Inspirational Quotes from Big Mind · Big Heart
Emerson instructed us to “Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your reading have been to you like the blast of truimpth out of Shakespeare, Seneca, Moses, John and Paul.”
Following Emerson’s guidance, I offer some of my favorite blasts of triumph. These quotes I draw from Big Mind · Big Heart by Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel.
PhilosophersNotes on Big Mind · Big Heart by Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel
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There is a transcendent awareness, a Big Mind, a Big Heart, present and readily accessible to each and every one of us. When we realize it, we see it is the source of true peace, happiness, satisfaction, courage and joy. And yet, we don’t know how to access it, we don’t know how to bring it into our awareness. We don’t know how to manifest it or embody it. For the past thirty-six years, I have been searching for a way to assist people to access this awareness. In June 1999, after much study and difficulty, I finally found a simple, effective way which I have been exploring and refining since then. I call it the Big Mind/Big Heart process, or simply, Big Mind.
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Do we need the self? Yes, absolutely. Do we need to be identified with it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Absolutely not. Because when we’re identified with the self, as the self, we live in fear, we live in anxiety, we live in stress, we live in suffering. When we’re able to identify with that which has no boundaries, with Big Mind — it’s a name, you could call it many things, universal consciousness or whatever — when we’re no longer identified with the self, fear doesn’t come up. When we identify with that which is ungraspable, that which is unnameable, then there is absolutely no fear. We live in fearlessness
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So we end up with what the Buddha taught in his first teaching, which is called the Eightfold Path, when he said, ‘have Right View.’ Right View is having no particular, fixed view, which means seeing that all views are limited, that no particular view is the only view. They’re all restricted, they’re all limited, they’re all fragmented. Actually the right view is no view.'
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That is why from the beginning it’s really important that you learn to shift perspectives. That alone is going to help tremendously in your life. Just imagine the next time you get into an argument with your partner or spouse, and you are able to let go of your view and open up to the possibility that there might just be another perspective on the situation — her view, or his view. The moment you do that, it sets you free.
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Being able to shift perspectives is like having a freely functioning vehicle. If a car is stuck in any gear, what you’ve got is a dysfunctional car. Even if it’s a Maserati, if you’re stuck in first gear, or you’re stuck in reverse, no matter what gear you’re stuck in, it’s dysfunctional. But the moment you have fluidity and movement and you’re able to shift up or down or into reverse, or whatever you need to do, you’ve got a functional vehicle.
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What we do naturally is we cling, we grasp, we hold on to. We are not functioning freely, not free, because we’re stuck. Buddha observed this tendency and gave it a name. He said when the mind is stuck, you’re in dukkha (usually translated from the Sanskrit as suffering). Dukkha literally means a wheel whose hub doesn’t move. So what kind of a wheel do you have? A useless, dysfunctional wheel. What good is a wheel if it doesn’t move? What Buddha discovered and taught was to free up the wheel. He called it sukkha, a liberated wheel, a freed-up wheel. That means liberation, nirvana.
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We’re at the point in our evolution that we all have to become conscious. This is a time of revolution. There’s no holding back. So I’m about tearing down the monastery walls and seeing the whole world as the monastery, as the practice, as the spiritual temple. What we’re all working on is this very being, this very life. This is the temple, it has no walls.
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I’m about tearing down the monastery walls and seeing the whole world as the monastery, as the practice, as the spiritual temple.
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Each of us has innumerable voices, or aspects, within us. To get a clearer picture of how they operate, think of yourself for a moment as a large corporation with many, many employees. How many? Nobody knows. It’s a little bizarre. We went out and randomly hired all these folks for our company, and we neglected to tell them what their jobs were. We also neglected to tell them their titles or job descriptions. If that weren’t bad enough, we didn’t even tell them who they work for, what the name of th company is, and who the boss is. Then we said, go to work. Now what kind of company is that?
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A company where nobody knows their job title, job description, what they’re supposed to be doing, is going to be a company in suffering, in shambles.
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Now what we’re going to do is interview each employee of the company, not all of them, but one at a time, we’ll do a limited number of key employees. We’ll interview each of them, we’ll get their perspective on what they do, and we’ll clarify their job title and their job description. We’ll tell them this is what we want them to do for the company because this is what they were hired to do. Eventually we’ll introduce them to the CEO of the company.
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My understanding is that every aspect of the self, every voice, has its own innate wisdom; that if we would simply allow every voice to be heard, to be appreciated, and to be honored, we as human beings would live a much healthier, happier and joyful life; that by denying or suppressing any aspect we are creating a problem both for the self and for others.
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I am always compassionate, but sometimes in a very feminine, gentle way, nurturing and supportive, and sometimes in a very masculine way, ruthless and decisive. But I always have in my arsenal what is necessary to get the job done. I am totally integrated. There’s no need to become integrated; I am Integrated Feminine/Masculine Compassion. Another name for me is Big Heart.
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I include all the aspects of the self, all the dualistic voices and Big Mind, the non-dual, no-self, and I transcend them. I am also known as the Master, or the Unique Self. I am absolutely unique, there is no one else in the entire world exactly like me. I have no need to prove anything or to be special since I am special and unique to begin with. I am also known as the natural self or ordinary mind. I do not need to put on airs or a façade. I am natural and unassuming. I am unconditionally joyful. My happiness is not dependent on conditions or circumstances. I am one with whatever feeling or emotion comes up. I am the mind of Great Joy and the mind of Great Appreciation and Gratitude.
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That’s the beautiful thing, that’s the secret: to want what you get rather than trying to get what you want, because that seems like a never-ending battle, and a losing battle at that. We seem to always get what we need, though. So when we want what we get, it’s really like wanting what we need.
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I am the True Self. In other words, I am the one that truly transcends. The Non-Dual is still not truly transcendent because somehow it sees itself as better or greater than the dual, which is still very dualistic.
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I embrace desires and seeking and fear and distinctions. I embrace them all but I am not bound by them, I’m not attached to them. I can have a desire, and drop the desire if it’s not fulfilled... I don’t get stuck anywhere.
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Can you imagine a world where everybody was free, happy and joyful, where everybody came from a place of generosity and giving freely without any strings attached? Can you just imagine this world? It’s almost impossible to imagine, it would be such a different place. Well, that’s our work. That’s what we’re here to do. That’s what this book is all about. If enough of us can get to that level of consciousness, I believe the whole planet, would be transformed.
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So if we look at progress, or evolution, or we look at accomplishment in our life, the key is to be continually moving on, expanding and growing, clarifying, developing and maturing. The opposite would be getting stuck, staying stuck, so there’s no maturing, no developing, no accomplishing, no movement.
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If a voice has been disowned, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. It continues to function, but covertly, not in a healthy way.
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All the practices — sitting, Big Mind, and so on — are skillful means, all for the purpose of building character, consciousness, and awareness so that our functioning is truly coming from wisdom and compassion.
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A lot of this book is written with the hope of helping people move into the transcendent and then beyond the transcendent, to embrace it and not be attached to either the dualistic or the non-dualistic perspective.
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We see the world in a dysfunctional way and because of that we suffer.
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In reality, there are an infinite number of perspectives, but we act as if there were only one.
Big Ideas from Big Mind · Big Heart
“Big Ideas” are simply the gems I’ve pulled out of my favorite books/seminars/life lessons. These ones I pulled from Big Mind · Big Heart
- Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel: Right View
- Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel: A Maserati Stuck in First Gear
- Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel: Dukkha & Sukkha
- Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel: The Temple Without Walls
- Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel: A Dysfunctional Company
- Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel: Integrated Feminine/Masculine Compassion
- Zen Master Bodhidharma: Integrated Free-Functioning Human Being
- Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel: Great Gratitude and Appreciation
- Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel: The True Self
- Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel: Can You Imagine?
Brian Johnson
Brian Johnson loves wisdom. That makes him a Philosopher. He also loves inspiring and empowering peeps to rock their greatest lives. That’s why he created PhilosophersNotes.
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