TODAY’S BOOK RECOMMENDATION:Brad Warner'sLetters to a Dead Friend About Zen

"Zazen practice is good for nothing, meaning it's not for establishing something else apart from itself. It is for getting into your true experience; it is for learning how to not be chasing after something other than where you are right now.

Any time you have a goal, even if that goal seems very lofty and beautiful, like gaining enlightenment or becoming a better person, this is a construct in your mind. It's something you've invented. You have an idea of what enlightenment should be or of what being a better person should be or what being spiritual should be, or whatever it is. There are all sorts of goals you can put in there, but whatever the goal is, it's not what's going on at this moment; it's something that's off in the future or embodied in someone else."

— Brad Warner,
Letters to a Dead Friend About Zen