Buddhism in daily life - Mindfulness in every day tasks

What is Chan? Part 2 In the life of every Chan (Zen) Buddhist, the question arises again and again, "What is Chan ?" Chan Buddhism is full of mysteries, peppered with secrets, full of legends and tales. Saints and great teachers have shaped all spiritual systems over thousands of years according to the taste of the times. Especially the philosophy of the Shaolin temple has even become world-famous...

What is Chan? Chan (jap: Zen) is complex, not so easy to pigeonhole. On the one hand, it is for many people in this world a religion that has its rites, which have been developed over thousands of years, depending on the country's customs is practiced. On the other hand, Chan is also a philosophy that seems full of mythical aspects that allow the practitioner to "dive" into it. In Europe and in th...

Why do I have to overcome my ego? From most religions we know the fact that the individual should refrain from his egoistic behavior for the good of the group, for this there are then rules, commandments and laws. In Chan (Zen) Buddhism, too, the abandonment of the ego is a central issue. In some groups the students are frustrated by the master, occupied with (unsolvable) tasks in order to achieve...

Near-death experience A near-death experience is an experience "close to" death, that is, almost dead, so to speak. One could also express it in such a way that life itself is a continuous near-death experience, whereby the almost dead person just got away again. The possibility to die now, in this moment, that is absolutely real, just as the chances stand for a survival, at least at the end one d...

Real eyes Real eyes recognize real lies, only who sees can recognize, who does not like to see (or does not dare) will not discover lies. Now real can differ strongly in the eye of the respective observer, what one feels as "real" is for other people just "fake", what do they say about justice? The great teacher said that we should approach things without filters, not worship any standards, always...

The moment counts The moment counts, only the moment, past experiences are the past, future events are only dreams, it is difficult to express what cannot be said with words. The body finds its ways to show the expression of the moment, the final realization that there is only this moment, that penetrates only with difficulty. Whoever realizes that only the moment counts, will automatically make p...

Is accepted? We cannot shirk the energy, what we have, we should accept. Without ifs and buts, without maybe and especially without why. What you have experienced today, that was your life to accept. Whether you are in finals or performing menial tasks, the game of life takes place in the here and now. Hope and waiting is for the fools. Anyway, today is the best, most beautiful period of time, a b...

Memories of life When we wake up they are immediately back, the problems we have grown fond of, because these problems have become memories. Memories are linked to people, to places or to events that we have "recorded", that spring from the past, not from the NOW and HERE. Now, if you think of your problems as soon as you wake up, you are living in the past, not in the present. From these memories...

Everything is completely different How should we look at the world, how should we see life? Everything we put together is in the end only wishful thinking, no one can foresee how things are connected. Anyone who thinks they could ever really put the whole picture together is pretty far off the mark. Everything is one and one is everything, as the universe expands, so it will also contract again. T...

Do I need a Chan teacher? In Asia, the concept of a teacher is widespread, so people come closer together, the wisdom is spread face to face. Here in Europe it is different, the teacher-student situation on a voluntary basis (i.e. outside of school and work) is almost non-existent. Buddha was one of the great teachers, his charisma has survived the millennia, but his words have been forgotten. Alm...

Changing the past Changing the past, you say that doesn't work, I say that it is very possible. How to change the past you ask? What has passed is subject to our evaluation, was it a "beautiful" time, or was it "terrible"? That depends exclusively on our opinion, consideration and evaluation. Depending on how we classify the past time, how we decide today, so was the past. We can change everything...

The ceremony in Shaolin Temple London Shaolin Rainer: Hello, we are in the Shaolin Temple London, and we just do a Buddhist ceremony by a Buddhist nun, and I want her to introduce herself so you can hear about her. Renryu Dhammavihari: Hello, my name is Renryu, this is my Dharma name, I am a Buddhist nun from China, I am also a PHD student of religious studies in the UK. At the moment I come to Sh...

Who believes in rebirth? What exactly is rebirth? For many people, Buddhist philosophy stands with rebirth as a unity. The knowledge about the philosophy of the Indian prince is thin, but buzzwords like "rebirth", "karma" and "nirvana" have made their way into the language. Buddhists "know" that there is no "I" in the proper sense, but the illusion of an I fits well with rebirth, because if "I" ca...

The Shaolin Temple London Part 3 Have you already read the first part of my series about the "Shaolin Temple London"? First, Yan Zi then showed me new exercises specially composed for my weak points (back). After being almost sixty years old, my training is more rehab than Kung Fu. In the afternoon, I took my time recording my English podcast, (the "London edition" so to speak), looking at the man...

The Shaolin Temple London Part 2 I am here again, my master is still training students now, his wife (Mrs. Fu) picked me up at Caledonian Road tube station, drove me to the temple, which is not far from Tufnell Park station. On the way, her son Tian Tian, who is one of my godchildren, also lived with me for several years, joined me. When my master Shi Yan Zi met his wife he gave up the status of "...

Shaolin Temple London Today I travel to London, visit my master Shi Yan Zi, who is the head of the temple. For a long time I have not seen him, traveling was very difficult for a long time, now it is easier again. I am writing this text at Stuttgart airport, I am here too early, the anticipation has made me forget the time. The Shaolin Temple in London has been a permanent institution in the metro...

Captivity The mind follows the body into captivity, the disparate comrades-in-arms are usually in harmony. Have you ever been "captive"? Sure, maybe only seconds or minutes, but trapped you have been. But also the opposite case occurs, the body follows the spirit into captivity, it just needs both sides of the personality. There are many people who resign, who voluntarily put themselves in a kind...

Room Meditation part 3 Feel your left energy field! Feel your front energy field! Feel your right energy field! Feel your back energy field! Take up some more space, similar to a balloon expand. Feel the boundaries of your body on the left side! Feel the limits of your body on the front side! Feel the limits of your body on the right side! Feel the limits of your body on the back side! Left ear, l...

Room Meditation part 2 Each breath occupies a different space. Breathe in all directions of your body, to the head, to the arms, to the legs, into the ground. The longer we practice, the more energy we take from the ground, we give back to the ground. The boundary between the earth and the body becomes blurred, we have the feeling of floating, no longer feel the downside. The energy within us incr...

Room Meditation A meditation for sublimity and humility, guided by the intention to reach enlightenment. It is about the space we occupy and the space that a person "should" occupy, but can not occupy because the center is missing. This can be worked on, life is hard, without diligence no prize, without discipline no Buddhism. The goal is to release the consciousness and "let go", not attach. Sit...

Empty phrases Everywhere you read standard phrases, everything possible would be soooooo important, but these are lip service, the truth usually looks quite different. Whoever believes it is betrayed, word shells sometimes hurt almost as much as bullet casings. People wait for things that rarely come, that do not often come true. Words without deeds are like thunder without rain, lonely and meanin...

Pathological mental attitude Two people stand next to each other and look at the rose bush, one says "beautiful", the other hates roses. Life is hard, harmony is not the standard. But what is sick, what is "still" normal, and does "normal" even exist? Rational arguments are no longer accepted anywhere, the self-imposed insanity goes into the next round, will dissenters soon be burned alive again i...

Tomorrow is another day Rarely we think about the consequences of our actions, mostly we live in the day, make ourselves "thoughts" about the things, people and events, but live thereby just not in the NOW and HERE, but in the past, in the future, in our illusions. In Asia people also eat insects, one day then the insects eat the people (when they are dead), everything is in motion, nothing is con...

Let go part 2 The king stretched out his hands, in his fist his wonderful diamond, worth a kingdom, he opened his hand, offered the stone to the friendly looking teacher. Buddha said, "Let go!" Let go of the diamond, why? The renewed "let go" shook him out of his thoughts, why? He looked into the face of the other person, who obviously meant it. He let go, the treasure fell to the ground, the soun...

Let go There is a very beautiful story about Buddha, which has a lot of depth, shows enormous wisdom, which can even be called directional. A powerful king heard from his wife more and more frequently that she would follow a monk, a simple itinerant preacher, of whom there were endless numbers at that time. This one would be different from the other spiritual men, the woman told him, the gods woul...