I have no words. There’s nothing I can give you that you don’t already have. There’s nothing I can add to what you already are. So we use words because we’ve forgotten who we are in our ignorance. We walk down the road of habit energy, it drags us along like a chain, and we struggle. As we go down the path of getting to know ourselves, we discover that there are options for us that we didn’t think we had. It could be as simple as the way we approach our habit of sitting to meditate or walking around the zendo. When it becomes a habit, we are no longer conscious of what we’re doing, we lose sight of the direction our lives are going, we struggle. Why is it like this? Why does it have to be like this?
There are all these different ways of approaching self-improvement. One of the discussions that happens is about mastery. What is mastery? It is relaxing into what is, just this. When you have mastered anything, there’s no tension. A master wood carver, a kung fu master, flower arranging, whatever you’ve mastered, there’s no struggle. It’s just this and it’s done.
Relaxing into what is. Usually, when we think of relaxing, it’s getting away from it all, going on vacation. We’re always going on vacation from what’s happening. Why? ‘Cause we’re afraid to look at what’s happening. We have this idea that we should have some security, that things don’t change. But obviously, they do, so we create a habit energy that boxes us into some idea that we think will feel secure and comfortable.
From the view of our original nature, there’s no struggle. There is correct effort and there’s effort that doesn’t serve us. What would the correct effort be? What would we be leaning into? Just this, just the way it is, beginners mind, don’t know mind.
In our practice and in all the different spiritual traditions, often we talk about freedom, liberation. Liberation from what? What do you wanna be liberated from? This habit energy that you keep creating. But you don’t have to stop creating when you let the habit go. You don’t have to stop scratching the itch. There isn’t such thing as a perfect Buddha sitting there without an itch or having to blow his nose or take a crap.
I have no words, but I keep attempting to explain the unexplainable, and I don’t know where it’s going, one of these days, it won’t make any sense anymore.
I’ve said this many times, that I’ve learned the most from my root teacher in silence, no words, just sitting. Tell me, the Mind, where is Mind? Where does it begin and where does it end?
I’m really grateful for your energy, your presence, your ability to sit and be here and that you have taken a path that brought you here. It’s amazing actually.
Thank you for all that you contribute to OZS.