01. The Supreme Way is not difficult.

Verses1

 The road to the end is without difficulty
 Only dissatisfaction with choosing

La Vía Suprema no es difícil.
Just avoid attraction and rejection.

Comment.

What is the Supreme Way? Where to find it? The teacher Dogen Zenji wrote: “The eyes are horizontal, the vertical nose”. here and now, right under your feet you have the Way available. To access it you just have to detach yourself from the I and mine, shin jin datsu raku2, in the words of Dogen Zenji. We need to let go of our illusory perception and learn to perceive beyond all conditioning., beyond the concepts and words with which we describe and recreate the world moment after moment.

How to access this perception not conditioned by mental constructs? The second verse leaves no room for doubt, “Just avoid attraction and rejection”. If I observe myself carefully I become aware that the internal movement of attraction and rejection occurs automatically.. I reject what I consider unpleasant and stick to what I consider pleasant.. It can manifest itself in an internal dialogue of the type: “I am overweight…, What appetizing food…, I am ignorant…, I have to read more…”.

We easily get lost in a sea of ​​choices, continually taking sides, unconsciously, with autopilot on, directed by our sociocultural and personal conditioning. How to get out of this vicious circle? First of all, being aware of it, applying proper care. As he said Ortega Y Gasset “We don't know what happens to us and that is precisely what happens to us.” Or as my teacher usually paraphrases Dokushô Villalba “what happens to us is that we don't know what happens to us, that's why what happens to us happens to us…”. Becoming aware of what is happening leads us towards perceiving things as they are., beyond our usual illusory vision.

Reality is what it is, regardless of whether we find it pleasant or unpleasant. Things are what they are, but words and concepts make us live in a continuous mirage. We cannot capture this Reality with the mind, with the words, with the ideas. We will only have access to it, not taking sides neither for nor against. That attitude arises naturally through the correct practice of zazen.

music of https://www.fiftysounds.com/ Work: Ancestral Spirits

  1. De la obra Xin Xīn Míng Song to the Heart of Trust, of the third Chan ancestor Jianzhi Sengcan. Translation and comments by Dokushô Villalba. Editions i, 2008. []
  2. Expression that is usually translated by “abandonment of body and mind” through her the teacher Dogen Zenji made the Via []

1 thought on “01. The Supreme Way is not difficult.”

  1. This morning when I went to buy bread I “view” that my “yo” It's my mind.”Yo”I am my mind. The subject creating the object.

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