I'm reading a really cool fantasy book, The Darkness That Comes Before by Canadian author R. Scott Bakker. There was this great quote that I wanted to share, but I can't find it. Basically it said that asking questions is like opium; the more we ask, the most questions arise. The wise person, on the other hands, accepts the mystery of life.
Instantly I thought of the Zen "Don't know" mind, the mind freed from the duality of concepts. Who am I? Don't know. What is this in front of me? Don't know.
I find myself asking this more and more often lately. When I'm walking down the school hallway, before the students arrive--What is this? And honestly, I don't know. There's just this...no need to label or define it. Like Ram Dass said, just be here.
It's that ability to accept Don't know, without trying to force life, people, or situations into rigid categories, that Bakker is writing about. The ability just to accept the present moment without cutting it up into a mental grid or imposing our expectations onto it. Just let the moment unfold.
What is this? Don't know.
Because we've let go of the need to know. That's where I am in my practice right now. It's definitely influenced by Seung Sahn's teachings and especially my teachers in the Five Mountain Monastery.
Thanks everyone.
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