Krishna: The Original Zen Master

The apparent and the real

More than reading long passages or listening to discourses, many times all it takes for the mind to literally stop is a very pithy saying that captures the essence.

Zen quotes are especially famous for being to the point and conveying more with less. For instance, this quote by Zen Master Dogen brings out in one small sentence, the trap of comparison and desire to become and the wisdom of seeing the uniqueness and the interconnected nature of all there is:

“A fool sees himself as another, but a wise man sees others as himself.”

Not many are aware that such extremely pithy sayings are found in the Bhagavad Gita which is the oldest text available with such Zen like sayings. Each verse in Bhagavad Gita is only a few words and is complete by itself when taken alone and packed with tremendous insight.

One of the most powerful of such verses comes right in the beginning of the Gita where Krishna says:

nāsato vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ

The unreal has no true existence. The real never goes out of existence.

This points to the truth that anything that comes and goes cannot be called real as it is ever changing. As another Zen master said, one cannot dip his feet in the same river twice! So what apparently exists is constantly in flux and therefore cannot be said to exist in the real sense of the word.

Whereas that which always abides never comes and goes out of existence. And that is only the pure awareness of being which is the field in which all the apparent worldly phenomena are seen to manifest and unmanifest constantly.

So to simply remain as the pure awareness is to not be attached to any worldly phenomena that is all impermanent and yet seeing the divine ground from which the world springs forth and therefore filled with love for all that is.

To love everyone as a unique expression of the Divine while not be attached to anyone, which is always conditional and therefore causes expectations and misery, is the most simple and profound way of being free and at peace each moment. This is the essence of the entire Bhagavad Gita and is expressed most succinctly by Krishna, the original Zen Master, in so many different ways through many compact verses. To even read and penetrate into a single verse as the one mentioned above is sufficient to change our outlook completely.