Question
Why practice? What bothers me is the reason for practice… and the reason for everything. Everything seems pointless. When you and I are dead, I doubt your corpse will be better than mine; I doubt you will go to a paradise I won’t reach. So why practice? Please tell me where I am mistaken in asking the question this way. Respectfully.
Dragan
Answer from Master Kosen
Practicing for nothing, expecting nothing—no result, no reward—is the true Zen of the Buddhas. “Mushotoku.” Generally, this is the point at which the ordinary person gives up practice and the Buddha begins it.
Kosen