Elegant Failure by Richard Shrobe
For us, attention primarily has to do with caring. If you attend to something, you care for it and give time to it. To give time and attention is to give caring. To pay attention to the mundane, simple, small details of everyday life is to live in the world with a spirit of caring, as if each and every thing were in your stewardship, as if you have a responsibility to care for every moment and each thing.
A monk said to Zen Master Ching-ch’ing (Kyosei; Gyeong Cheong), "Master, I’m pecking out. You, please, peck in." That offers an image of student and teacher in accord with each other: I’m trying to break out. You, please, break in, so the two of us together can connect, mind to mind. Ching-ch’ing shouted at the monk, "Are you alive or not?" That was his pecking in.
But essentially, if you are going to practice the Zen way, you have to lose all your hopes and all your expectations.
meditation seat three times, hit his staff, and stood there motionless.
Updated: Apr 15, 2023
When Yao-shan arrived at Ma-tsu’s temple, he asked Ma-tsu the same question: "I understand the canonical teaching of Buddhism, but I hear that in Zen you teach looking into the essence of mind, realizing true nature, and becoming buddha. This I don’t understand. Can you please explain it to me?" Ma-tsu immediately said, "Sometimes I make him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. Sometimes I don’t make him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. Sometimes raising his eyebrows and blinking his eyes is correct. And sometimes raising his eyebrows and blinking his eyes is not correct. How about you?" At that moment—ptchh—Yao-shan had an awakening experience.