Question
Let’s indulge in a little blasphemy. Dear Master Kosen, I greatly appreciate your energy, lively mind, and kind heart, but frankly I am fucking sick of this idea that “Zen is zazen” and “zazen is life,” etc., etc. Plenty of narcissistic abusers appropriate exactly that to play the great sage, while they are nothing but vampires. Besides, zazen is not what matters most; an open, living heart is. And no, zazen does not guarantee an open heart. I know plenty of evidence to the contrary, and no doubt you do too. So when will this zazen, zazen, zazen business end?!
Anonymous
Answer from Master Kosen
No one is forcing you to practice or have faith in my words or those of the Zen patriarchs, nor to take an interest in this practice rather than something else. Keep your heart open if you can, and if that is enough for you, perfect. It is true that in the end zazen does not bring much at the individual level except to shatter it, if practiced correctly. It has never claimed to be a method of personal development, and Kodo Sawaki himself insisted that there was nothing to gain in authentic Zen. When my master Deshimaru heard those words, he immediately wanted to practice: It’s wonderful, there is nothing to gain.
Kosen