Practice is a big deal in our every day world. The more we practice, say at golf, the better we get. The more we study (which is academic practice) the smarter we become. But reaching kensho (realization of pure Mind) doesn't work so well with practice. How does one practice kensho? We've never been acquainted with it. It is not a human thing like being aware of peeling a potato or cleaning out the barn. It's a mystery for us. Even if we do zazen, what good does sitting do? Some in Zen call this practice. But it is just the practice of sitting, not kensho.
Here is the problem. Zen practices such as chanting or doing zazen are somewhat like trying to find gold with a butterfly net believing that gold is a butterfly. Why should crossing our legs and sitting upright make us better at kensho? Is this really a worthy practice? I would argue that zazen is great for beginners who need to have their minds occupied; who need to feel that they are getting somewhere. But truth be told, Zen is about seeing our true nature, or the same, seeing pure Mind. Properly orienting ourselves to get here is the great struggle. Mostly, the authentic practice of Zen will be about giving up our preconceived ideas about Zen and pure Mind.
Since we are, fundamentally, pure Mind, which is already real and present for us, we don't have to conceive it or make it. It already is what it is. So what is the problem? We imagine gold is a butterfly so we run around with a butterfly net trying to catch it. Obviously, our conception of gold is crazy. And if we have been running around for twenty-years with our net looking for this special butterfly and not a nugget with our metal detector, nobody is going to be able to convince us that we are wrong. We will stubbornly persist in our deluded thinking.
If such a Zen beginner were lucky enough to meet a real teacher who has experienced kensho he might sweat a lot. The teacher would ask our deluded adept, "By what did you enter this room?" The Zen adept would probably stammer out something, missing the real point. Again the teacher would ask, "What is the source of your words—how can you speak without seeing it. Look at it!" Of course the teacher knows fully well what the source is and how it moves the adept's body—but the Zen adept is in Cloud Cuckoo Land. The teacher just gave him big gold nuggets but our Zen adept was looking for a butterfly. He may have been practicing with his butterfly net too long.
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