It becomes obvious that
all of our problems real or imaginery arise simply because we see ourselves as
independent, limited beings facing and interacting with a world outside us.
Dissolving this illusive boundary is an essential allowing for freedom. But for
this one needs to be aware and know who one really is. To know who I am
necessitates self enquiry. However we tend to carry to this search a lot of
unnecessary hardhip and doing.
“We bring to this pursuit also our sense of doership, our habit of action, we plan our spiritual practice, we strive to do more and more ‘sadhana’ and feel desperate if we cannot. We fail to remember that all this need to do something is itself a stepaway from simply being, the fullness of the Self that is ever present.”[1]
If the effort of doing cannot bring about self-awareness, then why bother? An understanding of the effort that is required is necessary, and it is simply, pay attention to what is happening now, rest in the now. Simplicity is a natural state when one is simple, or simply being. However to be simple requires at least two of our centres to be in a working relationship and this is the difficulty for in our usual associative state this is lacking.
There are some people but not many who have been described in Upandesa Saram as ‘Panileni vadu’[2] which means ‘those with no work’ by implication it can also mean ‘good for nothing’ a phrase usually meant to deigrate someone, however here it means someone who is excellent at simply being, at doing nothing. Doing nothing is not an inactive state neither is it abandonment. One can gently try and experience directly what an extraordianary state of affairs it truly is.
Sitting Quietly
兀然無事坐、春夾草自生
"Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself."
Zenrin Kushû (The Way of Zen 134, 222)
Suchness
青山自青山、白雲自白雲
"The blue mountains are of themselves blue mountains;
"The white clouds are of themselves white clouds."
Zenrin Kushû (The Way of Zen 134, 222)
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