The Buddha said “we live in a world where everything is seemingly an expression of ego. All experience is dualistic and differentiated. The world of appearances is deceptive and we are easily fooled and drawn in by those appearances.”
Zen Master Seung Sahn was often quoted as saying, “When crying time, only cry, when something funny happens, become the funny happening.” When we can throw away our ego, this I, my, me, that pervades everything in our path like a back seat driver, we are then always new, always fresh. This freshness, this awareness is our Buddha nature. Not getting caught up
on things, we are always flowing. The cultivation of this flowing mind brings freedom from self imposed bondage often referred to as samsara or vexations.
When you hear, when you see, leave each thing as it is. Don’t add your opinion or your judgement to it. Just become the experience. The Sixth Ancestor had a unique way of addressing this. Hui Neng taught non thought as the central doctrine, formlessness as it’s essence, and non abiding as its fundament.
Non thought is to simply be flowing, and not stagnated in our thoughts. Non abiding is the realization that all things in this world are passing phenomena with no intrinsic lasting value. This includes our bodies which to again quote Zen Master Seung Sahn, are”simply rental cars that at some point need to be traded in.”
Living right here, right now means we are not living in the past or in the future. When we are settled and aligned with the present moment, doing our best in each situation becomes both easy and fulfilling.