Dwelling Peacefully Within Cause and Effect (‘I and All Things are One’)
By practising zazen, it is possible to come to honestly accept yourself as you are now. This means that you will be able to completely entrust yourself to the conditions of anxiety and dissatisfaction, without setting up standards of good and bad. Please be careful to understand that ‘entrust’ doesn’t mean it is all right to simply not do anything. Furthermore, it isn’t possible for us as human beings to think of two things at the same time. Consequently, when we are anxious, there isn’t the slightest possibility of thinking about peace of mind. When we are dissatisfied, whatever we see and hear is dissatisfying, and so again there isn’t even the slightest possibility of thinking about satisfaction.
It is important that we can live peacefully and not be disturbed by the circumstances of our lives, regardless of whether they are favourable or unfavourable. In Buddhism, we say this is ‘dwelling peacefully within cause and effect’ and ’cause and effect are one’. In Soto Zen, this is also expressed as ‘practice and realisation are not two’ and ‘subtle practice of original enlightenment’. Cause-condition-effect are always one and in a process of change that we call ‘transmigration’. There is no substance at all within cause and effect. It is only because of the intervention of the ego-self that we think cause, condition, and effect are separate. When we experience this principle with our bodies and realise that essentially we never were deluded, at the same time the thought of choosing between this and that will cease and ‘seeking mind’ will disappear. This is called ‘awakening to the Self’ or ‘attaining true Peace of Mind’.
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