I’ve been spending the summer in New Zealand, forwarding the development of meditation centers here and giving lectures to people who come for the meditation tours we’ve set up. In the past couple of months, 554 people from around the world have participated in the tours, and another 300 are expected in August. As the groups pass through the twelve stops of the tour, I can see how each person clears away their thoughts and emotions and rediscovers their spirit. This doesn’t happen through their intentions or any artificial power; amid the power of nature, their thoughts stop automatically. Freed of these, then, people easily commune with nature and become one with it. By doing so, they feel that they are a part of nature and return to their own original and pure nature.
The state of being free from thoughts and emotions is a zero state. Zeroing your mind is like zeroing a scale. It’s only when you’re at zero that you can get an accurate measurement of yourself and the way things are. Then you are able to see clearly what your values are, what should be the central value of your life, and what you must live for in order to give your life meaning. Everything is plain when you see it in a zero-point state. In that state, you’re free.
Instead of remaining free at the zero point, though, most people dress themselves in never-ending packaging. They take off one package only to put on another one. People really love being classified and belonging in their own way. We form or join cliques, organizations, countries, and even religions to build an identity around ourselves. Within this packaging, however, we are completely trapped.
So if you want to be free and achieve what you want, you have to check yourself to see whether you’ve been zeroed. What you want to do will be difficult without staying at zero point, because you can easily lose your direction. Away from the zero point, when you can’t see beyond society’s constructs or the packaging of your ego to your pure nature within, you only have a limited view. You are stuck within the limits of the material world and what can be achieved there.
The native New Zealanders, the Maori, like the Native Americans and the ancient Koreans, believe that nature, the sky and the earth, are our parents. They created us, and we have some of their creative power. People realize this when they are at the zero point and can see the interconnectedness of everything. They respect and care about nature, and act in harmony with it. By being in harmony with nature at the zero point, you have access to the creative power of nature—the power of your spirit. Then the limits of the material world can no longer bind you, and you can achieve the desires of your inner nature, desires that are always at peace with nature overall.