Buddha in the Closet

It's been said that there are certain groups of people who live, "In the closet." To my understanding it can be painful, mostly because there are a lot of inherent contradictions. A person lives one way, but inside there's a completely different world. The question naturally arises, "Who is the real one? Is it the person inside or outside the closet?"

Everyone has Buddha Nature (Awakened Mind), yet so often we keep it in the closet too. As we shoe-horn it into our closet, we too can develop many problems for ourselves. Many gaps. Many fractures. Divisions are created where none actually exist. We have This "Awakened Mind," that is beautiful, radiant, vast, seamless... completely complete. How tragically comical that we throw a blanket over it and hide ourselves from the Buddha Nature that 100% belongs to us. Wow!

Cats are always cats, dogs always dogs, trees always trees, water always water, Buddha always Buddha. Even a piece of paper is still essentially a tree, no matter how You transform It. It cannot be otherwise.

When I stuffed my Buddha Nature in the closet, there was an interesting result. For a time, I became a ghost. I couldn't see, hear, touch or feel "right." As a ghost the only thing I could sense or feel is "greed, anger and delusion." There was a lot of behavior that demonstrated an unsound mind. There were times that I'd be incredibly selfish, isolate, moody, angry, depressed, have low self-esteem, obsessed, frightened, arrogant, remote... and so many other things. The simple result was being "Emotionally unavailable." Buddha Nature in the closet caused the lines of communication to go busy. Ghost cannot fully feel, because of a wall of delusion that accompanies such a state of non-being.

Zen practice is a lot like the story of "Sleeping Beauty." We're imprisoned in a kind of psychological, emotional and spiritual sleep. It's the sustained effort of Zen practice that becomes our Prince Charming and wakes us from sleep. It's our Zen practice that if we "Hold nothing back," can show us we are something very much more than a ghost.

If we are to have a sound mind, we have to bring our Buddha Nature out of the "closet." We must stop dividing ourselves into two people. We have to be It... touch It... feel It... practice It.... There is no gap. There is no distance. There is no lack of love and compassion. It's only a Buddha in the closet that makes us think otherwise. No matter what You do, don't quit on knowing This for Yourself.

May Your Life Go Well,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO