To Be Honest...
The way of Zen and unifying the mind requires that we have the capacity to be honest with ourselves. Without honesty, even if only on the smallest level, there is no path to genuinely harmonizing and awakening heart-mind, within ourselves. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that it's been said that, "Happiness is an inside job."
Being straight-forward, I can say that honesty for me has been a process and not an event. It's been a ceaseless unfolding. It's not like flipping a switch in the darkest of room and we can say, "Ahhhh there it all is, now you're honest." For me honesty has been on a dimmer switch. The more and more I've practiced over the years, the brighter the awareness has become and I've had the opportunity to see more clearly. It's been the combination of many things.
To be honest... this effort has required sitting, becoming rooted within the awakened nature of mind. It's looking... seeing... listening... hearing... feeling... It's doubt and dissolving of doubt... anxiety and dissolving of anxiety... suffering and dissolving of suffering. The process is simple, but not so easy.
Sometimes to push through, we have to do what seems counter-intuitive. Sometimes to become more secure we have to become more vulnerable. It doesn't always make logical sense, but we can sometimes be misled by our logic, analysis and calculations. Sometimes to get to honesty with self and others, we have to make a leap of confidence, into the so-called "unknown," without measuring anything but our motivation to be genuinely be honest... to be the truth Itself.
My mind has come back, again and again to what John Daido Loori Roshi once said, in quoting Henry David Thoreau, during a teisho. "I hear beyond the range of sound, I see beyond the range of sight." This thinking and feeling can definitely be applied to expressing honesty within our life and our truest sense of self. But as ever, to be honest... it requires great practice. Never think it's too late or give up on ourselves. Be diligent.
Yours In Zen,
Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO
Labels: Thought For The Day
posted by jayeZERO @ 7:53 AM
2 comments
links to this post
2 Comments:
Transparency helps bring the darkest parts of you into the light. I was basically torturing myself awake (slap, splash cold water, screaming at myself to wake up) and it only drove me further into the dark at first. I did this constantly for years, without guidance, and it forced my psyche to 'scab over'. It's been a hard climb out of that hole.
Your way of gentle unfolding is a much more productive method, and keeps one from being too harsh.
As sometimes with your blog, it reminds me of my professional life. We use the word honesty (Redlichkeit) often in treating fibromyalgia patients as we see false claims all around us. We know that we don't possess the secret formula to treat our patietns, but help them with honest efforts.
Thanks! Lothar
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home