Being One With the Universe

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

On this Passover, a note on liberation:

There is an old joke about the Buddhist monk who says to the hot dog vendor, "Make me one with everything!"

We smile and dismiss the phrase as ubiquitous pablum.

To be one with something means being without self and being without self is more than counter-intuitive, it seems impossible. Yet, we are without self everyday. When we ride a bicycle, read, work, play, anytime we are so immersed and involved in an activity that we forget ourself in that activity, we are one with that activity and essentially, without self. In such moments time ceases to exist. There is just the moment. Zen practice aims to teach us to be in this singular, non-dualistic state at all times.

We sit down on a cushion, bring our attention to our breath, and join the universe. We open the hand of thought that connects us to ourself, and there we are: one.

When we are one with the universe, everything we do is the universe.

For Christian Zen practitioners, Jewish Zen practitioners, and Muslim Zen practitioners, it is the same. Prayer becomes an activity of joining the Universe. Life as a Christian, Jew, Muslim, becomes an act of unification with the Absolute.

When we approach something, say a salad, with the attitude of "this is precious, this is the Universe" and we do so without a reference to "I" we are dropping away the self and are being one with the salad. The salad becomes something it always was but that we didn't recognize, and that is, it becomes a gateway to the Infinite.

This is so of everything. Everything.

So, the next time you sip some coffee of tea, know you and the Infinite are One.

Be well.