Q. What we practise to see is the true-Self, the Buddha, or Emptiness. Everything that reaches our eyes and ears is the true-Self, and there is nothing that is not the true-Self. All things appear to be different and separate from each other since we can’t see them as they are. Seeing the true-Self, or reaching the Pure land is not to find something special far away beyond our sight and reach but to see and hear all things as they are.
Put in other words, it not because the Buddha is far away out of our reach that we cannot see it, but because we cannot recognise it although it is with us all time. So, looking for the Buddha while looking away from the things around us is like trying to bake bread with flour. This is why you should practise without abandoning worldly karma.
Zen meditation is a practice to see things around us as they are, not to look somewhere else for the true-Self.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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