When we come to Zen practice we are answering the call of the Way-seeking mind. The mind that seeks the Way knows what is essential, what it is to be free to be true to what is. Honoring what our life brings our way and responding to it with wholehearted and clear life energy is the work of Way-seeking mind. The mind that seeks the Way emanates from what we could call “Big Mind”, the mind of a self that isn’t constricted by all the habits and hurts of our life lived already.
This is true of all of us, we have the capacity to realize this mind that is essential. Whole and all-embracing, but cut-off and hindered by old habits. These habits may go way back. We’ve formed some on our own, but also inherited much from families and culture – attitudes, values, ways to perform the self. We figure out strategies as we go along that help us cope, in reaction to being hurt, cut off and narrow down our functioning. We may have discovered that ignoring our disappointment rather than feeling it or avoiding a parent’s anger by always pleasing them or disappearing, will keep us safe and able to carry on. But at the cost of being able to feel alive, connected and fulfilled. Maybe even at the cost of physical health. We could say that our underlying wholeness wants to have a clear path to share and express the gifts, the uniqueness, the intelligence that each of us carries within.
So Way-seeking mind moves us to investigate the self that got us this far. In being able to settle our minds, our hearts, we can get a closer look at anything that wants to be noticed. What karmic knots tie up our wholeness and cut us off from being able to realize and manifest this true path? We ask, “What is this Way that I can wake up to, that I share with all life? Following this question, we find that the Way that we seek is where we always are, right now. Right here.