Joan, this beautifully expresses something I have been trying to articulate. Nothing needs to be attained—the open, aware presence is already here. And yet, as you say, the “mind-body-fist” clenches again. Thoughts are believed, contraction is felt in the body, and attention can return to the openness that was never absent.
Some might describe shifting attention from thought to sensation, and openly feeling what is happening in the body, as a practice. I don’t really experience it that way. It is resting in what we actually are while allowing the human experience to be fully felt. To me, that is embodiment.
This is not a metaphysical claim about what ultimately exists. It is a description of how this actuality is experienced and lived through a human body-mind. “Opening, again and again, NOW” holds both truths beautifully: nothing is missing, and embodiment still matters. Thank you.
I think that what makes your spiritual writings unique and particularly compelling is that you can specifically articulate what most of us struggle with in our efforts to reach nirvana, moksha, peace, enlightenment etc. It resonates deeply, so much so that at times I think you must be reading my mind. And then you are able to go on and give us helpful advice and insights on letting go and finding our way back to this simple peaceful moment. Deep bows.
I love the paradox here. Sufism calls the practice dhikr, remembrance, while Zen points toward forgetting. Yet they may be describing opposite sides of the same opening: remember what is real, forget everything you’ve piled on top of it.
Keating approached Centering Prayer similarly. The thought appears, you don’t wrestle with it, you simply let it go and return to consent.
Perhaps enlightenment isn’t finally figuring everything out. Maybe it’s discovering we were buried under our own commentary.
Hi Joan. Great post, but I do have a question. Not sure about the 'empty mind'. It seems mine is always active, even when I feel calm and relaxed; thoughts come and go as usual but are not a problem - just like clouds passing by. Is 'empty mind' then perhaps being aware of arising thoughts yet not being disturbed by them?
Yes, that's my understanding. My mind is often quite active and busy. Thoughts arise, but they don't have the same grabbing power. And sometimes they do, but then we wake up from the trance (effortlessly, it just happens). And sometimes there may be a totally silent empty mind for a while, which is lovely, but it doesn't last forever. And, of course, many people aren't even aware that thinking is happening. Meditation reveals layers of thought and patterns of thinking that were previously unnoticed. Thought is often very subtle. I've had people tell me they haven't had a thought in 3 months, which I know is absurd, and I point out that "I haven't had a thought in 3 months" is itself a thought. So people often make claims that are based in not seeing. Anyway, yes, to me, empty mind doesn't mean no thinking. Suzuki Roshi said of thoughts something like, "You can let them in, but don't serve them tea." Not engaging, not getting carried away, not believing them, not getting hypnotized or disturbed by them, just letting them come and go. And of course, the one who would "do" all this is itself a thought! So it's more like this capacity to see thoughts without believing them or getting entangled in them develops through activities like meditation or psychotherapy, as does the capacity and enjoyment of silent mind, which then maybe comes more frequently. Someone described thoughts as secretions of the brain–just something that happens. 🙏
As frequently happens when I read your posts, Joan, I think, “This one really encapsulates what Joan’s message—what THE message—is all about.” But as I read this today, that thought screamed at me…”YES, this is THE message, in a few brilliant paragraphs.” Thank you.
Hola ¡ Podem parar deixar que passi ,, ? Sí però res para tot continua amb les circumstancies determinades ,, si perdem el control si hi ha un imprevist,, hi poden haber alguna conseqüència, algún conflicte ? Sí, es acollir tot això es natural que tot això ens vingui al pensament. Retenir això i confrontar-ho amb el que sabem de veritat en el fons ,, que tota situació pot estar i ho està de bé, deixar-se portar, deixar que passi , que Això que som faci, no ha través, si no que ho Som. La Vida no abandona la Vida i, tot ho Es
Es la malla es la conciencia mateixa que tot Es ara aquí així qui ho porta i sosté i, Ella mateixa balla aquí així ara. Només recordar que tot es Això, fer d'aquesta manera i deixar que passi
Yes, although I don't think philosophy alone accomplishes this. Most educated 21st century people understand a lot of things intellectually from a smattering of quantum physics and philosophy about the unreality or nonsubstantiality of the bottle, but they don't feel this as a lived experience. That's where most of us need something more experiential and embodied, such as meditation, psychotherapy, somatic work, etc. We need to go deeper than a merely intellectual understanding.
I've read some of Wittgenstein, not a lot. Have a vague general idea of what he was up to. I find philosophy intellectual, but to each their own. If it does something more for you, that's great! I also haven't really found working with koans very helpful, but I know many people do.
thanks ! I find that most people think he was philosophizing in the Western tradition but he warned about such an assumption in the preface of Philosophical remarks:
“This book is written for such men as are in sympathy with its spirit. This spirit is different from the one which informs the vast stream of European and American civilization in which all of us stand. This spirit expresses itself in a forward movement, in building ever larger and more complicated structures; the other in striving after clarity and perspicuity in no matter what structure. The first tries to grasp the world by way of its periphery—in its variety; the second at its centre—in its essence. And so the first adds one construction to another, moving on and up, as it were, from one stage to the next, while the other remains where it is and what it tries to grasp is always the same.”
When I was dipping into Wittgenstein many long years ago, I remember thinking he had a lot in common with Zen. Of course, Zen is more than philosophy or ideas. It's also a practice that involves, among other things, lots of sitting in silence, with open attention that is not thought-based but rather awareness-based. Perhaps Wittgenstein's ideas and philosophy grew out of something exactly like that, I don't know. I never took a course in philosophy, so I'm by no means an expert on it. But I've dipped in enough to know that a number of Western philosophers had ideas quite similar to nondual Eastern spirituality, including Zen. And maybe for you and many others, reading Wittgenstein and reflecting on his ideas deconstructs and opens the mind to a place beyond thought and ideas. As you may know, there's a famous Zen koan about getting a goose out of a bottle, which is a bit more tricky than a fly, but the same basic metaphor and invitation to wonder about both the fly or the goose and the bottle. 🙏😎
Wrestling is what we do, the mind struggles. We can observe our struggles and watch with equanimity from the seat of our awareness and body.
Just coming back to here and now. Recollecting the present. Chogyum Trungpa was a master and incorporated Zen into practice. He and Suzuki were good friends. The benefits of Sitting are enormous ♥️
Thanks Joan. Always worth the read! I’m just reading Becoming yourself so Suzuki’s teaching is present.
Very nice reminder! Thanks!
Thanks Joan, so refreshing to read your posts. Resonance, gratitude, relief, nodding, exhale and ‘Ah, yes!’.
Much love - and I enjoyed the interview you pointed to last week. Thank you for that too. 🥰
thank you, joan. your clarity and use of language always inspires me to stay with the simiple, the quiet.
Joan, this beautifully expresses something I have been trying to articulate. Nothing needs to be attained—the open, aware presence is already here. And yet, as you say, the “mind-body-fist” clenches again. Thoughts are believed, contraction is felt in the body, and attention can return to the openness that was never absent.
Some might describe shifting attention from thought to sensation, and openly feeling what is happening in the body, as a practice. I don’t really experience it that way. It is resting in what we actually are while allowing the human experience to be fully felt. To me, that is embodiment.
This is not a metaphysical claim about what ultimately exists. It is a description of how this actuality is experienced and lived through a human body-mind. “Opening, again and again, NOW” holds both truths beautifully: nothing is missing, and embodiment still matters. Thank you.
A silent thank you🙏
I think that what makes your spiritual writings unique and particularly compelling is that you can specifically articulate what most of us struggle with in our efforts to reach nirvana, moksha, peace, enlightenment etc. It resonates deeply, so much so that at times I think you must be reading my mind. And then you are able to go on and give us helpful advice and insights on letting go and finding our way back to this simple peaceful moment. Deep bows.
So beautiful Joan. Thank you so much 💜☯️
🙏
🙏🏻 Thank you.❣️ I so needed this today. Sending love.
Thank you Joan, I’m feeling rejuvenated
I love the paradox here. Sufism calls the practice dhikr, remembrance, while Zen points toward forgetting. Yet they may be describing opposite sides of the same opening: remember what is real, forget everything you’ve piled on top of it.
Keating approached Centering Prayer similarly. The thought appears, you don’t wrestle with it, you simply let it go and return to consent.
Perhaps enlightenment isn’t finally figuring everything out. Maybe it’s discovering we were buried under our own commentary.
The fist opens. Nothing was missing.
Hi Joan. Great post, but I do have a question. Not sure about the 'empty mind'. It seems mine is always active, even when I feel calm and relaxed; thoughts come and go as usual but are not a problem - just like clouds passing by. Is 'empty mind' then perhaps being aware of arising thoughts yet not being disturbed by them?
Yes, that's my understanding. My mind is often quite active and busy. Thoughts arise, but they don't have the same grabbing power. And sometimes they do, but then we wake up from the trance (effortlessly, it just happens). And sometimes there may be a totally silent empty mind for a while, which is lovely, but it doesn't last forever. And, of course, many people aren't even aware that thinking is happening. Meditation reveals layers of thought and patterns of thinking that were previously unnoticed. Thought is often very subtle. I've had people tell me they haven't had a thought in 3 months, which I know is absurd, and I point out that "I haven't had a thought in 3 months" is itself a thought. So people often make claims that are based in not seeing. Anyway, yes, to me, empty mind doesn't mean no thinking. Suzuki Roshi said of thoughts something like, "You can let them in, but don't serve them tea." Not engaging, not getting carried away, not believing them, not getting hypnotized or disturbed by them, just letting them come and go. And of course, the one who would "do" all this is itself a thought! So it's more like this capacity to see thoughts without believing them or getting entangled in them develops through activities like meditation or psychotherapy, as does the capacity and enjoyment of silent mind, which then maybe comes more frequently. Someone described thoughts as secretions of the brain–just something that happens. 🙏
As frequently happens when I read your posts, Joan, I think, “This one really encapsulates what Joan’s message—what THE message—is all about.” But as I read this today, that thought screamed at me…”YES, this is THE message, in a few brilliant paragraphs.” Thank you.
Hola ¡ Podem parar deixar que passi ,, ? Sí però res para tot continua amb les circumstancies determinades ,, si perdem el control si hi ha un imprevist,, hi poden haber alguna conseqüència, algún conflicte ? Sí, es acollir tot això es natural que tot això ens vingui al pensament. Retenir això i confrontar-ho amb el que sabem de veritat en el fons ,, que tota situació pot estar i ho està de bé, deixar-se portar, deixar que passi , que Això que som faci, no ha través, si no que ho Som. La Vida no abandona la Vida i, tot ho Es
Es la malla es la conciencia mateixa que tot Es ara aquí així qui ho porta i sosté i, Ella mateixa balla aquí així ara. Només recordar que tot es Això, fer d'aquesta manera i deixar que passi
Si més no ,,Visca la Vida visca l'amor.
“The aim of philosophy is to show the fly the way out of the bottle.”
Wittgenstein
Yes, although I don't think philosophy alone accomplishes this. Most educated 21st century people understand a lot of things intellectually from a smattering of quantum physics and philosophy about the unreality or nonsubstantiality of the bottle, but they don't feel this as a lived experience. That's where most of us need something more experiential and embodied, such as meditation, psychotherapy, somatic work, etc. We need to go deeper than a merely intellectual understanding.
I take it you have not wrestled with Wittgenstein. His aphorisms are essentially Koans and my experience of them is that they are not intellectual.
I've read some of Wittgenstein, not a lot. Have a vague general idea of what he was up to. I find philosophy intellectual, but to each their own. If it does something more for you, that's great! I also haven't really found working with koans very helpful, but I know many people do.
thanks ! I find that most people think he was philosophizing in the Western tradition but he warned about such an assumption in the preface of Philosophical remarks:
“This book is written for such men as are in sympathy with its spirit. This spirit is different from the one which informs the vast stream of European and American civilization in which all of us stand. This spirit expresses itself in a forward movement, in building ever larger and more complicated structures; the other in striving after clarity and perspicuity in no matter what structure. The first tries to grasp the world by way of its periphery—in its variety; the second at its centre—in its essence. And so the first adds one construction to another, moving on and up, as it were, from one stage to the next, while the other remains where it is and what it tries to grasp is always the same.”
When I was dipping into Wittgenstein many long years ago, I remember thinking he had a lot in common with Zen. Of course, Zen is more than philosophy or ideas. It's also a practice that involves, among other things, lots of sitting in silence, with open attention that is not thought-based but rather awareness-based. Perhaps Wittgenstein's ideas and philosophy grew out of something exactly like that, I don't know. I never took a course in philosophy, so I'm by no means an expert on it. But I've dipped in enough to know that a number of Western philosophers had ideas quite similar to nondual Eastern spirituality, including Zen. And maybe for you and many others, reading Wittgenstein and reflecting on his ideas deconstructs and opens the mind to a place beyond thought and ideas. As you may know, there's a famous Zen koan about getting a goose out of a bottle, which is a bit more tricky than a fly, but the same basic metaphor and invitation to wonder about both the fly or the goose and the bottle. 🙏😎
Yes that describes it well! Thank you for your generous sharing
Wrestling is what we do, the mind struggles. We can observe our struggles and watch with equanimity from the seat of our awareness and body.
Just coming back to here and now. Recollecting the present. Chogyum Trungpa was a master and incorporated Zen into practice. He and Suzuki were good friends. The benefits of Sitting are enormous ♥️
I was feeling restless and anxious but after reading this, that largely dissipated. Thank you, Joan.