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 mediation 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!”