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.
—Dennis Genpo Merzel
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.
—Dennis Genpo Merzel
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
John Cage American Composer
James H. Austin American Buddhist Neuroscientist
Natalie Goldberg American Buddhist Author
Sharon Salzberg Buddhist Teacher
Joko Beck American Zen Teacher
Peter Matthiessen American Naturalist, Novelist
Pema Chodron American Buddhist Nun
Robert Thurman American Buddhist Scholar
Thanissaro Bhikkhu American Buddhist Monk
Shunryu Suzuki Buddhist Monk, Author