Oakville Zen Meditation
Great Faith is not about being complesant, having blind & rigid belief in unproven dogmas or sort of deities surrendered by supernatural events. Instead, it is a deep, and profound double trust.
1)In your own inherent genuine nature called “True Self” or “Buddha Nature” which already exists in all of us when, eventually we discover our awakened stage .
2) It also means trust in your practice despite its good and bad times.
Discovering our awakened stage is achieved by simply experiencing genuine realities of the current moment through a non- conceptual mental process. Trust-based Awakening is observing, then accepting, then experiencing things / people as they are in the moment w/o fictional- driven daydreaming.
It is simply “Being w/o minding, like a mirror” and that the path of Zen can help you realize it.
Without this double trust, you wouldn't bother meditating daily in the first place, nor would you survive the periods of boredom, tiredness, frustration, despair, and physical discomfort that inevitably arise.
Sounds counter-intuitive, but Great Doubt does not mean blind refusal, cynical skepticism, paralysis, or ignorance.
It is the constructive, penetrating state of pragmatic questioning that shatters our initial intellectual understanding, concepts, opinion, and labelling about Zen.
It is the willingness to look at life and question the different components of Zen philosophy and practice, without settling comfortably on textbooks’ writings, podcasts, or carrying mere intellectual heavy suitcases.
Simply put, to doubt is to be curious w/o rejecting.
If Great Faith gives you the ground to stand on, Great Doubt is the engine that drives you forward.
Great doubt acts as the ultimate purifier, burning away the illusions, labels, and biases we use to filter reality.
When the Buddha said: “ Don’t believe in what I said” he meant “ check it out, and explore with an open mind". Doubt is not rebuttal nor rebuke.
It does not mean an ego -striving behavior, nor aggressive self-punishment or even burnout.
Also translated as Great Perseverance or Great Will, this is the fierce, unshakeable resolve to push through to clarity, no matter how long it takes or how difficult, and discouraging it gets.
In Zen literature, this is often compared to a warrior charging into battle or someone whose head is on fire desperately seeking water. It is a focused, steady but passionate energy.
Zen practice isn't always peaceful or calming; it can be psychologically demanding, frustrating, and deeply unsettling.
Great Determination is what keeps your spine straight when your mind wants to quit or distract itself.
The three pillars exist in a dynamic, interconnected, self-correcting balance. If any single one becomes dominant without the others, the practice skews into unhealthy territory.
When all three are present, they feed into one another: your Faith gives you the stability to bear the weight of Great Doubt which provides the chalenge, and finally Great Determination providing the energy needed to carry all the way to a breakthrough.
Visualize the 3 Pillars as the angles of a perfect equilateral triangle.60 degrees each 🙂
