zen daily life

[seeker242]

What exactly is the "buddha mind"? Does "Buddha mind" have a need to go trudging through past and projecting into the future? Why does the mind go trudging into the past and projecting into the future to begin with? Is it not grasping that causes that very activity to begin with? Why would a mind with no grasping need to conjure up the past or make some ideas about the future?

Buddha-mind is the fundamental knowing awareness that is empty of all substances but full of all functions. Thoughts about past, present and future things are all workings of normal thinking, otherwise one cannot either eat or shit, not to mention more complex deeds. What makes the difference between freedom and bondage is whether there is attachment to reified views about self and objects or not.

I would agree with that but at the same time, someone with a buddha mind does not walk down the street worrying about what will happen or not happen tomorrow or keep carrying yesterday with them. When they are walking down the street, their mind is right there with them, in the "present moment", just walking down the street. That is what "being in the present moment" means. To not be worrying about the future and carrying the past, both of which are clinging and attachment.

[Astus]

Hope and fear, wish and worry, these are emotional troubles. But thinking about past and future events are just thoughts. Walking down the street, if one has no knowledge and perception of the direction, it's called being lost.

[seeker242]

Hope and fear, wish and worry, these are emotional troubles. But thinking about past and future events are just thoughts. Walking down the street, if one has no knowledge and perception of the direction, it's called being lost.

Yes thinking about future events are just thoughts. However, not all thoughts are equals. Thinking about what you need to buy at the store to make dinner is very different than worrying incessantly, with the accompanying mental chattering (thinking), about what you want or don't want to happen tomorrow. One is suffering and the other isn't. One is attachment/craving the other isn't. These are two very different kinds of past/future thinking. "Present moment awareness" means to practice not engaging in the 2nd kind. "Present moment awareness" means to practice not attaching and letting go of craving. Not all past/future thinking is equal as some is directly caused by craving/attachment itself. By engaging in this kind of thinking, you are engaging in craving. In zen practice, we practice not doing that. So to practice "Present moment awareness" is quite appropriate because it subdues the furthering and increasing of craving/attachment. People don't trip and fall on the curb because they got lost. They fall and trip on the curb because they weren't paying attention to what they were doing. They fall and trip on the curb because their mind was was not "in the present moment" but because it was off in the past or the future.

[White Lotus]

how are you today?

[Wesley1982]

I'm grateful and thankful to be able to have the liberty and time to do this.