Zen is Confusing? Here's Why You’re Not Supposed to Get It

Trying to Understand Zen

Everything, literally everything they have told you about Zen is a big lie.

In this article, I'll tell you everything you need to know about Zen so that you can develop steadfast determination in your meditation without getting overwhelmed by cryptic Zen concepts that nobody seems to understand.

I try to expose ancient meditation secrets. I will expose the lies we tell ourselves so that we can finally connect with our true nature. And I'll start with a simple, fun fact to get you tuned in: Many people believe that enlightened Zen Masters grasp Zen concepts and truly understand what they teach. In this article I’ll discuss how this is not true, and how trying to understand Zen will only make us more confused.

It’s about questioning everything: Can we function without concepts, does embracing emptiness mean abandoning all social norms, does practicing Zen trap us deeper in concepts, and are Zen teachings insightful or utterly useless?

It's about how you can understand and apply Zen teachings in your life to truly make a difference.

Understanding Means Confusion

Have you tried to understand Zen, but now find yourself feeling lost and confused?

You're not alone in this. And if you think you understand Zen, I’d say you're even more lost and confused than those who don’t.

Trying to understand Zen is like trying to grasp air with your hands.

It doesn’t work, and I’ll tell you why.

Zen is about realizing and expressing our true Self.

In order to do that, we need to abandon all ideas we have about ourselves and the world.

Any idea we have about ourselves or the world is relative. This means it has a beginning and an end. It’s not only limited in its nature but it can also be witnessed and observed by us. Since these ideas can be observed, they are objects in our consciousness.

So whatever image or concept we have of ourselves, they are merely objects in our minds.

Anything that can be perceived is an object in our mind.

An object can be seen and can be known. We can see all kinds of mental objects, identify their shapes and forms, compare them with each other, and thereby come to understand them. 

Understanding comes from being able to observe objects and put them in a mental box. 

Anything we witness is immediately labeled. 

We compare things and label them as good or bad, right or wrong, and so on. And by doing so we think we understand what we are seeing.

But who sees these objects? Who is recognizing the objects in our minds?

This is where Zen begins.

Zen is about finding out who we really are.

Who or what is the subject that's observing these objects?

Now, if you say, 'It’s me, I’m observing these things,' you are looking at an idea that says 'It’s me,' which is an object appearing in your mind, and you immediately identify with it.

So you've grasped an object in your mind, which appeared after you asked this question, which wasn't there before, and will be gone the next second when the next thought enters your mind, yet you think it's permanent and it defines who you are.

But who sees this object? Who are you without this little object you just created?

Any idea you have about yourself is wrong. It’s an object that’s impermanent and limited, and it can’t define who you are. 

In order to know ourselves we have to let go of everything we are not. We even have to let go of understanding things. Only objects can be understood, but how can you understand something that's not an object?

Zen points to that. Zen is a teaching that helps you let go of everything you are not, and to realize who you are.

It’s not about understanding anything, it’s about realizing your true Self. And this realization is not something that can be understood.

That's why Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn said that he doesn't even teach Buddhism; he only teaches 'don't know.'

Long answer short: if you don’t understand it, you’re doing great—just don't try to understand it. Try to find out who it is that wants to understand Zen.

Finding Faith in Zen

Now you might ask, 'How can I trust these teachings? How can I trust Zen when I don’t even understand it?'

And that's a good point. We want to make sure that any spiritual teaching we follow is legit and that it will bring us to the point of finally realizing who we are. We don’t want to follow a teaching that turns out to be useless and full of false promises.

I can’t tell you if you should or shouldn’t follow Zen teachings. In the beginning, following any spiritual teaching has to do with faith. We may have a slight inclination to find out what's true and who we are, and then search for a path that has been walked by others and brought them to that realization. But we don’t know for sure. We can’t know for sure. We can only look at the teachings and the people who represent these teachings. Then we need to decide for ourselves if it feels real if it feels true, if there is something to it.

And this varies between different teachings, schools, and teachers. Some are more shallow, while others embody a depth of realization that can be felt on a gut level. So just follow your gut feeling.

Sure, it doesn’t mean you won’t be misled by a charismatic teacher who actually has no idea what he’s talking about. Therefore, keep your eyes open, pay attention, and trust yourself.

Since becoming a Zen Master is very difficult and usually takes decades of practice, along with approval from many other Zen Masters, I think it’s safe to say that many of them can be helpful guides on our journey. You want a teacher that always points you back to yourself, leaving you with no concepts or ideas. A true Zen Master will also never allow you to put them on a pedestal. 

Sure, they may teach something that’s not well received by our egos—our limited sense of self. Any true spiritual teaching aims to dismantle the ego, so it’s never pleasant for the ego anyway.

And this is also the point where we can start feeling trapped by the teachings of Zen.

Beyond Emptiness

Many people complain that since they started practicing Zen, they’ve become trapped in even more concepts than they were before. Their minds are full of doubts, they feel discouraged, and feel like they are doing everything wrong since they just can't let go of everything. They fear that they need concepts in order to function in society and regard Zen as a useless teaching that’s too abstract and too far from rational sense.

In Zen, much of the teaching centers around a concept called 'Emptiness.'

Emptiness means that there are no things. Everything is connected with everything else and always changing, even if it seems solid to us. Take a concrete object in front of you. You might say, “This is a real thing, it doesn’t change.” But when you look closer, maybe even with a microscope, you can see that it’s changing all the time. It may lose some of its substance, and if you just wait long enough, it will be gone completely, having transformed into its components or another thing. It’s also not separate from other things around it—everything is connected, and the lines we draw to separate objects are merely imaginary.

It can be compared to a river. We might see a river, give it a name, and think it’s always the same, but it’s actually not.Every second, the river is completely different, with new water flowing through it compared to the moment before.There is no inherent river in the river because it’s not static. The river doesn’t exist independently—it depends on the water from its source, which depends on rainfall, and the rainfall depends on water evaporating into the air. We simply draw an imaginary line and say, “This is the river,” “This is the rainfall,” and so on, and then we believe these are separate things. There is no inherent "river nature." It’s just a concept where we’ve separated the river from everything else and decided to call it a river. We do the same with ourselves. We believe we are a separate human consciousness with a self-nature that is independent.

Emptiness points to the fact that everything is connected, and since everything has no self-nature the Buddhists just call it emptiness.

Then people mistake emptiness for meaninglessness, which results in a sense of nihilism. They think emptiness refers to the fact that nothing matters and that all actions and thoughts are meaningless. They get attached to this idea and wonder how they can function in the world if everything means nothing.

Because most people are rooted in a dualistic way of thinking—seeing everything in terms of black and white, yes or no, high or low, good or bad—they believe they have to reverse everything they think. Before Zen, they believe everything has meaning; after Zen, they just flip it around and say nothing has meaning. But they are mistaking the"nothingness" from their dualistic thinking for the "emptiness" that Buddhists refer to.

They now exclude everything that does not fit into their idea of nothingness. However, emptiness is inclusive of all things. It’s beyond all duality, even beyond the duality of the concepts of everything and nothing. Compared to the human way of thinking it does not exclude anything.

So your idea about emptiness has nothing to do with true emptiness. It doesn’t mean that everything is meaningless. It's beyond meaning and no meaning.

But people get trapped by teachings like these. They don’t look for their true meaning and instead come up with all sorts of distorted ideas, leading them to become trapped in the very concepts they’ve created. No wonder they feel full of doubts, discouraged, and feeling like they are doing everything wrong. 

It’s best to put your ego aside and try to contemplate the teachings and their true meaning. And if you are now trying to fight your ego, and get desperate because you can’t win, you have fallen into another misconception. You might become your own worst enemy because you think you understand the teaching and believe you now need to "kill the ego." However, it also doesn’t work this way. It’s not about killing your ego, it’s about accepting your ego. 

And when you accept it fully you see that it hasn’t been there in the first place, it was only a thought in your mind. So you don’t need to worry about how you’ll act in society without an ego because you’re already doing it. If the ego were real, you’d have to fight it—but it never was real, so everything is fine.

Key Takeaways for (Not) Understanding Zen

To summarize it:

If you feel lost and confused trying to understand Zen, you are not alone. The truth is that Zen is not about intellectual understanding—it’s about realizing who you truly are.

So don’t try to understand Zen. Zen can’t be understood. Go the path of not knowing and have faith in it.

When you try to grasp Zen concepts, you create mental objects and ideas and get trapped in the very ideas you are trying to let go of. Be aware of that.

It’s important to stop identifying with these concepts and turn inward, asking yourself who it is that wants to understand Zen. Do it again and again, until you realize it.

And if you still don’t resonate with Zen, just look for another teaching. There are many spiritual teachings that can guide you on your way to finally knowing yourself.

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