Usually we’re fighting the flow, trying to swim upstream, wanting something we can’t have, having something we don’t want, always struggling. It’s this kind of desiring and seeking that keeps us from really being free.
Our relationships are the same way. All a person has to do is give up trying to be right; step aside, be empty, be selfless-or at least try to approach that state. As soon as the resistance is gone, both persons are free to grow and mature. Instead, we’re constantly struggling, hanging onto our own positions and ideas, preventing not only ourselves from growing, but others as well.
We are always searching for a state of permanence. We want good things and wonderful feelings to last forever and that which is painful or uncomfortable to end as quickly as possible.
We fear change and so we create beliefs, religious institutions, philosophies, political theories, and economic systems that reinforce the illusion of security and safety. We are afraid we will lose what we have attained-our families, jobs, homes, positions, possessions, knowledge, and accomplishments.
Our fear of change and our greed to control have caused us to become attached to what we have and how we live. We have slowly been stopping the flow of the river from bringing fresh new water to revitalize our stagnant pool. Little by little we have been deadening our experience of life.
When we always seek permanence and security while resisting pain, discomfort, and fear, we can be enticed into a life of greed, corruption, and evil in order to maintain our comfort. Once caught in such a position, we are afraid to come out, to explore, to understand our own mind, to live life fully, to encounter truth, reality, God.
Instead, realize what your karma is and stop fighting it. Follow the flow of the stream. As soon as we turn around and go with it, it’s no longer painful. The resistance is what creates the struggle. It’s just like two hands that are constantly struggling against each other. As soon as one hand stops resisting, the other hand can go free.
Zen Master Genpo Roshi founded the Kanzeon Sangha, an international Zen community in 1984, with groups and centers throughout Europe and the U.S., and is abbot of Big Mind Western Zen Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, which he founded in 1993. He discovered the Big Mind process in 1999. His newest book is Big Mind Big Heart: Finding Your Way. You can visit his website at: www.bigmind.org
About genpo.roshi
Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi is a revolutionary in the tradition of the old Zen Masters who so embodied Buddhist teaching that they were able to revitalize and transform it for their own day and age. As Buddhism moved from India to China to Japan and other Asian cultures, it found unique expression in each culture that made its fundamental teachings resonate for a new time and place. Genpo Roshi is working to transmit the essence of the Buddha’s teachings in a way that is readily accessible to Westerners and relevant to our everyday life.The core of Genpo Roshi’s teaching is the unshakeable and contagious certainty that every one of us, regardless of our socio-economic, cultural or religious background, can instantly awaken to our true nature, like the great masters of old — like the historical Buddha himself, whose essential teaching was nothing less than this. This experience helps us shed anxiety and fear and learn to live more purposeful, compassionate and joyful lives. Roshi combines Zen tradition with the insights of such visionary western figures as Carl Jung, Fritz Perls, and Hal Stone, enabling virtually anyone to realize their true nature, a realization they can further deepen through meditation.Dennis Genpo Merzel comes from a long line of Rebbes. Born in Brooklyn NY, he grew up in Southern California where he was a high school champion swimmer and All-American water polo player. He earned a Masters degree in education from the University of Southern California and was a teacher and lifeguard before ordaining as a Zen monk under Zen Master Taizan Maezumi in 1973. Completing formal Koan study in 1979 he became Maezumi Roshi’s second Dharma Successor in 1980, the first being Bernie Tetsugen Glassman. He received Inka (final seal of approval as Zen Master) from Roshi Glassman in 1996, thereby becoming one of a small group of Westerners recognized as lineage holders in both the Soto and Rinzai Zen traditions.In 1982 Genpo Sensei began teaching throughout Europe and founded the international group he named the Kanzeon (Love and Compassion) Sangha, centered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with affiliates in France, Holland, Poland, Belgium, Germany, England, and Malta. He has eleven Dharma Successors: Catherine Genno Pages, John Shodo Flatt, Anton Tenkei Coppens, Malgosia Jiho Braunek, Daniel Doen Silberberg, Nico Sojun Tydeman, Nancy Genshin Gabrysch, Diane Musho Hamilton, Michael Mugaku Zimmerman, Richard Taido Christofferson, and Michel Genko Dubois. He has given Inka to seven Zen teachers: John Daido Loori, Catherine Genno Pages and Anton Tenkei Coppens, Jan Chozen Bays, Charles Tenshin Fletcher, Nicolee Jikyo McMahon and Susan Myoyu Andersen. For ten years, until 2007, he was the President of the White Plum Asanga, the worldwide community comprising all the Dharma heirs of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, their successors, and the many groups they lead.Roshi’s publications include The Eye Never Sleeps, Beyond Sanity and Madness, 24/7 Dharma, and The Pah of The Human Being, and several DVDs. His latest book, Big Mind/Big Heart: Finding Your Way, published in the Fall of 2007, is also going to be published in translation in Holland, Spain, Germany, Russia and Poland. He is married to Stephanie Young Merzel, co-administrator of Kanzeon Zen Center International, and has two children, Tai Merzel, an aerospace engineer, and Nicole Merzel, a mathematics major at the University of Puget Sound. Website: www.bigmind.org
Wonderful article and beautiful metaphor of the two hands. I love how it takes only one person to be free for the other person to follow suit. I will begin remembering this in all my relationships… thank you so much!
Genpo Roshi, thank you for this wonderful illustration of our struggle with the ego and our clinging to all that is impermanent instead of letting go of the resistance where lies all our suffering. I particularly like how it relates to relationships!
However, I'm not so sure that we can realize what our karma may be (as you suggested) or even need to in order to let go of our resistance. I remember reading something by the Dalai Lama regarding karma, he said something along the lines that man can go mad trying to figure our their karma and that it is unnecessary.
Thank you for the perspective.
Respectfully,
Gayle
Dear Roshi,
This is one of the clearest expositions of your teaching in such a short space.
Deep bows,
Dev.