The discourses of the Buddha and especially Zen sermons act as an invitation, that is, they open the way to spiritual knowledge which is about our primordial self. This invitation is, however, special. Not all are invited because not everyone resonates with the Buddha’s discourses or the various Zen sermons. Most, regrettably, have been invited to participate in a non-spiritual culture which is far from adequate for all of its citizens, especially, those who are not oriented towards winning wealth.
This special invitation is for those who wish to look deeper within themselves; who have faith that the life of appearances, including their uneasy, and sometimes, tumultuous thoughts, in the long run, will give them only unhappiness.
At first, it is extremely difficult to make sense of the way that the invitation opens for us. It hasn’t as yet dawned upon us that we have to awaken, personally, to a spiritual state of being which is not abstract but which, in every sense of the word, is more real than our world of appearances.
Very much, we are still heavily oriented toward appearances and their more subtle kinsmen, concepts which act more like guardians of appearance. It is like the difference between studying about Sedona Arizona; looking at all the pictures of it and reading about it, forming various ideas about it, and actually being there. We expect the spiritual invitation to be about getting us there, so we are at one with our true self or nature instead of staying here, in the world of appearances.
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