Experience
Pure logical thinking cannot yield us any knowledge of the empirical world; all knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it.
When our beliefs are based on our own direct experience of reality and not on notions offered by others, no one can remove these beliefs from us.
My teaching is not a philosophy. It is the result of direct experience.
What is necessary, then, is to “know thyself”—advice which every wise person has given. We must know ourselves, not just intellectually in the realm of ideas and theories, and not just emotionally or devotionally, simply accepting blindly what we have heard or read. Such knowledge is not enough. Rather, we must know reality experientially. We must experience directly the reality of this mental-physical phenomenon.
If you make your life energies very intense, consciousness will burn within you. If there is no intensity, if you are only talking and reading about consciousness, it will not happen.
It is only a small step from the word ‘being’ to the experience of Being.
'I am', is enough to heal your mind and take you beyond.
The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.
Are you here to experience life or to think about it?
We talk of God, Truth and Love, but instead of direct experience we have definitions.
Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.