We often wish to “know our true self

We often wish to “know our true self.” But who is this “self” we are trying to know? Zen Master Dōgen taught that to study the self truly is to forget the self.

To study the self is to forget the self. To know one’s true self is the most essential point of Zen practice. If we wish to be freed from confusion, there is no other way than to return to our original nature.

To “know the true self” is not to analyze the everyday “me” — the one who feels joy and sorrow, compares with others, judges, and tries to stay in control. Rather, it is to see clearly how the idea of “self” arises and disappears.

Remember, everything is arising and vanishing.

Dōgen Zenji taught that to become one’s true self is to forget the self. Zen practice, though paradoxical, is precisely this act of forgetting. It is the heart of practice — the very beginning of the path.

When the self appears, if you do not make use of it, it will simply fade away. The absence of anyone to “handle” it — that is what we call no-self (muga).

When the sense of “I” arises, it naturally dissolves if we do not try to do something with it. Thoughts and emotions are nothing more than phenomena that arise and pass away.

The one who says, “This is wrong,” is the self. The one who says, “This is right,” is also the self. No-self means there is no one who judges, manipulates, or controls. There is only the continuous flow of arising and vanishing.

Whatever appears is fine as it is. When we let go of both denial and approval, and simply allow things to be as they are, the natural functioning of life — a deep and quiet stillness — reveals itself.

Zazen and true practice are not about chasing thoughts like “I want to become this” or “I need to do it well.” It is about letting go of that “I,” and simply being — returning to the state of as-it-is-ness. In that stillness, the truth that has always been here comes into clear view.

When the self is forgotten, nothing is lost. Rather, we return to the wholeness of life itself. In that quiet realization, Dōgen’s teaching continues to breathe within us.

Words and Photo by K E I K O