More on the heart of Zen
To go to the heart of Zen first requires of us that we divest ourselves of all our presuppositions about ultimate reality; most importantly, that there is no such thing. All totaled, we cannot get to the heart of Zen by trying to conform Zen to our ideas or modern philosophies.
If we fail to do this, two results will likely obtain. The first is that we will never understand Zen, the Zen of Bodhidharma. The second is the Zen we imagine to be Zen finds ultimate reality to be this ordinary worldthere is no transcendent. This is fools Zen insofar as it makes illusory existence ultimate reality. It is for those who have not been sufficiently pushed beyond their presuppositions so as to lose all faith in them. Such an attitude prevents the complete stoppage of determining (samj) such that we are never truly open and receptive. Rather than admit our lack of openness and receptivity, we construct a counterfeit Zen that runs counter to Bodhidharmas Zen.
Since 1965 when I first began my study of Zen, Zen has never ceased going downhill becoming more Westernized in which its mystical path and its mystical fruit are all but ignored. Zen, in this regard, has become gradually psychologized which, incidentally, I have mentioned several times in previous blogs. All this suggests to me that Zen is being reworked so that it can be marketed as a drugless way to deal with our angst-ridden modern world. But this is no solution anymore than sitting in an armchair for an hour a day.
Perhaps the worst kind of attachments are our attachments to our presuppositions about ultimate reality. If truth be known, they prevent us from direct communion with it.
