Our Zen practice of steady, determined, daily cultivation does tend to lighten our load in some mysterious way, and brings joy. But how does it alter the difficulties in the world directly? We still know sorrow, we still know grief. Though the Buddha tells us that awakening to the sources of suffering frees us from grief for the world….to recognize how this is so, is part of right view.It’s helpful to remember that all aspects of our experience function. If we block grief, believing that we “shouldn’t” feel it if we are practicing well, such a belief will block our full vitality instead. We make room for our grief when it arises, and let it do its work of keeping us warm and tender towards all beings. It is a basis for compassion and wisdom.
Experience is a continual flow beyond any one emotion, thought, or belief. If spiritual life includes everything, and nothing is excluded, then all experience has a place in the functional whole. We needn’t fear or disqualify any. In an awake life there is room for grief as well as celebration, liveliness as well as listlessness, passion as well as reserve, loving as well as withdrawn. They all express part of the truth. There is no part of ourselves that is outside of the infinite life of this very moment.