One day, a Sutra Master came and he questioned Zen Master Dae-Ju. “I understand that you have attained satori [Zen enlightenment]. What is Zen?'”
Dae-Ju said, “Zen is very easy. It is not difficult at all. When I am hungry, I eat; when I am tired, I sleep.”
The Sutra Master said, “This is doing the same as all people do. Attaining satori and not attaining are then the same.”
“No, no, people on the outside and on the inside are different.'”
The Sutra Master said, “When I am hungry, I eat. When I am tired, I sleep. Why is the outside different from the inside?”
Dae-Ju said, “When people are hungry, they eat. Only the outside, the body, is eating. On the inside, they are thinking, and they have desire for money, fame, sex, food, and they feel anger. And so when they are tired, because of these wants, they do not sleep. So, the outside and the inside are different. But when I am hungry, I only eat. When I am tired, I only sleep. I have no thinking, and so I have no inside and no outside.”
— Cited in Taming of the Bull by Piya Tan
May we know the miracle of a quiet mind,
Simeon
Quote of the Week
“The great way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.”
— Sengcan (Third Zen Patriarch)
The 10 Stages of Zen Awakening
Here, we explore the subtle stages of Zen awakening as told through the 10 Oxherding Pictures. A journey less about arriving somewhere new and more about seeing clearly what was always here.
Suggested Reading
The Wholehearted Way translated by Kosho Uchiyama and Shohaku Okumura
Can sitting still be enough? In The Wholehearted Way, Zen master Dogen invites us to live fully by doing nothing more than what is right here. This book is a doorway into the miracle of simplicity.
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