Everything is Beautiful
I was reading a book presented
to me entitled Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I went through
that book and found it is so interesting, and it gives us the whole technique
of sadhana. ‘Zen’ is a Japanese word for meditation, which is dhyana
in Sanskrit and chan in Chinese. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
Maintenance – you will be wondering what kind of subject is this! The
complicated structure of the motorcycle consists of various parts, but usually
we are not aware of their existence. We only want to push a button, sit on it,
and then ride. But how this button works, how the motorcycle is running, how
many parts are involved in it and their cooperative, harmonious activity, operating
with so much affection – can we imagine the total action taking place through
the multifarious parts that constitute the motorcycle? The maintenance of it
involves, equally, a great attention paid to each and every part – cleaning
every nut and bolt, and so on, to perfection, in the maintenance of the
motorcycle. Our body may be compared to that motorcycle. Every little thing
that we think, feel, act, understand, and are, is important for us. We cannot
ignore any part of our personality. Everything is beautiful.
Zen considers everything as
beautiful. When we sweep the floor, we are not doing a dirty act. It is a great
art of perfection, neatness; and the broom is an object of attention, not
simply a thing about which we can be callous. If we wash a vessel, it is a
great art of attention in which we are engaging. So is the case with every
action, whether cooking, preparing tea or offering anything to a guest that
comes – a great art, great perfection, great beauty, and great totality.
Everything is wonderful – this is Zen’s conception of all things in the world.
Even a leaf on a tree, even a twig that is moving, all are beautiful. The twig
is moving in the breeze, how beautiful! The leaf is moving, how beautiful! The
sun is shining, how beautiful! The river is flowing, how beautiful! The
mountain is standing, how beautiful! Why don’t we say it is all beautiful,
instead of grudgingly saying it is all stupid? Zen does not accept that things
are stupid.
Likewise, in the practice of sadhana
there is no stupid thing in this world. Even our thoughts are not stupid; they
have to be taken care of as our own children. We may have naughty children, but
it does not matter, because they are our children. All children, even of the
same parents, are different – one totally differs from another in many respects
– yet, they are to be taken care of as a single total in the family unit. In a
similar manner are the ways in which we have to conduct ourselves in relation
to the world. A little attention is to be paid to every thought that comes to
the mind. Manana is only this much. If a thought comes, adore it,
worship it. “My dear child, what do you want? Why have you come to me as this
thought?” Give it what it wants; it will stop crying, and will go. But if you
tell the thought, “Go, you idiot. I don’t want you,” it will come back yelling
with greater force. Therefore, no thought should be brushed aside as unwanted,
because it is our child. It has come through our brain, and we are throwing it
away. It arises because of a necessity. It will not come unnecessarily. We
should understand that necessity by paying a careful psychoanalytical attention
to it. All thoughts are our thoughts, not somebody else’s, so we cannot reject
them unless we reject a part of ourselves, which cannot be done. Yoga is not a
rejection of any particular, but an inclusion of all things in a total whole,
with a beautiful vision of all their existences, just as in Zen. That is sadhana.
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