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Recognise that the car we think we are driving is actually fully autonomous requiring no driver. We think we are at the wheel but the reason the car drives so badly is because we fight it at every turn. We belatedly see that the car functions perfectly well without us and we are free to sit back and enjoy the ride.
Recognise that the car we think we are driving is actually fully autonomous requiring no driver. We think we are at the wheel but the reason the car drives so badly is because we fight it at every turn. We belatedly see that the car functions perfectly well without us and we are free to sit back and enjoy the ride.
It is both a great relief and also a source of boundless capacity, to look for oneself and find no one at the wheel.
It is both a great relief and also a source of boundless capacity, to look for oneself and find no one at the wheel.
If you think your consciousness and ego/ self of I, me, mine is so damn clever, important and responsible for all the things it takes credit for just stop to consider what it does not and cannot do. Little things like beat your heart, digest your food, run your central nervous system, keep your balance, regulate your body temperature, fight infection, filter toxins, grow your hair, see, hear, feel, taste and of course breathe to name but a few. You wouldn’t even be able to entertain the fantasies that you have an ego or are a self without your unconsciousness providing the means for such illusions.
If you think your consciousness and ego/ self of I, me, mine is so damn clever, important and responsible for all the things it takes credit for just stop to consider what it does not and cannot do. Little things like beat your heart, digest your food, run your central nervous system, keep your balance, regulate your body temperature, fight infection, filter toxins, grow your hair, see, hear, feel, taste and of course breathe to name but a few. You wouldn’t even be able to entertain the fantasies that you have an ego or are a self without your unconsciousness providing the means for such illusions.
The less one says the more one is.
The less one says the more one is.
Awakening washes away awakening.
Old Zen saying
Awakening washes away awakening.
Old Zen saying
The difference between what you want to do and what you don’t want to do dissolves until you are simply left with what happens.
The difference between what you want to do and what you don’t want to do dissolves until you are simply left with what happens.
Naked and alone
A Zen master's students arrive to find him disheveled, mud-spattered, and naked, sitting on the ground in front of his house, beating on an empty pot with a wooden spoon, and keening. Having known the master always as a person of utmost dignity in dress and bearing, at this spectacle, the students are shocked into a long silence. Finally, the most senior student is able to speak:
“Master, what has happened?”
The old man just keeps on beating the pot and singing his keen.
“Master, master,” the student says. “You have instructed us to sit peacefully, residing always in the calm center. Why are you carrying on like this?”
At last, the master stops beating on the pot and replies.
“Well,” he says. “Last night my wife died, and I find myself sitting here on the ground, naked, and alone, beating on a pot."
Naked and alone
A Zen master's students arrive to find him disheveled, mud-spattered, and naked, sitting on the ground in front of his house, beating on an empty pot with a wooden spoon, and keening. Having known the master always as a person of utmost dignity in dress and bearing, at this spectacle, the students are shocked into a long silence. Finally, the most senior student is able to speak:
“Master, what has happened?”
The old man just keeps on beating the pot and singing his keen.
“Master, master,” the student says. “You have instructed us to sit peacefully, residing always in the calm center. Why are you carrying on like this?”
At last, the master stops beating on the pot and replies.
“Well,” he says. “Last night my wife died, and I find myself sitting here on the ground, naked, and alone, beating on a pot."
The specific qualities of experience pale before the simple yet unfathomable recognition that there is anything happening at all.
The specific qualities of experience pale before the simple yet unfathomable recognition that there is anything happening at all.
We really don’t have to do anything to be fully and totally alive. We don’t live our lives, our lives live us spontaneously in every moment and with no effort whatsoever on our part.
We really don’t have to do anything to be fully and totally alive. We don’t live our lives, our lives live us spontaneously in every moment and with no effort whatsoever on our part.
You’re only free if you’re free to suffer as well as laugh.
You’re only free if you’re free to suffer as well as laugh.