To talk about ourselves is to forget about ourselves

The minute I try to define myself through words, it will be a false statement no matter what. If I can say something about something it boils down to me talking about that. I am separate from that which I am describing. By doing so I am not saying who I am, only who I believe myself to be. In one of the essential books on Zen Buddhism, “Zen Mind, Beginners Mind”, Shunryu Suzuki express it like this:

“We ourselves are the big activity. We are just expressing the smallest particle of the big activity, that is all. So, it is all right to talk about ourselves, but actually there is no need to do so. Before we open our mouths, we are already expressing the big existence, including ourselves. So, the purpose of talking about ourselves, is to correct the misunderstanding we have when we are attached to any temporal form or color of the big activity. It is necessary to talk about what our body is and what our activity is so that we may not make any mistake about them. So, to talk about ourselves is actually to forget about ourselves.”

When our finger gets squeezed between the door and the door frame, we do not do anything. There is no time to think. However it is likely that action will take place, probably in the form of a scream. What does that indicate? We do not act and at the same time action takes place. Wei Wu Wei it is called in Taoism. Action through non-action. When we face something we cannot really grasp – whatever that will override our mind in such a way that no story is created. What is left is a pure response. We act from a place where there is no doer. Action takes place – we are the action itself.