Shunryu Suzuki states in his book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind the following: “In the beginners mind there are many possibilities, but in the experts there are few.” What does this tell us? An expert is someone that actually doesn’t have a clue that they don’t know. A beginner already knows they do not know anything, so this person can find anything. An eminent teacher once said, “We all have a choice in this life. We can be the experts and not know we don’t know, or we can know we don’t know-and become Buddha.” So which do you want? Typically in society we side with the experts-they provide us with a sense of security. But experts are illusory, they know an awful lot about their own particular area of “expertise.” But anything that does not line up with what this sort of person already knows, they simply discount. A beginner doesn’t do that. Everything that comes is for a beginner the truth, there is absolutely nothing to affirm or deny. They simply listen. They simply will look. This is not special at all. The Buddha said in The Diamond Sutra that throughout all of his teachings, he never once uttered a single word. What does this mean? This means understanding is in your head, the Buddha didn’t teach understanding. The Buddha taught action. The Buddha was asking us, “What are you doing?” The sun doesn’t talk to us. It doesn’t utter words. So then what are we left with? Back to that question again, “Who am I?” The Buddha’s teachings make for great guardrails on the highway. If for some reason we stray from the center road they can save our lives. But even guardrails sometimes break. So the Buddha’s teachings cannot really save us at all. The Buddha cannot answer that, “Who am I?” So who is the Buddha? The Dharma is the Dharma. Somewhere in our backyards there is a gold bar buried. Maybe it’s 10 feet down, maybe it is two thousand feet down-but it’s there! It is up to each one of us to find that gold bar in our backyards. The Buddha’s Dharma makes for a very good treasure map. But where is your shovel? You cannot hire help on this dig. Some people can stand by saying perhaps, “I think you are close to the gold bar. You are only feet away.” But keep digging, even they don’t know! Right now as you read this, you have already found your original nature, though maybe you don’t know that. The gold bar is everywhere, but is hidden in the form of trees, lakes, cancer patients, and junkyards. Understanding you are here to help all beings; that this is your job as much as your 9 to 5 routine Monday through Friday-means you understand the marrow of Zen practice. Without that you really don’t understand anything. In this moment if you are really reading this and your mind is truly present, then you are with your true self. You have “found” your original nature, though to most it remains more or less hidden. Why is that? Because people seldom are doing things and really do them, on the outside perhaps they seem to be gardening. But on the inside they don’t like gardening, or are busy doing paperwork, worrying about their marriage. But anytime you garden, and you really garden, you understand Zen practice. And you are with your true self. But again this understanding means absolutely nothing without the most important realization. Bodhisattva action, helping all sentient beings.
