Zen Master Bon Yeon, guiding teacher of the Cambridge Zen Center, speaks at Boston University.

[@zosimolee2873]

Being fully in the moment. Savoring the breath and just being here. Then plunging into the eternal. All is here.

[@Anastasius12]

Thank you so much for this video! I am glad to hear a little about your "private" life. I had ideas about "Zen Masters" you helped put to bed, just glad to know you have kids, job, sub urban life, not transient single monastic. Makes my practice seem just a little more "do able"! Thank you for all your talks!

[@busyrand]

I've watched this Five times today... Thank you for this.... Thank you.

[@ozgursenturk11-11]

When you realize that "you" and the "rock" are one then you will hear the "sound of one hand clapping"😇🙏🤗

[@charlesdavis7087]

Very enlightening... the parts I could here. Obviously, you've had some great teachers. Thanks for sharing. Moi

[@ozgursenturk11-11]

When she left the flower I instantly smile because I've read the story before but this time felt in my heart what Buddha meant when he did it😇🙏

[@3340steve]

Thank you for the excellent teaching video. People want to bring all their mental complications into this practice, it's really unnecessary, just be present,be compassionate with others, stop trying so hard...no attachment....when hungry,Eat...when tired,sleep...

[@ozgursenturk11-11]

When she lifted the flower I instantly smiled because I've read the story before but this time felt in my heart what Buddha meant when he did it😇🙏

[@pentest]

Thank you.

[@mitchellaquilino7832]

I love her.. thank you

[@MrDannyRuss]

Seen this video quite a few times. Over a couple of years. Everything has been OK for years (if we use time for this conversation) so I'm not searching or anything. But only today it clicked about the three pounds off sth. I heard the phrase millions of times but only today I saw the lady with her hands raised. Feels very nice magical. Nothing has changed since all has been seen clearly for a while now (time makes it into a story). Now it's ok. And the story is pretty fun too. Now.

[@TheInfoworks]

Where have all the Abbott Tom videos gone, particularly "The voice in your head". It is much missed, cheers, Andy

[@markjamison8078]

She is right about thinking. It does create the duality. However, not so sure about coming one with the universe while not thinking.

[@MagdiNonDuality]

Thinking is different from identification. The universe thinks without identification. When the universe thinks with identification, the separation arises.

[@Wambumbu]

Zen is pretty simple to explain when you truly acquired the insight. I think she is going in the wrong direction when she is saying that she becomes one with the universe, not because she is not genuinely feeling this, but because people who have not felt this are going to be stuck on this point... What in the world does she mean by being one with the universe... You might call the experience like that, but you're not explaining it. And then you start thinking about it... but that just stops you from living the experience because you need to stop concentrating on your thinking. But all she is talking about is the moment when you are simply doing what is needed to do, at the same time of having the desire to do so (without the desire appearing before the event, both need to be simultaneous). This is why most Zen teachers are actually asking, subtly, their students to act in all sorts of unpredictable ways, no matter how awkward is might look. You need to do something spontaneous, and commit to whatever your mind decided on doing. At that moment, the thing that you do depends on unconscious, self-generating events (which we know is the universe... your brain follows the same laws of physic than the universe, and everything that is exists is the Universe, therefore, you are one with the universe, just as the rock is one with the universe..) But of course, you do not become the rock... you and the rock are still separate in the sense that you are not going to feel what the rock would be feeling if you touched it... You are still going to be limited to a certain area of experience (which could be said to be the true you).

[@kuniphertze7112]

+Wambumbu You should go listen to the many Buddhist masters in Taiwan or Japan. Zen Buddhism as a sectarian school started in China and today's idea of Zen, is pretty much a reconciled version of Boddhidarma's Zen with a lot of Chinese ideas (look up the Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng). It's better to go check out those lectures on youtube to truly grasp the insight of what Zen is. They usually give hours of lectures over a small fragment of the big scheme of Zen so you can thoroughly understand it. But of course, you will have to have the language ability to do that.

[@mikekeyes6102]

They could also read the books of D T Suzuki, Charles Luk (Lu K'uan Yu), or R H Blyth and others - if they are really serious. I am amazed at how many Americans are posing as Zen masters - it's Zen for the Kindergarten - Zenless Zen...

[@waiataaroha]

@@kuniphertze7112 shut up ... Zen is about realizing not studying

[@gepisar]

I am a physicist, but new to “Zen”. There is no “God principle” in physics. So, ok, slip of the tongue - the press have dubbed the Higgs-Boson the “god particle”. Buddha knew about quantum tunneling and quantum effects sitting under a tree? -> What 'works' on a macro level doesn’t work on a ‘quantum scale’. The maths of the macro are approximations, they are a “map”, but not the territory! (Your thoughts are not reality, no matter how detailed) But, the macro is made up of the ‘micro’ - so there isn’t “really” a macro at all; our models ARE macro for convenience. Modelling countless particles is beyond our capability. Where it becomes "zen", is perhaps with light; is it a wave or a particle - or indeed something else? Heisenberg did win the nobel prize for creating quantum mechanics, but his uncertainty principle is to do with information rather than observers changing anything. Approximately, what it says with regard to pairs of physical properties is that the more we know about one, the less we know about the other. So, the more we know a particles position, the less we know about its momentum, and vice-versa. (Think if a car going really fast. Try and measure its position whilst its doing 500mph. By the time you got the tape measure out, its moved. So, ‘where’ exactly is it? The slower is goes, the more certain about its position we are) - nothing to do with observer changing outcomes.( Heisenberg did win the nobel prize for creating quantum mechanics) Light, however, exhibits both wave-like and particle-like phenomenon. (Interference when no one watches, but particles when they do) - see Youngs Double Slit experiment. Ask the rocks; they know. Just because they don’t answer doesn’t mean they don’t! As for the Buddha’s “speech” not saying anything - well, that’s kind of the point; being in the “present”. I don’t think the point of the flower is that its “all there” - more to the point, it’s ALL now. More than that, it’s ONLY now. The notion that enlightenment is “in front of us” also puts it away from us. Enlightenment is now. “Can you believe it?” - belief has nothing to do with it. A belief implies something that requires defending, or a notion in some direction or other that we must "hold". Even if it is only you that defends your beliefs to yourself, it is an attitude about yourself. And you can never KNOW everything, therefore your belief is at best, based on incomplete information and therefore an illusion; a map to get by and make sense of things.(Map isn't the territory) Why keep such a restriction? Regarding “thinking” - ask yourself this; “What will my next thought be?” then ask yourself again - that’s ZEN ! “Let’s say someone bothers you today” - how can they? And if you just rewind to “enjoy it again and again” - that’s insane! There is no past! Only “now”. Comparing oneself to other is also folly; how do you know the comparison is valid? You can't! So why do it? "Assaulted morning noon and night [as young people]" What a strange thing to say. Young people have the same 24 hours per day as anyone else. The sensory input per day per person is the same: there is no day: ONLY IN THE NOW.

[@Angloth]

+gepisar

[@AggresivelyBenign]

Perhaps you’re so much wiser than Zen Master Bon Yeon than you didn’t need this speech.

[@waiataaroha]

Shut up

[@balajiramamurthy9105]

If Brain is still without inner chatter,it can be a powerful receiver- antenna. A flash of light from distance star can transmit other world knowledge.Dreams are ET messages too.

[@SirHiggalot]

+Balaji Ramamurthy Dreams are ET messages? Prove it.

[@markbrad123]

Wakarimasu. Arigato Gosaimasu

[@busheybushdawg]

Zen rings true to me but I worry about the lack of a moral code. I know most schools of Buddhism emphasize moral precepts but pure zen holds principles that override those ideas

[@Codswallop58]

busheybushdawg buddhism had no prescriptive moral code--that goes for all Buddhism, not just Zen. A lot off people want it to be a religion that will tell them what not to do, but it simply isn't about that. The precepts most people are familiar with aren't commandments. They are like the lines and signs on the highway. They tell you if you're going in the right direction. There's no Buddha hell or punishment for sin.

[@markjamison8078]

The best Zen masters are the ones who don't want to be Zen masters. I think she is a good person. But her understanding of quantum mechanics is way more complex than the way she makes it out to be. As Richard Feynman said. Someone who says they understand quantum mechanics is a fool.

[@williamdiaz2645]

what is a Zen Master?

[@joakimdernebo8400]

Bill Diaz A teacher

[@MeelisMatt]

if life can be looked like a movie is like a character in a movie among other characters(people) - someone who realised what it is and and has chosen to help others realise it to get away from unneccecary suffering. this is ''my definition'' but if go into nonduality the i that explains is just part of you. all we can experience are like waves from absolute what is limitless emptiness/potential. is this right, who knows...

[@prasit6]

01010101010101010101010101...............

[@charlesmoxley8873]

"Nobody masters Zen" -Kobun Chino. Reeks of Zen. in here.

[@bonobo3373]

Zen Master?

[@bonobo3373]

This is not a zen master folks. Not about male/female. About not a zen master

[@McLKeith]

john nozen What makes you an expert on who is a Zen Master?

[@bonobo3373]

Keith Mc Dearest Keith Mc. Because one hangs a shingle does not imply a master. The name nozen implies a beginner. Thank you very much

[@waiataaroha]

@@bonobo3373 and how do you know who is a zen master and who is not?? Lol.

[@bonobo3373]

@@waiataaroha As you gaze the marrow. You’ll understand the chickens have come home to roost

[@waiataaroha]

@@bonobo3373 I can see that she is not liberated yet ....

[@qorilla]

Please don't bring physics into mysticism. Yes, energy and mass are equivalent. Yes, if you have the same mass as a rock, you have the same energy. At least if you mean scientific, physical energy and not some woo woo magic stuff.

[@mutualmonster]

+qorilla You make a good point, however Zen is far removed from magic. It's worth remembering that if a Zen practitioner (or a Buddhist in general) falls back on magical thinking, psychic/magic phenomena, or intellectualization of Dharma "stuff," they've transgressed the Zen/Buddhist teachings and deserve critique/correction from the Zen/Buddhist establishment. I've been a first hand witness to Zen clergy smacking down Zen students' scientific woo woo answers with comments like "too intellectual." An interesting, related note is that Gautama Buddha even said that if one really could cultivate magical/psychic powers, then Buddhist practitioners should abandon such powers (this is a major distinction from classical Taoism). So it's correct and even necessary to call a spade a spade, but it's worth remembering that the teachings of Zen/Buddhism are incompatible with and seek to root out "woo woo magic stuff," even if some contemporary Buddhist figureheads do so in the form of co-opting and then adulterating scientific ideas.

[@qorilla]

I'm only talking about what this particular person said. Also, this "too intellectual" stuff just defeats itself. Why distinguish intellectual and non-intellectual if you're all about eliminating distinctions and dualistic thinking.

[@mutualmonster]

Sure. I'm affirming the validity of your call-out while placing this video in the context of Zen...in case you or other viewers didn't already know where Zen stands with regard to "magic."

[@zatakification]

+qorilla it is not about eliminating a kind of thinking it's about trying to just concentrate on where you are and what you should be doing. that's all. sometimes what you're doing might be very intellectual, like when you are a neuroanatomist. which I am actually. I mention that in case it helps you chill and consider what I'm trying to say about the video. she meant whatever einstein meant. she doesn't care it's just a story not a belief or something. It's a metaphor if you like. it's just to help you figure out how to concentrate on where you are and what you should be doing. Pretty much, I think so. Don't know for sure though. Here I am partly trying to impress a stranger with my zen insight actually, so maybe I don't get it as well I thought. don't know.

[@thenowchurch6419]

gorilla. Scientific physical energy ? What do you mean by that ? Einstein's equation is ultimately saying that Energy is All that is, including, Thought, Intention and all human attributes. We know that we are energy, now we know that mass is energy, wow it's all energy! All is One. That is not woo woo.