Encountering Pure Mystery

From my friend Dave after I sent him Ayashanti's comments. "Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, standing, sitting or lying down, everything you do is Zen. To know that the >mind is empty is to see the Buddha. Using the mind to look for reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing yourself from words is liberation." -- Bodhidharma, 5th-6th century. My note—Is thinking also Zen? Thinking creates delusion but isn’t delusion also Zen? What is not Zen? I don’t know. Cp on 5/24/07 Must one know oneself before one can be not one and not two? Must one be oneself before one can forget oneself? I can’t forget myself when I am not myself. I am not myself when I think I am a separate self. I am not myself when I use “defense mechanisms”/delusion to hide myself from myself and others. Being myself allows me to not be myself (my separate self). All education is to help one know oneself. One can't be oneself unless one knows oneself. As Zen masters have said, the study of Zen is the study of the self. To study the self is to forget the self. . (Using the mind to look for reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing yourself from words is liberation." -- Bodhidharma, 5th-6th century. “The way that can be put into words is not the way.”