The Great Way is not difficult
If you do not make distinctions.
Only throw away likes and dislikes
and everything will be perfectly clear.

This weekend, I learned that the CD player in my new car can play music in MP3 format as well as audio format. Since I can fit anywhere from 5 to 7 albums onto one disk in MP3 format, and the player can hold six disks, I can effectively load anywhere from 30 to 42 albums into the car stereo. It also has a port to plug in an external MP3 player like an iPod, so the possibilities are pretty limitless.

I also successfully programmed the remote on my new television to control the cable box and the DVD player as well.

In Zen, the word "practice" does not always refer to formal training. While the training itself is done in the zendo, practice is done at all times of the day. Training is formal discipline but practice is mindfulness in all moments of daily living. At some point the two merge to create a discipline of life, a discipline of the habits of body and mind and heart. Zen author Mu Soeng says, "This is the Path, the Great Way, and it is fully embodied - not an abstract metaphysical concept." The contemporary Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn agrees, stating "Sitting is only a small part of practicing Zen."

When one stops picking and choosing and throws away all opinions, all likes and dislikes, the mind that doesn't "know" emerges. "Don't-know" mind is the mind that cuts off all thinking, and when all thinking has been cut off, one becomes the empty mind. The empty mind is like a mirror - red comes and the mirror is red; yellow comes and the mirror is yellow; a mountain comes and the mirror is a mountain.

Seung Sahn: "If you keep don't-know mind when you are driving, this is driving Zen. If you keep it when you are talking, this is talking Zen. If you keep it when you are watching television, this is television Zen. This is the true practice of Zen."