Quotemeal

There does exist a "secret" shortcut toward actually accomplishing a stable and unconditional experience of genuine happiness and contentedness in your life. It's not a Zen teaching, or the property of any single school of thought or contemplative tradition, but the Zen masters did bring it up on occasion (perhaps out of boredom or some motherly instinct).
What's the method? It only requires an action which is as intimate and natural as bending a finger. Prior to any impulse of thought or calculation, suddenly flip around this outwardly-shining light of sensory awareness and realize the inherent treasure possessed by all of us: the unconcerned, unmoving, unchanging Host who never ceases welcoming and sending off all the endless guests of conscious experience.
This guy has been sitting in his "room" since prior to the birth of the universe, and has never had dependence on so-called physical reality or any of the infinite fluctuations of consciousness. Worries and pains and frustrations have never once made contact with him -- no skittering guest, no matter how loud or obnoxious, is ever allowed to approach his position by even a micron.
Can you do it?
It's not a herculean feat, but does require an initial "leap of faith" into pure empty space in order to really reverse this shining light away from the kaleidoscopic objective realm and shine it back into its origin. Ideas, sensations, the body, even the awareness of awareness itself -- these are all objects. Turn it completely around.
Manage this just once and you'll immediately taste unimpeded liberation completely independent of your manifest situation of body and mind. If you can recognize it just one time, you now have all the basic equipment you will ever need to cultivate freedom in your daily doings, should you wish; or you can just pack that jewel into your pocket and continue pushing against walls forever, it doesn't matter. Either way, it's your basic real nature, so do what you like.
As a tangential factoid, people throughout history have always made a certain amount of fuss about this adamantine nature, some even touting its recognition as the primary business of Zen study. Don't believe them.
infinite_sustain

submitted by: Admin