When you walk the path of zen, the path of truth, the path of purity, you cannot worry about results. Enter your practice of zazen without expecting anything.
Do not walk into a place with your hands out, begging.
Do not give a gift and expect something in return, because then its not genuine giving.
Do not pray or meditate and worry about results, because that is attachment.
You need to detach from EVERY idea, object, thought, notion of any result.
You may think, “I will do this, so I can feel this, or get this or that.” That is wrong, because you are allowing desire to want something. Want nothing, expect nothing, and you will receive, that is how the law of attraction works.
Do good, receive good. Do bad, receive bad.
Enter meditation or prayer without your hands out begging.
God is not a genie in a bottle. Zazen, is not a magic carpet.
The magic comes when you are not expecting it.
Seek and you shall find, but you must seek in total emptiness. Be empty of thought and expectation.
The farmer dosen’t plant a seed and stand there in front of the crop waiting and expecting it to grow, because the framer AUTOMATICALLY knows it will grow. The crop in the ground grows regardless what you may think, its automatic. So save your energy, and get rid of your worry, and expect nothing.
In the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12: Loving God
it says:
“You will become perfect just by doing things for My sake. If you cannot manage even this, then just remember not to worry about the results of what you do.
Do not plan for things to turn out the way you want them to, but simply do your best. Do your best and don’t think about what will happen next.
Knowledge is better than practice and thinking steadily of God is better than knowledge. But best of all is doing your duty for God’s sake.”
Walking the good path, the pure path of love and peace, the holy path, the righteous path of God, the way of the Buddha, what ever you want to call it, its all the same and leads to the same place, this path is our daily practice, it is our daily duty, this is called zazen. Zazen means practice, and it becomes a natural way of living, when you do not attach yourself to it. You entered the path full, and then you end up in total emptiness, that is the goal. When you practice this way of life, you just have to practice and do your best that is all. Practice makes perfect, and that is what strengthens the master. In baseball, if you go into the game with the attitude of just playing and without occupying your mind with just winning, then you will have a good game even if you win or lose because you are doing it for the love of the game. If you enter a profession and only caring about money, then you will not really enjoy your job, if you enter you profession, loving the work because it is your passion, then you will do very well. Enter the path without expectation and do it for the love of it.
There is a book called “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” a book about informal talks on Zen meditation and practice, by Shunryu Suzuki, which impacted my life very much. His teaches are phenomenal, and there is a chapter that I happen to think of that will fit this writing. The chapter is called “Right Practice: Nothing Special.” He talks about how zazen, which is our daily practice of our walk in the good path is nothing special. Many would say, “No my walk with God or my daily practice is something special to me,” but this is not to take away the value of our practice, but to take away the value that we attach to, which binds us to the thought of expectation.
Many people pray to feel something, many people meditate to feel something, when this approach is absolutely wrong, because our practice goes beyond our feelings and emotions. Some cry, “God where are you, I do not feel you,” or some cry and say, “I cannot completely clear my mind during meditation, this was not a good meditation, its a waste of time.” In reality, that was a good prayer, that was a good meditation, because you are doing it for God sake, you are doing it to walk the good path, you are doing it to practice zazen, you are doing your daily duty. Nothing is done in vain, it all counts, but you shouldn’t be keeping tabs, let God keep tabs, let everything be done for the love of it, let it be done for zazen. Your practice should be like breathing, you do not always realize that you are breathing, but you are always breathing even without paying attention to it, because its an automatic thing.
Here are some passages from the book “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind,” by Shunryu Suzuki:
“If you continue this simple practice every day you will obtain a wonderful power. Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you obtain it, it is nothing special. It is just you yourself, nothing special. As a Chinese poem says, “I went and returned. It was nothing special. Rozan famous for its misty mountains; Sekko for its water.” People think it must be wonderful to see the famous range of mountains covered by mists, and the water said to cover all the earth. But if you go there you will just see water and mountains. Nothing special.
It is a kind of mystery that for people who have no experience of enlightenment, enlightenment is something wonderful. But if they attain it, it is nothing. But yet it is not nothing. Do you understand? For a mother with children, having children is nothing special. That is zazen. So, if you continue this practice, more and more you will acquire something-nothing special, but nevertheless something. You may say “universal nature” or “Buddha nature” or “enlightenment.” You may call it by many names, but for the person who has it, it is nothing, and it is something.
When we express our true nature, we are human beings. When we do not, we do not know what we are. We are not an animal, because we walk on two legs. We are something different from an animal, but what are we? We may be a ghost; we do not know what to call ourselves. Such a creature does not actually exist. It is a delusion. We are not a human being anymore, but we do exist. When Zen is not Zen, nothing exists. Intellectually my talk makes no sense, but if you have experienced true practice, you will understand what I mean. If something exists, it has its own true nature, its Buddha nature. in the Parinirvana Sutra, Buddha says, “Everything has Buddha nature,” but Dogen reads it in this way: “Everything has Buddha nature,” it means Buddha nature is in each existence, so Buddha nature and each existence are different. But when you say, “Everything is Buddha nature,” it means everything is Buddha nature itself. When there is no Buddha nature, there is nothing at all. Something apart from Buddha nature is just a delusion. It may exist in your mind, but such things actually do not exist.
So to be a human being is to be a Buddha. Buddha nature is just another name for human nature, our true human nature. Thus even though you do not do anything, you are actually doing something. You are expressing yourself. You are expressing your true nature. Your eyes will express; your voice will express; your demeanor will express. The most important thing is to express your true nature in the simplest, most adequate way to appreciate it in the smallest existence.
While you are continuing this practice, week after week, year after year, your experience will become deeper and deeper, and your experience will cover everything you do in your everyday life. The most important thing is to forget all gaining ideas, all dualistic ideas. In other words, just practice zazen in a certain posture. Do not think about anything. Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything. Then eventually you will resume your own true nature. that is to say, your own true nature resumes itself.”
I hope this blessed you and encouraged you as it did to me. Take care.
