I've been on a Bruce Lee kick lately like a lot of people I thought that he was primarily Taoist. But he was actually raised Zen Buddhist as well as a Baptist and a lot of his quotes are directly from Zen Buddhism. After all the Buddhist scriptures otherwise known as sutra that I've been reading lately that really catapulted me on my meditation path I began to know myself completely in living in the moment. What happened was I started to distance myself from everything that didn't matter to me and instead focused solely on improving my life by doing meaningful things. I spent the weekend watching a lot of Bruce Lee movies and doing further research on him what I realized was that is exactly the way he lived his life. When I discovered that Bruce was first a Zen Buddhist before he was everTaoist and later in life was actually a combination of two I became very curious as to what it was about Zen that allowed him to do what I had done through all the scripture reading that I have done.

First thing that I learned about Zen is that you actually do have to learn the basics of Buddhism which are the four Noble truths and the Eightfold Path. As I've written about several times here about the Noble Eightfold Path which is the guidelines to live our lives on the path purifying ourselves. They're actually rules because if we don't adhere to this list we will not escape suffering. So, it's not a list of rules like the Ten Commandments and if you don't follow them you're going to hell it's a list to adhere to purify ourselves to if we want enlightenment. Through this purification process I have reevaluated a lot of my goals. Through meditation and observing my mind with constant thoughts and I understood that as beginners mind. Also, what I've learned as I've begun to study now Zen is that living Zen you actually begin again because you release so many things that are no longer appropriate for you and that is also beginners mind.

Beginning Again

Each day is a new day. When we get up and begin to move and moment by moment end up on our sitting cushion or on the floor or on a chair. Once we have found the correct posture that allows us to keep our spine straight and if we are sitting up our head upright in a dignified position we set our timer and we breathe. Everything that arises and falls is part of mind. We don't resist anything and we don't try to make anything happen we just breathe. Ultimately what we learn is that all that has been arising that we thought was "bad" is just part of mind, small waves in a vast ocean. Ultimately the waves smooth outand we experience Big Mind. We have the experience that we are emptying our mind and we approach each moment new and that is beginner's mind.

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Once we see that our mind is the ocean and the thoughts are the waves in it that come and go we are at peace because we understand we can flow with whatever arises. We can flow with whatever arises while we are sitting and we can flow with whatever arises when we get up. This takes practice of course and that is why we call it our practice. When I first started it was not easy. It took much effort because I had not yet developed the first stage of skill and experienced a lot of discomfort. Like learning to play an instrument it is not fun at first it may seem hard. With dedication we reach that first realization that we are not in opposition to what seems to be happening in our minds or what seems to be happening outside of us. Each morning when I sit here in my Manhattan apartment lately there is construction happening outside. People are yelling over the noise while they are busily working away doing their jobs. This is part of my meditation. It is just there and it is not good or bad. I don't resist it and wish it was not there because it is there and wishing it were not so would just cause me suffering. So, all that are just part of mind. It is all waves in the ocean and I am like water.

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Emptiness

Once the waves calm and our minds are serene we can begin to see clearly. When we see clearly things we need to know or do reveal themselves. A lot of the things we thought were previously important fall away and we can respond in the moment. If we are constantly working with an agenda we will begin to fill our minds with distractions. We need to empty our minds of the effort of thinking and sit with the intention of emptying. This way we can adapt to anything. This was the basis for the creation of Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do martial art. He rejected the rigidity of much of the Chinese Kung Fu that he learned and the biases and limitations that went along with it. For one thing he wanted to teach anyone that was willing to learn and this was previously unheard of in Chinese martial arts. He saw everyone as equal and on that same token did not take seriously the prejudice he encountered in the United States. He just continued to empty himself through meditation and by following his intuition he saw clearly the limitations of all of that.

By emptying and learning how to observe things as they really are he saw that what he needed to do and to teach people was how to be ready to respond in the moment in a real life situation. Not to be learning a martial art for show or to impress but to have an application in every day life and in actual combat. Much of what he learned was about adapting to any situation - to be like water. This means if we understand that we can flow within or around or even crash into any situation if that is what is actually happening we can do it. This insight provides great freedom to flow towards our aims in life and also to stick with our practice. We can do it just by letting go of our rigid ideas about difficulty and flow with it. We begin to see that we are the ones that makes something difficult or not and we are the ones that create our suffering.

When we begin to live this way it spills over into everything and to everyone we touch. By no longer allowing those ideas to run us we allow the space for wisdom to eventually begin to arise. How we approach it is the same, be like water while we are practicing and we will be living Zen.

The Tao Te Ching says:

The best of man is like water,
Which benefits all things, and does not contend with them,
Which flows in places that others disdain,
Where it is in harmony with the Way.

So the sage:
Lives within nature,
Thinks within the deep,
Gives within impartiality,
Speaks within trust,
Governs within order,
Crafts within ability,
Acts within opportunity.

He does not contend, and none contend against him.

If this seems a bit at odds with the combat thing to understand about that is that the way of Bruce Lee's martial art is to overcome your opponent with the least amount of effort and harm if you can. You deal with what is actually happening with efficiency not by relying on techniques that may or may not work in the moment. By engaging in this way you do not waste mental energy. You empty your mind of tradition and at the same time if something is useful you use it. You adapt and be like water. My wish for you as you go throughout your day is that you can soften your engagement with the world in this way. And maybe inspire you to explore the benefits of meditation.

What do you think?

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@soulsistashakti is a musical artist and writer based in NYC as well as a practitioner of Buddhist teachings. You can check out my music on my FB artist page at https://www.facebook.com/soulsistashakti

Some images pixabay.com

Zen Mind and the Mind of Bruce Lee

Beginning Again

Emptiness

What do you think?

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