Finding Inner Calm and Deeper Wisdom

One Benefit: A calm mind operates at a deeper level.

You train to stay calm and centered simply by practicing being calm and centered. You train yourself by doing it—over and over. That rule is consistent and mostly inflexible. And is exasperating for some people. The good news is that help is available. The way to get started is to just get started. Do it today. Look at the menu and you’ll see a book that might help with that.

The inner pathway leads to other life-changing discoveries. One of the first and most important rewards of inner development is the discovery of your own self-nature, which is who you are and what you are at the deepest level of your being, all without the masks and delusions created by your conscious thinking mind. Other discoveries along that path include learning your purpose in life and receiving enlightening experiences. When you’ve accomplished that, you will be known as a Master.

Zen meditation was first discovered by an old monk called Bodhidharma who lived in the 6th century B.C.E. Through the millennia, his discoveries about a meditation and a person’s self-nature have come to be known as Zen.

Discovering your own self-nature is a pretty big thing in your life. It will probably be your first experience of Enlightenment. Knowledge of who you are and what you are is enormously satisfying. While there may be many steps and many experiences of enlightening knowledge, a person who has discovered his own self-nature can be truthfully said to be “enlightened.” Knowledge of one’s self-nature is perhaps the most valued prize on the pathway of inner development.

Zen is not a religion. It is not based on any religious belief although it inherits its meditation practices from Buddhism. Along the Zen path, a practitioner might receive spiritual knowledge, which is chiefly knowledge of one’s own human spirit, and then subsequent knowledge received via the human spirit.

What is the meaning of “inner development?” It means growth and development of the non-physical self, including mental, emotional, and spiritual areas. It’s the pathway of improving yourself at the deepest inner levels, and experiencing higher levels of joy and fulfillment in this life. It works.