What's pleasing to the eye In the delusion of my sight Is not what I find when I reach into the light I have lost my mind
I'm walking through time Deluded as the next guy Pretending and hoping to find That distant peace of mind
I don't know Who does know? There is no Where to go
It's not so simple as I try to wish But then again what is? There is no other worthy quest So on I go
I don't know Who does know? There is no Where to go
I don't know Who does know? Where to go
...
* * *
There’s not a moment when you’re not a Buddha. Since you’re always a Buddha, there’s no other Buddha in addition to that for you to become. Instead of trying to become a Buddha, a much easier and shorter way is just to be a Buddha.
*Bankei. Unborn: The Life and Teachings of Zen Master Bankei, 1622-1693. Rev. Ed. Trans. and Intro., Norman Waddell.
"Buddha" is not Buddha, even as "Brian" is not Brian. Elsewhere, Bankei says, "When you say 'Buddha,' you're already two or more removes from the place of the Unborn." So, if "Buddha" does not work for you, okay. Call it what you will; it is what it is. Could we even say, as well, "It is what is"?
* * *
There was a group of elderly gentlemen in Japan who would meet to exchange news and drink tea. One of their diversions was to search for costly varieties of tea and create new blends that would delight the palate.
When it was the turn of the oldest member of the group to entertain the others, he served tea with the greatest ceremony, measuring out the leaves from a golden container. Everyone had the highest praise for the tea and demanded to know by what particular combination he had arrived at this exquisite blend.
The old man smiled and said, "Gentlemen, the tea that you find so delightful is the one that is drunk by the peasants on my farm. The finest things in life are neither costly nor hard to find."
*Anthony de Mello, S. J. The Heart of the Enlightened.
* * *
Somehow, we come to think that life, love, work, and spirituality must be complicated. Life is that way, we think, for we were trained to see life that way. Then, we make life how we think it is. Yet, instead, life is. That is the simple truth.
We forget our unborn nature - simple, open, silent. We forget we are life. Not life that is this or that. Life. We are not even zero. Zero would not be simple enough.
* * *
No adornments of any kind, no additions, no elaborations can alter you in any way. Your true face is your face. Your true self is your self. Atman, or the Self, is you. Buddha is you. Christ is you. Love is you.
When you sit, the mountains sit. When you cry, the rivers cry. When you dance, the clouds dance. When you pray, all your ancestors pray, Jesus prays, Buddha prays, and all the animals pray. Your breathing is Earth breathing. Why is this so? You are not a singular personality, so person. You are a part of the whole like one inch of the sky is the sky or one petal of a flower is the flower or your pinkie is your hand and body. You are where you are, for everything is where it is. Otherwise, there would be no you or everything or anything.
* * *
We tend to flee simplicity due to a disconnection with this unborn, unadorned we are. We may even collect spiritual experiences and ideas and seek more 'exquisite' ones.
We may speak English, for example, and think chanting in Sanskrit is somehow more sacred than chanting in our everyday language. We may think sitting in a lotus position to meditate is more enlightened than sitting on a chair or standing with our hands in our pockets. This, when sitting in a lotus position is no more sacred than sitting in a rocker or on a tractor or bus.
But do we need to feel special, holy, and officially on some spiritual path so we are at least a little to more above all the ordinary folk? Retaining simplicity in spiritual practice - which is your whole life - is like sitting in a lotus position while meditating but sensing nothing special about it. Anyway, where the position came from, that was a way of daily sitting. They did not think, "Wow! I'm holy! I'm sitting like a pretzel on the floor." Would you think, "Wow! This is so sacred, so holy! I'm sitting in a recliner"?
Nothing wrong with adornment, like nothing wrong with make-up on the face or building up biceps, if that is what one wants to do. But adornments add not an iota to you. All the postures in hatha yoga and all the rituals in Greek Orthodoxy and all the bowing in Zen Buddhism are the peasants' tea. You are the peasants' tea.
* * *
We are all the peasants' tea. Hence, in the New Testament Book of James 2.1ff., we read -
1 My brothers and sisters, do not claim the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory while showing partiality [Phillips, snobbery]. 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here in a good place, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit by my footstool,” 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? ...
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well. 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors [i.e., violators].
Hence, we are not to be led by appearances. We are to see through appearances. And our lives are to reflect our acknowledgment that who we are and what we do does not set us apart from any others, including nonhuman beings. The Way is beyond ordinary and extraordinary. Let us see ourselves each as one cookie with all other cookies in the cookie jar, and act like it.
I cite the above passage for reasons. One, how we treat others is to reflect the truth. Second, the truth is no one is special in contrast to anyone else. Last, to highlight how the Unborn relates to everything, for it is the foundation of everything - how we see others and ourselves, how we treat Earth and its beings, how we live our daily lives, including our spiritual practice. The "rich" and the "poor" equally manifest the Unborn, God.
* * *
We may run about looking for the light when the Sun is shining all about us and on us, and it is neither special nor not. Buddha sits down, trying to become a Buddha. Interesting! Or Christ forgets she or he is Christ, so starts looking about, near and far, yelling for all to hear, "Where is Christ? Christ, where are you? Has anyone seen Christ?" "Buddha" and "Christ" point not merely to Gautama and Jesus, but more. We can specialize our objects of worship so to hide from that we are and its implications for how we live our daily lives, or we can see them as inspirations to claim the same truth within ourselves and aspire to live it.
* * *
Welcome the unadorned, the simple, the freely given so received freely. Buddha does not even have to try to be Buddha, anymore than rain tries to be rain. Dare to trust grace. Why seek for an enlightenment, a salvation, a love that has never said to you "Seek me," but says "I'm here"?
Well, yes, we will seek until seeing the gem resting inside our pocket. We were born with it. We were born with ourselves. We may travel far to see. That is okay, just so we finally arrive at the seeing. Then, we can feel totally blessed with what we already have, with ourselves. Our true self, the self of others, is complete already. We grow to return to that knowing more quickly; we forget it less often.
Seeing, we no longer need spiritual trophies to bolster our ego. Seeing, we no longer need some profoundly felt experience we call religious or spiritual. We may have such experiences, but we know they are experiences, and like all experiences, coming and going. We are attuned to what is the non-experience.
Seeing, we no longer need to use others as objects to try to fulfill ourselves - which is impossible anyway. Seeing, we can enjoy intimacy with others beyond what we knew possible prior.
* * *
All the seeking was until we were ready to recognize and love ourselves, not the small self we thought we were. The person we thought we were was crafted out of thought and feeling, causes and conditions... well, that self never existed anyway. Or, we could say it existed like dew or fog or shadow or a water mirage.
Yes, it is a journey from ourselves to ourselves. No, it does not have to be. But, yes, it will be. Then, someday, we can laugh at our scurrying about to find our face. Such a search is like trying to capture the light in our small, grasping hands. Wow! when the hands open, and a voice says, "Welcome, my friend!"
* * *
Then what next? How do we sustain the seeing? The living in the non-experience of ourselves? Dogen (13th Century), founder of Japanese Soto Zen, says, "Intimacy renews intimacy." So, when you are close to you, that is the true, unborn self, or simply the Unborn. You are not trying to see, you are the seeing. The nature of this Unborn is intimacy. So, there is no space between you and the continuance of the awareness of you being you. You do not even have to think about knowing yourself. You are the knowing. You become the praying and the washing the dishes and the walking down the road.
Dogen proceeds to say, "Thus intimacy penetrates intimacy." This is like saying, in a theistic sense, "God makes love with God." Or, in nontheistic terms, "You are that loving by which life makes love with life, not to complete itself but share itself with itself." You are that life. You are that loving. The same life and loving every being, seen and unseen, is. Did you know? How could you not be?
* * *
*(C)Brian K. Wilcox, 2025
*Citations from Dogen. Kazuaki Tanahashi, Peter Levitt. The Essential Dogen: Writings of the Great Zen Master.
