I Have a New Freckle!

And it is Buddha nature :-) There's been a lot of talk about what is Buddha nature. We are in fact taking a whole class about something that, in the end, we all know is indescribable and practically inconceivable. In the first class we all had to go around and say what we thought Buddha nature is or means. There of course was a wide variety of answers. I said that I think it is like looking at stars. When you look at them really hard and you squint you can barely see it but when you look away you know it is there. A lot of the things we are reading talk about how Buddha nature is everywhere and everything. We all have it (are it) but our mind just makes it hard to know that. Being human is just what we are, we have no choice. Being human means we have this brain, this mind, that needs something to do ALL day. But what we are trying to understand and practice is that what the mind DOES doesn't have to be so goshdang busy and unhelpful!

I was/am really struggling with what it means to practice. How do we get better at a (spiritual) practice that is meant to last a lifetime? I often feel like I am making no progress. I intellectually understand that making progress is totally a silly concept because progress sort of implies an end or goal, of which there is none. Ultimately, I just want reassurance that I am going in the right direction and sometimes I get confused and think if something is this hard maybe I'm doing it wrong. I am thinking this then last night I read this:

"For the beginner, the practice needs great effort...You must stretch out your

arms and legs as wide as they will go. Form is form. You must be true to

your own way until at last you actually come to the point where you see it

necessary to forget all about yourself..." - Zen Mind Beginner's Mind

It goes on with some other good stuff but it would be a little out of context. Anyways, reading this bit came at a perfect time, I was practically asking myself the very question it answered. As they say "when the student is ready, the teacher appears."

More about the new freckle later.