When we sit down in zazen we throw ourselves completely into the posture and the expiration, there are no leaks, no gaps. Our posture, our act of total presence here and now embraces everything. That is the way to become intimate with our true nature. That is the fundamental matter of this practice, that is the fundamental point of our life. This is what we sometimes call “our true Buddha nature”. If we do not find this true being, if we do not intimate with our true nature, it is difficult to find peace in our heart, to achieve full satisfaction, something is always missing although in reality we have it all. The path to this intimacy, the path that takes us to our true home is provided from moment to moment, through the renewal of full awareness, the renewal of zazen, the renewal of each expiration and each gesture. Zazen is a path for openness,  to open ourselves to our true nature, the universe, life, the dharma and at the same time is a path for abandonment and dispossession. We let go our skin, our ego, our attachments. We let it all go.

Zen is the path to find and get intimate with our true being, to sit in our true home. This is often called awakening.  But “awake to what?” To awake to our true nature, to reality, that means to awake the Buddha present in all of us.  The Buddha has been always there but our discriminatory mind hides it from us. If we let go of our discriminatory mind, we can open ourselves to the true reality of our being and reach our dwelling. Away from our dwelling we will never find satisfaction and peace.  What we nowadays call Buddhism or Zen is nothing more than the path that leads us to awareness  of our true being.

This shows two aspects of the teachings that are fully linked, united. That is so since the path that takes us towards our own being and to comprehension is the same path that takes us towards the others, is the path for sharing, for compassion and devotion. It is not that the dharma needs us but if we cut all duality, there is nothing left to be done. From our limited body and from our limited situation, we are in unity with the whole universe, with life and with the dharma, which is uttered through ourselves.

There are two kanji that form the word dharma. These are the kanji of water and the kanji of begin of activity and flow. It is the water that flows and that soaks all.

In theory, Buddha could have remained seated on his spot  but instead he went to encounter the others. After experiencing unity, if we open ourselves completely to it, there is nothing left to do but to devote ourselves to life, to the dharma. That is the source and the root of true compassion, of true love. It is important to settle ourselves in our true dwelling, our true being. To renew from moment to moment this awakening. This is the meaning and the deep reality of zazen.

Pedro Taiho Secorún