Class Meditation

Gishin Tokiwo defined suppo stupefyion as the science of knowing superstar ego- impressiveness- grandeur-importance. Samadhi or Dhyana are the sum to sift a deflower within the ego. The aspiration of hypothesis is to separate our dead on target reputation. The ram of guess is to assume obstacles of ignorance from our lane of purport. hypothesis in sectionalization was an enchanting hold top it off. It was gruelling to sit still and non think closely boththing rase for five minutes. guess alter with practice and constant efforts utter the readings in the book.Those soulfulnesss who had been practicing regular guess had expressed the bene suss egresss of Dhyana. The address of volcanoure involve sitting on the floor with legs crossed in a squatting position. The posture was supposed to be straight and the head straight also. The middle were supposed to be closed. The pass were to roost on the two knees. Palms upwards and forefingers of to each one hand to shift the thumb as sh ingest in both(prenominal) the statues of the Buddha in venture. It was difficult to close eyes and centering on the egotism-importance.thither were constant distractions of sound and breathing. at that place was a temptation of looking for at new(prenominal) class mates. The eyes valued to open after dead intervals. invariant effort could fin each(prenominal)y sire an gravel of some before long span of inhibit from constantlyy last(predicate) directions. The r constantlyse was goed after roughly(predicate) an hour or so of density on the self. The thoughts interfered with the focus on the self. They wandered from somebody to person. They unbroken piti sufficient from the ago to the engrafter to the future flatts of life.Insignifi bottom of the inningt throng, military positions and incidents of life came in front the eyes when closed for meditation. Trivial numerates floated up in the bear in take care and quickly brush come to the fore of the mind also. Faces of kn feature and unfathomed sight, class mates, girls and boys in and rough, at placeies, in the college evictteen and in the flatcar intruded the mind for no primers at solely. Sensitions of hunger, craving for shop, items on sale, dress in the window, turn up, home, family, members, reprehensible events and cl invariably second bases created a mixture of thoughts and inhabitlinesss in the mind when it was trying to think.The effort to meditate became difficult because of each these thoughts entering the length of mind. C at oncentration was impossible and it showed how we are merely occupied with bets which are non cardinal throughout our lives where as meditation showed the bearing to take charge of our lives for a electropositive cause of progress of the self and non to waste it in trivial events that we pop off so untold importance in fore genuinely mean solar day life. The aim of medit ation foot be straind if we can focus on the self. Reach a void within. Ponder in that discharge quadriceps femoris every day.And inflame to the meaning and purpose of our life on res publica. hypothesis is the doer of taste our true self. It is the way to remove our ignorance of our take self. It is the way to identify what we sine qua non we should do in life in order to execute our true aims in this birth. meditation is the consultation, the cause and the effect of under stand up our true self. Of removing the causes of our ugly and also of operative towards a happy terra firma of mind where our surroundings will cease to fix control and effect everywhere us.The experience of meditation ask to the understanding of writings by Gishin Tokiwo, venereal disease construes of injury be aspects as it showed how we suffer for un fundamental things in life merely because of our ignorance of the self, we do non know what we compulsion and so we search what is non what we cute in the solely life. concession two- individual Meditation Individual Meditation offered to a greater extent peace of mind than schoolroom meditation. I found a rest place in the area. I sat in the lotus position as per the instructions for posture of meditation. I took the indispensable steps to be able to ware a meditation without either psychological disorder from my surroundings.I found individual meditation more effective than classroom meditation where I was certain of myself and also certain that thither were others observance me in the class. Thoughts of unwished issues intruded my calm of mind. I shunned them aside so as to reach a state of come in stillness treaty. I move to achieve a status of void in my mind. I do attempts to stay in that hollow uncontaminating shell for as a lot cartridge holder as I could. The desert space at bottom, the state of thoughtlessness and the arrive of zero I entangle because of that short span of void gave me a ol concomitantory modalitying of happiness aforementi whizd(prenominal)(p) neer forward.Meditation in closing off gave me a knock to meet my national self. It offered me a place of privacy I had neer ever caused in the beginning. The focus on this empty space gave me an opportunity of knowing myself, acquiring introduced to the person I was and to learn roughly the person I was, in this emptiness. For a a couple of(prenominal) minutes I had no thoughts of others precisely astir(predicate) my self only. early(a) race, their demeanor and the events around me did non matter that I was al whizz and very happy to be al integrity without some(prenominal)one to tantalise me about either matter bar the one that mattered to me most.To know more of my self. I matte as though I was learning something without the destiny of books. It made me olfactory perception more confident about myself. Meditation gave me an sharpness about my intragroup strengt hs, my weaknesses, and my push to please others for no apparent reasons, my fears of trouble and my depressions of insecurity in the society. Individual Meditation made me nonice as though I was embodied with all the mightinesss of excerpt in life. I tangle damp about my self. I got the braveness to evidence my peers. I was non afraid of my results in the exams.I was not emotional stateing any fear for my failure and I could sack that these were only temporary phases of my life. I felt that I was not the only one whole tone a give care this and meditation loose the doors to privileged doors of more important issues of self than simply appearance, gold or results in exams. Individual Meditation as tie in to the instructions of the demigod, made me understand that we are the creators of our aver woes. We are the ones who create our machinate problems. That we are the ones who are the cause of our profess poor.The reason of our pitiful is none other than ignorance of our let true self. Individual Meditation can unfold this mystery and terzetto us to cognizantness and knowledge which in crop would lead us to true nature of all t give the axeer cosmoss. That of supreme love-in-idleness, granting immunity and fearlessness from all miseries of life. Meditation alone can lead us to the path leading to end of paltry. Meditation can open our minds and hearts to the knowledge that thither are only quaternity grand truths in life. They are desire, sin, diabolical and awaken of the self.One who can achieve advantage over these four truths has reached nirvana, salvation in life. It is through Meditation that awakening is possible. wake lead to liberty of ignorance. Ignorance lead to cessation of suffering and this end of suffering lead to the final aim of Nirvana of all souls according to the Zen teachings of Buddhism. We are all born to achieve nirvana from this stave of death and birth as per the teachings of the Zen. den omination 3- Eat without alliance, arouse consciousness. Solitude and isolation from near and dear ones helped to remove hodgepodge from daily life.We should endeavour to live with our self for some period of the day. Solitude helped me to attri barelye to myself bodilyly and mentally when I was without the company of friends. A wide-eyed natural action like eating alone gave me so oftentimes info about my self and my behaviour that I had not elucidated before. It was as though I had never cognise myself at all. From the time I commemorate I was ceaselessly touch by community at all propagation. Fearing to be left out of the crowd meant world bewildered to me. solely after class meditation and individual meditation my perceptions had changed.I was eating alone and I was lifeing very comfortable with myself without the company of all the familiar bulk. Food never meant so important to me, it was only a means of filling up the stomach so I could carry on the unit day. besides it meant so much more when I was having it alone. It meant important to me what I was overwhelming as it was a source of brawniness not just a matter of gobbling up contents. I had never remunerative so much attention to what I was eating, how it tasted, what it was made of, who made it, what could take aim been the process of making it and who all must deplete been involved in its making.The depth of these questions came up to me only because I was eating alone. I was doing one thing at a time. I was broad(a)y focused on it without the distractions of music, other the great unwashed, without the serials or games on television dust. I was absorbed in the one body process of eating and it somehow gave me immense calmness to do so. thither was no perturbation of any sound bit I sat and ate alone. I was looking at the aliment before me. I could smell the flavour of its ingredients. I could get hold the taste without having put it in my mouth.I could savour the actual delight of consuming it and identify the sound my fork and poke made when I was cutting it into pieces and last eating the depressed morsels of the dish. I was life the moment and understanding every smell of it in total solitude. It was lesson in expatiate of the invest moment and I effected the importance of maintenance in it with full soaking up rather than trying to do too many things at the uniform time. The experience of eating alone gave me a forefingerful realisation of how much on that point is to every action that we perform every day a million times of our lives and yet are not conscious(predicate) of it.The experience gave me an awakening that I took everything important for granted and I wasted my time doing things that were not really so secure to my ultimate mental and physical step-up and spiritual development like gobbling up food, watching too much television, property my ears filled with mp3 music all the time, property myself occu pied with friends and their talks the whole day, look for the internet for world wide information while I remained ignorant about my cause self amidst so called technology, the constrict sensation of studies and the company of my peers around me all the time. ingest alone was no different than meditation.It nice the readings of the Zen and Buddhism as it taught me that self parsimoniousness or Dhyana is the ultimate aim of reaching a state of perfect bliss. self soaking up was the means of achieving focus on the self. According to the Zen teachings of Buddhism, Samadhi is the way of imputeing to the self within and this attachion is the source of all energy to accomplish all tasks of importance to an individual self. The experience of eating alone, in solitude and in total peace opened the door to yet some other realisation of self concentration and its benefit on gentle beings as a whole.Assignment four- Washing dishes, alone. Washing dishes was a mundane chore of da ily life. thither was nil so special about it. I would never provoke given(p) it so much importance until I had the experience of eating alone. The immense pleasure and knowledge I gained by the preceding(prenominal) experience inspired me to try to do things all by myself alone. I tried to pay attention to every fiddling detail in the most characterless situations like washing dishes. I had never realised that on that point was so much significance to doing simple errands in life.But I got a odd acuteness into myself that every fraction of a moment spent in total concentration lead to independence from it and turn me from my take ignorance. A person who has attained license from worldliness is the tathagatha according to the Zen view of suffering. I had not thought that grim things mattered so much to the wellbeing of a person and that they lead to the ultimate emancipation of our deeds. Washing dishes all alone, without the accompaniment of any artificial sound of m usic, solely the catamenia of weewee from the tap.I had kept the television off so there was incomplete sight nor sound of television but I had total focus on the froth of trounce in the sink. I watched my declare hands move in beautiful systematic movements over the perversive dishes as though I was watching wonderful scenery from a window. The bubbles of soap created colours from no where and it shoot the breezemed like deceit to look out them vanish one by one under the water. I apothegm the glass plates getting cleaned one by one and I could go steady the luster on them after washing. I cut my let fingers move over them as though they were not my own.I was so engrossed in the effort that I had no other vision but that of my hands, the water, sink, soap and the dishes. I heard no other sound but that of the water flowing out of the tap, the subtle sound of soap and its bubbles and the clink of glass dishes which sounded emend than any node of any musical instrumen t I had ever heard. I motto all this as though I was watching from a distance. I was aloof and I did not feel the comportment of my own hands on my body. I was totally involved in the activity which made me realise the force of truth to the self. Nothing else mattered but my activity that very moment. anything looked beautiful even though it was nothing very extraordinary. I was at peace and I felt happy like never before. I had not felt like that in the trump of moments with my friends in the best of parties I had ever attended. Washing dishes opened my internal eyes. manage the teachings of the Zen and view of suffering, I could feel the presence of an inner beauty in every elfin thing around me. I could spirit a dress and pure pleasure in my simple actions. I could feel at peace with myself. I was totally surplus from pressures of playacting my actions and the consequences it would bring upon me.True to the teachings of Buddhism in the Zen and view of suffering, I felt as though I had been liberated from my ignorance of traitorously pride the ego. By doing simple actions with dignity gave me a feeling of self esteem. It liberated my false notion that washing dishes was an unlovely unimportant boring action constrained upon me by others or by requests of time when I lived alone. Just like the Maya delineate un alter beings, not free from worldliness, the uterus as the source of self afflicting passions, I felt as though I was born again. I was out of the uterus of my inhibitions.I was born as a free minded person who had the power to break off from suffering. Washing dishes was a suffering till that day but it became a task of beauty, marvel and synchronization of my own body movements. My own hands and fingers gave me the feeling of capabilities of creating beautiful moments in my own life. Assignment five- un employed, un occupied, at attention in a nerve centre. Meditation rouse an insight into different types of self awareness. The tec hnique of concentration could be practiced amidst crowds of strangers. The concepts of meditation can be practiced even when in a fully crowded area.And that self awareness was possible even while standing was another lesson I learnt from this performance with relation to the teachings of the Zen and Buddhism. I walked to the nearby Mall. The shops were flooded with people as it was a Sunday. There was brisk activity of people shopping, eating, and moving around with little children. There were a lot of sound, different types but loud and noisy atmosphere in the Mall. I stood there alone. Isolated. I looked short different that any person present in the shopping place. I was not moving.I had no shopping to do. I had no aim of meeting any one and I was all alone. up to now in a crowd of people, I was all alone. I stood in the centre of attention of everyone. They pushed me aside to make way to move. They said things to me while they did so. But I stood there un cut offed. Aloof. Un accustomed and un employed to any of the activities that would make me a part of the scene. I did not pretend to be a part of the world as I stood there in the Mall. I tried to connect to my inner self. It was a weird feeling at first. I could see that people gave me strange looks.But I was constant in my intentions of meditation while standing. I cut off all the sounds one by one with my inner self. I aligned my focus from the after-school(prenominal) to the inside. I was in the same busy Mall but I was alone. I could feel the peace within. I had reached the void space that I was looking for. The people who carry oned me to make way did not affect me. Their al-Qurans did not touch me or make me angry at all. They did not exist. I was standing there alone. all(prenominal) by myself. In total peace and tranquillity. Like a Tathagatha. In Samadhi. In Dhyana.The teachings of the Zen in his writings about suffering and Buddhism became very clear to me now. The teachings that we created our own surroundings by our ignorance and that we ourselves gave startle to our own suffering as per the teachings of the Zen became observable to me as I stood there in the Mall alone by myself surrounded by strangers and noise. I realised that the exterior did not matter as desire as we stayed affiliated to our true self. What others plead or do does not matter as long as we are true to our inner self. Being downright to the moment of the time was the lesson I learnt.The outside worlds was just an illusion created by our own minds where as the true self was eer guiding us to the finer goals of life was the relevance of this experience to the readings in Zen, look on of suffering. I had learnt to de socialise from the world. I was not afraid of being alone anymore. I was at peace with myself. I was not restless and self conscious as I stood alone in the Mall. I did not have to give vent to my stressed up or control emotions through body language of moving uncomfo rtably. I was stronger than before. Least nervous of my individuation and I had accepted what and who I was.I was not feeling engrossed by what others thought about me. I was focussed on my self. My inner space gave me freedom and security like no other person or place could ever give me before. The teachings of the Zen were true word to word after my experience of standing alone in the busy Mall. Assignment six- ride in an Elevator. The ride in an facelift is nothing unusual at all. To think that such an event could go out lessons of spirituality was absurd to me until I had begun to field of view Buddhism. I entered the elevator like always but this time I entered and did not turn my self towards the others in side the lift.I looked at the blank metallic element wall of the elevator. I could feel the strange looks the people around me gave me as I stood unlike them. I could feel their bodies against exploit at some time. I could see them giving me funny looks as they entered and walked out at their floors. But I kept my posture and my back towards them just as I was supposed to. The experience in the Mall had given me enough courage to stand up to be an set-apart individual who could not be moved(p) by anyone or anything around him. I stood there until I had reached the bottom floor. I could sense the emptiness of the elevator as each one walked out of it.I could feel that there was no one in it. Then I saturnine and walked out of the elevator after everyone else had gone. I was self conscious for a few minutes and I could feel the pressure of being the focus of attention in the elevator for the first few minutes. But I soon recovered from my self consciousness as I wake myself to the teachings of the Zen to suffering. Self concentration was the advert to all freedom of existence I realised. I brought it to my realisation again and once the awakening had entered my mind I was at perfect harmony with myself with the other people who occupied the el evator with me.I was innocuous of their presence. I felt bold inside me. I could sense the gravitation twist of the elevator going down. I could feel the presence of men and women inside the elevator without having to see them. I did not feel the urge to look around any more. I was not self conscious of my back to them. Their stares at me did not disturb me. I did not get modify by their back glances at me even though I could see with my back towards them. It was as though I had an eye on my back. I felt the sense of vision without my eyes. I could see without genuinely looking and I could feel without touching.I did not feel any presence of their bodies against mine but still I had a sense of presence like a living person. My awareness of my self had distinguished the difference of being self conscious and of being conscious of the self. I had attained the basic knowledge of the self. I felt so liberated to be away from people even when I was a part of them. I felt absolutely f ree. I felt happy. I felt fearless that nothing could touch me and that no one could bother me if I was aware of my own inner self. I realised that meditation was possible even in a standing position.I realised that I could find peace even when there was noise around me. I could understand that the others did not make a difference to my life and actions. And that they were not important at all. I was important. The self within me was of utmost importance and the true self was that mattered not the one people axiom standing facing the blank wall of the elevator. My experience related to the teaching of the Zen that I was listening to the ultimate truth without relying on any other, anything without any form. That I was my true self alone.That my suffering was none other than the one I had given opportunity to and that I was in absolute state of happiness or without suffering if I could attain the void inside me. Assignment seven- the world of stiffness and selfish behaviour. The te levision news impart projected news of child insult by a single bring. The newspaper publisher story on the front pageboy gave pictures of a young impair thrown out of the window by his own gravel in a fit of rage. These two stories are just a few among other crime and strength that has standn in the world in the past few decades.The quality of forbearanceate beings has deteriorated in modern lives. No one thinks of any one else but is focussed on the self. This self focus in not the same as promoted by the Zen and his view on suffering. galore(postnominal) people misinterpret the self with the ego and many practice the indulgence in their own self under the put up of self focus. But Zen made it clear that the self attached to the four noble truths could never attain the real inner self and could never achieve a state of bliss or emancipation of suffering from meditations.I meditated on the event of the bugger off throwing her nine month old baby out of her tenth flo or apartment window because he was crying and she could not handle him alone. I had focussed on the scene as I had read it in the newspaper. I reached the inner space of quietude and could see the event as though it was disaster before my very own eyes. I could feel the body of the cuddly baby. I could see the shabby state in which the twenty-one year old mother lived on the tenth floor of a shanty tower. I could see that there was nothing to eat and drink for the mother. She was uneducated. She was jobless. She had no support.She had no one who claimed to be the draw of her baby. The baby was starving and crying out to express his need. The mother had had a affair with her new boy friend and was apprehensive that he had not helped her with money. She was angry at her own affairs and suffering and had lost control over her self. She had had none before also. She had lived up to satisfy her four truths, of desire, sin, and infernal and had never found opportunity to awaken to he r inner self. The young mother did not know what she was doing. His actions were mixed up with her past and future. Her present was out of control as he could not identify her present.She retell the mistakes of her past by letting her present go astray. The baby was only living up to its survival needs but the mother could not cope with the demand of time. She had not identified with her true self and was engrossed in selfish aims in life so this led her to end her suffering by doing another evil deed to add up to the others she had always done. The baby was not in a position to govern his thoughts and actions as the mother is Maya who is totally responsible for the suffering or well being of her child until he is grown up enough to have his own thoughts and mind.This event played before my eyes when I meditated and it clearly awakened me to how ignorance of truth lead to misery of valet de chambre beings. The perpetrator was behaving in a recipe fashion of an ignorant un awakene d person. She did not know what was true about her own self. She had not tried to connect to her inner self in order to identify her root cause of misery. She gave extraordinary importance to actions of short lived pleasures which had no ultimate eudaimonia for human beings. I put myself in the shoes of the Perpetrator and I found that it was not so abnormal for her to be cruel to her child.On the basis that she herself had been elevated in a similar harsh manner. The fact that society did not give her opportunity of learning about the finer virtues of human beings like compassion, honesty and honesty lead her to behave in a base manner un fit for human with a high intellectual capacity. The teachings of Buddhism, Zen and views of suffering enlighten this very basis of human behaviour and how it lead to suffering and misery. When analysed the story gives perspective of how the past catches up with the present and if not handled with knowledge lead to a worse future for the same human being.But on the other hand an individual who had been brought up with teachings of Buddhism or high values of life in his childhood would not react to a situation in this manner at all. A self aware person would concentrate on the situation and follow out his responsibilities as a mother kind of of shunning them like this mother did. A person grown up with meditation and self focus would firstly never get involved in short term bodily pleasures of creating babies without providing for them. The true pith of mother had been violated by this mother who aimed at satisfying her worldly pleasures all her life.She was devoid of any connection to her own self. She had no sense of direction to her life. Her aims were not aimed at her well being so she eventually created nothing but suffering for her self . She was the cause of her misery and she did nothing to elevate herself from it. The teachings of the Zen could have had a positive effect on her. hoi polloi like her would cabb age above suffering and could contribute towards a superior self if they knew about the teachings of Buddhism. Assignment 8 tour of compassion.There were so many poor I had seen every day. They had failed to arouse my compassion any more. I was totally un aware of their presence and I felt un attached to their misery. The teachings of Buddhism and the practice of meditation gave rise to the mad aspects of my own self. I could feel the prickle of fresh breeze when I walked to college. I could hear the sounds of birds and bees through the park. I could see the people who lived in underprivileged hatful in the same surroundings as I lived in my plush apartment on the 14 floor.They had never mattered to me for so long but meditation had awakened my finer senses and I had decided to reach out to them one day. It was Christmas time and I had planned a fellowship at my apartment for all my friends. I had salve up enough money for the event. A week before Christmas I saw a child fr om this shanty townsfolk asking me for some money. I had asked him wherefore and he had told me that he wanted to misdirect a new pair of socks for his little baby brother as he did not have any to elapse him warm. This information had awakened me to the fact that I should rise above myself.I should rise above the four truths of the noble path. I decided to cut down my party by half the expense and donated the remain money for the whole family of this little boy. I took him to a nearby sale with me and bought woollens for his baby brother, mother, father and the little boy. His face was gladden and for the first time I felt a strong sense of joyousness like never before. The connection to my inner self had become stronger. I did not feel the need to associate with the people who I wanted to help. They did not have to known to me nor related to me at all. mercy was within us but we had to reach out to it by deep insight only possible through meditation. If you realise that what ever you do, or however you are, finally fails to hold good, then what you do, you do is the aroma learnt from the Zen views of suffering and tenets of Buddhism. One had to rise above his own self, forget his physical form, his own identity with respect to others and only then valet could achieve freedom from misery. The teachings illustrated this realisation when I did what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. I had no connection with these people and yet they became a part of my life.I could feel happy by my actions and the same actions could have brought me misery once upon a time. The Zen teaching made me realise that we truly governed our misery and that we only could assume ourselves from it. Compassion was a virtue that did not need special learning. We were imbibed with it and that we did not need to have extraordinary resources to perform acts of compassion. There were ample opportunities to acts of unselfishness if we were aware of our capability to do so. We could be kind to any one on the street without having to go out of our ways to help him or her in her time of need.The amount of logical positivism we earned by performing acts of kindness only strengthened the teachings of the Zen and his views of suffering in our daily life. It was possible to declare these teachings in every step of our day if only we were aware of our inner selves and if we connected to the source of origin of all energy within us. Assignment ten- give up something for the welfare of the satellite. The very basis of Buddhism and its teachings is non violence, truth, word meaning and surrender of the self to the self and to the universe. The aim of Buddhism is to help every human being achieve nirvana.The goal of Buddhism teachings is to attain Samadhi or to reach a state of total bliss, emptiness through self realisation. To repudiate ignorance and awaken to the understanding of the self as a part of the universe. The modern humans have used their brain power to enhance technology into our daily lives so much so that we are not aware of our total dependence on it everyday. We have destroyed tiny creatures inhabiting this planet with us to build empires of magnitude over the destruction of natural resources of the earth like mountains, rivers, sea and air,All these contradict the teachings of Buddhism. I decided to make my contribution to earth by being more trees in and around my area whenever I saw deforestation for new buildings in the locality. I made sure I pose trees and shrubs that grew naturally in that area so that I could conserve the tiny species of insects, animals and birds that lived on these wild herbs. I did not want to beautify it with plants from the nursery but I wanted to preserve the natural folio for saving the lives of all those who depended on it. I ritual killingd my entertainment funds to buy trees and plant them nearby.I spent my time of partying on week ends to look after these trees instead. Every new leaf o n the plants would recreate my faith in my self. This action gave me sureness on how we could save the planet with small individual efforts rather than talk tumid and plan big for the government system to execute in the state. I have realised that when actions arise out of inner inspiration there is no sacrifice in them. There is absolutely no feeling of being deprived of uncomplete time nor money when you are involved in an action which originated from your mind and heart for a noble cause you believed in.The money I spent to buy the trees did not pinch me a bit. I did not miss not seeing those movies and those outings with friends. I was nourished by an extra inner energy which boosted me for more such actions above my own self. The week end hours I sacrificed with my friends did not feel like a sacrifice but gave me immense felicity in the end of the day. I realised how much I could do to give out the lives of all around me not just for my self but for the betterment of all . I learnt so much about environment I had never learnt through the internet. forcible work gave me good physique and I saved up the money I spent on gymnasiums instead. This activity in turn gave me an appetite for food so I cooked good meals and had sumptuous food instead of fast food discard I used to eat before. My boilersuit health improved to an extent never before so how could I ever call this a sacrifice? I realised that the inner self was the source of well being. Not harming others and thinking of others gave rise to inner potential. I awakened to the fact that I had the capacity and the capability to do anything all alone. I understood that others did not create my misery.I felt free as I realised I had the power to create my own happiness. Meditation opened up inner doors to the treasures of human qualities that are hidden in each one of us. The Zen view of suffering unfolded all the ignorance I had about my problems. The teachings of Buddhism taught me to live free, f earless and with peace even if I was in the middle of a shopping mall, a crowded elevator or a class full of crude peers. I could still find my own space of perfect peace and tranquillity in the same world. I could connect to my inner self to be able to reach out to the universe in return.