the way of the holy mushroom

Sometimes one needs to be alone with one’s thoughts.

Sometimes one needs to be alone without one’s thoughts.

When you take a trip to heaven, for example.

If your mind is crowded with thoughts,

memories, images, voices,

you are not alone.

And only the alone can fly to the Alone.

The Alone is the All One.

The way to the All One,

the way, the truth and the life,

is through a cloud of forgetting

and a cloud of unknowing.

But to reach the clouds

you must lighten your load

and throw off your ballast

in zazen, or centering prayer.

This is kenosis,

Dogen’s “bodymind dropped”.

Kenosis is the art of self-emptying,

of emptying oneself of all thoughts,

feelings, desires,

of becoming like an uncarved block

or dead ashes.

This no-mind is Buddha Mind;

This Buddha Mind is the mind of Christ.

Remember:

No one comes to the Father but through Me.