Inoperable

[reeves]

great to see you have a positive attitude despite yr obvious difficulties. I wish you all the best mate.

Never give up, lots of antioxidants, blueberry juice and goji berries, get out bush and enjoy life, i hope it works out better than expected.

cheers
john

[Sebastiaan56]

There are things you can do. The key is to try and create a balanced mind. I have spent most of my life trying to achieve this through numerous methods. I have made good distance but you can never rest on your laurels

There are infinite techniques. Meditations, martial art forms,
carving a piece of wood in the sunshine, etc etc the list is endless and each possible method is no more or no less valid than another. They are just tools.

The goal is a focused yet relaxed mind. Simply living in the moment. Easy to say, hard to achieve. Until you do it

To actually call this "Zen" unfortunately tends to raise more questions than it answers.
There is a wonderful series of Zen books illustrated by a great friend of mine who passed away a month or so back.
They are mindful of the wordless nature of Zen and are more useful in explaining what Zen isnt than what is is. Its not a religion, its a mindset more than anything. It is a concept that can be embraced by Christians, Jews and Buddhists alike.

http://www.accesstoexcellence.co.uk/...questions.html
http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Reflection.../dp/1586637118

"Chop wood, carry water"-Zen saying
"Zen chair swivvels"-OHNO trying to be needlessly mysterious.

Ive been practising for a couple of decades, started in TM, floated into Zen, Vipassana and have finally hit the ground in Dzogchen, I thought I could smell mindfullness in your post!. Its so inspiring to see your practise bearing fruit, my dad practised and taught yoga for 35 years, he alas has not made the progress he desired. Your magic line to me is "no guilt"

Yes, mind is rootless, essenceless, all pervading, all accomplishing and totally serene.

Sebastiaan

[ohno]

Ive been practising for a couple of decades, started in TM, floated into Zen, Vipassana and have finally hit the ground in Dzogchen, I thought I could smell mindfullness in your post!. Its so inspiring to see your practise bearing fruit, my dad practised and taught yoga for 35 years, he alas has not made the progress he desired. Your magic line to me is "no guilt"

Yes, mind is rootless, essenceless, all pervading, all accomplishing and totally serene.

Sebastiaan

I wasnt expecting any sort of response to some of these post but its great to have have one.

Like i said, having made good progress towards creating a "balanced" mind is its own reward but to realise that i have achieved much at a relatively young age is nice to realise.

Therein lies a bit of a trap though. It could be easy to become too proud etc and complacent etc. Watch yourself Ben.

I am prone to pride and arrogance and i detest the idea of people seeing me as "born again".
What i am is the culmination of a lifetimes' conscious struggle and toil. But when i was initially sick but undiagnosed with a brain tumour, everything i had work for kind of simply came together.

I was getting major headaches, progressively worse for around 3 months. For around 2 months i was awake for around 20 hours a day, in pain. Looking back i realised that the whole time i was living in a constant state of meditation. Not "escapism" or anything, but simply "living" in the moment.. On the 25th May 2004 (i know coz it's my best mates birthday) I was lying in front of a heater in my studio with a massive migraine/headache, when everything thing became "simple". Profoundly simple. Words cannot explain properly but perhaps smilies might.

I take comfort in the fact that this happened before i was actually diagnosed and has not left me.




Theres irony involved too because i've always carried a sense of guilt that I never had the "discipline" to stick at any form of traditional "meditation" like simply concentraing on your breathing.. You know, what your "supposed" to do!.Ohhhhmmmmm

I realise now that a lifetimes near autistic devotion of making "art", objects, thousands of different sorts of things really. Writing, painting, drawing, sculpture, jewelery design, graphic design, writing music and more HAS been a life of discipline
I certainly sacrificed a lot of social my life but got a lot done. I think of my life as being quite monk like.

[rgum]

Hey Ben. I'm reeling a little to hear of your dilema.
Your spirit is great. For you... and others to see.

And I'm with DJ. If ya need a little help, pm me.
I'm Prahran all the time. Trailer when you need.
Get some pics up of your work too. Or WIP.

Cheers Tony.

[pawnhead]

You’re an inspiration to us all.

The human spirit is an amazing thing and I thank you for teaching a silly old bugger a lesson in life.

Keep the spirit. Keep fighting. Keep carving. And keep posting.

[ohno]

Just one thing i thought i'd say about this "ZEN" stuff in an attempt to deemphasize the importance of it

It is only in reletively recent years that i read that series of Zen books. All that happened was that quite often, point after point i would read something and think to myself "i know that". or "i do that" and "surely that makes sense to be doing anyway".

SO it left me thinking. "OH. So iam a Zen...??? 'student/practitioner'("too unwieldy to say"), Zen master?(no way could i call myself that with a straight face . Iam not.

So Having a label for it turned out to be more trouble then keeping quite. BUt i do try....

[Cliff Rogers]

G'day Ben.

We haven't heard form you for a while, how are things going?