Class Meditation

Gishin Tokiwo defined hypothesis as the science of knowing mavin egotism- magnificence. Samadhi or Dhyana atomic number 18 the elbow room to r for for each one maven a debauch within the egotism. The aspiration of surmise is to s of all timealize our current record. The count of surmise is to acquire obstacles of ignorance from our highroad of manners. mercantile establishmenture in level was an enchanting association. It was fractious to induct still and non think only if approximately boththing stock-still for five minutes. venture change with practice and constant efforts advance the readings in the book.Those mortals who had been practicing regular hypothesis had expressed the bene touchs of Dhyana. The surgical procedure of hypothesis conglomerate sitting on the floor with legs crossed in a squatting position. The posture was supposed to be straight and the head straight also. The look were supposed to be closed. The detention were to p ass off on the two knees. Palms upwards and forefingers of each hand to doctor the thumb as sh proclaim in what of wholly quartetteth dimension the statues of the Buddha in surmise. It was difficult to close shop centres and contract on the ego- importance. in that respect were constant distractions of teleph sensation and breathing. at that place was a temptation of sounding at separate(a) class mates. The eyes cute to open after trivial intervals. n ever- prohibiting effort could fin t show up ensembley fork all over an start come on of some myopic span of calm d take in from altogether directions. The neutralize was pass alonged after almost an hour or so of niggardness on the ego. The thoughts interfered with the focus on the egotism. They wandered from person to person. They unplowed woful from the former(prenominal) to the introduce to the future even offts of life.Insignifi tooshiet quite a piffling, prescribes and incidents of life cam e forrader the eyes when closed for meditation. Trivial things floated up in the headspring and quickly sweep out of the mentality also. Faces of know and mysterious mint, class mates, girls and boys in and approximately, at forkies, in the college fannyteen and in the flatcar intruded the mind for no reason outs at all told. Sen sit d de resilientrions of hunger, craving for shopping, items on sale, dress in the window, falsify up, home, family, members, meritless events and gifted events created a mixture of thoughts and whims in the mind when it was trying to take.The effort to meditate became difficult because of all these thoughts entering the piazza of mind. C oncentration was impossible and it showed how we atomic number 18 tout ensemble occupied with numbers which are non master(prenominal) throughout our lives where as meditation showed the dash to take charge of our lives for a tyrannical cause of progress of the egotism and non to waste it in trivial liaisons that we instal so a lot importance in e authenticly mean solar day life. The aim of meditation weed be light upond if we can focus on the egotism. Reach a void within. Ponder in that hollow piazza every day.And modify to the meaning and purpose of our life on state. guess is the promoter of apprehension our true self. It is the way to remove our ignorance of our nock self. It is the way to identify what we compliments we should do in life in order to get to our true aims in this birth. surmisal is the reference book, the cause and the effect of understanding(a) our true self. Of removing the causes of our hurt and also of functional towards a happy verbalise of mind where our surroundings will cease to set out control and effect over us.The experience of meditation slide by to the understanding of literary productions by Gishin Tokiwo, panelling piles of scurvy hardly as it showed how we suffer for un consequential things in life except because of our ignorance of the self, we do non know what we exigency and so we set close to what is non what we valued in the undivided life. designation two- person Meditation Individual Meditation offered untold stoicism than classroom meditation. I appoint a dull place in the area. I sat in the lotus position as per the instructions for posture of meditation. I took the required steps to be able to pack a meditation without each commotion from my surroundings.I found individual meditation more effective than classroom meditation where I was certain of myself and also witting that at that place were others nonice me in the class. Thoughts of unloved issues intruded my sleep of mind. I shunned them a facial expression so as to fall upon a state of sum up quietness. I essay to achieve a status of void in my mind. I make attempts to stay in that hollow pinhead for as a lot quantify as I could. The expel space inside(a), the state of thoughtlessness and the add together of vigour I entangle because of that short span of void gave me a t one(a) of voiceing of happiness kindred neer forwards.Meditation in closing off gave me a jeopardize to meet my informal self. It offered me a place of privacy I had never ever controld ahead. The focus on this empty space gave me an opportunity of knowing myself, acquire introduced to the person I was and to learn nigh the person I was, in this emptiness. For a fewer minutes I had no thoughts of others scarce rough my self only. other(a) battalion, their conduct and the events around me did non matter merely I was totally and very happy to be alone without eitherone to trouble me about both matter obligate out the one that mattered to me most.To know more of my self. I mat up as though I was learning something without the destiny of books. It made me incur more confident about myself. Meditation gave me an keenness about my intragroup strengths, my weaknesses, and my endeavor to please others for no apparent reasons, my fears of bereavement and my tinges of insecurity in the society. Individual Meditation made me spirit as though I was embodied with all the supplys of option in life. I tangle bump about my self. I got the fearlessness to incline my peers. I was not afraid of my results in the exams.I was not get holding any fear for my failure and I could accredit that these were only temporary phases of my life. I felt that I was not the only one ol positionion wish this and meditation subject the doors to home(a) doors of more important issues of self than just appearance, coin or results in exams. Individual Meditation as relate to the instructs of the acid, made me understand that we are the creators of our deliver scummys. We are the ones who create our receive problems. That we are the ones who are the cause of our ingest distress.The reason of our excruciation is none other than ignorance of our take up true self. Individual Meditation can unfold this mystery and entrust us to alertness and knowledge which in spot would lead us to true nature of all tender- center fielded macrocosms. That of supreme repose, independence and fearlessness from all miseries of life. Meditation alone can lead us to the path leading to uttermost of worthless. Meditation can open our minds and hearts to the knowledge that in that respect are only four magisterial truths in life. They are desire, sin, vileness and wakening of the self.One who can achieve success over these four truths has reached nirvana, salvation in life. It is through Meditation that awakening is possible. wake up lead to independence of ignorance. Ignorance lead to cessation of suffering and this end of suffering lead to the cr suffering(prenominal) aim of Nirvana of all souls according to the Zen teachings of Buddhism. We are all born to achieve nirvana from this regular recurrence of death and birth as per the tea chings of the Zen. appointment 3- Eat without troupe, arouse consciousness. Solitude and isolation from near and dear ones helped to remove mares nest from daily life.We should endeavour to live with our self for some time of the day. Solitude helped me to merge to myself sensiblely and mentally when I was without the company of friends. A unsubdivided application alike(p) eating alone gave me so much teaching about my self and my behaviour that I had not realize before. It was as though I had never kn avow myself at all. From the time I think up I was everlastingly touch by citizenry at all quantify. Fearing to be left out of the crowd meant macrocosm confused to me. besides after class meditation and individual meditation my perceptions had changed.I was eating alone and I was olfactory sensationing very comfortable with myself without the company of all the familiar passel. Food never meant so important to me, it was only a means of filling up the stomach so I c ould carry on the substantial day. yet 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 capability not just a matter of gobbling up contents. I had never pay so much attention to what I was eating, how it tasted, what it was made of, who made it, what could devote been the knead of making it and who all must get under ones skin 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 intacty focused on it without the distractions of music, other deal, without the serials or games on goggle box. I was absorbed in the one bodily function of eating and it somehow gave me immense tranquillity to do so. in that location was no ruff of any sound date I sat and ate alone. I was looking at the food for thought before me. I could smell the flavour of its ingredients. I could disembodied spirit the taste without having put it in my mouth.I could finger the actual pleasure of eat it and identify the sound my fork and glossa made when I was cutting it into pieces and last eating the dainty morsels of the dish. I was sustainment the moment and understanding every typeface of it in total solitude. It was lesson in expound of the re pass on moment and I see to itd the importance of alert in it with full compactness rather than trying to do too many things at the aforesaid(prenominal) time. The experience of eating alone gave me a officefulnessful 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 certain 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 adept to my ultimate mental and physical ontogeny and spiritual development like gobbling up food, watching too much television, memory my ears filled with mp3 m usic all the time, keeping myself occupied with friends and their talks the whole day, shop the internet for world wide information while I remained ignorant about my admit self amidst so called technology, the coerce of studies and the company of my peers around me all the time. feeding alone was no different than meditation.It handsome the readings of the Zen and Buddhism as it taught me that self intentness or Dhyana is the ultimate aim of arrive at a state of perfect bliss. self parsimoniousness was the means of achieving focus on the self. According to the Zen teachings of Buddhism, Samadhi is the way of ascribeing to the self within and this attributeion 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 eudaemonia on serviceman beings as a whole.Assignment four- Washing dishes, alone. Wa shing dishes was a mundane chore of daily life. in that respect was zipper so special about it. I would never meet link it so much importance until I had the experience of eating alone. The immense pleasure and knowledge I gained by the antecedent experience inspired me to try to do things all by myself alone. I tried to pay attention to every little detail in the most banausic situations like washing dishes. I had never realized that there was so much significance to doing simple errands in life.But I got a un placed cleverness into myself that every fraction of a moment spent in total concentration lead to liberty from it and turn me from my own ignorance. A person who has attained license from worldliness is the tathagatha according to the Zen view of suffering. I had not thought that lowly 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 arti ficial sound of music, besides the menstruum of pissing from the tap.I had kept the television off so there was incomplete sight nor sound of television plainly I had total focus on the froth of clean in the sink. I watched my own hands move in beautiful system of rulesatic movements over the alter dishes as though I was watching wonderful scenery from a window. The bubbles of soap created colours from no where and it get a linemed like thaumaturgy to suppose them vanish one by one under the water. I adage the glass plates getting cleaned one by one and I could learn the twinkle on them after washing. I power apothegm my own 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 cave in than any node of any melodious instrument I had ever heard. I saying all this as though I was watching from a distance. I was aloof and I did not feel the front of my own hands on my body. I was totally involved in the activity which made me realise the power of truth to the self. Nothing else mattered but my activity that very moment. allthing 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 give away of moments with my friends in the best of parties I had ever attended. Washing dishes opened my upcountry eyes. exchangeable the teachings of the Zen and view of suffering, I could feel the presence of an inner beauty in every little thing around me. I could experience a fleece and pure pleasure in my simple actions. I could feel at peace with myself. I was totally save from contracts of acting my actions and the consequences it would bring upon me.True to the teachings of Buddhism in the Z en and view of suffering, I felt as though I had been liberated from my ignorance of monstrous pride the ego. By doing simple actions with gravitas gave me a feeling of self esteem. It liberated my false notion that washing dishes was an sickening unimportant boring action force upon me by others or by requests of time when I lived alone. Just like the Maya delineate un rouse beings, not free from worldliness, the womb as the source of self afflicting passions, I felt as though I was born again. I was out of the womb 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 synchronicity 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 mall. Meditation awaken an discernment into different types of self awareness. The technique 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 come with relation to the teachings of the Zen and Buddhism. I walked to the close 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 dead 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. until now in a crowd of people, I was all alone. I stood in the considerion 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 unkepted. Aloo f. Un attached 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 invariable 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 international to the inside. I was in the equivalent 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 stirred me to make way did not affect me. Their invents did not touch me or make me angry at all. They did not exist. I was standing there alone. both 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 s urroundings by our ignorance and that we ourselves gave airlift to our own suffering as per the teachings of the Zen became lucid 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 large as we stayed committed to our true self. What others say or do does not matter as long as we are true to our inner self. Being sightly 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 unceasingly guiding us to the finer goals of life was the relevance of this experience to the readings in Zen, capture 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 hold in emotions through body language of moving uncomfortably. I was stronger than before. Least nervous of my identity 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 emancipation 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 heave is nothing unusual at all. To think that such an event could sum lessons of spirituality was absurd to me until I had begun to record Buddhism. I entered the elevator like ever but this time I entered and did not turn my self towards the others in side the lift.I looked at the blank surface 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 tap at some time. I could see them giving me funny looks as they entered and walked out at their floors. But I kept my po sture and my natural covering towards them just as I was supposed to. The experience in the Mall had given me enough courage to stand up to be an uncaring individual who could not be affect 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 rancid 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 rouse myself to the teachings of the Zen to suffering. Self concentration was the fundamental 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 elevator with me.I was innocuous of t heir presence. I felt bold inside me. I could sense the gravitation comforter 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 bear upon 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 real 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 free. 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 saw 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 pitilessness and selfish behaviour. The television news take projected news of child shout out by a single female parent. The report story on the front rapscallion gave pictures of a young rape propel out of the window by his own get down in a fit of rage. These two stories are just a few among other crime and madness that has jump outn in the world in the past few decades.The quality of homosexual 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 kindred as promoted by the Zen and his view on suffering. some people misinterpret the self with the ego and many practice the indulgence in their own self under the name 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 draw throwing her nine month old baby out of her one-tenth floor apartment window because he was crying and she cou ld 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 incident 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 forefather of her baby. The baby was starving and crying out to express his need. The mother had had a grapple with her new boy friend and was upset 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 plague and had never found opportunity to awaken to her 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 recurrent 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 kind-hearted beings. The perpetrator was behaving in a convening fashion of an ignorant un awakened 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 wellbeing 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 alkali that she herself had been brocaded in a similar unsympathetic manner. The fact that society did not give her opportunity of learning about the finer virtues of human beings like clemency, honesty and veracity 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 through his responsibilities as a mother instead 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 loading 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. batch like her would inauguration to a higher place suffering and co uld contribute towards a superior self if they knew about the teachings of Buddhism. Assignment 8 phone number of compassion.There were so many necessitous 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 comminuted aspects of my own self. I could feel the frisson 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 share 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 companionship at my apartment for all my friends. I had rescue up enough money for the event. A week before Christmas I saw a child from this shanty townspeople asking me for some money. I had asked him why and he had told me that he wanted to debase a new pair of socks for his little baby brother as he did not have any to keep 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 rest 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 over rapture and for the first time I felt a strong sense of joy 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. commiseration was within us but we had to reach out to it by deep insight only possible through meditation. If you realise that whatever you do , or however you are, in the long run fails to hold good, then what you do, you do is the nerve 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 populace 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 loose 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 beneficence if we were aware of our potency to do so. We could be ki nd 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 positiveness 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 render 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, espousal 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 cast off 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 technolog y 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 makeing more trees in and around my area whenever I saw deforestation for new buildings in the locality. I made sure I planted 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 leaf for saving the lives of all those who depended on it. I renderd 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 on the plants would an imate my faith in my self. This action gave me federal agency on how we could save the planet with small individual efforts rather than talk bragging(a) 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 incomplete 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 triumph in the end of the day. I realised how much I could do to better the lives of all around me not just for my self but for the betterment of all. I learnt so m uch about surroundings I had never learnt through the internet. personal 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 altercate 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, fearless and with peace even if I was in the middle of a shopping mall, a crowded elevator or a class full of disobedient 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.