Zen

The Path

Take the balanced, integrated, path. Not emptiness alone, not phenomena alone. Not theory alone, not practice alone. Not the absolute alone, not the relative alone.
In Zen liturgy we manifest that which is known to us intuitively and subconsciously in the form of a visible, tangible reality. Liturgy can be considered an affirmation or restatement of the common experience of a community.
Practice and enlightenment are one. It is not a matter of knowing. It has to be realized as the functioning of our lives. For the teachings to come alive, they have to be lived with the whole body and mind.
As long as we have minds, we cannot help thinking of various things one after another. What’s important is not to attach yourself to them, not to retain thoughts and let them grow. As thoughts arise we say, “There they are again.”
Progress on the path is not straightforward, linear.

Don’t push things away. Don’t pull things towards. Just let them be. Avoiding something means it’s still affecting you.
No attachment to the outcome. No guarantees for any particular outcome.
Do not search for the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.

Zen is about what we do, not what we believe.
Skillful action with fortitude and courage that is grounded in patience and clarity.

Enlightenment is inherent in everyone, but it needs to be practiced to manifest and be directly experienced. Discipline is needed, meditation is needed.
‘The more you seek enlightenment, the more you lose it. As soon as you think “this is it,” it’s not it anymore. When “someone” understands, the understanding is already secondhand. When there is no separation, there is no knowing. You need to have two things in order to know: a knower and the known.’
First there is effort, then spontaneity. Act without attachment. Act spontaneously, without contrivance.
Koans are a good way to cool the assertiveness, to undermine and dismantle the whole intellectual matrix, while harnessing the energy of inquisitiveness and activating intuition. Koans remain dark to the mind but radiant to the heart.

‘There is a revolutionary feel to this focus on the mundane as the transcendent: washing the face, using the lavatory, cooking a meal, brushing the teeth.’
When True Self manifests in daily life, this is called Zen. Our everyday life itself guided by Zen principles. Everyday activities become practising zazen.

Zazen has no purpose other than zazen. Zazen is not the means of attaining any goal other than Zazen.
Sit hard and sit a great deal.
Deliberate and focused, yet relaxed.

Ultimate reality is innocent of the descriptions projected upon it by conceptual and linguistic habits. Experience Reality immediately, before concepts. The essence of mind, bypassing the feelings and thoughts produced by the function of mind.
Our senses convey a picture of reality that narrow our understanding of its fullness.
Whatever is being experienced, let the awareness become intimate with it, and see if it labels itself.
Our judgments create barriers between us.

No separation between subject and the object, between the action and the actor, the understanding and the understood. If mind and things were separate, there would be no possibility of awareness of things. In zazen body, breath, and mind come together as one reality.
To access true happiness and peace, we have to transcend the sense of separate self.
Our deepest nature is the unity that includes diversity.
The lived experience is not of one, nor two: not of sameness nor difference. It is immediate, thorough, and intimate.

Added 2024-01-10, last updated 2024-02-24.