ZERO
50 years ago,
no, more like 60,
you started out on the Pathless Path.
You were going to be a Buddha,
get enlightened,
save the world.
You chanted and bowed and shaved your head.
You sat in half-lotus for hours,
days, weeks, years,
facing a wall, becoming the koan, ‘Who Am I?’
Somewhere along the path
you gave up seeking
or it gave you up
and here you are today,
having achieved
exactly nothing.
Zero.
All that work,
to end up right where you started;
empty.
I dont get it. Pretty pessimistic.
These words are pointing to the fact that all life is empty space, or if you will, that we are free and have always been free but for our attachment to the illusion of reality a personal self. In the words of the 17th century Zen master, Bankei, ‘Our original nature is truly unborn and without substance. Resting naturally as the Unborn (emptiness), you are a living Buddha.’