A correct understanding of the mind

Abstract

With what mind do we want to live? We have a choice! Our culture supplies us with views of mind and the world, and we can choose to accept and live these views. Or we can choose to investigate what mind arises from our actual experience, and then develop, live, and mature that mind. The emphasis of Zen teachings and practices is to develop a mind as free as possible from the deeply embedded conditioning of childhood and culture. Through Zen meditation we can move in the direction of more freedom from cultural determinants and develop a correct view of mind: a view rooted in our actual experience of mind. There is not just one basic mind to be discovered. And the world is not a unified whole which is predictable and controllable. Instead, our experience of the world – as it actually exists – is paradoxical, divergent, and discontinuous. We practice Zen to accept the interdependence as well as the complex contrariety of the world, which, in fact, is the world as it is. The power of Zen practice is to reveal this particularity and uniqueness each moment.