Zen is not complicated. It doesn’t involve any special
knowledge. It doesn’t involve equipment. In fact, in its way, Zen is anti
equipment. Zen is like cleaning out your attic and dropping off all the stuff
you don’t need—your worries, fears, opinions, preconceptions, attachments—at
the recycling bin. Because you really don’t need them!
Zen
is for anyone, no matter
his or her religious beliefs, country of origin, or lifestyle. Living Zen is
simple. In fact, although many say Zen defies all definitions, we would define
it with one simple, short word: now.
„Now? What
about it?“ you ask.
Exactly.
If you are
thoroughly confused, don’t worry. Zen is already beginning to work its magic.
Zen is a practice full of surprises, enough to fill volumes. Yet despite the
wealth of guidance, inspiration, and philosophical suppositions Zen has
inspired throughout history, it still comes down to this: now.
The
simplicity behind Zen is deceptive, however. It is one thing to tell someone,
„Now is all that matters. Live in the now.“ It is quite another thing to
actually do it, to step back from that captain’s wheel and say, „Ship, go where
you will.“
Humans are
programmed to think, interpret, analyze, examine, define, and think some more.
We can’t help it! It is one of the side effects of having such big, complex
brains. Our lives are so busy and complicated that we have to think to keep
everything in order. If we didn’t think, we’d be in big trouble. And thinking
makes us who we are.
Before you
start thinking that we’re going to tell you to stop thinking, turn that mental
chatter down to a dull roar and listen up: Zen is not about obliterating your
thoughts, your feelings, your personality, or any other aspect of you. On the
contrary. Zen helps you to unclutter you so you can think more easily, see more
clearly, understand more readily, and know yourself more intimately.
see also:
That sounds
pretty good, doesn’t it? We think so.
But first,
something else to throw into the mix: Zen isn’t about end results. „Huh? Then
what’s the point?“ There is no point to Zen.
„What? No
point? Then why am I wasting my time?“
We
Westerners are very goal-oriented, aren’t we? We go to school to get a job. We
get a job to make money. We make money to buy stuff. We work harder to make
more money to buy more stuff. It is easy to get seduced into thinking that
everything should be goal-oriented. How else would you ever get anywhere? How
would you get ahead? How would you succeed?
One Hand Clapping
One Hand Clapping
One day,
Baso, a Zen monk, was sitting in zazen (meditation). His teacher passed by and
asked him what he was doing. Baso replied, „I want to become a Buddha.“ The
teacher immediately picked up a tile and began to polish it vigorously. „What
are you doing?“ Baso asked. „I’m polishing this tile to make it a mirror,“
replied the teacher. „What? How can polishing a tile make it a mirror?“ asked
Baso. „How can zazen make you a Buddha?“ the teacher answered. Just as Baso
mistakenly believed the point or goal of zazen was to become a Buddha, so we
may mistakenly believe Zen, or zazen, has a goal. Zen itself is the
already-achieved goal. This moment is your life, so wake up and start living
it.
