The Joy of the Single Circle: Beyond Like and Dislike

A Reflection from Jesus the Zennist

Friends, seekers, and fellow travelers on the Way, I welcome you to this sacred moment. Look at your life, right now, as a vast, winding river. What is the single, most constant current that drives it? It is the search for Joy and Happiness.

It is such a beautifully, wonderfully human quest. Every goal we set, every treasure we hoard, every journey we begin—from the massive career change to the humble cup of morning tea—it all orbits the central sun of feeling good. Even religion, as our text suggests, is fundamentally about arriving at a place of transcendental joy, a state of bliss beyond any suffering, whether you call it Nirvana, Ananda, or the Inner Kingdom.

But here’s the joke we keep playing on ourselves, the old human comedy: We are seeking a single, unified state of ultimate bliss, but we approach it with a mind that is constantly, relentlessly, and tirelessly obsessed with duality.

The Paradox of the Two Circles

When we look at reality, our mind draws two distinct circles. There is the circle of "My Life," and the circle of "Everything Else." There is the circle of "What I Like," and the circle of "What I Don’t Like."

This is the very essence of the problem that Jesus the Zennist addresses. You are searching for unconditional happiness, but you are building your entire world on conditional preferences. You want a joy that never ends, yet you are chasing pleasures that, by their very nature, must end and turn into their opposite.

The spiritual truth, the vision of the merged circles, is rooted in The Way of Non-Preference. Our texts say it with breathtaking clarity, echoing across mountains and centuries: “The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. Let go of longing and aversion, and it reveals itself. Make the smallest distinction, however, and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth.”

Think about that. It’s not just about the big things, is it? It’s about being stuck in traffic and labeling it bad. It’s about a conversation going slightly off script and instantly labeling it wrong. Every time we split the unified reality into a simple 'like' or 'dislike,' we create a tiny, momentary hell for ourselves. This continuous judging is the real “disease of the mind.” It’s a self-inflicted fever, a constant mental flu that keeps us running ragged in the endless pursuit of the next 'good' feeling.

The Inner Kingdom and Self-Cessation

This frantic, dualistic chase is precisely why the teachings pivot the search entirely inward to The Inner Kingdom.

The world promises that if you gather enough stuff, status, or validation—treasures on Earth—you will find peace. But Jesus the Zennist says the foundation is faulty: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” If your heart is tethered to perishable things, your joy will be just as perishable. It’s like trying to build a fortress out of fog.

True blessedness, the transcendental bliss, is attained only with the “complete cessation of self-centered desires and denial of self in relation to the Absolute.” This isn't morbid denial; it’s brilliant physics! You can only fill a cup that is empty.

This is the great convergence of the world’s wisdom traditions, and the light of Jesus the Zennist illuminates it perfectly.

In the Hindu tradition of Vedanta, the highest spiritual state is Ananda, or pure, uncaused Bliss. This Ananda is not a fleeting emotion you get; it is the fundamental, eternal nature of Brahman, the Absolute Reality. The suffering self, the jiva, experiences sorrow only because it mistakenly identifies with the perishable body and mind. The path to Joy is simply realization—the radical shift from "I am this small, wanting self" to "I am the boundless, blissful Absolute." The self-centered desire must cease because the desire-maker was an illusion all along.

The mystical path of Islam, Sufism, offers a profoundly similar, yet distinct, journey. Here, the aim is Fana, which literally means "annihilation." It is the total annihilation of the ego, the personal will, and the self-centered perspective. This radical self-denial is the only way to reach Baqa, or "subsistence in God." The joy comes not from being blessed by God, but from the sublime, intoxicating realization that your will has dissolved into the Divine Will.

The similarity is undeniable: Both paths demand the death of the small, preferring, self-centered ‘I.’ But here is where Jesus the Zennist provides the definitive, practical instruction that bridges East and West:

The “poor in spirit” and the “meek” of the Sermon on the Mount are the actively practicing non-dualists of the Hsin Hsin Ming. Being poor in spirit is simply the ethical instruction for achieving Fana. Being meek is the behavioral result of practicing non-preference. It’s not enough to intellectually agree that "duality is bad." You have to live the poverty of spirit by dropping your clinging preferences.

This is why the Higher Ethic is a non-dual teaching. “Whoever is angry with his brother... shall be in danger of the judgment.” The danger isn't merely the external punishment; the danger is that anger instantly throws you back into the small, preferring self. Anger is the ultimate act of distinction: I am right, you are wrong, and I suffer because of you. Jesus the Zennist cuts through the legalism and hits the root: the disease is in the heart, in the initial preference to judge, lust, or hate. “Love your enemies” isn't a sentimental nicety; it is a radical, spiritual exercise in dropping the most painful, tenacious preferences we hold. It is the practice of Non-Preference applied to your opponent, releasing you from the dualistic torment of hatred.

Wisdom in Action: The Antidote to Anxiety

This brings us directly to our contemporary spiritual malady: pervasive anxiety and cultural polarization.

We live in a time of unprecedented distraction, constantly fed by algorithms that thrive on our preferences and our distinctions. They feed us what we like, and they show us who we should dislike. Our collective anxiety, the churning stomach we all feel, is simply the mass effect of millions of hearts desperately clinging to 'like' and furiously pushing away 'dislike.'

We see this played out in the biggest news events, in the global conflicts and social divisions that dominate our screens. When a large-scale event, a crisis, or a political schism emerges, the first, most dangerous human reaction is to instantly draw the dualistic line: My side is pure rock; their side is shifting sand.

A brief, sharp application of the Zennist way is this: Before you speak, before you post, before you judge the 'plank in your brother’s eye,' apply non-preference to your own reaction. Recognize the fear, the anger, or the self-righteousness as your own preference for how the world should be. That preference is the root of your suffering. Drop it. Just for an instant, drop the dualistic sword and see the unified reality of shared human brokenness. This simple refusal to participate in the 'right/wrong' game is Wisdom in Action. It is how you build your inner house on the rock of eternity, not the sand of transient opinion.

The Prerequisite: Contentment

So, how do we begin? Do we wait until we achieve full Nirvana to be happy?

No. The final, brilliant teaching of this merging wisdom is that Joy itself is a prerequisite, not just a final reward. We must “live in a state of contentment, joy, and praise, even as one pursues the path to ultimate bliss.”

Contentment is the practice run for Non-Preference. It is a daily, gentle humor about your own imperfections. It’s the realization that while you are still working on removing the plank, you can be profoundly grateful for the light that allows you to see the plank at all.

Friends, the great secret is that the Single Circle—the state of undivided, eternal Joy—is not a distant castle you must conquer. It is the ground you are standing on. It is the very nature of your true mind.

As our text reminds us: “The Truth is beyond time and space; one instant is eternity. Not here, not there—but everywhere always right before your eyes.”

Stop running. Stop preferring. Stop splitting. You are home. Go and practice the one, simple, radical act of dropping the dualistic preference, and the Inner Kingdom—the intoxicating joy—will simply reveal itself, because it was never lost. Amen.