Zen diaries:

 Which is the path?

 

Which of the above picture do you think the path is?

The path described by Buddha or the path whose soil, your bare foot is treading?

It is obvious. Not just the rhetorics and teachings of the 8-fold path and learning it by heart.

The path is where the surroundings change after every mile and after every turn.

The heaviest burden the spirituality is bearing is the scriptures itself. The teaching of the teaching of the teaching of the teaching and so on and so forth. Philosophizing is a problem rather than a solution in our life because the thinking hampers our pure perception, the extraordinary boon we all already have. The most used vocabulary in spiritual conversations is the most ambiguous, unrealistic , and faulty.. atman, brahman, moksha, nirvana, shunya..They are faulty maps of the reality that will sabotage and keeps you away from perceiving the reality that whispers at your ears, crawls on your skin,  lingers at your nose and fills your heart.

The Chan/Zen school arose in reaction to what it saw as an over-elaboration of the teachings. As their scripture says, " A special transmission outside the teachings, not dependent on words and phrases. Directly pointing to the human heart, Seeing into its nature and awakening." They then follow this up by saying, “Do not mistake the pointing finger for the moon!”

I had to travel for errands. Usually, I used to take the highway. Played some fast tracts to bury my mind's noises and also to escape to hear from my fellow traveler.

Today I took the slow way through the woods and lakes. I thought of playing a smooth, soft Heart sutra mantra. Then I thought to hear somebody else's thoughts and creation is not being with oneself. It is being with them in their state of creation.

Then the road looked more dear to me. This is the Zen way. When you walk you feel like walking only. When you listen to someone you feel like listening only. When you wash your dishes, you feel like washing dishes only.

Usually, mantra came to my mind, as a habit when I am slowing down.

The mantra was Paramita mantra of gate gate para gate parasam gate bodhi swah. The mantra says " go beyond". It is creating a separation between the now and the beyond.

What would be the best mantra?

The genuine mantra. No covering up of your true intention. Do we need truth or happiness? 100% of people need happiness. We all want to be nice to others and we don't want to suffer. We want to do the things that we don't have to regret later.

Buddhism is a negative religion. It starts from dukha. If Buddha says everything is neither pain nor pleasure in itself and has no separate nature, why start with the dukkha satya. Why not with the nirodha satya. The truth is that there is pleasure too. 

It is a better idea to start with happiness because we are already Buddha nature and already enlightened.

I said to myself, " May I be happy. May I be kind, May I be free from suffering and may I do good deeds."

People go to gurus, not for knowledge. It can be found in the books. They go there for the Presence and Aura. Knowledge without that presence and aura is just a poison. Presence is all that we have to cultivate. Right understanding and deeds, the aura will naturally follow just like the carriage follows the hoofs of the ox.

Buddha nature and enlightenment is not out there.

Beware of Destination Addiction—a preoccupation with the idea that happiness is in the next place, the next job, or with the next partner. Until you give up the idea that happiness is somewhere else, it will never be where you are. ~Robert Holden