To eat when hungry
To drink when thirsty
To rest when tired
The true life of a sage
In Zen there is no goal
There is nothing to attain to
Nothing to strive for
What a peculiar way, in contrast with our busy lives of desire and pursuit
In the West, there is a great urgency to do and be ten-thousand things
Zen is a refreshing way of simply being as you are
In zen…
When one sits, they simply sit
When one eats, they simply and mindfully eat
If they are thirsty, they drink
And when they are tired, they rest
Its simple, yet profound
For how many people do you know who live in this way?
When most people sit, they think ten-thousand things
They lay in bed and think ten-thousand things
They drink coffee when tired, and ten-thousand things
Zen is an entirely different way of being
To live simply is to live wholly in the moment
For how can we be present when our minds are filled with ten-thousand things?
The heart of Zen lies in mindfulness
Being fully absorbed In the present moment
To live in this way, is to know the true joy Being
It is to fully enjoy the gift of breath
Mindfully breathing in
Mindfully breathing out
There is nothing so blissful as breathing for the one who’s mind is not filled with ten-thousand things
The meditation practice that Zen monks follow is called zazen
It has no aim or objective
It will not help you to get anywhere
It will not help you to achieve enlightenment
Zazen is simply sitting and watching
It is the act of allowing all that is to be as it is
It is to become completely free of resistance to life
It is to become the watcher
As one learns to get out of their own way, they recapture the essence of spontaneity
We were all once perfectly random
Children are this way
You need not teach a child to be spontaneous
But are patterns become habitual, and our thoughts routine, and we lose the essence of freedom
We walk in straight lines, we act in a consistent pattern of personality, and we become predictable
Zen offers a different way
It offers a reclamation of the naturalness that is within each person to be a truly unique and spontaneous creation
It is the essence of freedom
For spontaneity comes from an effortless allowing of your Being to flower in each moment
It’s a true letting go
There is no effort involved
It is a simple allowing
Its not something to be attained, for it was within you all along
Your essential nature is pure and spontaneous and free
Its waiting for you to simply be
