Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic
Zen Mountain Monastery, 12/29/2020
What is the method that allows us to be “brutally” honest with ourselves in zazen practice? How honest are we willing to be? Are we willing to encounter the confusion of not getting what we seek on our own terms? Asking the question: What is it that separates our deluded life from our Buddha life? Shoan quotes Huang Po, who tells us that “All Buddhas and ordinary beings are one Mind… There is no distinction between the Buddha and ordinary beings, except that ordinary beings are attached to forms and thus seek Buddhahood outside themselves.” Various traditions tell us to “practice mind essence” and “rest in unfabricated and innate naturalness.” How do we “rest” in the display right before us, while avoiding getting lost in the “quicksand of the conceptual mind” where we attempt to replicate the Buddha’s experience through our intellect, ideas and perceptions?
