Posted inDharma, Introduction to Zen, Other Teachings

Three Fruits

May 5, 2022

Every single thing holds all things.

– Kongshi Daoren

Zen is an ingathering into the silence that is always waiting for us, a silence that excludes nothing.

As we give ourselves to daily practice, all-pervading silence expresses itself in our sitting – straightforward and at ease, dynamic and poised, like a fine instrument tuning and calibrating to things as they are: this body, this breath, this moment. Just as it is. Excluding nothing.

The singular, wondrously distinct, all-inclusive now.

Zen’s path of practice and way of life yields three fruits. Like the fruit on a tree that ripens and falls, a natural harvest.

According to tradition, these three fruits are known as…

joriki or concentration – gradually tilling the soil of practice, coming to live more and more readily out of the center of one’s being, a center that is always only here and now;

kensho or seeing one’s true nature – a sudden shift, a leap, a fall, a glimpse – awakening to emptiness (wisdom) and oneness (compassion);

and personalizing or clarifying the reality of who we truly are in daily life.

The practice is continuous, ever rejuvenating, and lifelong. At the same time, each step is complete.

As the 12th century woman Zen master, Kongshi Daoren, put it… Every single thing holds all things.

Image by Diego Ortiz from Pixabay

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