Cramped And Busy

Great understanding is broad and unhurried, Little understanding is cramped and busy.

Chuang Tzu, the 4th century Chinese philosopher, was influential in the development of Chinese Buddhism, especially Chan Buddhism. Chan Buddhism is also known as Zen. Understanding is a form of awareness. Awareness is a form of enlightenment. Enlightenment is the natural path consciousness takes to feel other aspects of itself.

Somehow we got the notion that enlightenment is reserved for a select group. A group defined by religion or native rituals. That notion is cramped and busy, and filled with little understanding. That is not the nature of consciousness. We all achieve enlightenment in our own way. We all experience other aspects of the self even though we ignore them. We all have guru status, but most of us allow little understanding to get in our way. We give that status to the people who believe they earned it through sacrifice, study and addictiveness.

Great understanding is the awareness that all of us create a reality and we selectively focus on it. Each reality is different, but equally vital to enlightenment. The priest is no better than the thief in the broad and unhurried reality of consciousness. Both are expressing themselves in order to expand the whole within them. That whole is the Zen within little as well as great understanding.