Now and Zen
by Brad Jensen
Copyright 1996 Brad Jensen All Rights Reserved Permission
is hereby granted for any publication in electronic form.
PART 4
The Car Collector
Sorrow can become so heavy, it is impossible to put down. Do not resist
it, and it will drift away like dandelion fluff.
Intention, attention, observation, discrimination, recognition, reasoning,
intuition, affirmation, actualization. This is the rainbow of awareness.
True knowing is the light of which it is the spectrum. When you see the
rainbow, you have your back to the source of light.
Stop trying to create perfection in yourself, and instead begin to experience
the perfection of yourself. Then you become the perfect creator.
Pure light without color cannot be seen. Until it becomes a man.
Zen does not exist to avoid pain, but to reveal love. The true Zen teacher
strikes with the mind, or not at all. To become enlightened takes three
years. These three years may be experienced in three seconds. They are,
``Am I'', ``No'' ,''I Am''.
The journey of a thousand miles is a single step. Here you are.
Do not be the sort of philosopher who is like the expert who collected
antique cars. He knew the faults of each one, and was afraid to ride in
any of them, so he never went anywhere.
Stomp Your Feet
Where does this wisdom come from? It is always within you. Even if you
feel blind since birth, some part of you asked for it, and now it is here.
Share it with every aspect of yourself.
If you reject wealth, you are yet possessed by it. Let all the things
of the world come and go as you have use for them. If you can't trust yourself
with money, how will you trust yourself with awareness?
It is natural to be suspicious of self-transformation. Jesus healing
on the Sabbath represents taking responsibility for your self awareness
in the outer, conscious mind. Only you can choose to bring together all
the parts of yourself. The courage to be whole is always yours.
If your outer world is in turmoil, it is because your inner mind is
in the same state. Take a deep breath and calm your mind first. Then the
outer world will surely follow. How much time does it take for your inner
decisions to be reflected in outward experience? Less and less!
Even in enlightenment, I am still willing. ``Ordinary reality'' is the
greatest unconscious fantasyland of them all.
There are some who think that when Zen is clearly seen, the master must
remain speechless in acknowledgement of the unspeakable. Hah!
The perfect stillness has no relation to movement or repose. Reasoning
is a bridge across a stream that does not flow. The greatest journey is
to arrive at this moment now.
The perfect stillness of Zen is not beyond change, but within change.
It is the moment of breathlessness, extended into breath.
While in free fall, you experience no sense of motion. How tricky these
words seem! Like a carnival mirror, they reflect a different being from
the one I thought to see. It's as if they had life and intention of their
own. Look at them from a different angle and the picture changes completely.
How can what is perfect create the imperfect? Perhaps it never did. It
is like the little child who closes her eyes, and thinks no one can see
her. Perhaps she is right.
Stomp your feet heavily in the mud, still you barely leave a trace of
your passage.
All experience comes through desire. You can direct your desires like
herding sheep. Desirelessness is choosing not to be driven by desire, it
is not killing off the herd. What would be the use of that?
Does television lead to Zen? Now, this.
Those who believe that they are worthless and God must save them, temporarily
lead themselves astray. But perhaps that is a part of their path also.
Colorado's mountains are much more inspiring if you drive across Kansas'
plains to get there.
Feed the hungry while learning the cause of hunger.
Paint Your Foot Blue
Turn the world inside out. This is Zen. Turn the world right side out.
This is Zen. Turn the world. This is Zen. Let the world settle into its
natural stillness. This is Zen.
Past tense, future tense, present calm.
Remain calm for a moment. This one.
Jesus Christ is a humanist. He says the body is the only temple of the
living God.
The way I teach is the Way i teach. Keep thinking, until you find something
better. Thought is the wobbly rollercoaster in which being is riding. Stop
counting, and free your mind for better things.
You are most limited by the questions that you fail to ask. You fail
to ask them because you think you already know. Science becomes so proud
of her successes, she forgets that each success was built on doubt of what
was already known by everyone.
Your body holds each unexpressed emotion. Let them out -- they will
not destroy you! And you will not destroy anyone else!
Return to the child, and deal with the child's loves and fears. This
leads to the health of body and mind.
To feel inferior to someone is like painting your foot blue, and then
saying it is better than the rest of you.
Paul is walking the beginning of the path, not the end.
Religion is an excuse to start thinking, not end thinking.
In every religion, there are those who stand at the shrine and worship
God, those who walk to the shrine and worship the shrine, those who begin
the walk and worship the path, and those who stand still and worship their
feet. In any moment, they may find what they seek.
The Simplest Path
How can I bless you, unless I fear that your enlightenment is less than
complete. I have no such fear. You have the power to change. Every being
has this power. We are all together in our enlightenment, from the foundation
of the world. That foundation is the beginning of this moment.
We build houses of words, that only a lunatic could stay in, then wildly
pursue anyone with the sense to venture outside. A house defends us against
threatening weather. Where is your faith, that you believe that the being
given you by God is frail and perishable?
Why do the religions believe God is doing such a lousy job with creation?
A psychologist would call it repressed anger.
Not many people can resist the temptation to resist temptation. No one
who desires to convince another remains enlightened while doing so. No
one who gives up this desire to convince another, remains enlightened.
Nothing exists out of context. When lawyers desire to limit every unseen
possibility, they make the contract longer and longer, until every word
is used a thousand times. When the true teacher offers all possibility
to the student, he writes ``God'' or ``Way'' or ``Enlightenment'' in the
sand at his feet, then quickly the wind erases it. No one who has seen
this one word disappear ever forgets it.
Our bodies are made of elements cooked in the hearts of supernovas.
How can you think your mind is any less powerful, if it uses the body?
Thank each cell of your body for doing its job well each day, and remind
it that you expect the best of it.
Some things are so simple, we feel foolish doing them. That has no bearing
on their effectiveness.
How can you trust yourself to criticize these words, if you do not trust
yourself to read and reflect on them? If you are doing what someone else
has suggested to you, you must have decided their opinion is better than
your own. This is what got Adam in trouble. At some point, you have made
the decision of what to believe. Take the responsibility also! You might
as well have the awareness that goes with your decision.
The simplest path is the safest journey home. Use these words, then
forget their existence, and find your own.
The Two Percent Rule
Your life is in balance now. Two percent of the weight moved from one side
to another, leads to a complete and absolute change in the balance of the
scale. Two percent of your waking day, after your habitual work is subtracted,
is ten minutes. Ten minutes a day of focused attention leads to rapid change
in your circumstances.
This moment is where reality exists. Our conscious ego tries to identify
with the universal. There is no reason to fault it for that. I am perfect,
I am whole, I lack nothing. When we compare it to the physical expression,
it is boasting. When we compare it to the universal self, it is true. Your
ego is doing its job, trying to remind you of your self.
If you want to control the ego, give it a goal. Directing the ego is
like driving a car -- you must be moving forward to change direction.
"This is Friday"
You end the cycle of rebirth by realizing that you never die. Death is
separation. You have never experienced anything but your self. How can
you be separated from this?
You will never be happy until you choose to be happy now. If every atom
in the universe could speak to you, it would say, what do you want me to
be?
There is one photon of life, rebounding back and forth through all of
time, weaving the universe.
Man is so conceited. ``We alone have free will.'' ``We alone are the
pinnacle of God's creation.'' What rubbish! Every quantum has the free
choice it has earned. Chimpanzees make love and war. What if aliens came
to Earth, and they were more civilized and healthier than us? Would that
make us worthless? If you must be proud, be proud of your ability to overcome
fear and express love. Be proud of moving forward and unfolding. Be proud
of encouraging others to be their best. Being proud because you are human
is like saying ``I am great because this is Friday''. We will move on from
form to form, but who we really are will not change. Be proud of the universe
of your creation, and your ability to affirm it through love and will.
Thank you for sharing your beingness with this page of paper and this
dried ink. (Who can you reply to but yourself? You have created this experience,
and no one else.) ``I thank me for leading myself on to greater awareness.
I the inner self, in response to my conscious desire, wish to remind myself
of one simple message. Awake!'' Atheists believe that we create the God
we experience. The spiritual man knows this is true, and continually works
to create a greater experience of God.
God has given you responsibility for the entire universe, and eternity
in which to express it.
Go to sleep, and trade one dream for another.
All these words convince no one. Who are you?
If these words seem ambiguous, you are beginning to see past words.
If you can hold the attitude of expectant questioning, combined with
the pose of confident affirmation, while keeping a sense of awe and your
sense of humor, then you will begin to experience your inner nature directly.
Enlightenment is not hard. Holding on to non-enlightenment is the difficulty.
Let go of distractions and expectations, and be honest with the nature
of the moment in front of you.
You think you need all this stuff. It thinks it needs you. You can get
back to it later. Like intermission at a drive-in movie. You could call
it popcorn Zen.
Ten Thousand Words
My favorite of all the words is ``encouragement''. To have the intention
of stimulating courage in yourself or another, what a fantastic thing!
It is courage that takes us to the center of this moment, it is the fuel
for the voyage to the beingness of now. Oh, to be responsible for this
moment of my life, without self-consciousness, boastfulness, or apology!
This is the perfect stillness of Zen, the greater things of Christ!
Zen is not embarrassed to speak of God. It just prefers to let God speak
for himself. This moment of awareness whispers your name.
Please read these words more than once, or give them away. That may
seem to be a lot to ask, but I feel it is my duty to you. I would not want
these thoughts taking up space in your mind that would be put to better
use by something else, something that might lead you to true understanding
of your nature. And if you give them freely to another, the decision you
would have to make in doing so would be of some benefit at least. So I
know I am acting responsibly to request this of you. Perhaps you might
do both, and gain the greatest benefit.
All you can be to another is an example. Honor God, yourself, and your
friend by being the best example, good or bad, that you can think to be.
Thus we will all reach enlightenment together.
What good is it to reach your destination without your feet? Love the
beingness of every being, and help each being the best way you can think
of.
We asked at the beginning, and now ask again. How can you use Zen? Watch
and see!
This is the end of these ten thousand words. What have you done with
them?
One last hint for you who ask me, where is the wisdom in these words.
One who is deaf cannot hear. One who can hear is not deaf.
I am pretending to be something I am not. I am something I am not pretending
to be. Can this foolishness not end?
Out of my ignorance, I offer you your own wisdom. If you accept it you
have received nothing from me. If you reject it you have fooled no one,
not even yourself.
A Zen Prayer
If Zen had a prayer, perhaps it could be this:
``I snore so loud, I wake myself up!''
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