The Zen Path: 111 Small Steps To Awaken Your Inner Buddha

In any moment, there are two doors available to you: the door of then, and the door of now. Throughout our time together, we will be swinging the balance from then to now, again and again. Which door do you choose?

The Zen mind is the mind of a complete beginner. In this session, we explore Shunryu Suzuki's famous "beginner's mind" quote, and establish the foundational spirit of Zen. Are you willing to be a beginner?

Let's expand on the beginner's mind and apply it to the experience of a familiar object. The object becomes no longer familiar when it is seen for the first time. It becomes no longer an object. It just is. When you are genuinely a beginner, everything just is. Can you allow life to be just as it is, right now?

Children are teachers of Zen mind. They are literal beginners. In this session, we take a lesson from my two-year-old son. When you become a complete beginner on yourself, who are you, what are you, really?

In this session, we experience a classic Zen story of Bodhidharma, the ancient figure known for bringing Buddhism from India to China. These stories offer the direct experience of awakening, as opposed to an abstracted intellectual understanding. When Bodhidharma says, "Show me your mind," how do you respond?

In today's session, I'll share a story from my own experience at a Zen monastery. These stories are intended more so to be felt than thought about, like the experience of a joke, in which the point is a spontaneous occurrence of laughter. The point here is a spontaneous occurrence of awakening.

Kimpu's punchline of awakening lingers with me to this day, and if it resonates with you, you might apply it to your own life. In any moment, there is something or someone here for you to fully engage with. Can you be here fully?

Here's a fundamental equation for life: Care = Quality. In this session, we'll explore this equation and relate it to a classic zen saying. When you let go of attachment to "there," and focus your energy "here," you get there effortlessly. Please note: This track may include some explicit language.

Let's take a lesson here from the monastery. It seems obvious and simple, but it's so easy to forget: each moment of your life is an opportunity to wake up. And the way you do all the small things has a direct impact on the way you do the big things. The small is implied in the big, and the big in the small. So whatever you do next, can you use it as an opportunity to awaken?

Here we introduce the teaching method of mondō, or dialogue, in which a student asks a Zen teacher a question, and the teacher offers a response of awakening. The awakening response is always unexpected, like the punchline of a joke. It redirects our attention to the obvious answer we so easily forget due to the noise of the thinking mind. The answer is right here.

If we are to wake up, we must break through the veil of normalcy. The ego thinks it knows what life is. It thinks it's on the way to somewhere else. In reality, it's always here, and it doesn't really know anything about life. I'll offer you a riddle at the end of this session. The answer is one that transcends the rules of language and points beyond the limits of the thinking mind.

Let's find the answer to the riddle from last time. And then let's explore a classic Zen symbol for the enlightened mind: the moon reflected on water. Can you allow the water of your mind to settle, and reflect the moon of truth clearly?

Let's expand on the vision of moon and water as a symbol for the enlightened mind. In this session, we'll experience another Zen mondō, a dialogue between a teacher and student, that illustrates how your awareness and the object of your awareness can live in perfect harmony

You can think of your inner Zen space as a circle that represents your awareness. Anything that happens is like a pulse of energy entering your circle. Can you wait and observe the energy clearly (i.e., reflect the moon of truth) before doing anything about it?

Let's begin the story of Siddhartha, the historical figure often referred to as the Buddha. But remember, there have been and will be many buddhas (awakened ones). I believe you are one of them. Can you see yourself in the story of Siddhartha?

Siddhartha's moment of intensified present moment awareness under the apple tree was an example of kenshō: a brief glimpse into the truth of existence. You have had such moments, and the more you return here, the more these moments will arise.

Siddhartha's witnessing of sickness, old age, and death, can be described as a boundary experience. In existential psychology, a boundary experience is a moment of feeling the boundary between life and death. Such experiences, if we don't run from them, present great opportunities to truly start living.

Siddhartha became consumed by the question of what lies beyond the suffering of sickness, old age, and death. In this session, he witnesses a fourth sight that presents a possible answer to his question, and leads him to make a drastic change. What did he see?

Let's forget story for a moment, and come back to the direct immediate experience of presence. Here we will consider two basic versions of self: the story self and the present self. In any moment, these two are available. I encourage you to choose the present self whenever you can remember.

Here we return to the story of Siddhartha as he leaves his princely life and learns the way of yoga in the forest. The art form of yoga can be understood a reunion between individual self and universal self. Are you ready to reunite?

As Siddhartha exhausted his efforts to achieve enlightenment, he recalled an experience from childhood that led to his next step. There was nothing more to do than to stop doing anything. What happens when you stop doing anything?

Here we introduce Mara, who is the embodiment of the ego. As Siddhartha approached enlightenment, he faced his own version of Mara, his own ego. The ego does not want you to awaken, understandably so, because awakening means the end of the ego's authority.

Here we experience Siddhartha's last move in response to Mara's efforts to distract him from awakening. The response is incredibly powerful and incredibly simple. In any moment, of stress, anxiety, anger, conflict, or whatever it might be, you can embody this same powerful response.

At this point in the story, Siddhartha became the Buddha. Here we explore buddha mind. Buddha means "one who is awake." This is your natural state of mind that comes to the surface when you allow it to do so. Time to wake up.

Here we explore something I like to call "the current." You could also call this "the dharma." When you let yourself be the current, you remove the tension of who you think you should be, and become the relaxation of who you are.

Here let's explore a story from my own life, from a college drawing class. The assignment was to accurately draw a chair. But I learned that the real task was to accurately see the chair. In any moment, can you accurately experience the present moment as if attempting to draw it?

Let's continue the story of drawing a chair, as it relates to understanding truth. The full truth can never be known from one perspective. But one perspective can serve as an entry point into the full truth, if you are willing to not hold so tightly to your own perspective.

Let's explore the Buddha's 4 Noble Truths, his diagnosis and treatment plan for the human condition. Here we will begin with the first two truths, comprising his diagnosis, before moving into his prognosis and treatment plan in the next session.

Here we complete the 4 Noble Truths and explore the Buddha's prognosis and treatment plan for the human condition. He says there is an end to suffering, and there is a path that leads to this end. We are on this path.

Here we explore the root cause of all suffering: attachment to self. The barrier to realizing who you truly are is the feeling that there is a you to realize who you are. This is a sticky problem, but it is also quite simple to solve. Just come back here, and stay here.

The Buddha said, "This arising, that arises - this subsiding, that subsides." When we are attached to self, suffering is the natural symptom. When we release attachment to self, this symptom naturally subsides. This is the whole thing.

Let's explore the meaning of samsāra and nirvāna. When we remain attached to separateness, we live in the dreamworld of samsāra. When we transcend the attachment, we wake up and open the door to nirvāna: the end of suffering. Easier said than done.

Here's a fundamental distinction between two ways of being: skillful and unskillful. To act unskillfully is to act based on the false assumption of separateness. To act skillfully is to act based on the truth. Can you commit to living in a skillful way?

Let's feel into the stream of consciousness and purify the stream. When the stream is purified, we can stop trying to become something we are not, like a flower giving up its efforts to become a butterfly. Then it is free to be a flower.

Let's explore the practice of present speech. This is one way of practicing living not from the story of you, but from the present moment. In this session, I share story from the monastery in which the roshi asks us, "Can you say a true word?"

It might seem that all forms of desire are bad or wrong, but here we explore a form of virtuous desire. Let's use the Buddha's distinction between two forms of desire: trishna and virya. Trishna is desire of the ego dream. Virya is desire to awaken from the dream.

This session represents the one-third mark of our time together. So let's highlight this benchmark with a foundational Zen practice. Here we introduce and explore the practice of zazen: sitting Zen practice.

Let's continue to explore the practice of zazen and introduce micro-zen, which will become a central element for the remainder of this course. Micro-zen refers to little moments of pausing, resetting, and reopening throughout the day.

The Buddha described his teachings as like a "finger pointing at the moon." Let's not get caught only looking at the finger. The finger is pointing our attention in a certain direction. Here, let's shift our attention from the finger to where the finger is pointing: wordless present moment awareness.

Let's experience micro-zen together. Moving forward, our sessions will contain pockets of this micro-zen practice to interrupt the momentum of the thinking mind. I'd like to emphasize that these little moments of pausing, if taken sincerely, have more to offer than all of my words combined.

There is a difference between the energy of fixing and of healing. To fix implies that something is broken, whereas to heal is to allow the body to recover its natural healthy wholeness. There is nothing to fix, because nothing is broken. When you stop trying to fix it, the self heals itself, like the body healing a cut when you stop scratching at it.

Over the next few sessions, let's experience the natural healing of some classic Zen stories. Here, we receive the story of the empty cup. When your mind is full of opinions and speculations, your cup is already full and is unable to receive anything new. When you empty your cup, you are filled with brand new reality.

You are the professor and you are the Zen master. The expert and the beginner. Here, let's just slow down for a minute, empty our cups, and return to beginner's mind. You cannot know who you are, but you can be who you are.

Here we experience another classic Zen story, an encounter between two students and a teacher, discussing the nature of a flag waving in the wind. The students ask the teacher, "Does the flag move or the wind move?" How do you answer?

Let's introduce a foundational concept: The Dharma Eye. This is the eye that experiences reality directly. It is not separate from reality. In this session, we also experience another classic Zen story.

Let's begin to experience the story of the Buddha's final sermon, sometimes referred to as The Flower Sermon. His students might have expected some profound wisdom in the form of words, but the Buddha offered something different.

Here we complete the story from last time, and begin to explore Zen koan practice. Koans are little verbal devices given from teacher to student in order to point the student beyond the limitations of intellectual understanding and language. We will experiment with several koans throughout the course.

The point of a koan, such as the story of the flower, is to be without a point. If everything must have a point, then we become stuck in an endless cycle of pointing somewhere other than here. Koans point the mind back here, into the pointless point.

Here's an old story that doesn't come from traditional Zen, but it is still zen, and it has the spirit of a koan. Really anything can be a koan if considered sincerely. In this story, the teacher asks the student to find "the right spot" on the porch. Do you know what he was asking for?

There's a Chinese term, xin, that means something like "heart-mind." In this course, we are moving our center of gravity down from the head and into the heart. Another word for this is "the hara," the physical center of the body in the lower belly. When you live from the heart-mind, there is a powerful source of energy waiting to be expressed.

Here we experience a classic Zen story. The student desperately wants to become enlightened as fast as possible. He asks the teacher how much longer he must wait if he tries harder than any student ever has. Let's see how the teacher responds.

Something happened in my backyard the other day, and I'd like to share it with you. Here we recall the distinction between trishna and virya. When the fist is tightly closed, it cannot receive anything. In order to receive a gift, your hand must be open.

Let's explore the concept of a "stone buddha." In the pursuit of Zen practice, there is the possibility of losing touch with and becoming detached from your humanity. But this would be, in a sense, to turn to stone. We are practicing in order to become living buddhas. Not detached from life, but rather non-attached to life.

Each session of this course, and each day of life, can be considered as a mountain. The mountain of the course at large, and life at large, might seem insurmountable. But the mountain of this session, and of this day, can and will be climbed completely. And, in truth, there is only ever this session, this day, this moment.

As we approach the halfway point of this course, let's feel the momentum of a rising wave just before it begins to fall, and experience the sensation of stillness in between rising and falling. We also further explore the idea of emptying the ocean with a spoon.

Now, as our wave begins to fall into the second half of this course, let's experience a foundational quote regarding the experience of enlightenment from Thich Nhat Hanh: "Enlightenment is when a wave realizes it is the ocean." Can you let your wave self be the ocean?

Now into the second half, let's experience a classic, maybe THE classic, Zen koan: Mu. The question goes, "Does a dog have buddha nature?" And Joshu responds, "Mu." The word mu can be understood as an all-encompassing negation beyond the duality of yes-or-no. What did Joshu mean with this Mu?

Let's stay with Mu. Don't try to understand it intellectually. See if you can just feel it. This is the essence of koan practice. Let Mu become the object of your attention until the point at which you merge with Mu, and there is no you separate from Mu. This is the pointless point.

Let's stay with Mu a bit longer. You could stay with Mu for the rest of your life. When you stay with anything for long enough, it unravels into the space beyond it as something separate from you. It unravels into the underlying current that connects everyone and everything.

Let's return to the monastery and experience the bridge that must be crossed to enter it. This bridge can be thought of as the bridge between head and heart. It extends not outward, but inward. Will you cross the bridge?

We all contain the seeds of good and bad, love and hate, presence and distraction. The difference between which seeds grow and flourish, and which don't, is naturally determined by which seeds you feed. So which seeds are you feeding in daily life?

The Dharma Eye not only sees, but hears, feels, tastes, and smells, and it only does so in the timeless present moment. When I ask if you can hear me, I'm referring to hearing with the Dharma Eye. In this way, what I really mean is, "Can you HERE me?" In this session, I offer a chant from back at the monastery. Can you here me?

I find the permission to just be to be the most relieving feeling. Sometimes it helps to be given this permission by someone else. But a part of us does not want to accept this permission. In this session, I offer you this permission. do you accept it?

Let's continue with this permission to just be, exactly as you are. Here we practice a statement, "I am." I am not this or that. But simply, I am. And everything simply is. There is a certain power and confidence in this statement when fully embodied.

Here I'll begin to share an awakening experience from back at the monastery that begins with intense physical and emotional pain. This pain, if we don't run from it, may just be the very key to awakening.

Let's continue the story of intense pain from back at the monastery, and recall the feeling of the outer circle. This circle is the mind inverted, and it feels pain when the world out there is trying to get in here. What happens when you let the world, the universe, in?

Here we continue the story of pain, and find out what happened when there was no more resistance left to give. Resist and suffer, or accept and adapt. Or, do nothing, and awaken to reality. When the mind becomes un-inverted, it remembers it is naturally a buddha - awake.

Here we explore the Buddhist concept of shunyata, the emptiness beneath all form. When we enter this empty space, we access what I like to call "spiritual gravity." This gravity moves upward and outward when we let go of being in control. It is the source of all pure love and creation.

The innocent birds acted as a hammer that broke open my separate self and released a fountain of spiritual of gravity. This gravitational force can move you, when you let it. And in this way, life becomes effortless.

The Buddha once said, "Be a light unto yourself." Remember, these sessions are merely a finger pointing at the moon. The "moon" is always simply here. It is the present moment, whatever it might be full of. Do you have the will to stop looking away from the pure present moment?

Here let's experience doing not doing. When you let go of being in control of what's happening, life still happens. When you let go of holding yourself together, you are still held together. Then, all the effort that had previously been exerted to hold yourself together is freed for the enjoyment and expression of life.

Let's integrate a principle from Taoism, known as "wu wei." Literally this means "not doing" or "action by inaction." A more practical translation might be "acting without forcing." The Zen Path leads us into this form of action. When we walk this path, our doing comes from being.

Here let's introduce a variation of zazen that some consider the highest form of meditation: shikantaza. Literally this means, "just sitting." You might've heard the saying, "Don't just do something, sit there." Or rather, sit here. When you sit here for long enough, the water of mind naturally settles, and the truth is revealed.

Let's explore the meaning of the word Tathāgata: one who comes from thusness. Said differently, one who comes from here. As we enter the two-thirds mark of the course, I will leave you for the first time since creating these sessions daily. I will be visiting the monastery tomorrow, and when I return, my intention is to return not from there, but from here.

Here's an unexpected twist as it relates to my monastery visit. In this session, we explore an old Buddhist concept that can be referred to as "the second arrow." You cannot control the first arrow, but you can choose whether or not to shoot the second. Either resist and suffer, or accept and adapt.

Here we experience an old Zen story that offers a possible distinction between heaven and hell, not in the afterlife, but right now. In any moment, the experience of either heaven or hell is available, depending on your state of mind.

Here's another way of considering this distinction between heaven and hell. You are either a prism or a prison. The prison of separateness offers the feeling of control and familiarity. But at what cost? Can you let yourself be a prism?

Let's explore the concept of karma as it applies to this distinction between heaven and hell, prism and prison. Karma can be thought of as the energy of action. When you hold onto actions of the past and possible future, you create an energetic suit of karma that weighs you down and separates you from the world.

Let's expand into a metaphor I frequently use with therapy clients. The karma suit can be thought of as like a spacesuit. It has served to help you breathe in your formative environment, but now it is what suffocates you. Can you breathe the open air of reality, directly?

As we enter the 80s, we return to the Buddha's Eightfold Path. First, we'll revisit the Four Noble Truths and prepare ourselves to receive each element of the Eightfold Path over the next eight sessions.

Let's begin the Buddha's Eightfold path with the first ingredient: Right Understanding. We will experience this ingredient through an old Zen mōndo, a dialogue between teacher and student. What is the background of the background?

The first ingredient, Right Understanding, feeds all other ingredients. Now into the second ingredient of the Eightfold Path: Right Purpose. Let's recall the Buddha's distinction between trishna and virya. These are two types of purpose, one based on there and one based on here. Can your main purpose be to live from here, no matter what?

Now the third ingredient: Right Speech. This refers both to spoken and written communication. Here, instead of micro-zen, I offer a shared practice to help experiment with Right Speech. Can you speak from the present moment? Can you say a true word?

Here I'll share my poem from last time, my attempt to express Right Speech, and then we'll explore the fourth ingredient of the Eightfold Path: Right Action. Let's use another quote from Thich Nhat Hanh to help us understand this ingredient. Can your doing come from the ground of being?

Let's begin with an exploration of the difference between "good karma" and "bad karma." Then, Right Action brings us into the next ingredient, which is an extension of Right Action: Right Occupation. Can your work be more of an expression of Buddha than of Mara?

Now into the sixth ingredient: Right Effort. This is the effort to care more for this one step than for your ultimate destination, in everything you think, say, and do. This effort is quite simple, but it requires constant practice.

Now, the seventh ingredient: Right Attention. Let's experience this one with an old Zen story. The student came looking for something, and the teacher redirected the student's attention back to what is already here. This redirection of attention ultimately led the student to find what they'd been looking for.

Here we arrive at the final ingredient of the Eightfold Path: Right Meditation. While the first ingredient, Right Understanding, feeds all the others, Right Meditation is what feeds Right Understanding.

Let's stay with Right Meditation a bit longer. The Buddha was once asked, "What have you gained through meditation?" And he responded, "Nothing at all. The good of meditation is in what you lose." When you lose the debris of habitual self-conscious thinking, you approach the state of mind known as samādhi.

The Eightfold Path ultimately leads to what you might call "enlightenment." First, let's explore the meditative progression of mind states that builds toward the experience of enlightenment. Then, let's throw out all concepts as we transition into the final chapter of this course.

Now as we enter the final portion of our time together, I'd like to view each of the remaining steps as like individual mala beads. Each one simply a reminder of the underlying oneness, like the Buddha's finger pointing at the moon. Let's forget the finger, and just look.

You cannot awaken one who is awake. But you can remember you are already awake. The remaining mala beads are reminders of your awaken self. In this reminder, let's experience an old Zen saying: "When you reach the other shore, you realize there is no other shore."

Here we experience an old Zen koan: "What was your original face from before your parents were born?" Don't try to figure it out intellectually. Remember, koans point us back to the pointless point, the center out of which all pointing occurs.

Here we experience a mala bead that comes not from traditional Zen, but it is still zen. This one comes to us from Pablo Picasso. The great artists know zen, whether or not they know that they know. Maybe it's better to not know? Here's this one: "Art is a lie that makes us realize truth."

This mala bead brings us a saying from the old Zen master Dogen, who was central in popularizing the practice of shikantaza. Here's the saying: "To know yourself is to forget yourself, and to forget yourself is to be awakened by all things."

Here we receive a Zen story of awakening through everyday life. When you forget the you who is looking for enlightenment, and just focus on living everyday life, enlightenment might just find you. This is what happened to Kyogen in this classic Zen story.

This mala bead brings us a poem from WS Merwin. Not necessarily traditional Zen, though Merwin was a Zen practictioner, but still very much zen. The question this poem asks us is as follows: "Are you ready this time?"

Here we have an old Zen mōndo, that references two of our old friends, Joshu and Bodhidharma. Remember that Bodhidharma was known to have brought Buddhism from India to China, where Zen was born. In the mōndo, the student asks Joshu, "Why did Bodhidharma come to China?" Let's experiences Joshu's redirection of the question from then-and-there back to here-and-now.

This reminder comes in the form of a classic Zen story. In the story, a monk chooses to meditate in the middle of a lake in order to remove all distractions from his practice. Even there, distraction finds him. Or is it a distraction?

Here we explore the Buddhist 3 Poisions, the roots of all negative states of mind: 1) Attachment; 2) Aversion; and 3) Ignorance. Along The Zen Path, we purify and transform these poisons into: 1) Generosity; 2) Compassion; and 3) Wisdom. Then, this mala bead comes to us from Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher. He wrote these words in his classic text, "Meditations." Here are the words: "None can do me harm."

I first heard these words from a resident at the monastery years ago. Then I stumbled on the words again while reading a classic text by Seung Sahn titled Affirming Faith in Mind. Here are the words: "The Great Way is not complicated - just don't have preferences." How do you receive these words?

This one comes from a story about the Abstract Expressionist painter, Agnes Martin. Not Zen, but still zen. In the story, Agnes has an interaction with a young girl concerning the beauty of a rose. Where does the beauty come from?

In this mala bead, we experience a classic Zen story attributed to the historical Buddha. It's a sort of parable for human life, but don't try to make intellectual sense of it. Just feel it. The meaning of the story is in the feeling. How sweet!

Here we have a saying from the Dzogchen Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The practice of Dzogchen is aimed at directly discovering the primordial state of being, that has always been here and will always be here. Here's the saying: "What good is the description of the taste of honey while your mouth is full of it?"

In this mala bead, we experience a saying from Chuang Tzu, a central figure of Taoism. If Buddhism is Zen's father, Taoism might be its mother. Chuang Tzu offers us a paradoxical definition of "happiness." All truth expressed in words appears paradoxical. How does his definition feel to you?

This mala bead comes in the form of words from author Toni Morrison, who reminds us that we need not live by the rules we have inherited. Here are the words: "Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined."

Thought it need not be defined, and ultimately cannot be defined, if we must define Buddhism, here's a possible definition offered by the historical Buddha: 1) Avoid Evil; 2) Cultivate the Good; and 3) Purify Your Mind.

Here we we receive a mala bead from the mind of our old friend, Shunryu Suzuki - the beginner's mind. The words articulate the meaning of true calmness: "It is easy to have calmness in inactivity. It is hard to have calmness in activity. Calmness in activity is true calmness."

The last three sessions are symbolic of our entire time together. One hundred and eleven. 1-1-1. Our last three mala beads will consist of the Three Jewels of Buddhism: 1) The Buddha; 2) The Dharma; and 3) The Sangha. In this session, let's experience the first jewel: The Buddha.

Now onto the penultimate mala bead, and the second Jewel of Buddhism: The Dharma. Here I offer my own perspective of the dharma with a simple story from this past weekend. The dharma is everywhere and everything, so we really can't help but talk about it no matter what we're saying.

So let's complete this round of The Zen Path with the third Jewel of Buddhism: The Sangha. This word sangha means something like "spiritual community." The fact that you have made it here means you are part of my sangha, and I am part of yours. Here I'll tell you one last simple story from the monastery representative of our shared experience of The Zen Path. And I'll leave you with a message from a very special member of my family sangha.