Kansas Zen Center

Joju asked Master Nam Cheon,
“What is the true way?”Nam Cheon answered, “Everyday mind is the true way.”

“Then, should I try to keep it or not?”

So we have try, and we have keep. And what does that do? That makes it impossible.

Because first we're trying, that means it's not there yet, it's over somewhere else. And what are we trying to do? We're trying to keep something. We're trying to grab something.

You know, and hold on to it.

And then, Nam Cheon said “If you try to keep it, already you are mistaken.”

And then Joju said: “If I do not try, how can I understand the true way?

That's the third mistake.

And Nam Cheon said:

“The true way is not dependent on understanding, or not understanding.
Understanding is illusion; not understanding is blankness. If you completely attain the true way of not thinking, it is like space, clear and void.
So, why do you make right and wrong?”

This points to these mistakes that we make.

We try, we want to hold on to something, and we think that understanding is the way to do it.

Also, if we think, oh, I understand that understanding is not helpful, then we think that not understanding is a good thing.

It's not.

That mind…

Joju is a very sincere young monk in this.

He hasn't a clue.

And of course, later he becomes this really great Zen Master.

~ Zen Master Judy Roitman 🧧

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