The Sound of the Rain.

"I had a discussion with a great master in Japan, on the last visit there, and we were talking about the various people who are working to translate the Zen books into English. And he said that’s a waste of time.

“If you really understand Zen,” he said, “you can use any book.” You could use the Bible. You could use Alice in Wonderland. You could use the dictionary. “Because,” he said, “the sound of the rain needs no translation.” – Alan Watts, The Web of Life

“The sound of the rain needs no translation.”

There is no book, scripture, ideology, thesis, cult, manifesto, doctrine, or dogma tucked away in some distant cave that you'll find the essence of Zen hidden within...

No 'gotchya!' epiphany lurking around the corner.

No hidden lesson.

In the words of Po the Dragon Warrior:

"There is no secret ingredient."

There is no thing captured in language that touches the domain of Zen. Or Reality, for that matter.

• It’s not that you don’t understand it yet; it’s that there’s nothing to be understood.
• You haven’t missed the teaching, because nothing is being taught.
• Your life is not a 'test' that you can 'fail'.
• Reality is not a 'theory' that must be 'understood'.
• You cannot think your way down to the level of experience.
• Getting caught up in mental machinations moves you further away from your target.

This is not some trite villification of the mind, as we so often want to do. The mind and the stream of thought are as natural and spontaneous as rain.

Zen is an invitation to expand your engagement with reality.

Solely engaging reality at the level of the mind restricts your access to the awesomeness of Reality in its Fullness.

You were never taught how to experience reality properly. You don't need to learn to hear the rain. You might say it's your ancestral inheritance. Or a gift from God. And...

• It's not like the rain sounds better in Arabic.
• You can't hear it more clearly from a Christian worldview.
• Einsteinian physics doesn't help you feel it more fully.

There is no religious narrative, no grand unifying theory, no PhD dissertation, no insight from your next 2x speed Audible book that gets you closer to the sound of the rain. The feeling of the wind. The warmth of tea. The ruby red of the rising sun.

Meditative Mind.

Japanese Zen gets its name from the Chinese Ch'an, from the Indian Dhyana, pointing at the state of the meditative mind: Calm and Awake.

That's all Zen is. Nothing fancy to it.

All the techniques, koans, meditations, and poetry are just pointers along the path, bringing you to this state.

Calm & Awake.

Present & Alive.

Peaceful & Vital.

Where Zen tends to get a 'hardcore' or 'weird' association is that it's helping you stay in this state through anything that happens. It's helping you stabilize this in all possible circumstances.

The death of your parent. The great loss of a relationship. Overwhelming sadness after personal tragedy. Feeling alone in existence. Spontaneous joy.

Calm, present, peaceful. Awake, alive, vital. Unflinching, unbreakable composure.

With a composed nervous system and the spark of life infusing each breath, the rain, or the pain, transforms into a symphony of sensation, ringing with the brilliance of a full orchestra, teeming with the wild lifeforce of the living Earth.

Existence begins to speak to you again. Sharing its wisdom, wonder, love, passion, and power.

You could say Life Itself is the universal language.

Immediately known. No translation or explanation needed.

Once you root yourself firmly in this level of experience: direct, calm, organic aliveness — there are no words needed, no language suffices, and there's nothing much to say anyway…

With love,
EB.