Category: philosophical counseling
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The Huatou
With ease and great clarity, Chan master Sheng Yen expounds upon huatou practice in Shattering the Great Doubt: The Chan Practice of Huatou. Essentially, the practice involves simply asking, “What is wu?,” over and over again with immense yet quiet focus and with a desire to know. As with the koan, so with the huatou:…
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Procrastination Is Contrary To The Tao
Yesterday I asked, “The Tao, however, is easy. How come you keep making it hard? How come?” Take procrastination. What does it say but “I have to or should do it, but I don’t want to do it now (or at all)?” Take wu wei as your baseline. Wu wei can mean any of these…
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Without Fixation, How Is It For You Right Now?
In yesterday’s post, I concluded: “Without being fixated on anything right now, how is it for you?” Our untrained minds are like untrained dogs. The moment we see or desire something we bolt after it and get all tussled up in it. Or the moment we see or feel something we run away as fast…
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Contentment Roams With The Ten Thousand Things
Blue Cliff Record number 6 has this as its punch line: after enlightenment, “every day is a good day.” For someone who experiences genuine contentment, a pandemic makes no difference. Zero difference. Nothing is added to or taken away from this contentment because nothing can be. Everything–dreams about what one will do, hopes about how…
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Trying To Be Somebody Is Not The Way
Tuning in, you see that most are trying to be somebody. Trying to be somebody, they manifest dis-ease. There are two parts: trying and somebody. Trying implies effortful struggle to become what one is not. This is not the Way. Struggle cannot be struggled through or out of. Struggle is struggle. Trying is a knot…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 