ZEN, NEVER AGEING, STAR WARS and BEING a ONE TRICK PONY

Recycle my last blog? Seriously? Yes, well you need to read it to appreciate this one, and it is a wonderfully short and easy read. It’s about the ancient Zen of the Original Face and how easy, obvious and practical it is as “a meditation that works with bingo, football, making love, shopping, dying, partying… everything”. Have a read, right after this intro, and try doing the Meditation 1. Why not? Takes less than a minute, you could be wonderfully surprised to find that it’s just factual and simple, and that you can choose not to do it but you can’t do it wrong. Our MYsocial “Be Your Own Expert” Zoom group just tried it. We come from all kinds of backgrounds and beliefs, and we all got it, no problem. That’s another great thing: Zen of the Original Face meditations are useable and useful whatever your religion, practice, or lack of one. As they said in the also ancient TV series Dragnet: it’s “just the facts, ma’m”.

Basically the Zen of the Original Face is about discovering the ageless perfection and total safety as the I of the storm (and life being what it is there will be more storms) that you already have right now. My job is about Resilient Ageing, and this is resilience you can count on no matter what. So, while it may not always be obvious I will be a bit of a one-trick pony in making the foundation of what I write and do. Just saying.

STAR WARS: A little aside for your amusement and interest: some of you know that I’m an ex-Star Wars monster from “Jedi”: a Gammorean Guard, Calamari Captain and Ree Yees in that movie. The films had a wee refrain: “May the force be with you”. I’m pleased to tell you that George Lucas knew what he was saying, and the Zen of the Original Face takes you right there.

What do you think? Is there enough in all of this to make you happy with me being – if often behind the scenes while we do good stuff together in the world – a one trick Zen of the Original Face pony? Nothing to lose, right? For Age UK Lambeth it’s led me to creating the Age Strong approach: older people as the solution, not the problem in helping everyone with first aid and health, wellbeing, physical activity and work and opportunity. Further blogs on those soon, because none of it happens without you.

Want more? 1. Be / become a MYsocial member. 2. Look at the MYsocial calendar for Wednesdays and log on to our 2pm “Together” group. 3. Go to www.headless.org for a modern western take on my Zen blog below with huge resources for more discovery.

…and here’s that previous blog of mine:

ZEN MEDITATION made incredibly simple and useful

Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch of Zen (637-712), said to See what at this very moment your own face looks like, the face you had before you were born.

Zen Master Daito Kokushi (1281-1337) said that all the 1700 koans of Zen are simply pointers to our Original and Featureless Face.

I tell you about these Masters just to back up that what I’m on about here is the Zen real deal.

Meditation: hard to get, requires funny stuff with breathing, not thinking… has to be done away from the buzz of daily life…

If that’s how you want to do it, why not? Whatever works for you. The Zen of the Original Face doesn’t require any of that. You get it right away, you can’t do it wrong, and it works with bingo, football, making love, shopping, dying, partying, everything. Useful, as I said.

I also said it was simple. It is. People think Zen must be complicated. It’s so not. Easy? Well, that depends. The Zen of the Original Face requires you to look at how things really are, right here and right now. Not to have ideas about it, just to see what you actually see.

Watch the MYsocial timetable for more on this or tell us you want more. For a start here’s a truly simple, instant meditation. It’s a great one, a favourite of mine, really a look at the whole thing in one go, but it only works if you do it and don’t just read about it – the way a meal only tastes good if you eat it. Just reading the menu doesn’t do it.

Original Face Meditation 1: Point your finger at your face. What do you see? A finger and a face, or just a finger?

Stick with it. Focus. What’s that finger actually pointing at? Don’t try to think it out, just look. Isn’t it pointing at absolutely clear open space for a finger (and the whole world) to happen in? Do you see any wrinkles where you’re pointing, any age?

That, friends and neighbours, is your Original Face. Simple? I can’t imagine anything simpler, can you? Zen is about just noticing what a journalist once called “the bleedin’ obvious”. Point again. You’re looking now at who you really are where you are, at home. Perfect ageless clear space for your finger, and these words, and everything else to happen in. No wrinkles, no ageing meatball with two holes in it to look out of, just one absolutely clear and perfect space to hold and be everything. The real you, right at home where you actually are.

Not a bad start? This is a meditation you can enjoy any time, anywhere, and you can’t do it wrong. You either actually look at the perfect, deathless openness you’re pointing at or you don’t. As I’m often fond of saying, “There’s always light at the end of the tunnel, you’ve just been looking at the wrong end!”