I feel that a common (and tremendous) error made by Soto Zen folks in discussing "goallessness" is to take this as an "either/or" proposition: That either we have goals or we do not have goals. Why do people think in such a bifurcated way??? Another error for some folks is to think that it is only a matter of holding goals lightly, not realizing that we need to drop all goals thoroughly and completely (even as we keep our goals as human beings who need to get out of bed, get 'er done and live!)
What people often miss is that it is possible to encounter and live reality both ways as one at once:
It is possible to have goals (held lightly, not as strangling chains) AND to thoroughly drop ALL goals AT ONCE ... as if encountering life as two sides of a no sided coin: Goals-Without-Goals, "Goalless Goals." This is as if encountering life with two eyes, one eye of ordinary human goals held gently and one eye totally free of all goals ... with both eyes open at once a Buddha's Wise Eye!
Then, one can go here and there, planning and doing what needs to be done in life AND simultaneously know deep in the marrow of the bones that there is no place to go, nothing in need of doing, no lack to fill AT ONCE. The Buddha and Dogen obviously had plans and goals, such as traveling here and there teaching, building Sanghas, getting dressed in the morning. Yet the Buddha, sitting under that growing tree, seeing the Morning Star just shining (do a tree or a star have mental goals, or do they just sprout and shine?) realized that there was nothing more in need of doing ... so he promptly got up off is ass, made a plan of where to head and set to work doing!
Attaining such a state of non-attaining and goallessness is the attaining-non-attaining of a wonderful treasure! In Zazen, one drops all goals but sitting itself, with sitting the realization of sitting ... then we get up off the cushion, and get back to the races!
Yes, it is possible to encounter and live at once from both points of viewless view:
First, nothing lacking whatsoever, nothing to attain at all, nothing to do and no separate beings to do it
, all whole and thoroughly complete, everything just as it is; Second, places to go, people to see, issues to resolve, food to grow, stomachs to fill, pants to put on, Global Warning to end, kids to get to school etc. etc.Now, what happens when these two ways are held at once as one???
Not one, not two ... then, for example, one finds places to go yet one is always at home, people to see yet no separate people in wholeness thus no seer and no seen in seeing, problems to solve yet no problems at all etc. etc.
I am not sure why so many Soto folks miss this point. Hmmm. My goal is to help people understand this better.
Gassho, Jundo
STLah
sorry to run long, not my goal
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