Reply to Sharon

Reply to Sharon

Yes, my monograph was rather abstract; an example of what is meant would help. At the Zen farming commune (Big River Farm), we had no regular, on-site teacher. A deep and persistent reading of Suzuki Roshi’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind was our main source of instruction. Some of us began to walk like and quack like Suzuki Roshi. I was strolling in the forest (“in the stillness”) one afternoon, with nothing in particular on my mind. Two words came to me, as if they had been spoken (“as if the universe were summoning attention”): BE YOURSELF. I recognized immediately what that meant: rather than attempting to be an imitation Suzuki Roshi, the spiritual teachings are urging me to be the genuine Self. Suzuki Roshi was an expression of the Self; Robert Wolfe is to be an expression of the Self, not an expression of some idealized—and idolized—Zen master.

(So, an “insight received that transformed consciousness.” Less abstract?)