Through contemplation of the interconnectedness of all phenomena, we can arrive at the conclusion of "shih-shih wu ai", which is translated to, "between any two events there is no obstruction". So when we look at a tree, we see not a tree but the whole universe expressing itself at the place we call the tree. This understanding that within each phenomena the whole universe is reflected in it as if each phenomena is a jewel which reflects the whole universe, we come to a state of non-preference or non-rejection. When "negative" events arise, if we understand through reason that this "negative" event actually is the whole universe, we stop rejecting or preferring certain events over others. And the effect that this has is that the experiencer no longer seeks external circumstances as a means of enhancing their life. In modern Western society, we see how people often have the ideas that they will struggle and work during the week and then have fun on the weekends. This is a very alien concept to practitioners of Zen, because they make all experience their cultivation of Zen. This "struggling" and "work", when contemplated through "shih-shih wu ai", no longer appears under its linguistic mirage known as "struggling" or "work", and instead just becomes another color of reality. So daily life within a Western society is laden with the indulgence of external entertainment, while the Zen practitioner chuckles to himself a bit when he/she sees that people actually believe there are separate events in nature. But as we come to see, all phenomena we experience is beyond language and words, so because of this, we remain in a state by which we do not prefer or reject any phenomena we are faced with, because we know that the phenomena has no objective characteristics, but only temporary and relative characteristics which are infinite.
Submitted December 11, 2017 at 10:06PM by Recrudesenses http://ift.tt/2AvfMhy
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