Clinging is never kept within bounds; it is sure to go the wrong way; quit it, and things follow their own courses, while the Essence neither departs nor abides.
— Sosan Ganchi Zenji, 3rd Patriarch of Zen
As I leave the house one hypothetical morning, I am pleased with how centered I am and flowing with the Dharma. Then someone cuts me off in traffic, the person ahead of me in the express line at the grocery store checks out with way more than 15 items, my head is boiling in response to an ignorant Facebook post, and when I finally get to my meditation cushion that evening, I replay all of it as if I needed to suffer even more!
What is happening here? Zazen tells us that if we attach ourselves externally, we have stepped out of bounds of the Dharma Path. In most games, when we step out of bounds, play stops. Time out!
How then can we stay on the Dharma Path when confronted with frustrating grocery lines, chaotic traffic, and narrow views? I remember as a boy, running through boulder fields, hopping from rock to rock as fast as I could. I remember how focused I needed to be to keep from falling. To move slowly seemed even more difficult.
What if we received actions of frustrating people and situations as if they were boulders on our path? What if we chose to bounce through this boulder field joyfully instead of dwelling on how uneven the path is?
Where then would the Essence of the Dharma Path be found?