I see a lot of shit going on here, and very little that has to do with what (I assume) we're all here for; attaining the understanding of Zen. Now i'm not going to mince words with anyone, you can call it enlightenment, non-attainment, non-enlightenment, whatever you want. Here are a few practical ways to realize Zen, there are several, but understanding one is usually enough to understand them all. I will be paraphrasing from Yoka, Dogen, Kyozan and others.
Step 1 - Enter Zen from here.
Zen indicates that this moment enough - nothing more is needed. Nothing is missing, nothing needs to be added, this very moment, these sounds, this place, is enough. This very mind IS the Buddha mind. So why am I not enlightened yet? you ask.
Step 1.1 - Desire
The reason is that the root of the mind is desire, if you cut the root, the mind falls. The only reason you are not enlightened right now is because you desire things that will make your life better. How do you get rid of desire? First of all - don't try, that is going to make everything worse. You get rid of desire simply by seeing how desire arises in you, how it affects you and make you discontent and unhappy with where you are, in seeing this, you have the opportunity to let go. Without desire, there is nowhere to go, and then you are home.
Step 2 - Faith.
This one is obviously dedicated to you-know-who. Since Zen is the love child of Taoism and Buddhism, this post would not be complete without mentioning Trust. Faith, which is to say, absolute trust, is another gate through which you are able to be in the moment; it means to surrender completely to existence, with all your worries, all your desires, all your fears, emptied into the hands of existence. When you do this, you become empty, and then you attain the non-attainment. Now remember - this is not belief, this is not "I believe existence will help me and give me what I want." No, that is not it, it is absolute trust: faith. Leap before you look. Surrender your mind to existence and you will be empty.
Step 3 - Meditation.
This one is fairly simple. Since the core of Zen is that you are already that which you are seeking, all you really need to do is just have a long enough moment of no thoughts distracting you while you are also conscious - to see that everything is quite in order already and you need not be seeking anything. Meditation is simply sitting silently and doing nothing until you become so empty that this happens.
Closing
There are of course many other ways to attain Zen, including those that are not mentioned in Zen, because all enlightenment is the same enlightenment, whether it be Buddhist, Sufist, Hasidic, Tantric, Yogic, Vedic and so on. But let us remember that there is nothing complicated or difficult about Zen, and that the exchanges of Zen-masters are only understood by a very silent mind, a very empty person - they are not literature to analyze like we learn in academics. They do not have an answer that will enlighten you. Your enlightenment IS the answer.
Zen is the no-nonsense approach and there is nothing complicated about it, you just have to take the time it takes to existentially (not intellectually) understand what Zen is trying to tell you.
Submitted August 17, 2016 at 06:10AM by ChanZong http://ift.tt/2aTc98h
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