Everything Is in Its Right Place: A Radical Zen Perspective

The World Doesn’t Add Up

Something is fundamentally wrong with reality.

We don’t have to be smart to understand this, and most of us have probably already had this thought when we were kids.

Especially when we were young and looked at the grown-ups, who were supposed to be wiser and more intelligent than us as kids, many of us were deeply disappointed.

I can remember that when I was a young child, I had the thought of not wanting to become an adult. First, because being a kid is way more fun, and secondly, because when I looked at how adults lived, it didn’t appeal to me at all. Not only because of the boring work they had to do, but because even back then, I could sense that most people didn’t really have any agency in their lives. They just did what they were told to do, or what was supposed to be 'normal,' and had weird ways of going through their lives, trying not to stand out too much.

Just looking at them, I always had a strong sense that I knew better. It’s not difficult to look at the outside world and come up with the conclusion, 'Wow, that's crazy.'

When Judgment Clouds Our Vision

Especially when we are on a spiritual path, we tend to look at the outside world as being completely wrong. “If the whole world would just recognize that we are all One and the same, there wouldn’t be any need for wars and other stupid stuff.” And it’s not even about big matters like politics; even small and unimportant matters keep our minds busy with judgment.

"Why does this person drive like an idiot?

Or why doesn’t this person get what I’m saying?"

I guess there are hundreds of situations we come across each day where we unconsciously judge a person, the world, or anything in between. And of course, in each of these situations, we know better. We just compare "what is" with "what should be," and right there we have judgment.

Although we are supposed to have less judgment when we are on a spiritual path, it’s possible that it even increases. We are not only judging the world and how unenlightened it is, but we also judge ourselves for every shortcoming we become aware of. Becoming more mindful also means becoming aware of our misdeeds and the ways we behave that are not really ideal. "Oh no, I was in delusion again, even though I am supposed to be all-knowing awareness 24/7."

We become frustrated with ourselves and the world simply because we compare what is with what should be. We look at a given situation and immediately come up with an alternate scenario, which we judge to be more true than the one actually happening right in front of our eyes.

No wonder that we suffer.

Meeting the Moment as It Is

And if I were to try to propose a solution to this "problem," I’d just create another alternate scenario that I want to impose over "what is."

Instead, I want to propose a radical new way of looking at things.

In order to do that, I want to share a Zen story that came to my mind when I contemplated this topic. Over a thousand years ago in China, there was a Zen practitioner named Layman Pang. Unlike most other Zen practitioners, he decided not to become a monk but to live as a householder. He demonstrated that enlightenment and spiritual practice is accessible to everybody, no matter if they live in a monastery or not. This may sound trivial, but back then, it was unheard of for a layman to be as enlightened as the Zen masters who dedicated their lives to living and practicing in a monastery. And because of his profound understanding of Zen and his deep enlightenment, he was respected by the other Zen masters of his time.

So one day, after visiting a Zen temple, he decided to leave. The master of the temple instructed some monks to escort him to the temple gate. At that time, snow was falling, and when he went to the gate with the other monks, he simply pointed to the falling snowflakes and said, "The snow is so beautiful; each flake lands in the same place."

The story continues, but I decided to focus on this part. "The snow is so beautiful; each flake lands in the same place." Before I continue, you may want to take a few moments to reflect on this saying.

…

"The snow is so beautiful; each flake lands in the same place."

So there are many snowflakes falling from the sky, each with a different form, shape, and size. And yet, every flake, according to Layman Pang, lands in the same place. So what is this “same place” each of them lands on?

If we look at it from our narrow rational minds, this doesn’t make any sense. Firstly, the snowflakes don’t land in the same place. They land here, there, and everywhere else, but not in only one and the same place. And actually, they even land in the wrong places - for example on the car, or the parking lot, or on the sidewalk. Based on the place they are landing on, we can judge them as good or bad.

However, this way of thinking will only lead us to the same issue I’ve described before. We look at something and immediately judge it. We compare "what is" with "what should be."

And this is exactly why I think that Layman Pang’s statement is so profound. “Each flake lands in the same place.”

Although each snowflake is its own thing, with its own appearance and characteristics, it will land in the same place. No matter if we judge it as good or bad, desirable or undesirable, or anything else. It will land in the same place.

So how does this relate to our lives?

A war will land on the same place as the peaceful picnic with your family. The holiest person you can conceive of, lands on the same place as the most despised criminal. Your moments of delusion land in the same place as your highest realizations.

So what is this same place?!

I could now try to give an explanation, maybe call it buddhanature, or compare it with pure awareness or whatever, but this would be just another snowflake landing… on the same place. I could also translate it to the saying "everything is perfect as it is," but again, this would be just another snowflake.

Zen is not about coming up with an eloquent answer or explanation to this question – even if you had an answer a few moments ago, it’s already rotten by now, already a thing of the past. 

Zen is about meeting the moment where it’s at.

Everything Lands in the Same Place

But before we can answer this question, we need to ask ourselves where the moment is at. And we can’t do that as long as we judge everything. If we view the world through a lens of good and bad, we won’t see the full picture; we won’t see reality as it is.

If we are questioning and judging things that have already happened, how are we even supposed to meet the moment? This also applies to ourselves when we judge ourselves for judging everything.

Even our judgments are just snowflakes landing in the same place. To deny our judgments would be like fighting a battle we can’t win. And it’s not about defeating our judgments or anything of that sort; it’s just about seeing everything as it is. A judgment is a judgment. That’s it.

So don’t try to fight snowflakes. I mean, imagine someone standing out there during a snowfall, trying to fight the falling snowflakes. You’d probably think that this person is completely and utterly insane.

And yet, we’re doing it all the time. Although everything lands in the same place anyway, we still try to fight what we dislike, and even during our meditation, we fight our thoughts and feelings.

I don’t know where you are right now, but here, it’s snowing. I’m going to take a walk to enjoy seeing the snowflakes fall into the same place, all while I keep walking straight on my path, and I hope you do the same.

With that being said, I wish you peace and clarity on your journey.

All the best, Your friend on the way.