Love Intelligence

Existence need not be a fight for survival! It is a celebration, a dynamic play for our enjoyment. Love-Intelligence is the ability to see the universe with loving and wondrous eyes. To see a ocean fog rolling over the mountains, crashing ocean waves hitting a cliff, desert dunes illuminated by a purple sunset; this is enough to be in sheer awe. To be among the birds, the insects, the plants and trees, and all the unique people in a bustling city; this is enough to feel grateful. When we see life as being this colorful, this beautiful, this far-out, this psychedelic, we can only celebrate!

A man who loves a woman cannot justify why it is so. He may use many words like beautiful and kind to explain his feeling, but there are many women on earth that fit this description. There is no explanation why he has chosen her, or why he is drawn to her; to him it is a mystery.

A man who sees the beauty in the moon or a sunset does so with loving eyes. What is there to gain from the moon? How can a sunset give you anything that is not already inside of you? Love-intelligence is the ability to see the sunset within every person, to see the full moon in every stone.

To taste, to see, to breath, to feel, to think, be be alive is miraculous. To have life passing through you is enough to be thankful. We have been chosen for this gift of consciousness. When we are overwhelmed by love and gratitude there is no better place to express it than the here an now. There is no man-made temple as worthy to bow to as you body, the earth, or the sky.

No questions need be answered. Love-Intelligence is the ability to realize the futility in all questions and answers. We need not seek to explain everything, we are already who as we are; we are whole in our not-knowing. Therefore knowing cannot make us more whole. True peace comes from an acknowledgement of bewilderment. Like socrates exclaimed at the end of his life, “the one thing I know is that I know nothing”.

From Food to Sex – The Art of Enjoyment

There is an art to the act of being consciously aware during situations that normally bring us into a state of unconsciousness. One of the most common activities when control is lost is during eating. For instance, have you ever eaten so fast that you became full within a few minutes and you left the table feeling unsatisfied because you failed to enjoy what you were eating? What happens is the degree to which we are aware of the present moment goes down and the number of thoughts in our brain rises. Our perception of time is skewed and we begin to focus on what comes next, the next bite, the desert, instead of what’s in our mouth right now. Or thoughts may arise comparing this meal to the similar one we had last week. Judgmental thoughts of ourselves may also take us far away from the present moment. I have been around people who the moment they stop eating, life comes back into their eyes, and they glance around the room with a slightly confused look on their face. Let us practice our ability to bring awareness into the various situations where unconsciousness tends to takeover, from mundane task to sex.

We can view the art of being fully conscious during all activities as a noble quest. Our ability to enjoy experiences, and to not be controlled by our mind and body, is directly related to the degree of our conscious awareness. During intimacy a constant reminder to stay connected to the now is most needed. We can enjoy being in the presence of other people, whether we find them sexually attractive or not, with no goal, no seeking, no need to get somewhere. If we can enjoy the human form in its various shapes and sizes without judgement, internal beauty becomes so much more vivid. We can simply relax into our natural state of spontaneous excitement.

Why has sex become taboo? It is such a natural thing, it is the most natural thing. Sex starts the moment we look at our partner. It is expected that instinctual impulses will try to take over and we will begin to slip away from conscious awareness. This is because the desire to procreate is strong and we are, after all, animals. A disconnect with reality, a loss of control, is what is feared by man, which is why sex has been so repressed throughout history. It has been believed that the ability to control oneself during sex or in the presence of a woman is impossible, therefore, the only option is abstinence or celibacy. This is not true, if we can understand our impulse is simply a flood of chemicals in the brain, its power over us can be transcended. The loss of control is a loss of conscious awareness aided by distracting thoughts and emotions.

If we fail to listen to the thoughts and emotions, if do not let them carry us, while simultaneously relaxing any tension, we then become fully receptive to the experience. With practice we can pull ourselves more and more easily out of unconsciousness. We can passively allow ourselves to be loved. We can also give love with more intensity and authenticity. We can stop the incessant mind chatter that is constantly trying to predict the future, monitor our performance, or remember past failures. With this approach intimate situations become immensely more profound. Sensations are alive in all their colorful potency. A level of satisfaction radiates from within and there is no need to dominate, only a subtle willingness to share, to become one. To drop all barriers and allow the soul to see the self in the other. This is when sex becomes more than a physical act, it is a union. A blissful journey to the highest peaks and the lowest valleys.

CALIZEN

Check out this new blog www.calizen.net!


CALIZEN simply represents a merging of materialism (California) and spirituality (Zen), which have been conflicting forces throughout history. In the east, spiritual obsession and asceticism has been predominantly pursued in hopes of a more pure existence; in the west, indulgence in worldly pleasures seems to be a top priority and sought by the masses. Both extremes are wrong and have been the cause of much suffering. There is a middle road, to walk the razors edge between materialism and spirituality. Let us be in touch with our true nature, our spiritual being and our purpose in life, but let us also enjoy the various comforts that life brings without attachment or dependence.

Sitting Meditation - Sitting Practice

"The intent to meditate itself arises in the form of an idea, usually tied to something like "stress relief", "peace of mind", "spiritual development", and the like. However, so long as we hold on to these kinds of ideas of developing one outcome or another through meditation, we just remain in the realm of ideas and outside of meditation practice. Even in relation to our ideas themselves, we end up perpetuating the very circumstances that we were hoping to change."

— Seikan Čech

Seikan Čech is a Zen monk based in Melbourne Australia. The quote above is from a recent interview at MeditationHow.info on sitting meditation (or sitting practice).


In this seven part meditation testimonial Seikan Čech discusses Just-Sitting, Thinking-Mind, How to Practice The Way, Sitting Practice, Here And Now, Letting Go, and Form Is Emptiness.