We’re living in a time when books are being banned, when people are being demonized just for
being who they are, when discourse has been reduced to shouting matches and blame games,
when education is under assault, when natural disasters are more frequent and more
devastating because of climate change, when people in power are trying to white-wash history
and rewrite history altogether, when misinformation and disinformation are being
disseminated non-stop through the internet, when authoritarianism is spreading world-wide,
when many people feel angry, hopeless, self-righteous, depressed, worried, anxious, fearful,
confused and so on. It’s as though a dark malaise has descended upon our world and we’re not
sure how or why, or what we can do about it.
We ingest the daily news and it becomes our content. This is the made world: the world we
make and the world made for us by other makers of worlds. We gobble it up, consume it, suffer
the consequences. Today, the world seems to be experiencing a collective cognitive dissonance:
nothing makes sense, there are too many contradictions: it’s difficult to know what’s true and
what’s not? Something’s not right, and we all feel it. But there’s also the world as is: fall comes
and the trees shed their leaves. Each and every day we inhale and exhale, one world and the
other. It’s when we get stuck in our thoughts that problems arise. It’s like eating. We eat to
survive, and if we’re lucky, eating gives us pleasure. We take the nutrients from what we eat
and discard the rest. The news of the world is similar: we consume what we need to know but
then we must discard the waste. Zazen is how to let go, empty out, and start fresh.
It sounds overly simplistic to say, More zazen! And yet, that’s the best thing we can do for
ourselves and for those around us. We can’t give in to despair and depression and
hopelessness. We, as students of Zen, vow to be bright lights in a dark world, and that means,
more than ever, we can’t afford to get stuck. We need to be clear, fluid, buoyant, able to
manifest our True Nature, unburdened and lucid, in everything we do; especially when
interacting with others. It’s not easy; but that’s why we practice zazen, and that’s why it’s so
important to take our zazen-mind off the cushion and into the world for the benefit of others.
The first Bodhisattva vow: Infinite are all beings; I vow to save them. The smallest acts of
kindness, generosity and good will make the world a better place, if only one person at a time.
These are dark days indeed; but historically they are no better or worse than they’ve ever been.
There has never been peace on earth and good will to all. There have never been times without
suffering. This is the human realm. My teacher once asked me: How do you transcend the
human realm? And he immediately added, Very difficult koan. And yet, we transcend the
human realm every day without realizing it. Look out! Put it all down! Don’t get stuck! Don’t
give up. When the wind blows, fallen leaves cover the yard. You have nothing to do with it.
More zazen.
Seido
