See Nature and Become Buddha

To know that the world is entirely everything that is experienced is to turn toward our actual living reality. To see that without exception experiences come and go, they are unstable, is to comprehend the nature of reality. When an experience - a physical impression, an emotion, an idea - is grasped, that is where something imaginary is created, and within that imagined realm all sorts of craving and hatred can occur, thus with grasping comes dissatisfaction, and with dissatisfaction further pain ensues. To be free from all that trouble caused by grasping is to see the world for what it is: unstable experiences only imagined to be reliable, true and personal. As it is perfectly clear the moment you look at the ongoing experiences, there is nothing that endures, nothing reliable, consequently no matter what view seems true, it is necessarily construed, and no matter what feels yourself, it is necessarily an unreliable mental image.

Although it may be clear that the whole reality is only unreliable experiences, one can be shocked to inactivity and uncertainty about what to do then, or one can turn that realisation into a concept about the world and then easily forget about it the next moment. Actually, both are products of thoughts, one falling into the extreme of nothingness (not thinking of anything), and the other into the extreme of objectification (thinking of something). But thoughts come and go anyway, just like everything else. They are not the cause of dissatisfaction and suffering. Imagining them to be reliable and personal are the real culprits. But if you try to think of them as unreal, that's fighting against shadows.

Do not expect to get all the answers from words. Not because words are somehow deficient, but because life is too complicated and relying only on teachings is tiresome. Rather just see the nature of reality for yourself and then experiment. Be open and aware to whatever comes and goes. Know that what is imagined exists in a context, everything is always interdependent - i.e. one thought has innumerable thoughts behind it and can generate innumerable other thoughts. The meaning of a single thought depends on the meaning of all the other thoughts. Since no meaning can be found in only a single thought, many meaningless thoughts still make no meaning. Nevertheless, everything looks meaningful. That's the illusion of the imagined world.

So, relax and experiment. Life is just life. You already have many skills and know how to eat and sleep. Beyond that, you fall from one mental complication into another. Just as you don't put your hand in fire, so you should see that different thoughts lead to different experiences. Anyway, this is just one small post, not a treatise on everything. There are all sorts of resources to turn to for more words. Besides that, just see experiences for what they are, that way you stop making a fuss.

Zen Stages or No Stages

On one hand, there is just morality, meditation, and wisdom. On the other hand, it is a cardinal point of the Zen teachings that unlike the so called gradual path, it is a direct one.

If we just go and break down the immediate path to the bodhisattva way, that's basically calling Zen's bluff and bursting its bubble of fancy rhetoric. That is, in my view, perfectly fine, but then it should also be accepted that once the veneer is blown away the whole Zen set up is untenable, and the so called masters of present and past are nothing more than clowns.

Or we can take the message seriously and consider the possibility that there is more to Bodhidharma's arrival than entertaining words. If the mind transmission actually means something, this is not found in historical records, written words, meditation practice, or nice robes with cool titles. It is simply realising for oneself that all experiences are empty and unattainable. That insight is of course no different from what the sutras and the gradual path teaches. The question then is: how can one go directly instead of by stages? That's what all the Zen teachings are the answer for. Anyone can easily confirm that no bodily or mental occurrence remains for a moment, and it is only out of ignorance of this simple truth that one pointlessly attempts to hold on to something and experience dissatisfaction. So the mind is indeed originally pure and can never be tainted. Therefore, engaging in any kind of cultivation is not only meaningless but actually contra-productive and misleading.

What may be lacking to put a finger on the subitism of Zen is the general context of everyday life either in a monastery or as a lay person. That's a false impression texts (and films) can make, as inevitably the whole picture cannot be included into a few pages, not to mention all the things that were evident for contemporary readers. Basically, Zen is not a separate school or organisation, but exists as a (small) part of the larger East Asian tradition where monastics follow the precepts and perform rituals, and the laity visits the monastery to gain merit and hear some chanting. It's like high brow theology for everyday church goers and parish priests.