The Zen mind

Book 19 Page 30

The Zen mind

The Zen mind walks right into

the flame of suffering.

Right into the eye of duality

the Zen mind goes a traveling.

The Zen mind tries to fathom

all there is to know.

The Zen mind and its mental disposition,

in it’s relentless struggle to know.

And when the Zen mind is exhausted, /

tied of mental processes,

it is then that one goes to the ‘Zen master,’

in humble exhausted submissiveness.

“O master, I have struggled to understand,

to be wise and to be strong.”

I have questioned and questioned

for so very very long.”

“Why do I run round in circles?

Why do I still not have the answers!?

Why is my mind still ravaged,

infested as if with a cancer!?”

And at this stage the sage reveals his secrets,

that the ‘exercises’ have only been a ‘path.’

It is only then that the Zen master breaks out

into a heartily laugh.

“You have been looking in the wrong direction.

You have been looking at merely a game.

You have been involving yourself in thoughts,

that perpetuates ‘the same.’”

“You must go now beyond your thoughts,

you are ready for you are tired.

You have seen the fruitlessness of your efforts.

Now you must go higher.”

And with this the Zen disciple moved on,

now using heart as his steering wheel.

He followed the path of ‘emotions,’

the path of ‘how you feel.’

He could see himself sitting thinking.

He could control what came into his mind.

He could understand how he had mislead himself,

like the blind - we might say - leading the blind.

He could think and dream together.

He could walk proud and be in control.

All because he had gone passed the mind,

to reach his very soul.