It Is Enough to Be Illuminated— Studying the Self as All Things Illuminate You

What is zen practice for?

Is it a time to gain special experiences?

A discipline to calm the mind, stop thoughts,

and move closer to an ideal state?

Sitting with these questions,

we gradually come to see:

zazen is not an act of gaining something,

but a quiet opening

to the reality already unfolding.

In everyday life, we place the idea of “self” at the center

and live within stories about who we are.

Yet when we sit, beyond those stories,

we begin to sense

a living activity that needs no explanation.

A dandelion at the roadside catching the eye.

The faint fragrance of grass drifting in.

The sound of wind, the taste of tea, bodily sensations.

Thoughts and emotions arising and fading.

None of these are trying to tell us anything.

They simply illuminate us, just as they are.

Zazen is to remain within this illumination—

not trying to understand who we are with the mind,

but to study the self while being illuminated by all things.

And gradually,

the words “To study the self is to forget the self.”

settle not as knowledge,

but as lived experience.

＊

Illuminated by all things

We sit

to know our true self.

Not by thinking about who we are,

but by studying the self

as we are illuminated by all things.

To study the self is to forget the self.

Not analyzing ourselves,

but releasing attachment

to the very idea of “self.”

As this attachment softens,

the interpretations layered onto experience

quietly fade.

When interpretation falls away,

the world as it is

flows in—without separation.

The boundary between self and other loosens,

and freedom from grasping gently opens.

When the “self” disappears,

what remains is simply—

the world itself.

Words and Photo by K E I K O