For those who are led by their curiosity; who enjoy reading Zen literature in their spare time where they can safely attempt to decipher the recorded sayings of the Zen masters, there is no necessity for them to go into retreat in some mountain cabin or run off to some Buddhist monastery in Japan or China. They can learn about Zen on Reddit by visiting a Zen subreddit or they can join some nearby Zen center community. However, what they will gain from this approach will only strengthen their delusions.
For those of a different mind who are not comfortable with the superficial armchair approach they may wish to pursue Zen by becoming a scholar, learning several languages so they can avail themselves to primary sources. From there they can do translations or historical studies. The good news is they are still capable of undeluding themselves.
The more radical approach is to go live like a hermit in the mountains with a small number of Buddhist books and take a voyage within, making a great journey across the landscape of our deluded human mind and its ideas. To be sure, this is the most difficult approach to Zen, that is, setting out to see our true nature face to face. In fact, it is the only path that actually works.
The difficulty of this approach is because we have two leaders in our brain. One is our deluded mind; the other leader is the discourses of the Buddha or the recorded sayings of the Zen masters. The two donโt often agree even though we may think otherwise. Much of the problem that we face is that we are not conscious of the fact that we are always trying to force the round peg of Buddhism into the square hole of our presuppositions. This, by the way, is not having an open mind but a very blinkered mind which wants to go in one direction which happens to be the wrong direction. Eventually, with enough time the hermit reverses direction. Faith in seeing one's Buddha-nature eventually pays off.
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