Welcome to the Cave of Poison Grass

Somewhere I heard a story about how, if one wants enlightenment, one must enter the "cave of poison grass" and eat.

What does that mean? Our minds are like caves of poison grass. If we want enlightenment--if we want to attain our true selves and help this suffering world--then we must be willing to enter into our own minds and face whatever we find there without fear. In a way, we must be willing to die in the service of our practice.

Who or what dies? The death this metaphor refers to is not the death of the body. Even an enlightened person is subject to cause and effect. Entering into the cave of poison grass and abiding there is to incur the death of the small self, the ego, the I-my-me so often referred to in the teachings of my grandteacher, Zen Master Seung Sahn. To incur the death of the small self is to permit the Great Self to shine forth.

The great Zen Master Dogen put the matter something like this:

To study Buddhism is to study the self.
To study the self is to know the self.
To know the self is to forget the self.
To forget the self is to become one with all things.

Yours in the dharma,

Christina