Zen is an adventure like no other albeit one which is within us; not outside of us. What does this mean? It means that chance is involved in Zen’s adventure as with any adventure.
Chance in Zen consists of the likelihood of failure and, at the same time, the likelihood of completing the long and arduous search for our true nature. Judging from the history of Zen, the likelihood of failure, not seeing/intuiting our true nature, is much greater. The odds say the Zen adept will fail.
Let’s be honest, not all people today have what it takes to intuit their true nature. It is a very difficult process and some of the tasks seem almost impossible to accomplish. Making matters even worse Zen has, for some time, been sold to the public as simply seated meditation in which a rigid posture is taken by the practitioner who sits on a zafu for a certain length of time just watching their mental activity. That’s basically it!
As I have repeated on this blog many times Zen is about intuition; not about sitting which is more of a preliminary practice for those who have a monkey mind that is constantly going from one thing to another which needs to be put back into harmony with the physical body. I have seen people who can’t sit for more than five minutes. They have to take a lot of baby steps before they can sit comfortably for about forty-five minutes. But this is not authentic Zen!
Zen, let’s not forget is an adventure. Ideally, we have to go into an extended retreat for several months or several years. But if intuiting our true nature takes one week, then our retreat is over. Remember that the Sixth Patriarch Huineng was selling firewood when he awakened to his true nature. He never went into any kind of retreat that historians know of. Still want to take a chance—go on Zen's great adventure?
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