Idle Concerns Block the Way
Vanity of vanities block the Way to a life in the bright circle of emptiness. Every day is a good day to practice clearing away the vanities and idle concerns blocking the Way. Non-mind, the mind free of vanities, meets non-mind. Just meeting what comes with non-mind, a mind free of vanities; the stuff we make up over and over again. When we brush away, and clear the mind filled with idle concerns we live in the brightness of the boundless empty field.
We are looking for the treasure in the wrong place; there is no wrong place when the mind is free of idle concerns. But when the mind is full of idle concerns we think the Way is somewhere else. This non mind is here meeting the myriad things that are here over and over again. The practice is to clear away the idle made up stuff that blocks the Way.
This, just this non-mind is how to live knowing you are going to die. Drop all the vanities of wanting this or not wanting that…or wanting that and not wanting this. Zen is not a coddling, comfort approach nor is it an unpleasant, torturous approach it is stopping these vain attempts to get what we want and shove away what we don’t want.
Direct your effort to clear away these vain thoughts, these conceits of wishes and images of craving. This is the practice of the Way wherever you are whatever is rising. Meet everything with empty, non mind. This is the practice of no place to stand on with your vanity. Clear away the vanities and live from there. Have no aim of getting something; this is the circle of brightness.
It requires that we STOP fighting the practice with the cunning tricks of the ego.
Brush away the vanities; clear away the fabrications…without getting hooked in self seeking, ego mind. Even this is not something to get, it is to practice whether sitting, lying down, or walking. Silence, solitude, stillness and study of the self support this ordinary practice.
This is the refuge of Buddha. This is the refuge of Dharma. This is the refuge of Sangha.
If you are not practicing in this way, you are polishing a brick and thinking there is something to get, something to fix, something to hold onto. Don’t give up. Start to practice.