There Is No Awakening Without Aspiration

The Aspiration to Know Your True Self

— Returning to Your Original Nature Beyond Concepts

From time to time, we may suddenly wonder, “Who is my true self?” But what exactly do we mean by this “true self”?

In this reflection, I invite you to explore—through the lens of Zen—what our original nature truly is, and how a simple aspiration becomes the key that opens the path back to it.

Knowing Your True Self

In Zen, awakening is described as knowing your true self. And the state of “knowing” is a mind free of confusion.

But why do we fall into confusion and suffering in the first place?

Why Do We Suffer?

We suffer because life does not unfold as we wish. And more fundamentally, because we do not know our true selves.

So where is this “true self” to be found? Let us shift our perspective for a moment.

What Is Our Original Nature?

As infants, we had no fixed beliefs, no assertions, no distinctions. We were free of deception and free of friction—just a pure, unfiltered presence.

The world was just as it was.

There was no concept of “me.”This is the original nature we all once embodied.

And the surprising truth is that original nature is still here now.

The “self” we think we are is merely a later construction—a concept layered over the raw fact of experience.

In reality, there was never a fixed “self” to begin with. Instead, the entire universe appears as “you.”

Confusion is only a shadow created by concepts. In the realm of bare reality, there is no confusion at all.

To Study the Self Is to Forget the Self

Dōgen Zenji taught:

To study the self is to forget the self.

To forget the self means not to cling to the concept of “I,” and instead to live illuminated by the truth of what is.

What exists is only this very moment’s appearance. Everything else is just a shadow cast by thought.

This is the posture of awakening.

No Aspiration, No Awakening

Awakening is not a special or extraordinary experience. What we need is simply the sincere aspiration to know our true selves.

The moment this aspiration arises, we have already begun the return to our original nature.

When this aspiration is alive, the path naturally opens and gently guides us where we are meant to be.

Closing

When the aspiration arises, let even that aspiration go—and simply sit.

Do not try to gain anything. Do not try to become anything. Just rest in the immediacy of now.

Then, the truth will illuminate you on its own.

Just as you are. As you have always been. Simply returning to your original nature.

In Round Valley, CA, USA

Words and photo by K E I K O