The everyday life of the Zen patriarch consists merely of eating rice and drinking tea. This 'eating rice and drinking tea' has a very deep meaning in the final analysis; one thing it means is that an enlightened individual is one who has learned not to kill ordinary acts such as eating plain rice and drinking plain tea. 'Eating rice and drinking tea' means, of course, ordinary, everyday life, and consequently not to kill these acts means not to kill our ordinary, everyday lives. There are two ways we can kill them. First, we can kill them by living in a semi-stupor, in unawareness, mechanically, stupidly, as if we were drugged. Secondly, we can kill them by discriminating, devaluing and demeaning, which occurs when we actively prefer other situations which we consider more valuable. To yearn for lobster and fine wine while having plain rice and tea is to discriminate against the rice and tea, which kills them. To want to be in some other place kills this place. To want to be entertained instead of painting the garage is to kill work. This killing is the opposite of giving life to these things, for giving life is understanding nothing more than what we are, what we do, and where we do it is good enough. They are more than good enough; they are perfect. Our problem is that we kill so much of our lives in the expectation that there is something better someplace else. This is delusion.
Francis Dojun Cook
