FAITH-BASED SPIRITUALITY AND EXPERIENCE-BASED SPIRITUALITY

Japanese mothers used to try to curb their children’s mischief by saying, “If you aren’t good, a spook will get you,” or “a child snatcher will come for you.”

I remember being scolded like that myself as a child. Spirituality based on faith follows a similar model of trying to guide people using certain images and ideas. On the other hand, spirituality based on experience leads people to peace by having them perceive reality clearly, thereby ridding them of fear:

Wither’d pampas grass —

that was all it really was,

the ghost that I saw.

…

Zen is at the forefront of experience-based religions. I often say that Zen is not a religion. But if salvation is considered the task of religion, it is. However, unlike faith-based religions, Zen rejects concepts and beliefs as a means of knowing the truth. Instead it aims to help us perceive reality and to find peace of mind based on that reality. Reality is what we really are: namely, our True Self. When we discover what we are, we experience peace of mind and continue to live day by day in infinite tranquility and complete satisfaction. What more do we need?

~ Zen: The Authentic Gate ~

~ Zen Master Koun Yamada ~

Zen Stick

To attain to awareness, first, a student has to bear many whacks from a Zen Master, whenever the student slips into heedlessness. This book is a collection of such weird stories where the Zen masters teach zen with their stick. A MUST-READ for serious investigators of Zen!

Zen Stick: A Collection of 91 Weird Zen Stories

Solution

A man used to complain to his teacher that he couldn’t meditate.
‘I can’t hold my thought on it for long. I start thinking about what we’ll be having for breakfast or about some argument we’ve had in the family or about whether I shall be transferred at work.’
One day the teacher suddenly flared up and shouted, ‘I am a fool to have taken on a fool like you at all!  I’m going to finish with you. Why should I go on?  Come back tomorrow and unless you can give me one good reason why I should still see you, you can take your things and go.’
The pupil tried to stammer out an apology but the teacher cut him short and physically pushed him out.
That night the man couldn’t sleep: he was wondering what he could do to get the teacher to keep him on as his student.  He had great respect for the teacher and really wanted to continue under him.  Next day he brought a present for him and timidly gave it to the attendant who then announced his name. The teacher came out quickly and said, ‘Come in and sit down.  How have you been?’ The man answered, ‘I couldn’t sleep for thinking how I could appeal to you – please keep me on. I can’t think of a good reason, but please keep me on as your student.’
‘You couldn’t sleep for thinking about it? That’s good, that’s what you needed,’ the teacher told him. ‘When you have trouble with your mind, think back to that and meditate with the same concentration. You’ve learned what it is to meditate’.

-- Fooling --

Having entered the Dharma Hall for a formal instruction, Zen Master Yunmen said:

“Get out, get out of here! You’re fooling each other without end!”

Then Master Yunmen asked the assembly: “Is even to say what I just said a mistake?”

----!!!!----

The truth cannot be given  to you. You have to experience it yourself in deep meditation. So whatever can be said to you is false in one sense. If you understand that all these Zen Stories are nonsense and only your meditation is the essential thing then you are the true student of Zen. If you are not meditating and merely reading these stories then you are doing nothing else but just deceiving yourself. Don't do that!

-- Dedication --

You must take the two characters birth-death, paste them on your forehead, and demand of yourself a clear understanding of this matter.

~ Zen Master Wuzu Fayan (1024-1104) ~

----!!!!----

Go crazy for meditation. Remain focused and work hard. Anything less than insanity is not acceptable!!

-- Keep Meditating Continuously --

If you have not yet completely awakened, you must go to the meditation cushion and sit impassively for ten, twenty, thirty years, observing your original face before your father and mother were born.

~ Zen Master Taixu ~

Hard Work

The great Zen Master Dao-an [1312-1385] sat alone in a quiet room for twelve years, exerting his spirit to the utmost in meditation: only then did he attain spiritual awakening.

----!!!!----

A great deal of hard work and dedication is needed in the path of Zen. Work hard on meditation. Merely reading these stories will not help!