Zen and Detoxing From The Cultural Mentality of Being Damaged Goods and Broken People

深い誠意 | Fukai Seii | Deep sincerity

What is our personal capacity for sincerity?

Sincerity... to manifest honesty through our being and presence... freedom from... absent of hypocrisy... Zen Master Rinzai's "True person without rank, post, or position." The Latin root for sincerity is "Sincerus," which means uninjured... clean... pure... clear... whole... as a result of NOT adding anything. This word sincere marks a distinct, and sharp difference in how Buddhism... Universal Identity of Loving Presence... and Christianity understands our "Original nature..." Or perhaps our "Original tendency." One perspective is generosity and the other a kind of poverty-mind.

In Christianity there's the doctrine of "Original sin," which much of western culture has been indoctrinated, and conditioned into. It's embedded in our culture in innumerable subtle and not so subtle ways. Sin by the way was a term of archery in greek culture which means, an arrow that has missed the mark.

The operating principle is that at birth we are somehow dirty... tainted in nature... insufficient... born broken and damaged goods, having a tendency to sin... to miss the mark as a result of being born. As a result of this way of seeing oneself one has to work and make oneself clean... pure... or whole. I know people who have chased that drug all their life... and died thinking and believing they were deficient and insufficient to life. Most people's entire life work is to "Fix," our prove ourselves worthy. That's an impressive amount of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual insecurity... fear that goes along with that.

In stark contrast, the "Song of Zazen," by Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku. The very first section reads:

Shujō Honari Hotoke Nari

Mizu To Kōri No Gotoku Nite

Mizu O Hanarete Kōri Naku

Shujō No Hoka Ni Hotoke Nashi

All beings are born as Buddha

(Universal Loving Presence).

Like water and ice,

There is no ice apart from water;

There are no Buddhas apart from beings.

Our original nature... Loving Presence is who we are... untainted... pure... nothing to earn... nothing to prove... nothing to find... no need for make overs... no possibility of not being Universal Identity of Loving Presence. There's really only the choice to manifest it or not, as a matter of personal decisions about how we are going to live as a person... not for our entire life... but just in this one continuous moment called Life. Zen practice... training... teaching... is designed to support people noticing what's always here on the inside, instead of looking for fixes on the outside.

Hakkuin literally says...

How near the Reality

yet how far we seek,

like one in water crying "I thirst!"

Like the child of one who is wealthy

wandering poor on this Earth,

we endlessly loop in physical, mental,

emotional. And spiritual decay.

The cause of our sorrow is ego delusion.

In a way... Zen is like an addict or alcoholic that goes for detox... to "Get clean..." To return to their original state, because living under the burden of chemicals has turned their life into a hell-realm. The same can be said for this fundamental lie of being originally broken and undeserving somehow. It causes a lot of crazy. It's one of the key reasons we've been duped into thinking that "Fighting for resources is a natural way of life." BULLSHIT! Look at all other species of animals... no poverty mentality. It's just this ego, that's doing more than it should as a result of perpetual insecurity, fear, and conditioning.

In Zazen... we sit... breathe.... observe... and notice Reality as Reality. Nothing and no-thing else. Eventually... experientially... once the ego runs out of stories.... narratives... movies... it will be plain as daylight... plain as moonlight... it's so simple, when thoughts clouds are not dominating the sky. Zazen helps us to see through what's not actually so-called there. Please practice and confirm for yourself. Happy is Today as Today!

Ohhhhh and to Finish... The Song of Zazen, completes in This Way...

The inward sky is clear, and undivided.

What is there outside us,

what is there to lack?

Nirvana (no longer being caught in the lie)

is openly shown to our eyes.

This earth where we stand is the Pure Lotus Land,

and this very body the body of buddha (Loving Presence).

Woooowwww. Clear.... Elegant... Direct... No performance art... Fully whole and wholly free, when we remove the Virtual Reality headset issued to us by society. Then to paraphrase a famous someone... "we're no longer stoned on conditioning... just beautiful." What is our capacity for sincerity? 100%.

一We Are the Practice Itself