Once a monk asked Master Shirto, what are monks supposed to do?
Shirto said, “Why are you asking me?”
The monk said, “If I don’t ask you, how will I find the truth?”
Shirto said, “Are you sure you have lost it?”
How are we to practice? How are we to discover the liberation that the Buddha speaks of? This is a good question, and the Buddha beautifully laid out the path of practice to help us, step by step, purify our bodies, hearts, and minds and free ourselves from the delusion of separation.
And yet, Shirto asks, are you sure you are not already free? Could it be that all we have ever longed for is already with us? The feeling of this body breathing. The subtle quality of the air around us. The beating heart. The soundscape. The thoughts. The feeling in the heart. The openness that receives it all. Could it be that the liberating truth is already everything we are? Could it be that the sense that we have a problem or our bound in some way is simply a misunderstanding? What if right here where you sit, or stand, or lie down, is exactly the truth you have been looking for, already complete.
Love,
Shinei