Monday Night Zazen

After years and years of careful and meticulous observation, Galileo sees that the Earth is not the center of the  Universe, and all of astronomy and philosophy and theology are forever changed.  After more than 20 years of field research and rigorous, pain-staking observation and measurement of natural history, both in his home country and abroad on The Beagle, Charles Darwin grasps the undeniable evidence of evolution and the origin of species, sparking an intellectual and scientific revolution from which there is no turning back.  It is said that Einstein's greatest genius was in his ability to look at the data from physics and applied mathematics in ways that no one before him ever had, and not merely in the ways that were accepted and agreed upon by the scientific community and taught in the universities.  Twenty-five hundred years ago, the Buddha began a long process of contemplation and direct observation of consciousness through meditation, and had a profound awakening to the nature of reality and of the true self.

Zen Master Lingyun Zhiqin had trained and practiced for thirty years. Then one day, while on a ramble in the mountains, he took a rest at the foot of a hill and viewed a village in the distance. It was spring at the time, and, glimpsing the peach blossoms in bloom there, he suddenly awoke to the Way. In accordance with the custom and traditions of his time, he composed a song to express his experience:

For thirty years, I sought for a sword of wisdom:
How many times have leaves fallen and the buds sprouted?
But at one glance at those peach blossoms,
I have arrived directly at the present and have no further doubts.

What was it that Lingyun saw that had such a  profound influence on him?  He once addressed an assembly of monks, stating, "You should all observe the vegetation of the four seasons, the leaves falling and the flowers blooming - events which have gone on for an incalculable eon.  The gods, human kind, all the realms of existence - earth, water, fire, and wind - all of these things come to completion and pass away in the realm of existence.  But when all of cause and effect is exhausted and the nether realms are finished, still throughout the universe not a single hair will have been created or taken away.  There remains only a fundamental numinous consciousness that is eternal."

All of these persons - Galileo, Darwin, Einstein, the Buddha, and Lingyun - all made unexpected and profound discoveries by careful observation, all unencumbered by expectations of what they were going to find.  Galileo did not begin his observation to dispel the idea of a terra-centric universe and Darwin was not in search of evidence to support a predetermined theory.  The Buddha did not know what to expect from his meditative contemplation of consciousness and Lingyun expected nothing from the peach blossoms.

Just observe, see things as they truly are, and be open to discovery.