Jan 14 2009
Who Am I?
So, who am I?
You cannot learn what or who you are, you can only be what/who you are. Zazen (Zen meditation) supports you to recognise who/what you really are. Zen does not teach you who you really are because you cannot learn what you already know.
We cannot walk along the path we have already walked upon, for as we look back, it is not the path we look back on, but an image of that path that is no more. Similarly, we cannot look forward to see where we are going, we can only walk where we are now by being aware.
In Zen it is often said that there are no teachers or students. Each individual gains knowledge from the insights that are shared, in this way both student and teacher disappear. Insight is transformed by the act of sharing becoming more potent and profound. So knowledge from insight is not a static thing.
When we sit zazen (Zen meditation), we may often find we are striving, but such striving is the very thing that is preventing us from realising that we are already enlightened - that we already know “I-am” consciousness. Zazen is like practising to wait patiently for enlightenment to dawn in our awareness, and then letting it go, as we continue to sit and wait.
