Insights From Advanced Zen Meditation Practice – The Fact of Greed
The meditation technique, if it can be called that, which I practice is really one that is not part of any traditional school of meditation. If I had to categorize it, I would say it is Advanced Insight Meditation or Advanced Zen Meditation. It has its roots in Jyana Yoga, Advaita Vedanta and can almost be considered a continuation of the work of Jiddu Krishnamurti. I call it the Silent Mind Meditation Technique and it evolved for me over time as I immersed myself deeper into the art of meditation. It is not a meditation technique from any particular book or school. If you are interested in the intellectual path (Jyana Yoga) to enlightenment, then of all the articles on this website the one you should read is: The Silent Mind Meditation Program – The Silent Mind Meditations – Ch 12.
In this series I will provide the insights that take place during the practice of Silent Mind Meditation which I also tend to refer to as Advanced Insight Meditation or Advanced Zen Meditation. In the article Essential Meditation Tips & Tools for Daily Practice I indicated I keep a journal in which I jot down any experiences and/or insights which take place during my meditation sessions and in this series I will quote these insights directly from my journal.
Many students in the past have found these insights to be very helpful to them in their own meditation practice and I hope you too will find this series enlightening, inspiring and beneficial.
Insights from Advanced Zen Meditation Practice – The Fact of Greed
Some part of our mind is always in greed. It wants something different from that which is – and it directs us via “shoulds” to try to achieve this different state.
This is the fact. We are not able to fully appreciate this Truth. See it and accept it. There is nothing you can do about it. The part that is trying to do something is the very part that is being referred to here. It is the part that is greedy.
There is so much rubbish out there with regard to meditation. You are absolutely alone – no guardian spirits, super Gurus, personal power beasts, protective angels sitting on your shoulder – nothing. They are all creations born out of fear. You are alone with your endless, inexhaustible greed. I am sorry but you are stuck and you have to see that and be that.
Commentary on The Fact of Greed
In hindsight maybe this was not the most cheerful meditative insight to kick off this series with :-), but, these insights are unedited, raw and not sugar coated. They are the direct realizations born out of acute observation. In other words, they are not analytic or logical conclusions, but, instead are the awakenings which take place when the fact of “what is” is being directly perceived in advanced stages of meditation. They are best described as the action of intelligence.
Learning to observe things just as they are is meditation. The insight with regard to greed is to understand without a shadow of doubt that to try and change the state of greed is in fact being more greedy. All you can do is watch this activity closely and the watching of it is the ending of it.