thusness | The Still Mind

Aikido

I do not preach peace, nor do I preach the opposite. Understanding of the true self creates what it creates, which we have named peacefulness, or stillness of mind. In this way, there is no objective of stripping away of greed and hate, for cultivating the true self will cause greed and hate to fall away of their own accord. What remains is thusness, and in this thusness is unity. The urge to be better than others and have more than others simply has no place to abide. It is akin to facing an opponent who is stronger than you and more powerful. He can destroy a person with one blow. But what will he do if he can not catch you? What will he do when you are not there to receive the blow? He can do nothing but give up and move on. This is where one will meet Zen, on the battlefield of existence.When there is no place or thoughts to cleave to, where is it that they will survive?

When asked of a Zen master, “what is the nature of reality?”, he replies, “the monkey jumps from the high branch… the branch shakes,” and may leave one confused about his answer. Maybe he is avoiding the question, you reason with yourself. Maybe he does not know. But the answer that one seeks may not always be the answer that one gets. “What is the nature of reality?” inquires about something that is everything, including that very question itself. It isn’t an avoidance of the question, but at the same time it is. The question which you seek to have answered can only truly be answered in this way, because it is just more white noise on the ‘Existence Channel’. It is the universe interacting with itself. No logic-based thoughts, and analysis. That won’t answer the question. Any words that a master could use to describe it would be meaningless, and just more chatter on the channel. It is like one sonic pixel asking another sonic pixel about sonic pixels. His is an answer of thusness. There are no words. Only 無 Wu (Mu in Japanese); nothing, but at the same time everything, like the color white.