Steve, An astute observation! I came to Zen thru a profound (is there any other kind?) mystical experience and not the other way round .This influences my practice a lot as I tend to be much too eclectic for the Japanese 'only one way' sensibiltity. Yes, I agree with you. In the past I would have fought violently against such notions as 'surrender to God's will' and 'destiny', but now I can accept them as being just the other side of the same coin.
Mike ________________________________ From: SteveW <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Fri, 4 March, 2011 3:41:03 Subject: Re: [Zen] Realization --- In [email protected], mike brown <uerusuboyo@...> wrote: > > Steve, > > When I was about 17 I read a poem which has struck with me upon reading it: > > The centre that I cannot find > Is known to my unconscious mind. > I have no reason to despair > Because I am already there. > > Now, why did that particular poem, not only resonate, but also never get > forgotten? For me, it's an expression of Truth and Truth will always find a >way > > to express itself. 'I' was defenceless in face of this and gradually over > many, > > many years (I'm 46 now!) the wall has been weakened until there was >just enough > > of a crack to let the Light shine thru. Who can take credit for this? > > Mike >  > > Hi Mike. I notice that you are widely educated in mystical spirituality. You doubtless are aware that it all comes down to two approaches: Self-Inquiry and Surrender. You find this also in Mahayana Buddhism. Zen is jiriki, self-power, while Pureland is tariki, other-power. So you can either single-mindedly pursue "Who am I?", or you can let go of all self-will and let Truth express itself in it's own good time, in it's own way. These approaches seem contradictory until you realize that in either case it is a matter of transcending the personal ego. If we practice zazen with the feeling that we, as independant agents, are working to become enlightened, then that is using the ego to try and transcend the ego. But when the Light shines through, then you realize that the supposedly individual ego doing anything on it's own was a dream. But the moment we try to think and speak about it, as I am doing now, then again we are trying to step outside of THIS in order to think and speak about THIS. What is THIS? I bow to the Infinite Light! Steve
