When we sit,
Let's sit wholeheartedly.
We put all of our energy in the posture,
All the attention in the breathing.
Posture and breathing rely us,
Through the here and now,
With reality as it is.
Our mental capacity,
This faculty that works well in the conditioned world,
Tries to understand,
Tries to grasp what meditation is about.
But meditation is beyond all categories.
It cannot be grasped,
Understood,
Comprehended by the mental.
It can only be realized through the practice,
Here and now,
By fully aligning body and mind through wholehearted action.
When we sit,
We sit fully.
When we walk,
We walk with full attention.
When we make love,
We love fully.
That is the realization.
On this subject there is this famous dialogue between Master Kaizan and Master Gizeh.
When Kaizan was still a disciple of Gizeh,
He trained under Gizeh some 700 years ago in Japan.
So Kaizan asked Gizeh about the nature of practice and enlightenment.
He asked,
What is the practice of all the Buddhas and Patriarchs?
And what is the enlightenment of all the Buddhas and the Patriarchs?
And what is the relationship between those?
Gizeh answered,
It is like one rides an ox while searching for the ox.
Searching for the ox symbolizes searching enlightenment,
Searching realization,
Searching to end suffering.
Searching the ox while riding the ox implies that there is nothing to look outside ourselves for,
That inherently we are in potential realized.
It is by aligning that aspiration with practice that we automatically realize enlightenment.
There is no separation between practice and realization.
Therefore,
Continue practicing wholeheartedly.
