Order – Life Crisis – Rebirth into the new Responsibility!
Welcome to the Honora Zen Monastery in Switzerland. The monthly meditation week offers you peace to get out of the life crisis. The phoenix must die before it can be reborn.
Contemplation - Life Crisis
The practice of patience is one of the means to awaken to your true nature. It assists in the cultivation of wholesome deeds and enables you to accumulate the merit necessary for the attainment of Sagehood and the saving of all sentient beings.
The beginning of spiritual training is similar to patiently trying to tame an ox. An ox that runs wildly around must be lassoed and grazed until is is subdued.
In addition, the perfection of patience includes refraining from quarreling, not deceiving our own conscience and not making distinctions. In this way, patience is instrumental in overcoming ignorance. We need to establish our will as firmly as a great mountain. A great mountain is immovable. Likewise, our will should never waver, no matter what hardships we encounter. The ocean embraces and accepts all things within it. Similarly, our minds should be able to accept all circumstances with boundless forbearance.
Often, when suffering from hunger and cold, the determination to practice meditation arises. But when we have a full belly and are warmly clothed, only laziness develops. Since even animals can enjoy such things as a full stomach and bodily warmth, these things can hardly be considered the greatest happiness of human life. It is only when men and women are engaged in the complete fulfillment of their human obligations that they can experience true happiness.
Wisdom
Finally you realize that you have recovered your very own treasure, which you had forgotten all about. When you quietly reflect on it, you recognize that all of the exertions you put into the practice were actually unnecessary. Now, when you simply open your mouth, this is a teaching of the Truth.