Life is an art, and like perfect art it should be self-forgetting; there ought not be any trace of effort or painful feeling. Life ought to be lived as a bird flies through the air or as a fish swims in the water. Zen aims at preserving your vitality and your native freedom, and above all, the completeness of your being.
D.T. Suzuki understood the power of the ego. He understood the separation we experience in this dualistic reality. Life should be an effortless journey, but that is not what we create when we allow our ego to act as the complete self.
The ego is a lens for the inner eye or self. The ego has the power to change and disconnect with the eye, when we allow it to control our thoughts and perceptions. If we only perceive what the ego says is truth and believable, we experience the pain of separation in some way. The ego acts as the complete self. The inner self is hidden under the mask of egotistical beliefs, and we experience a deep lack of freedom. Lack of freedom is a painful course.
We have the ability to choose what course to take on our journey. We have the ability to alter that journey by changing the course. But in order to do that, we must thoughtfully reconnect the ego with the inner eye. The inner eye waits patiently behind the ego. When we begin to use our inner eye to perceive, we turn our ego back to a lens. That lens displays reality as the art of being free.
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