There's an old saying that goes,
Zen is like soap.
First you wash with it,
And then you wash it off.
In spiritual practice or presence practice,
Mindfulness practice,
It's all like this.
You do it again and again,
Not as a means of getting to a place where you're permanently clean,
But just as a daily hygiene process.
You will get dirty again,
The ego will accumulate attachment,
Judgments,
And then you can clean the mind again.
Just like taking a shower every day,
You will accumulate dirt and sweat,
And that's just a byproduct of your action in the world.
And then you can clean the mind again.
Zen is like soap.
First you wash with it,
And then you wash it off.
You wash it off too because you don't keep the soap on you.
You don't deify the soap,
You don't place the soap on an altar,
Because then it's not really serving its purpose,
It's there to help clean you,
You use it,
And then you wash it off.
So I hope this was helpful or maybe just interesting for you in some way.
I do have an entire course on Zen if that interests you,
It's called The Zen Path.
And thank you for your time.
I hope you feel my encouragement to just keep practicing,
Just keep maintaining this mental hygiene every day,
Again and again.
But it's really only ever just this one time.
Time to wake up.
