“Moment after moment, everyone comes out of nothingness. This is the true joy of life.

It is rather difficult to explain, but naturalness is, I think, some feeling of being independent from everything, or some activity which is based on nothingness. Something which comes out of nothingness is naturalness, like a seed coming out of the ground. The seed has no idea of being some particular plant, but it has its own form and is in perfect harmony with the ground, with its surroundings…

The true practice of zazen is to sit as if drinking water when you are thirsty. There you have naturalness.

This naturalness is very difficult to explain. But if you can just sit and experience the actuality of nothingness in your practice, there is no need to explain. If it comes out of nothingness, whatever you do is natural, and that is true activity. You have the true joy of practice, the true joy of life in it…

From true emptiness, the wondrous being appears.” ~from Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

Original mind is mind without the unnecessary additive of confusion. It is not a created, contrived, or produced mind. It is simply Mind beyond all the pollutants— it is all natural. This natural mind is never infected with the epidemic of insanity that is constantly plaguing our individualistic existence. Original mind is complete openness— capable of seeing anything, as it is not governed by boundaries, preconceived ideas, fears, or expectations. It is without division, so there is nothing to fuel friction or conflict. Original mind is free of elaboration. It is complete or whole— needing no-thing and as a result, beyond discontentment. It is eternal; without beginning or end, and therefore without a center or self. Original mind is not organized around some central theme or persona. We do not need to invest any effort in the creation of an enlightened mind. There is no need to build or construct such a mind, as it has been there since the beginning. Taking refuge in Original mind is not about developing some new state of the art enlightened mind; it is a process of discovering and trusting our fundamental intelligence or basic sanity. We just have to excavate it from the rubble of ego’s insanity. ~from The Heart Of Spirituality on Elephant Journal by Benjamin Riggs

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