The irony of Zen is that more words have been written about it than any other branch of Buddhism although the central teaching of Zen is that it is a mind-to-mind transmission, outside of words, independent of scriptures.
It’s way past time for Zen to get back to its roots, back to its silence. The Buddha defined an enlightened person as one who has cut off all outflows. Reading about Zen is an outflow, just like watching TV and surfing the Internet. The search for enlightenment, if conducted by focusing on the world of the senses, is doomed to failure.
The time comes when we have to stop reading books and listening to lectures. We have to sit in silence, letting the chirping of the birds and the rustling of the wind be our teachers. We have to understand that it is hearing awareness that hears, not us. Seeing awareness sees, not us. And hearing awareness, seeing awareness, and all the other awarenesses were here before we were and will continue without end because unborn awareness having no beginning can have no end. (Only things that begin can end).
When we awake and understand that we are seeing awareness, hearing awareness, and all of the other awarenesses, and that we are not our bodies, we gain a new perspective.
But to sit in silence for as long as it takes is not easy. Day after day, hour after hour, we have to cut off our outflows, drop our interest in the news of the day, forget about the world of sense desire, and go within.
And the real paradox soon presents itself – going within is the same thing as flowing without. It’s another outflow because we think we are working on ourselves, approaching enlightenment. Flowing inward or flowing outward are the same because they have a being deciding what to do.
Only when the dichotomy of inside and outside goes away can we wake up. And no being has awoken because there never was a being to wake up. It’s just awareness becoming aware of awareness.
