Who Are You, and What Are You?

One of the greatest rewards of living in a human body/mind is that we have two worlds to live in: the outer world and the inner world. The outer world, as most of us know, is the world we perceive with the five senses. It is the world that we think of as the “real” world.

The inner world is that which exists mostly inside the mind. It’s the world that many people consider the opposite of real. They discount it mostly as just imaginary—perhaps they think of it as being the opposite of real. But isn’t that unfortunate?

Isn’t the inner world the one we really live in all the time? And isn’t the outer world the one that might be partly or wholly imaginary, depending upon the time, place, and our mental state? For after all, we can’t always trust the body’s senses. And, isn’t the outer world one that we construct inside our mind based on inputs from the senses? It might all be a dream.

Regardless of which world appears to be more realistic to you, a person who lives in only one of these worlds is missing a large part of life. In our Western societies, most people view the outer world as the only real world, and pay very little attention to their own inner world. Such a person lives in what I view as a narrow, one-dimensional world. I call that person a sleeper because he has no knowledge of the spiritual being within him.

By adopting a path of inward exploration called Zen, a sleeper can discover his own self-nature, which is usually the first experience of receiving Enlightenment. And, it’s the beginning of a transition that lets the student experience this life as a paradise.

Take some time to read about Original Zen as it was taught by Bodhidharma in the 6^th century B.C.E.