Fukan-zazengi | Part One
Originally, The Way is complete and universal. How can we distinguish practice from enlightenment? The Vehicle of Reality is in the Self. Why should we waste our efforts trying to attain it? Still more, the Whole Body is free from dust. Why should we believe in a means to sweep it away? The Way is never separated from where we are now. Why should we wander here and there to practice?
When we open to original mind, we experience every moment as new and novel - because that is what it is. This is our practice, and this is enlightenment. There is no division between them. Sitting, lying down, daydreaming, and paying attention are, in and of themselves, complete. Yet, we make distinctions and call things 'good' and 'bad'. Sometimes we identify with the labeler, sometimes we identify with the labeled. Yet, we are both and none.
Dust is often a metaphor for delusive thoughts, and infers the need to keep something 'clean'. But, everything is included in practice-enlightenment. If you take a step back, and open to it all, you can see this clearly. If you attach to something and don't see it, it is still right at hand. After all, where else would it be?
This is not a practice of sweeping away - there is nowhere to else to place it. It is a practice of opening to everything. It is a practice of acceptance. Yet, if it is not accepted, it still is.
Where does this leave us? Who are you?
