Yesterday the following appeared in my email box. Sent to me by a good friend, that old Dharmabum, Uncle Weasel. He claims he saw it written on a wall in some out of the way coffee shop…
You are already holding what you are looking for. It is the looking-for, and it is what is looking. The basic practice of Zen, which is called zazen, is to examine this fact by examining the examination of this fact.
A wise, old, and skillful sage said all that is necessary is just to
Sit down
Shut up
and
Pay attention!
Sit down.
Zazen means to sit in Zen.
Within the heart of all motion, intimately inside all change, there is a stillness blowing, breathing, misting, drifting like a swamp sunrise, never losing its nature of stillness.
Shut up.
At the center of everything, as noisy as everything can get, there is silence. You can see for yourself that this is true by looking into your own center, but unless you are quiet, you will not be able to recognize it.
This quietude rings like a bell. The whole cosmos is its continuing echo.
Pay attention!
And in the still silence, ask, “What is attention?”
In one half-hour, many cycles of dream and waking, birth and death, arise and fall. You can either daunt yourself with the recognition of failure to stay attentive when you wake from a daydream, or marvel to recognize the mysterious awareness that arises by itself from nowhere to recognize that it is dreaming.
In olden days, the Master would throw you into the zendo to sit with the other monks without a word of instruction. Even today, with all the hints handy from grandmotherly teachers, you still have to find your own way. There is no way to do it wrong, but if you are doing it wrong, the teachers will tell you. You are thus free from any concern but to investigate the Great Matter whatever way seems right to you.
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