independent with my self-entity | We are all interconnected.Our uniqueness is only molecular |
| My ego is | A source of power and success | The main cause of my suffering |
| The Source of suffering is | Outside self | Mostly Inside self |
| Most of the time my mind is | In the future or the past | Mostly in the present |
| My mind is full of | Ideas, concepts, illusions, etc. | My mind is open & receptive |
| My mind is | Always analyzing | Is a mirror reflecting things as they are |
| My mind is | Distorting reality | Reflecting reality |
| My mind is | A wonderful instrument | Useful but also a deceptive beast |
| My mind makes me | Smart | A slave |
| The more I know | The better I feel | The more confused and anxious I become |
| Thinking a lot is | Necessary | Dangerous |
| I think therefore | I am (Descartes) | I am not what I think I am |
| I think therefore | I know | Know what? |
| My Thoughts | I am a thinking zombie | I observe them |
| Knowledge | The more the better | The more of it the more confused I am |
| Knowledge | The more the smarter I am | The more of it the bigger my ego |
| My thoughts | I believe in them | They are not necessary the truth |
| Serenity is | How much I have | How little I need |
| Meditation is | A relaxation technique | A mind control exercise |
| Meditation is | Boring | Neither boring nor exiting, just as it is |
| Meditation is | Difficult | Neither difficult nor easy |
| Nirvana is | Only for Guru | Everyone has it |
| Nirvana is | Outside self | Inside self |
| Enlightenment | A divine state to get from outside | Inside self |
| My way of thinking is | Always dualistic & discriminative | Non dualistic, things are what they are |
| Judging is | Important | Only to make decisions |
| My negative emotions | Control me | I contemplate them |
| Zen is | Esoteric | Down to earth |
Thanks.
Ven. Ji Gong Sunim.
Have you ever noted over the years that your ego mind is in starving mode all the time, always complaining and crying like a spoiled baby: “I want more, I want more, I don’t have enough, I am not happy, give me that, give me this, why me, it is unfair”? Its requests are endless: comfort, money, pleasure, sex, power, control, fame, love, recognition, security, understanding, more stuff and so on.
Thanks.
Ven. Ji Gong Sunim.
