I sometimes write like this on having "goals in life" ... on the job, to loose some weight and head to the gym, to learn to play the guitar, to bring world peace ... all while being "Goalless". It is often confused that they are mutually exclusive. Nonetheless, one much have balance and not be a prisoner of one's goals and ambitions ...
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I like to speak of "goals without goals" or "goals while simultaneously dropping all need to attain".
Zennies can be very "goal oriented" people, as much as anyone! Dogen brought Soto Zen from China and built a great monastery! Buddha got up from under the Bodhi Tree and started teaching, walking all across India to do so. These were folks with goals, dreams and plans. It is just that Zen folks can hold "Goalless goals" ... seeing every step by step and inch by inch as itself a Total Arrival and Complete Culmination, both when we are sitting still and walking up up up the mountain. We see every instant as a prize, no matter whether our goals are achieved or crash in flames (but work diligently and sincerely at them nonetheless). So, I would say that we are "Goalless" folks, but not that we can't have goals.
We also have "not a thing in need of change", yet simultaneously some bad habits in ourselves that we need to change!
Both views as one. This is a good reminder at this time of year of "resolutions". I spoke about that too in one of the "we're always beginners" series ...
One can shed a few pounds around the waist, all why experiencing that there is not one thing to gain or lose! (Said as someone trying constantly to lose 30 pounds) ...
Zazen is rather like a diet in which we drop all thought of loss (or gain), and see that we are always 'perfect' just at whatever weight we are. If we 'cheat' and eat a big piece of chocolate cake ... that is just what is. If we are 'good' and eat lots of carrots and celery ... that is just what is. We drop all thought of a target, any need to be or look some way other than we do. Be at one with all, just as it is ... even one's rotundness. We are always a perfect Buddha ... even if we look like this ...
However, accepting that "the chocolate cake is just the chocolate cake" is not an excuse to eat chocolate cake! If fat and unhealthly, we are perfectly fat and unhealthy ... yet also can strive to lose and be healthy, AT ONCE! As strange as it sounds, we embrace that we are "perfect just as we are, right here and now, and there is nothing to lose, gain or change" even as ... simultaneously from another perspective ... there is much to change, bad habits to fix, much to gain or lose. ALL AT ONCE, AS ONE.
A ZEN DIET: No thought of gain or loss (even as we may cut or add the calories to get healthy) ... nothing to achieve, even as we stick with it. Nothing to measure, even as we check the scale.
Gassho, Jundo
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I like to speak of "goals without goals" or "goals while simultaneously dropping all need to attain".
Zennies can be very "goal oriented" people, as much as anyone! Dogen brought Soto Zen from China and built a great monastery! Buddha got up from under the Bodhi Tree and started teaching, walking all across India to do so. These were folks with goals, dreams and plans. It is just that Zen folks can hold "Goalless goals" ... seeing every step by step and inch by inch as itself a Total Arrival and Complete Culmination, both when we are sitting still and walking up up up the mountain. We see every instant as a prize, no matter whether our goals are achieved or crash in flames (but work diligently and sincerely at them nonetheless). So, I would say that we are "Goalless" folks, but not that we can't have goals.
We also have "not a thing in need of change", yet simultaneously some bad habits in ourselves that we need to change!
Both views as one. This is a good reminder at this time of year of "resolutions". I spoke about that too in one of the "we're always beginners" series ...
One can shed a few pounds around the waist, all why experiencing that there is not one thing to gain or lose! (Said as someone trying constantly to lose 30 pounds) ...
Zazen is rather like a diet in which we drop all thought of loss (or gain), and see that we are always 'perfect' just at whatever weight we are. If we 'cheat' and eat a big piece of chocolate cake ... that is just what is. If we are 'good' and eat lots of carrots and celery ... that is just what is. We drop all thought of a target, any need to be or look some way other than we do. Be at one with all, just as it is ... even one's rotundness. We are always a perfect Buddha ... even if we look like this ...
However, accepting that "the chocolate cake is just the chocolate cake" is not an excuse to eat chocolate cake! If fat and unhealthly, we are perfectly fat and unhealthy ... yet also can strive to lose and be healthy, AT ONCE! As strange as it sounds, we embrace that we are "perfect just as we are, right here and now, and there is nothing to lose, gain or change" even as ... simultaneously from another perspective ... there is much to change, bad habits to fix, much to gain or lose. ALL AT ONCE, AS ONE.
A ZEN DIET: No thought of gain or loss (even as we may cut or add the calories to get healthy) ... nothing to achieve, even as we stick with it. Nothing to measure, even as we check the scale.
Gassho, Jundo
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