Damariscotta, Maine
She, having heard of the Sage's good deeds and his notoriety for being a blessing to others, visited him, asking:
Questioner: "The local townspeople speak of your reputation for being a blessing to many persons, even though you spend most of your time here alone. I mean, why do you do what you do?"
Sage: "I do what I do."
Questioner: "Yes, I know that, as I said, I've been told all about it, but, 'Why do you do what you do?' That's what I asked."
Sage: "I do what I do. Yet, not alone, even when alone. When acting intimately, no why and the intimacy comes from all sides, not just your or one side. Doing with makes all the difference, even alone."
Alan Watts...
Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
Yes, and some persons may peel potatoes and miss that just which makes all the difference. Just is not always just; people live in different worlds and, so, act differently, even with the same actions. The world is the basis of action. A handshake appears a handshake, but it all depends really on the world it and you are arising from. And we may live in one world one moment and arise in another the next. So, we are not writing about consistency or perfection; regardless, action is happening everywhere, and Grace can and does include it all. So, do not try to live in one world all the time. You will just keep loading a big sack of lead on your head.
* * *
Whether peeling potatoes, reading a book, walking, shopping for a new pair of shoes, cleaning the toilet, sitting in meditation, kneeling in prayer ... Grace is present in the doing of doing. This is to say, "Life."
The doing of doing is enough. You do not have to add anything. Thinking "God" - why? The sun is already the sunshine.
The doing becomes by doing when the doing and you are together ... intimately. So, you are peeling potatoes... you and potatoes.
Something extraordinary is lost if you drop one yourself or one potato, or if one potato drops one you and one itself. The whole moon is the whole moon. Intimately... like two lovers, though, you and pototoe holding one heart - "Wonderful!" That heart keeps you both from falling. The moon shines intact. Yes!
So, forget "God" or "Buddha" or whatever in doing with doing, and enter into doing wholeheartedly. You become it, it becomes you. Zen doing is doing intimately, from all sides - that simple. So, really Zen doing is just doing. You Zenners, drop "Zen," too.
(C) brian k. wilcox, 2024
