Part of the natural human condition is to be subject to suffering - to pain, loss, anxiety, sorrow, as well as times of joy, delight and fulfillment. However, when happiness we comes to want to hold onto it, insure it will remain with us forever. When painful times come we want to push them away, numb ourselves, withdraw. But this is not the way of Zen. From the Zen point of view we must learn how to hold all of life in the palm of our hands.

Zen practice teaches that the way in which we receive our sorrows, the way in which we understand what is happening and respond to anxiety, makes the entire difference between heaven and hell. What can turn into a long, convoluted time of anguish or depression can also be experienced differently, so that the pain we feel is not compounded and intensified, but instead becomes an accompaniment to a purposeful day.

“Laura, a mother in her mid-forties woke up one day to find herself feeling ill. She initially discounted it as a passing virus, but weeks passed and her moods became uncontrollable, anxiety, and depression appeared along with other symptoms which evolved. She was put on medication and tried as many kinds of treatment as she could find, acupuncture, herbs, etc. Yet her condition remained unchanged.

One afternoon a friend offered to teach her Zen meditation. She felt she had nothing to lose and followed the basic instructions. “It felt good,” Laura said, “but not spectacular. Bells didn’t go off.” Nevertheless, she felt somewhat more balanced and light-hearted and was drawn back to the meditation cushion again. Soon she decided to spend time sitting regularly each day.

Within six months Laura was off medication, in balance and felt refreshed and alive as she greeted each day. When asked about Zen, she says simply, “I don’t know exactly what happened, but it has simply saved my life.”

When the Buddha was asked who he was, he said he was a doctor coming to cure the ills of the world. He said we have all been shot with poison arrows, (or afflictions, delusions) and he had come to show us how to pull the poison arrows out. He did not say he would pull it out for us. In Zen practice we do not depend on others, but learn instead who we really are, how to connect with our intrinsic strength and wisdom and pull our own poison arrows out. A well known Zen saying advises, “Don’t put a head on your head. What is wrong with your own head anyway?”

As we practice we patiently remove one poison arrow after the next. We do not seek to explain the cause of each arrow, we do not dwell upon one problem after another, instead we go to the root of our suffering and pull it out.

But what exactly is the medicine Laura is receiving? In order to understand this better, it is necessary to see how Zen practice works, the effects it has upon mind and spirit, how it is radically different from the ways in which we usually respond.

Zen practice is the practice of honoring and making friends with all of ourselves, all of life, including our suffering. A famous saying in Zen is:

“To separate what we like from what we dislike is the disease of mind.”

Sosan

This teaches that we do not reject one part of ourselves or our experience. We do not say this experience is good and that one is bad, I hate this and love that. I will seek this and turn away from that. This very way of life itself is the illness. It causes us to split both from ourselves and our lives.

As we sit on the cushion we experience whatever arises. When pain comes, we receive that. (We do not question, analyze or dwell upon it, simply receive what comes to us.) When it is time for pain to dissolve, we allow it to go. When joy comes, we let it in. Then we give thanks for it all.

As we practice we learn how to thoroughly experience what is happening moment by moment, and soon realize that if we are completely with each moment, the next breath will bring something new. When we do not reject our suffering, or add anything to it, pain is simply pain. It is what we add to it that turns it into suffering, makes it thick and solid, so that it can’t subside.

Pain is not bad. It is simply pain. When we avoid pain, it turns into suffering. There is an enormous difference between pain and suffering. Pain often cannot be avoided. Suffering can. As we learn the difference between them, many fears, anxieties and sorrows subside. In the simple receiving, pain transforms into something quite different and an amazing strength arises within.

In Zen practice we do not label ourselves patients, crazy or sick. We do not label ourselves anything. The labeling only compounds the problem. The Buddha said that all suffering is caused by the three poisons that all of us contain - greed, anger and delusion. Rather than live them out, build them up, identify with them or struggle against them we see them for what they are and let them go.

Our monkey mind may make its objections. Our monkey mind reacts to everything, spins out endless chatter, explanations and mental machinations (delusions) that we usually take as true. Our monkey mind enjoys and seeks these poisons as if they were honey itself.

As awareness increases our Buddha Nature (divine nature), our potential for health, clarity and love matures and we become able to discern the difference between poison and medicine. We are then able to be aware of the beauty, joy and wonder of all life. We can laugh when we’re happy and cry when we’re sad. We become one with the sound of the birds, the touch of a friend, the heat of summer, the loss of a dream, the new buds of spring - whatever comes.

This open, direct experience will bring us all the healing, joy and strength we need for everything. Try this wonderful practice, even once. As you do you will recover a day that may have been lost to you.

“This day will not come again,
Each minute is a priceless gem.”

In the midst of speaking, working, cleaning or any other activity, stop a moment. Pay attention to where you are, and to your breathing. Actively take your attention back from the external world and follow your breath. Do this at least three times a day.

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