Thursday, June 14, 2007

Daily Dharma: Everyday Zen


Today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle:

Everyday Zen

Intelligent practice always deals with just one thing: the fear at the base of human existence, the fear that I am not.

And of course I am not, but the last thing I want to know is that.

I am impermanence itself in a rapidly changing human form that appears solid. I fear to see what I am: an ever-changing energy field...

So good practice is about fear. Fear takes the form of constantly thinking, speculating, analyzing, fantasizing. With all that activity we create a cloud cover to keep ourselves safe in make-believe practice. True practice is not safe; it's anything but safe. But we don't like that, so we obsess with our feverish efforts to achieve our version of the personal dream. Such obsessive practice is itself just another cloud between ourselves and reality.

The only thing that matters is seeing with an impersonal searchlight: seeing things as they are. When the personal barrier drops away, why do we have to call it anything? We just live our lives. And when we die, we just die. No problem anywhere.

~ Charlotte Joko Beck

2 comments:

Peter Clothier said...

Ouch! That pulls the rug out from under nice, comfortable practice. Thanks a lot! (I mean it!)

william harryman said...

Yeah, so much for "safe" meditation. Facing the real fear is the hardest part, and something many of us avoid. Certainly, I fall into the trap of using meditation to make myself feel better instead of facing the real issues.

Peace,
Bill