Realizing our true nature cannot be understood by trying to think about it, coming up with various ideas as to what it might be. Paradoxically, this nature is concealed by our very intellectual attempts to realize it which is to say, the more we think about it, the more it conceals itself. We are like crazy people who refuse to give up their ill fated methods no matter how many times they’ve failed.
Whether or not we are a billionth of a second away from realizing this nature or a year—maybe 50 years—we are not there. Layers and layers of intellectual speculation and clever ideas as to what this nature might be is all that we can show for our efforts. This would include hundreds of hours of doing zazen.
Instead of acknowledging the problem and trying to correct it, which is intellectually trying to comprehend our true nature, there is always the fallback position we can rely upon which is humbly doing our daily activities with awareness whether it is walking the dog, raking leaves or cooking the rice. We must put all our awareness into whatever we happen to be doing. We may even assume that this is what Zen is really all about.
To this method I have to say, “Are you kidding me?” This is not overcoming the great matter of the continuation of our conditioned existence which includes the cycles of birth and death. It seems like an easy way out that on second glance is not easy. Again, our nefarious intellect is at work with another plan, call it the fallback plan.
This is where most modern day Zen teachers are. Don’t listen to what they say, but take note of what they don’t say. Yes, a few will talk about the necessity of seeing our true nature or kensho. But the majority in Soto Zen, for example, never mention it except to reject it. What’s going on here? Hakuin Zenji had the answer: “If a person who has not achieved kensho says he is a follower of Zen, he is an outrageous fraud. A swindler pure and simple.”
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