Zen way

What is the Zen way? I don’t exactly know. Too many followers out there with conflicting views. But from my own perspective, its just an equilibrium between me and everything else. There are no grand miracles, no earth shattering experiences, no divine revelations. In fact Zen, by definition, is the very absence of dynamic exhilaration. That may sound redundant but there is also spiritual exhilaration which is primarily passive in nature, at least as far as our senses are concerned.

There seems to be no prerequisites for practicing Zen like meditation in a lotus position or chanting stuff which may not mean anything more than the created sound. Since Zen is purely internal in nature, very few external inputs will ever have much effect on the level of any concrete attainment. But many times these external actions have a placebo effect. So if it makes a difference to you, whether psychologically or real and you are better able to concentrate because of it – go for it by all means. Just keep in mind that these acts themselves are not the intended outcome.

So what is this balance? My spirit (read spirit here, not the proverbial soul) is like a giant battery. Every action, every thought, every food I eat, all the work I do or choose not do, puts a drain on this battery. Most people never bother to recharge it because it never goes completely dead, at least as long as they are alive. But it remains only partially charged so what we end up doing is feeling tired and not being able to do most things as well as we know we could. The more it is charged the better we feel. And the balance is to try to keep this battery as charged as possible by managing the drain and the charging.

The charging part is where Zen kicks in. The easy way out is to throw up our hands and declare that everything is God’s will – even that is one of Zen’s flavors. If you believe that then many of the worries reduce on their own. But its not THE solution. While God is the Creator, He does give us enough free will to shape our own lives to a very large extent. The main solution Zen provides is a way for us to accelerate this charging. Our spirit charges continuously on its own and if left alone it can fully charge itself. Practically, however, that is not possible. While we live, everything around us and inside us drains this charge continuously.

In the end its about control. We must learn to control ourselves keeping in mind that all the positive things in our lives add to this charge and the negative ones drain it. Worrying and tension discharge this battery the fastest while things like random acts of kindness and goodwill and forgiveness charge this the fastest. Even though external factors also affect the way our spirit charges and discharges, the process is more acutely an internal one. We may not be able to change our environment or the way actions of others affect us but we can far more easily control our own reaction to them. The whole universe is, by its nature, a source of positive energy for all living beings. It is our interpretation of it which diminishes us. If we don’t allow badness from others to infect our spirit, it will charge itself high enough for us to be in a proper balance with everything around us and that to me is Zen.