Goodness, Love, and the Dissolving Mind

The mind, lost in preference, clings to 'good' and 'bad,' 'friend' and 'enemy.' 

This is the disease.

But when the heart is pure, it sees the One-essence in all beings.

Then, love is not a command you follow; it is the natural light that shines when you no longer see a difference between the one who blesses and the one who curses.

Do good, not to gain a treasure, but because in the Inner Kingdom, there is no 'other' left to hate.

Reflection - The Sickness of 'Two'

(The sermon begins. Jesus the Zennist walks to the center, or perhaps just sits. He is silent for a moment, letting the room settle. He smiles gently, as if at a shared, secret joke.)

Peace be with you.

We are all so very tired. Aren’t we? (He pauses, looking around.)

I see it in your faces. You are exhausted. And why? Because you have the hardest job in the universe. You are the official, full-time, round-the-clock sorters of reality.

(He chuckles softly.)

From the moment you wake up, the work begins. The mind boots up and immediately starts its shift.

"This is a good day." "This is a bad day." "That person is a friend." "That one... an enemy." "My idea is right." "Your idea is wrong." "This I like." "This I hate."

You have a pile of labels, and you frantically run around trying to stick them on every single person, every thought, every feeling, every cloud in the sky. It is exhausting work. And I am here to tell you, it is the root of all your suffering.

This is the disease.

The text for our reflection today says it clearly: "The mind, lost in preference, clings to 'good' and 'bad,' 'friend' and 'enemy.' This is the disease."

This is the sickness of 'Two'.

The Hsin Hsin Ming, that beautiful poem of the Way, begins with this: "The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. Make the smallest distinction, however, and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth."

"Heaven and earth." You see? Even there, the mind creates a 'two'.

We live in a world that celebrates this disease. We build our entire identities on it. What is your social media feed but a shrine to your preferences? "I am the person who likes this political party, who eats this food, who follows this team." We gather with those who have the same set of preferences, and we call it "community." And then we stand on our little hill and shout at the other communities who have different preferences.

We are so busy judging the speck in our brother's eye, we have completely missed the two-by-four—the very plank of 'duality'—that is our entire way of seeing.

This is the disease. But our text does not leave us there. It gives us the cure. And the cure is not a new set of preferences. The cure is not to decide that "bad is now good" or "enemies are now friends." That is just re-arranging the labels.

No, the cure is to dissolve the labeling mind itself.

The text says: "But when the heart is pure, it sees the One-essence in all beings."

This is it. This is the entire teaching. When I said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," what did you think I meant?

Did you think "purity" meant you never had a "bad" thought? That you were a perfect, moral, un-stained little saint? That is just more labeling! That is the mind judging itself.

No, the "pure heart" is not a moral heart. It is a clear heart. It is a mind that is no longer 'clogged' with preference. It is a polished mirror. A heart is "pure" when it has stopped slicing reality into two.

And what does this pure, clear, undivided heart see?

It sees "God"? No. It sees the "One-essence in all beings." It sees that the "God" you were looking for is the one-essence. It is the "is-ness" of the friend and the "is-ness" of the enemy. It is the light in the one who blesses and the exact same light in the one who curses.

This is the Inner Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a place you go to. It is a way you see. And the price of admission is laying down your labels. It is giving up your favorite, most cherished possession: your opinion.

When you see this—not as an idea, but as a felt reality—the most curious thing happens. All that exhausting effort stops.

Our text says: "Then, love is not a command you follow; it is the natural light that shines when you no longer see a difference between the one who blesses and the one who curses."

This is the key to the Higher Ethic.

You have heard it said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." And I came and said, "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you."

And you have been trying so hard ever since.

(He mimes straining.)

"I... must... love... my enemy. I must!" You are gritting your teeth, trying to force love. It is like trying to staple a sunbeam to the floor. You cannot do it. It is impossible. You are trying to obey a command while your mind is still screaming "ENEMY! BAD! WRONG!"

You are trying to be a "good" person... which is just another preference.

The Zennist path is different. The Zennist path says: Stop trying. Stop forcing. Instead, just see.

See the disease. See the "slicer" in your own mind. And when you see it, it begins to lose its power. When the mind of preference quiets down, even for a moment, the "natural light" is simply... there. It was there all along.

Love is not something you do. Love is what you are when you stop doing everything else.

When you truly see the One-essence in the one who curses you, you don't have to "love" them. You are them. The "two" has collapsed. There is only the One.

This realization is not unique to this path. The One-essence speaks in all tongues.

In the mountains of Persia, the great Sufi poet Rumi, drunk on this same realization, wrote of a field. He said: "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about."

That field "beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing" is the "pure heart." It is the Great Way of no preferences. For the Sufi, the path is Ishq, or Divine Love. But this is not a sentimental love. It is a fire that burns away the false, separate self—it burns away the "slicer"—until all that remains is the One, the Beloved.

In the forests of India, the seers of the Upanishads whispered the great secret: Tat Tvam Asi. "Thou Art That." You are the One-essence. The Atman, the individual soul, is not separate from Brahman, the total reality. It is not that you see the One; it is that you are the One, pretending to be 'two' for a while.

The path of Advaita Vedanta is Jnana, or wisdom. It uses the mind as a scalpel to cut away every illusion of separation, to pierce the veil of maya, until the mind recognizes its own source.

The Sufi burns the veil with Love. The Vedantist cuts the veil with Wisdom. The Zennist... well, the Zennist just laughs at the veil, and it falls down.

(He smiles.)

All are pointing to the same moon. All are saying: The "disease" is the illusion of 'two'. The cure is the realization of 'One'.

How do we live this? In a world that is addicted to 'two'?

You live it right where you are. You live it in your office, when you are sure your colleague is an idiot. Tat Tvam Asi. That idiot... is you.

You live it in your family, when an old wound is opened and you are sure you are "right." Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing andrightdoing... there is a field.

You live it in your heart, when you are full of self-loathing for your "bad" thoughts. Like and dislike are the disease of the mind.

And yes, you live it when you look at the world. You turn on the news. You see it. You always see it. This week, last week, next week. You see the bombs. You hear the politicians screaming. You see the refugees fleeing.

And the mind screams. It screams "FRIEND!" and "ENEMY!" It screams "GOOD!" and "BAD!" It screams "JUSTICE!" and "MURDER!"

And this teaching... this teaching of the pure heart... it asks the most radical, the most difficult, the most terrifying thing.

It asks you to look.

It asks you to look at the one dropping the bomb, and the one the bomb falls upon. It asks you to look at the one filled with hate, and the one filled with fear.

And it asks you to find the one light. To see the One-essence trapped in a nightmare of its own making.

This is not approval. This is not apathy. This is not saying "it doesn't matter." It matters profoundly.

It is clarity.

It is the only starting point for true peace. You cannot build peace on a foundation of "us" versus "them." You cannot end war by hating the warmakers. That is just pouring gasoline on the fire.

Peace is the result of seeing clearly. Peace is the result of a pure heart.

This is why our text concludes: "Do good, not to gain a treasure, but because in the Inner Kingdom, there is no 'other' left to hate."

You see? You don't "do good" to get a reward. You don't "love your enemy" to earn treasure in heaven.

The treasure is the realization! The Kingdom is the seeing!

When the "other" vanishes, "doing good" is simply what happens. It is as natural as breathing. You don't help your "self." You just help. An arm moves to pull a splinter from a foot. Does the arm say, "I am doing such a good deed for this foot? I hope I get a reward"?

(He laughs.)

It's absurd. The arm and the foot are one body.

Your job is not to go out and "fix" the world. Your job is not to force yourself to love your enemies.

Your job... is to heal from the sickness of 'two'.

Your job is to sit down, be still, and watch the "slicer" in your own mind. Watch it label. Watch it prefer. Watch it cling. Watch it hate.

Don't judge it. Don't hate it. That's just more 'two'.

Just watch it. With compassion. With a little humor.

And in that clear, spacious, non-judgmental watching... the "pure heart" is revealed.

The labels fall away.

And the light that you are... shines.

(He is silent for a time.)

Go now. And stop sorting. There is no one left to hate.