The paradox seems to be that we already have all we need - yet all "religious' striving is to gain something.
Of "zen":-
Thomas Merton asks:- Do you then approach the study of Zen with the idea that there is something to be gained by it?
Merton continues:- Zen enriches no one. There is no body to be found. The birds (of appetite) may come and circle for a while in the place where it is thought to be. But they soon go elsewhere. When they are gone, the “nothing,” the “no-body” that was there, suddenly appears. That is Zen. It was there all the time but the scavengers missed it, because it was not their kind of prey.
(Merton quotes from "Author's Note" to his book of essays "Zen and the Birds of Appetite")
What is your kind of prey?
Mine is peace of mind. Still striving, hoping to find it.
(Image courtesy of a mate of mine who generates them somehow)
