I’ve been thinking a lot about freedom and slavery and who’s in control? Which is not exactly the same as, but is related to, who’s responsible. Who’s responsible for your life? Are you responsible for your life or is someone else? Zen practice is always pointing us back to this source of our life.
What source guides you? How we approach this question has implications for how fulfilled we are, and what we can offer to the world through the medium of our life. When we live obedient to a “should”, we are handing over our freedom to choose. Just like a slave, we surrender personal agency. But we don’t have to do this.
Even though the overall conditions of our current life may not be in our control, how we respond is. We have responsibility, the ability to respond. We can ask, “Is this moment my own? If not, when is my moment?”
You may know the Zen story about Master Dogen, when he inquires why the elderly cook is drying mushrooms out in the heat of the afternoon sun. The cook answers, “If not now, when? If not me, who?” The old cook knows who he is and what he is to do. What is ours to do is how we use today. How do you use this day? With what spirit do you meet the conditions that you are dealt?
Mushin
