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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 เม.ย. 2012
- How to Become a Zen Master
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Heartbreak set Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi on the path to enlightenment.
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Dennis Genpo Merzel:
Born in Brooklyn NY, Dennis Merzel grew up in Southern California where he was both a high school and college champion swimmer and All-American water polo player. He earned a Bachelors Degree in Economics from California State University at Long Beach and a Masters degree in Education from the University of Southern California and was a teacher and lifeguard before ordaining as a Zen monk under Zen Master Taizan Maezumi in 1973. Completing formal Koan study in 1979 he became Maezumi Roshi’s second Dharma Successor in 1980, the first being Zen Master Bernie Glassman. He received Inka (final seal of approval as Zen Master) from Zen Master Glassman in 1996, thereby becoming one of a small group of Westerners recognized as lineage holders in both the Soto and Rinzai Zen traditions.
In 1982 Genpo Sensei began teaching throughout Europe and founded the international group he named the Kanzeon (Love and Compassion) Sangha, now centered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with affiliates in France, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Germany, England, and Malta. He has fourteen Dharma Successors, and has given Inka to eight Zen teachers making them Zen Masters. For eleven years, until 2007, he was the President of the White Plum Asanga, the worldwide community comprising all the Dharma heirs of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, their successors, and the many groups they lead.
Genpo Roshi is currently conducting workshops throughout the world. His publications include The Eye Never Sleeps, Beyond Sanity and Madness, 24/7 Dharma, and The Path of The Human Being, and many DVD's. His latest book, Big Mind/Big Heart: Finding Your Way, published in 2007, is also being published in translation in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Russia, Poland, France, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Question: What was your first experience of spiritual awakening?
Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi:It happened back in February of 1971; I was having some difficulties in my relationship with the woman I was living with, and I decided to go out in the desert with two of my friends to get a little space for 3 days. They walked off to do a hike together: they were a couple and so I was left alone. I hiked to the top of a mountain.
This is in the Mojave Desert in California near Jawbone Canyon and I was sitting there on top of this mountain and I was contemplating my life; how could I have screwed up my life so badly? I’m only 26 years old. I’d already been divorced. I was in a new relationship. The relationship seemed perfect-and I started to feel the same suffocation, the same feeling of being trapped, being bound, and not free, not liberated.
I was sitting there contemplating, “What this is all about?” What I came up with-and it was very spontaneous-was a question. I don’t know where it came from, but from deep within me, and the question was, “Where is home?” So, I began to-and I was not a meditator, I never meditated before-really contemplate, or meditate, as I was sitting there in a cross-legged Indian fashion, this question, and I had a spontaneous awakening and body/mind dropped off. I became one with the cosmos. I lost the self and had an experience of being one with all things.
It was such an abrupt and immediate experience that was so transformative. I knew from that moment I would never be the same again, and I saw that my life up to that moment had all been pushing forward, going ahead full steam, whether it be as an athlete (I was a swimmer, all American water polo player I played in the Maccabean Games in Israel in 1965. My College teams, 3 out 4 were champion, American champion or state championship teams), everything was about winning, about gain, about fame, about security. I’d already got a Masters degree. I was already tenured in my work. I was teaching school. And all of a sudden, that all seemed very empty, very meaningless and the only thing that seemed to really matter at that point was to continue to wake up, to continue to clarify what this life really is and to share that with others. So, I began immediately sharing it with my friends and anybody who was ready to listen. I went back to teaching on Monday. I shared it with my team teacher, shared it with the kid-I taught them how to meditate, and I hadn’t ever had any instruction, but from that experience I learned how to sit still, do nothing, and be quiet.
Read the full transcript at bigthink.com/videos/how-to-be...
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If someone says he is a Zen master then he isn’t a master at all.
Alan Watts
"Alan Watts not zen."
Suzuki-roshi.
Crooked Cucumber: the Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki. When a student of Suzuki's disparaged Watts by saying "we used to think he was profound until we found the real thing", Suzuki "fumed with a sudden intensity", saying, "You completely miss the point about Alan Watts! You should notice what he has done. He is a great bodhisattva."
Zen can't be explained ,just felt
@@adarshbrando7412 Nonsense.
Zen 101 - Invest in nothing(emotions, security, pride, hope, trust, money, etc...). Equally important, invest not in not investing.
Being "awake" is moment to moment. You can be an ordinary person in one moment and a Buddha in the next. It all depends if you are grasping/rejecting or not.
Tyrhonius well said bro
Tyrhonius привет
What sees the fluctuation?
Be there.
@@youhavenoprivacyandownnoth8289 Nice catch
Then when is the final liberation
Beware of those who claim they can teach you enlightenment by lightening your pockets.
"I went thru koans in 6 years" that's a huge, huge red flag.
@Dan-The-Man: what should it have been? You are implying it was too quickly gone through?
@@andofeverything Of course it was. To have a thorough integration of what's seen in Koan training alone takes over a decade. Also, this guy was booted out and forced to disrobe because he was caught fiddling the books, abusing his students and carrying on multiple affairs. He's a known and outed liar and a narcissist.
You can't become a Zen Master. Ego makes you a Zen Master and once you realize you are a "Master," then you're not.
Translation: you are Everything.
Sigh...
Very well said!
@@dandiaz19934 , It's ok.
Well no, thats just you stating a falsehood. I’m a zen master cause i wanna be. So neh
By the way, this guy got Me Too'd. Hes infamous for multiple allegations of sleeping with his students at the center he used to work in Maine. He had to quit teaching and disrobed as a monk as a result of that. So.
Yes agreed, he's completely full of bullshit and lies.
Zen for the “Fortune 500” crowd - great “Zen Masters” don’t spend time talking about their own awakening - and this guy in particular is riddled with scandal. Not that a Zen teacher isn’t human, but all of this wreaks of ego.
If you would happen to be a Zen master, you would not concider yourself as a Zen master.
Why?
Waking up is basically the hardest thing you can do as a human being.... at least that's how it is for most people. Transcending 1 million years of human evolution and animal survival instincts is the ultimate challenge.
What he utters is straight from the understanding of Zen but not real Awakening. It's sad Zen has come to this point... studying hundreds of Koans. You only need one Koan and a true Koan is not meant for you to answer. It's to point a direction to the true essence, to the "Don't Know" state of Mind where the inquiry itself is all its left. If you have an Awakening experience, then you're not a Zen Master. As long as there is an experiencer, then you're still in the illusion of your own Ego. As true Masters have warned us, anyone that self-professes to be a "master" is NOT one. This whole experience of being One with the Universe is bullshit. It's your Ego trying to prop itself as an "Awakened Ego". How ridiculous is this. If anyone has this experience, be warned. You're in a "mind-trap" of your own Ego...
Oh how right you are. the word 'experience' says it all, and certainly having one gives the game away.
Yes agreed. This guy is filled with his own ego based crap.
Valar makes an important point about kensho ( the meeting of the conscious and sup conscious mind ( s ).The way genpodescribes / re - lives his " experience " makes me wonder if it wasn't an intellectual " experience ". He's just too " Dead " for me.
1:50 - HE IS SAYING IT LIKE POET, like some story for telling. The experience is indescribable... this is mind trap. Be out from circle of thinking is one thing and satori another. Not even similars.
"I am a Zen Master" implies duality, thus not a Zen master.
Very helpful.
he knows all the words but he doesn't know the music...ulterior motives abound
beautifully put
can I charge 50k per retreat when I become a Zen master?
Right? Lol
Hahahaha
Because charlatans thrive on the foolish. the Buddha advised his followers to study any potential teacher closely. What do they get up to on their off teaching days ...observe scrutinize analyse investigate.
Yeah, I did this, that, I was this that, and I became this, and that. This is the essence of the zen science of the mind. Yeah. Sure. Wot?
From zero to Zen master in one infinite step. 150Magic Mushrooms.
I had 200pcs :D
Lol .. thanks for telling us your resume of accomplishments...for 2 minutes. I really cared about your high school swim team.
I am a nez master...I am one with dog...evolove ...
Ultimate.
Your support for Bill Harris of Holosync really disqualifies you in my mind as a worthwhile Zen teacher.
How to become a zen master. What a title!
You can see the aura of a true Zen Master, he does not have it
ARISTOTLE if your only concern is someone’s “aura” you are incredible mislead my friend. Don’t pay attention the energy outside ones body but the energy that reflects out of them through their actions and words. Your ego judges people.
Bollocks.
Sounds more like some kind of "Zenbro."
Zen has no masters. To be its master, you got to be "one" with it all the time. Then you are Zen. No master!
The zen guys that trained him prob gave him mushys
How to become a zen master? Only 3 things to do.
1) Push yourself , 2) Help other people , 3) Find happiness in every little things.
5) do only if you feel like it
You can't push yourself, help others or find happiness in every little thing if you're a Zen Master.
No.
Does anyone know the name of the questions he said he had answered over 700 of in 6 years where you must drop your rational mindset in order to answer?
One does not become one with the cosmos.The cosmos becomes one, with one.
It doesn't become anything. That's kind of the point.
@@ObakuZenCenter When all is one, there is no other. Neither is, nor is not. All the teachings are just arrows pointing at the truth. The truth cannot be spoken. And so ?
Gempo Roshi is one of the greatest American Zen masters. Look at him, a sight for a sore eye.
He was forced to disrobe and was kicked out of his Zen center after completely unethical conduct, abuse of students and financial dishonesty. The man is a disgrace.
@Zen Center Shit! And I just sent his Birthday Greetings!
A lot of concepts here.
I don't know about this guy.
Zen is enough. Masterplan is a thought man. Shit will haunt you.
lecher!
It's not that easy to truly have a peak experience of Kensho or the Void or whatever, in fact right now it's quite rare, or a hell of a lot more people would stick with Buddhist practice instead of quitting in frustration.
thomas seven
It doesn't have to, no. But as of right now, often the only way is through horrifying effort, or being a 'natural mystic'. This is a major topic of discussion in current critiques of traditional Buddhism, when scientific rigour is brought to bear on analyses of success and failure in Buddhist practice.
In all the many testimonies and studies I've read, teachers report that only about 5% of people who start actually stick with meditation long enough for any results, and of those, only a fraction have a breakthrough experience. Dr. Jeffery Martin has conducted extensive research by interviewing hundreds of 'enlightened' people on their backgrounds and these were his findings.
For myself, I've applied the sort of intensity to the path that no one in their right mind should have to endure, mostly involuntarily because a psychedelic experience drove me half insane and integrating it has at times been hellish. But no breakthrough has resulted after ten years and it's incredibly frustrating.
I've heard various reports about the efficacy of Dennis Merzel's Big Mind technique. The results vary wildly from astounding to nothing. What we need, and what we are working on, is faster and more efficient techniques that can reliably produce transformative experiences in people from all walks of life who do not have the means to commit themselves to intensive practice, which is most of the population.
thomas seven
I have been warned against that sort of practice by teachers because of the danger of repeating the suicidal breakdowns of my past history. I'm not the only person in this sort of situation, so we're in a bind.
Shinzen Young is also an ardent advocate of 'working smarter' and of technological innovations in Buddhist practice.
I'm happy it happened to you though. Most people on these spiritual videos are following neo-Advaita teachers and getting absolutely nowhere as a result, and keep talking about enlightenment without ever having experienced it.
thomas seven
Thanks for your input. It's not the easiest thing to have a grounded spiritual dialogue on the TH-cams.
Jabba DaHutt
Then still nothing might happen. The paradox of the spiritual path is that we need to work to get where we already are, or in other words, we need concepts to get beyond concepts. Most of us could throw out all notions of difficult or easy, and the practical reality is it would still be difficult.
Many people have been practicing in such a manner in the neo-Advaita realm for about two decades now, and yet only a handful have had genuine breakthroughs.
Jabba DaHutt
Just speaking from experience man. Gotten a lot of teachings from the direct pointing angle and the gradual path angle and everything in between. If direct pointing worked so well, why did the gradual path ever develop or survive so long?
i am the master of the universe. the master of zen masters masters.
"Koans were easy for me because I'd already experienced nondual mind back in '73". Yikes.
So i'm a zen master.
Everyone is a Zen master.
Jabba DaHutt 'Wherever you go you will find your teacher, as long as you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.' - Shunryu Suziki
thomas seven Teaching Zen is hardly the function of a Zen master
This opinion is typical of people that claim to be interested in spirituality, or claim to be deeply spiritual people, but are too lazy to actually practice anything. You should probably fix that.
Yet no one is at peace
Also there are no zen masters
What would this fraud know about enlightenment?!
Depth 🤤
I'm a world class Pokémon trainer :-)
sounds like he is reading from a script. saying feeling of oneness is not Zen is it? is the how to say the unsayable... this is way too much narrative, and personal narrative ....
There is only one rule in Zen: Nobody truly knows what it is except you, and so you have to go around clarifying to everyone else how wrong their understanding of Zen is and how right yours is.
Atleast that's what I get from the comments.
If he is a zen master then im not The Universe. seriously .
Con artist kicked out of two Zen centers and made to disrobe, after being caught abusing students financially and sexually says what? Sounds more like the garbage in lineages such as the fake Matsuoka one.
I lost myself. Classic cliche. - no mind, no master
Poor guy
Why people talk shit about this man i don't get it.There ain't a Zen Master who doesn't know fall 7 times get up 8.
He abused students financially and sexually and was booted out of two Zen centers because of that. He's a liar and a fraud.
Just laugh
Every comment here is from a Zen master 🧡
Some are lol but everyone thinks they are, including the abuser who had to disrobe who is in the video.
First define what a zen master is.
Genius
Here is what it takes to be a true Zen (Chan, Son...) master from the words of one of the greatest Chan masters of our times Shifu Sheng Yen. In his book Hoofprint of the Ox pages186-198. You're welcome.
Ahahah, so humurous ^_^
I am a nun!
아진스님 You're cute
Anyone want to kiss the master's feet?
Remove the "how to" done.
Nauseating. And look at his resume, so egotistic. After women, money and power.