A master in Zen is not simply a teacher. In all the religions there are only teachers. They teach you about subjects which you dont know, and they ask you to believe because there is no way to bring those experiences into objective reality. Neither has the teacher known them - he has believed them; he transfers his belief to somebody else.
Zen is not a believers world. It is not for the faithful ones; it is for those daring souls who can drop all belief, unbelief, doubt, reason, mind, and simply enter into their pure existence without boundaries. But it brings a tremendous transformation.
Hence, let me say that while others are involved in philosophies, Zen is involved in metamorphosis, in a transformation. It is authentic alchemy: it changes you from base metal into gold. But its language has to be understood, not with your reasoning and intellectual mind but with your loving heart. Or even just listening, not bothering whether it is true or not. And a moment comes suddenly that you see it, which has been eluding you your whole life. Suddenly, what Gautam Buddha called "eighty-four thousand doors" open.
Let me not resist change but embrace it. It offers an easy path to internal transformation and personal empowerment.
Spiritually, the enormous challenge for each and every one of us is to look directly into what it actually means to be the one who is going to consciously evolve for the sake of our collective salvation and transformation. From the absolute or nondual perspective that emerges in spiritual revelation, there is only ONE. There literally is no other; there is only one without a second. To truly understand conscious evolution, we have to grapple with the profound implications of that absolute fact. I believe we can only consciously evolve to the degree that we have actually realized at the deepest level of our being that we are that one without a second. Facing into the truth of nonduality�that the many is the one and that the one is ultimately who we always are�in an evolutionary context forces a confrontation with any relationship to the life process that is less than whole, complete, and fully committed. To consciously evolve is to surrender unconditionally to the truth that there is no other and at the same time to accept responsibility for what that means in an evolving universe�a cosmos that is slowly but surely becoming aware of itself through you and me. That one without a second is simultaneously awakening to itself as it develops, as it evolves, and it is that one, as you and me, alone, that can now begin to take responsibility for endeavoring to consciously create its own future.
The power of absolute love is a raging fire of uncontainable majesty that consumes any and all who come too close to its flames. That fire burns wildly, aware only of itself. That is why the wholehearted and very conscious participation in the entire process of self purification is always such an integral part of spiritual evolution and transformation. Indeed, in most cases, the extraordinary leap that profound surrender always is will not occur free from the corrupting influence of ego unless our conscious participation in our own purification is intense and deeply committed. What is so miraculous, though, is the powerful recognition that that participation in the process of our own transformation is that raging fire of absolute love in action, moving in our own hearts and minds as the desire for Liberation itself.
To be alone in the only real revolution. To accept that you are alone is the greatest transformation that can happen to you.
Transformation in vision and consciousness will automatically create favorable circumstances.
