Awake Inside the Dream

The Dhammapada states, “Let go of the past, let go of the future, let go of the present.” The first two are obvious enough. We can’t move forward and live our lives if we’re stuck in the past, and the future is equally untouchable; neither can be controlled. These insights are not uniquely Buddhist.

The insight of Zen is that to be truly free we must also let go of the present—our ideas, concepts, and frameworks about what we think is happening in any given moment. We must open up to the working of something much bigger than our individual selves. This is where beginner’s mind comes in. Beginner’s mind means approaching each moment and situation as a fresh-born emergence from the cosmos—because it is! Recognizing this, we enter the moment with curiosity and as few preconceptions as possible. What we’re doing in zazen is practicing just this.

Letting go of the present also means seeing clearly and not holding onto what causes suffering for ourselves and others. Buddhism likens this world to a dream, and teaches us that by applying beginner’s mind we can awaken. But don’t wake up from the dream; there is nowhere else to go. Instead, we wake up to the dream. Awake inside the dream, we have the chance to shape it. Then we can take meaningful action not out of habit—or out of the desire to get, control, change, or fix anything—but out of the spontaneous wisdom and compassion that emerges fresh-born from the beating heart of every moment.

by, Rev. Jūken Zach Fehst