In Zen we lose the question

“For if nirvana is the state in which the attempt to grasp reality has wholly ceased, through the realization of its impossibility, it will obviously be absurd to think of nirvana itself as something to be grasped or attained.” ~ Alan Watts, The Way of Zen, “Mahayana Buddhism,”                                                              

There was a post on a Zen page on Facebook asking about limited consciousness.  My reply was that “in Zen we lose the question”.  In a subsequent reply to that post, I wrote that, “I find the whole concept of existence incomprehensible, something our brains (based on our evolution) are not designed to comprehend. Coming to that conclusion, the question of unlimited consciousness seems irrelevant.”

I’m not a scientist, but when one examines simple life forms, it might seem logical that, over eons, our brains evolved from a primitive stimulus and response system.  We are not designed to answer “what is reality?”  Our nervous system is all about propagating the species, in other words, staying alive and reproducing.  If anything, it is the ego, the guy inside all of us doing the talking that possesses the notion that a human brain is capable of understanding everything.  But is our brain equipped to realize – and I use that word “realize” because enlightenment is a realization rather than an understanding – can we realize that the realm of existence, our perceived reality, is beyond our ability to comprehend it?

If you indeed do come to that realization, you do “lose the question” and instead awaken to Hui-Neng’s “From the first not a thing is.”