Hot and Cold

"In the Zen monasteries in Japan they didn't and some still don't have heating or air conditioning in meditation halls. A monk was complaining to the Zen Master about this.

"How can I meditate when in the summer it is so hot I am continuously sweating and in the winter I am freezing?"

The Zen Master replied, "You must find the place that has neither heat nor cold."

"How can I find this place?" the monk asked.

"When heat comes, let heat kill you.
When cold comes, let cold kill you," the Master responded.

With that, the monk awakened.

Where is this place that has neither heat nor cold? What did the Master mean by "let heat kill you" and "let cold kill you." That sounds kind of severe. :)

When heat or cold come, let heat and cold kill your idea of heat and cold, your idea of you and attachment to all ideas. Then you will not suffer when it is hot or when it is cold. It will simply be hot or cold, but this will no longer bother you. Heat is heaven. And cold is heaven.

Good and bad are only thoughts. They are not Truth. Life never says, "This is good and that is bad." Life is wise. Humans not so much. Humans are led around by their thoughts so cannot see life as it is. They cannot see they have never for a single moment been separate from heaven.

When heat comes, let heat kill you.
When cold comes, let cold kill you.
This type of killing will give you life.

You have been living in a thought-world, like a dead person, and this killing will bring you back to life again.

Silence is heaven and noise is heaven. One is not better than the other. Nor are they even separate from each other. If you want to find silence, find it in noise. If you want to find noise, find it in silence.

If you want to find heaven, let your opinions go. Let your preferences go. Let good and bad, inside and outside, self and other go. Then you will realize that heaven has always been right here. It is in the heat and the cold. It is in the gentle breeze and the hurricane. It is in the silence and the noise. It is in love and in fear. It is in understanding and confusion. There is nowhere heaven is not.

If you embrace everything that arises in every moment, no matter what it is, you will realize that heaven has always been right here."