Is Zen possible?

TL;DR at the bottom.

Can anyone actually perform Zen (for lack of a better word)? There's plenty of people who've passed the practice down over the millennium who, as Zen masters, have presumably performed Zen beyond a reasonable doubt. The main idea of Zen that I've acquired from reading thousands and thousands of words that people have passed down or said about it is escaping delusion (once again, for lack of a better word). The catch is that delusion cannot be "escaped" since escaping is a concept, an action that, when performed, is aimed in a certain direction -- requiring you to consider a concept first.

At some point you realize that everything created by yourself (words, symbols, opinions) are all delusions and escaping them means not producing them. They are delusions because they aren't the thing they wish to be; they wish to be a subject or truth about the world that cannot truly be expressed without creating something other than it -- duality. But, where does one go from here?

There's meditation, doing nothing, doing something, direct pointing, and reading more Zen literature or possibly joining a subreddit. Apparently, meditation is BS in regards to Zen's true meaning as the person meditating is attempting to restrict themselves. Doing nothing is the same as doing something, plus you have committed an action with an intention. Zen literature and writing only attempts to express to the reader a practice that can only be understood through direct experience. But direct pointing is different. It aims to separate the space between what someone is experiencing and what they think about what they are experiencing. In other words, the entire universe of what exists is strictly limited down to your sensory input.

Still, I don't understand if success in Zen really exists. I mean, what isn’t a mental process? When Zen masters say anything at all, they are processing something -- they are communicating something with the tools they’ve learned to communicate with. Isn’t all the sensory input you’re receiving right now going to be processed whether you like it or not? I once heard someone state something along these lines, “To reach enlightenment, you can’t use conceptual thought but, at the same time, only conceptual thought will get you there.” Like, what does this mean? Obviously, one cannot try to attain enlightenment, but I don’t try to reach it all the time and my delusions are still here. You must need to be trying to do something, otherwise nothing will change and your delusions will remain. Perhaps my delusions are the result of some constant, on-going effort inside of me that has been unnoticed; if so, what am I going to do about it?

Then there's people who argue against people who "did Zen wrong," which is contradictory. Ultimately, how can "doing Zen wrong" not be the same as "doing Zen right?" Using the logic I hear in Zen, how are they not one and the same?

TL;DR -- I explain my understanding of Zen, which conflicts with what people say about it and what I think about the true nature of experience. I am currently convinced that Zen isn’t possible. Can you explain why Zen is possible without contradicting yourself?

Submitted October 08, 2020 at 08:29AM by jarrod_mk https://ift.tt/2FdXuVC