Zhaozhou asked Nanquan, "What is the Way?"
Nanquan said, "Ordinary mind is the Way."
"Should I turn toward it or not?"
"If you turn toward it you turn away from it."
Zhaozhou asked, "How can I know the way if I don't turn toward it?"
Nanquan said, "The way is not about knowing or not knowing. When you know something you are deluded, and when you don't know you are just empty-headed. When you reach the way beyond doubt, it is as vast and infinite as space. You can't say it's right or wrong."
With these words, Zhaozhou had sudden understanding.
Japenese koan, retold by John Tarrant in Bring Me the Rhinoceros
Commentary:
Just like the koan about the innkeeper, here is another tale in which enlightenment, or the Way, is said to be found in the ordinary. It is not necessary that you must be in mystical, peaceful surroundings, or that your mind must meditate on the extraordinary. Instead the light of Buddha can be found all around you, when your mind is focussed on the ordinary, when your actions are involved in the ordinary. But of course, the twist is that you cannot go looking for it, just like you cannot go looking for true love and hope to find it. Its almost when you have given up all hope, or when you give it all up to faith and let yourself believe it will happen one day...and then carry on living... that the extraordinary happens: you find true love. Or you find the Way.
This is good news for me, because I don't have the luxury these days to surround myself in exotic, peaceful locations or to meditate for hours on end. Its not that I necessarily believe I will become 'enlightened' in my ordinary life, but at least I can achieve a more balanced mind, even when my mind is focussed on the ordinary. Or as said in Monday's quote, I am working toward "readjusting nervous activity" and even in my mundane world, I should be able to do so.
1 comment:
In the commentary, it is said:
. Instead the light of Buddha can be found all around you, when your mind is focused on the ordinary, when your actions are involved in the ordinary.
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My sense is that the meaning is simply to be aware in every ksana (thought-moment). We don't distinguish between ordinary and extraordinary and opt for the ordinary. That would be transgression, and the fall into vikalpa (rationalization). Perhaps the meaning is more akin to old Vimalakirti's "Straightforward mind is pure Land." It's all about Mind rather than a self's deliberation given that our sense of self is fictional. That sort of thing?
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