Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization

There is a huge difference between adopting what Seung Sahn called a “Don’t Know Mind,” where he encouraged students to be dumb as a rock, and becoming totally passive, constantly resting in silence, doing nothing, going nowhere.  The latter is really a path of giving up, or denial of the problems and tribulations of the flesh, and more or less just waiting either for peace or for some sort of awakening.

Over and over my Zen teachers said the action is in the living, in daily life, work, family, problems and solutions. But Zen and Seung Sahn both emphasized diminishing thinking about the problems, ruminating, pondering, and instead, just act, and the first impulsive action is probably the correct one.

Then, over a period of time, doing this trains you to trust your instincts more than obsessive thinking.

This not to say that many situations  that most people encounter do not require a great deal of attention and thinking, but the training was aimed at acquiring a greater trust in instinct, one’s gut, rather than one’s head.

On the other hand, other spiritual paths emphasize increasing one’s trust in their hearts’ as opposed to their head.  These are the paths of love and compassion.

Once one has gained good access to one’s gut and heart, along with the a decreased dependence on thinking, one can use heart, gut, and head in an integrated, total way.

But, having access to Self, one remains curious about one's own beingness, as well as the world.  The complete Zen man enjoys problems, enjoys pains, enjoys exploration, life, family, etc.  He or she finds sheer joy in life, even the downsides.