No-Nonsense Zen for Beginners: Clear Answers to Burning Questions About Core Zen Teachings by Quinn Jason

Author:Quinn, Jason
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rockridge Press
Published: 2021-08-16T16:00:00+00:00

Part Three

CORE TEACHINGS

What You’ll Learn: In this section, you’ll learn about important teachings such as dharma, nirvana, life and death, impermanence, and how they relate to Zen in a simple and accessible way. We will also look at teachings such as ego, suffering, and enlightenment, and how to put these teachings into practice during our everyday lives.

What are the three most essential aspects of Zen practice?

There are three elements in Zen practice that give us a solid foundation for our practice and our lives: Great Doubt, Great Courage, and Great Faith.

Great Doubt should not be confused with self-doubt. Self-doubt is a feeling of uncertainty, or lack of confidence or belief, in something that arises from the self or ego. Great Doubt is looking at our lives and this world with curiosity. It is questioning everything to help return us to “don’t know” mind, our original enlightened nature before the concept of self. Great Doubt challenges our assumptions and beliefs so we can look at this moment with clarity. Many of us have spent an entire lifetime building up a false concept of ourselves and this world. Our happiness, security, comfort, and strength depend on this concept. It almost seems that if we discover the truth about ourselves, then everything that we have built up, all the happiness, security, comfort, and strength, will disappear. If it all disappears, then what? This raises Great Doubt. Who are we? What are we? What is this? Great Doubt can help break those walls of ourselves down so we can see our true selves.

Great Courage is having the courage to look inside and face the reality of our mind. It takes courage to look at our attachments, judgments, and all the things about ourselves that are difficult to see with openness and sincerity. It takes courage to use Great Doubt to see through our concept of ourselves and this world. It takes courage to stand up and respond to this world with love and compassion. If we don’t use this courage, then we remain stuck in our old ways and habits. Practicing with other people can help us have the courage, because practicing by ourselves can be very difficult at times. We call this communal practice “sangha,” and it can encourage and support us when things are difficult.

Great Faith is not faith in something outside ourselves; it is the faith that we are already enlightened. It is having the faith that we are already Buddha. It is trusting the intuition that we already have. We lose this faith because of our attachment and our clinging to our thoughts and the material world. When we take the courage to use Great Doubt to question and challenge our ideas and beliefs, we start having faith in our true self. Great Doubt, Great Courage, and Great Faith are like a three-legged stool. They all depend on each other to give us strength and clarity in our lives. And a three-legged stool can always find balance.

What is dharma?

In Buddhism, “dharma” refers to the teachings of the Buddha.

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