The Great Way - By Master Seng Tsan

"The Great Way is not difficult, it only avoids picking and choosing." These are the words of the Third Patriarch of Chan, Seng Ts'an. This phrase is perhaps the greatest single-sentence summary of Zen practice. In other words, if we transcend all preferences, distinctions, and opinions or dualistic views, the true nature of reality is revealed and "everything becomes clear and undisguised." However, the mind experienced by us in daily life is not totally the True mind; it seems as though the distinctions and opinions become like 'films' that we project onto the world and, because of this, it has become very difficult for us to see reality...or in the words of Suzuki Roshi, "things as it is." To experience each moment without the 'film' that blurs our reality, we must learn to recognize that the film even exists...this is discovered through samadhi meditation.