According To Zen Philosophy, (Permanent) Awakening Only Takes 3 Steps

The recipe is being handed to you, now what’ll you do with it?

Zen is not supposed to be understood with words and ideas. It’s said to be an experience outside of scriptures and philosophy.

But without a realized teacher in front of us to provide that non-conceptual nudging toward truth — how can we ever realize it?

The books describing the path will leave us more confused than empowered to practice.

In this situation, we simplify.

What are the causes and conditions to become awake, so much that we can’t ever fall back into our delusions?

It’s to sensitize your entire system to move forward and abandon that which holds you back.

If you merely fulfill this, the path opens.

1. Becoming a blaze of wisdom (made up of doubt)

You begin with a spark of curious, inquisitive questions.

It’s not lazy or skeptical denial of the profound — but inspired search for truth. For something which will set you & all those you love free, forever!

Our whole being transforms into the search. With potentially infinite questions!

The ones each person asks at first will differ.

But what matters is that one wants liberating truth above the complacent & comfortably dangerous delusions of the status quo.

• Where do mental afflictions arise from? Where do they go?
• Where does my consciousness arise from?
• Why does it get clouded?
• If awakening occurs without formation of concepts about itself, what use is thinking about it, rather than seeking?
• Why can’t I actually seek, all the way, until I find it?

It takes time to transform into a burning flame of sharp analysis & hunger for the transcendent.

But each time you build the habit of wanting to know and then practicing it by mindfully being aware of something, you throw a log into the fire of Great Doubt.

In the end, the flame of ‘wanting to know’ embraces the entire universe, perceiving all — the same realization of a Buddha.

2. Knowing ‘why’— and then knowing it more.

This is absolutely not about blind believing. Even if you make it simply about accepting someone else’s realization, guess what? You won’t get anywhere on this path!

Because faith, in the Buddha Dharma, is that which comes from conviction borne of direct experience.

In Sanskrit, the word shraddha means confidence, alignment, & grounded trust in something. This is the word most commonly translated as belief or faith, though never as simple.

Ironically, it is the tossing of all external ideas so you can focus on incontrovertible direct experience. Which then keeps you going for more.

The faith that liberates is stronger than any distraction, doubt, or impermanent inner storm.

It’s the steady march forward because you know what’s at the end of the path is better than what’s growing in the ditches.

Not because a Prophet said so. Because you’ve tasted a bit of it for yourself!

Even if you’ve never practiced in your life, look deep within, and you’ll see it.

Yes, right now.

There’s a whole bunch of mental jumping going on. There are energy flows you label as emotions. And what’s behind it all? The observing.

But what’s behind that?

The sheer fact that you’re alive. The bliss of being. Existence freed from your neuroses and pains, which are simply clung onto because they’re louder than what you really are.

You’ve spent your whole life clinging to the clouds, forgetting you exist.

You can feel the bliss of free existence all the time, multiplied infinitely, without ever forgetting it! And you can expand it to share with all beings. You’ll naturally want to.

Great Faith is seeing that the path works. And you’re perfectly fit to travel, because you’re already intrinsically awake!

Following the training with trust that what you’re doing is worth it (and worth more than anything in the world), guess what happens?

You actually reach where you need to be — a place most people forget even exists, lifetime after lifetime.

3. Aligning utterly, and accelerating constantly.

Expecting some external divine power to put in all the work for you — or praying for it to ‘divinely intervene’ to fully fix your mess — is not part of the scope of Buddha’s original teaching.

Nor of any theistic, non-Buddhist Dharma from all of India!

Because from the view of enlightenment, everything happening is due to a chain of causes and conditions. Nothing is ‘unjust’ or imperfect in the world of karma.

To get out of the mess we got ourselves in (by misapplying our free will), we have to apply it properly from now on until enlightenment is irreversibly guaranteed.

So you need to build the determination to finish your misery forever — (primarily) by yourself.

Which can’t be done without strong enough determination!

And here’s how you get it.

Conviction is built by you, yourself, by knowing you’re more than what you witness (and how it’s being witnessed).

The selfhood expands. You realize there’s something underneath, linking us not only to all other ‘selves’ but all phenomena.

You glimpse the nature of consciousness!

That’s why the Buddha was able to non-dually know all phenomena upon the eve of his enlightenment: he was no longer clinging to his own continuum, his own mindstream, his own chain of karma.

He cut through to knowing all the karma that ever existed. And if he had the same material to work with as you, Buddha-nature & a human body/mind, you can get to where he is now.

But why can’t it come? What’s blocking you? What are you still doing that prevents your realization?

The conviction of faith & the burning questioning of doubt spark a great flame that goads us on. From the depth of our gut, until we overcome every obstacle imaginable!

A great master once said the only thing getting in our way is a distracted, uncommitted desire for the truth. And this fact should infuriate you.

What we’re up against is the entire matrix.

Of all the karma we’ve done in the past. Of that which is occurring by others, externally, and influencing us now.

One golden thread has to be stronger than all the yarn being tossed around. One guiding desire above all desire — for truth, dignity, and the ability to share perfect, infinite love by entering the realm of our perfection.

Great Effort is the most significant & beautiful of the three legs of the stool, by leaps and bounds.

It demands the other two be stable before it arises. And when it does, you have no choice but to go fully along with it (if you want to reach the destination).

Not so mysterious anymore, is it?

It is said that it’s easier to miss the ground hitting it with your fist than it is to miss enlightenment if you enthusiastically apply these 3 teachings.

• Question the mess you’re in and the things you cling to for ‘joy.’
• Know you can find permanent happiness, walking the path.
• Arouse the will to do anything it takes to get it.

For years, I avoided anything to do with Zen, because reading about it was so infuriating.

But historically speaking, it’s the only school of Mahayana that’s been making itself constantly accessible. Other branches became insular, overly complex, or esoteric.

Zen is constantly travelling East, adapting to each new society. When it got established in China and Japan, it had disappeared from India. While it’s growing in America, Japan and Korea’s monasteries are dwindling.

So you’re actually in a golden age right now. That cannot be said of most of the spiritual traditions on Earth!

You can easily make the most of it — simply by turning your mind towards the path. Resonate, aspire, practice, and develop.

Plenty of seen & unseen help is on the way (as long as you don’t forget what you’re actually here to work on).

लोका: समस्ता: सुखिनो भवन्तु

Lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu

May the worlds, everywhere, experience happiness.