Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Believing in Nothing

"Using the Buddhist terminology, we should begin with enlightenment and proceed to practice, and then to thinking."--Shunryu Suzuki

The great Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, speaks of Christian contemplation as turning our spirituality right-side in. This is true of Zen practice as well.

The purpose of zazen is to have a well-ordered mind. When we move from enlightenment to practice and then to thinking, we see things are they are and we accept things as they go.

This is a very scientific understanding. Here there is no superstition. Here there is no fear.

Most of us are walking around unaware that our shirts are on inside out. This may be cute in a child, but it is hardly fashionable in an adult.

When someone points out that we are wearing our shirt inside out, we may feel chagrined. But no matter how we feel, we should at once work on fixing the problem. We should work on turning our spirituality right-side in.
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