To set up what you like against what you do not like- this is the disease of the mind; when the deep meaning of the Way is not understood, peace of mind is disturbed to no purpose.
— Sosan Ganchi Zenji
I read a Facebook post this week in which a young man related how grateful he was for his drug addiction. He explained that if it were not for his drug addiction, he would never have found his current path of healing and health.
Even though he had been sober for years, he faced addiction every day. By embracing his addiction daily and making the choice to live free of it, he had grown to understand the deep meaning of the Way.
For him, peace of mind was not about getting rid of his desire to get high. In fact, the mental disturbance of addiction was intrinsic to his peace of mind.
A lot of times we seek out meditation to feel better, to escape bad things in life in order have more good things, kind of like a drug fix for an addict. But Zazen compels us to face both the good and the bad as two aspects of one thing. Well, what is this One thing?
Consider these questions:
- To what purpose is my mind disturbed?
- How is this disturbance leading me to true peace of mind?
These are great questions to ask ourselves in our daily meditation. Can you sense how asking these questions draws us closer toward this One thing? This One thing which holds the deep meaning of the Way?