As a Lay Zen Buddhist, I have for the last couple of years been in the privileged position of facilitating zazen and sometimes offering whatever insight I may have into what this is. Sharing one’s insight is different than being an expert. There are many sources from which you can conceptualize Zen and have some idea and thoughts about it. However, in my view, Zen is not a concept. Zen is beyond thinking. Reading a sutra or quoting what other teachers have said has it’s place. I have many times shared what others have said in order to contribute to a point I was making or to help bring clarity. We look to experts for everything. However, looking outside of ourselves for the answers to what we think we need or want cannot ultimately be fulfilling or bring us satisfaction. True intimacy, being part of this wonderful amazing experience we call life, connected to all of it, comes from insight. Insight comes from “just sitting” in zazen and from asking, “What is this?” True insight does not come from knowing, but from not knowing. Insight comes from getting your ass on the cushion, but read this anyway.
Zenkei Blanche Hartman in her excellent article “The Zen of Not Knowing” in the Buddhist magazine, Tricycle says; “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s there are few. ” read more…