SO TO ZEN - Shasta Abbey

90 Sōtō Zenfor a minute; although you face him all day, you have not facedhim for a moment,Ó ÒIf you discard the Wonderful Practice,you are filled with the Original Enlightenment. When you shedoff the Original Enlightenment, the Wonderful Practice is performedthroughout your entire bodyÓ and other such phrasesare innumerable. Such paradoxes force the person for whomthey are intended to realize the limitations of logic and to find away out of the impasse. In terms of existentialism, mankind isdriven to a certain boundary (Ger. Grenzsituation) and thenbreaks through it to find his Real Self. According to the April18th issue of Time, an artist named Ray did an abstract portraitof Dr. Suzuki which was later exhibited in the Willard Gallery.When Dr. Suzuki visited the gallery to view his portrait, Rayasked him, ÒDo you understand it?Ó Dr. Suzuki replied in thenegative, whereupon Ray remarked, ÒWhen you say you donÕtknow, then you know.Ó This is really a paradox! Experience isthe instantaneous grasping of things inwardly in their entirety.We cannot explain that which is not experienced. Experiencemeans knowing things directly. Religion is the way to live byfreeing oneself from ego. Such experience can never beexpressed in logic. The most suitable way of expression is theparadox which transcends all contradictions. Jung says: ÒThespiritual concept necessary for Zen cannot be found in the Westbecause Zen and its method of cultivation can exist only on thefoundation of Buddhist culture.Ó This view is certainly correct.