Post #620

LEVELS OF PRACTICE One time I was speaking with a Zen teacher from Korea who was checking out my zazen practice. He asked, "What is your meditation practice?" I said, "Letting go of thought, letting go of anything other than the present experience." He said, "After you let go, then what?" I said, "Something else comes up, some thought of past or future, so I let go again." "Then what?" he asked. "I let go again, and again, and again." The teacher said, “If you just keep letting go like that for years and years, how will this ever cut through the root of birth and death, basic delusion? It's like putting a rock on top of living grass. If you take the rock off, the grass just pops back up. It's still alive under the rock, since the root has not been cut. How could simply letting go ever cut the root?” This was disturbing to hear, since I had been practicing this way for a long time, but his point could not be denied. - Kokyo Henkel