Role of Reason in Spiritual Practice

 In Tea Words Volume II, Master Sheng Yen continues to explore the idea that Chan cannot be communicated through words alone. Sometimes as Master Sheng Yen notes, a practitioner with a question will be given an "indirect" answer such as a shout, in order to get the student to move beyond words and reason in arriving at an awareness of true mind. As Master Sheng Yen notes: "These methods are designed to help students to drop the habit of reasoning themselves to true mind. Reasoning will not free you from mind, thought, or consciousness." (p.15)
   I believe that life itself is always pointing to the mind, and it does this by always defying the supposed rules of reason. Often, reason boxes people in: it gives thinkers the impression that the world can be predicted by thought alone, and this gives an illusion of a fixed essence that can be controlled. People even seek fortune tellers under the implicit belief that consulting a seer will allow them to trace the exact path of their life. Why is this so compelling? Again, I think it's because people want to be able to read their life in a predictable manner, when in fact what life points to is something that cannot be seen or reasoned.
    One of the compelling ideas that comes to mind while reading this passage is that Chan indeed has to take us out of our heads, to know that there is no separation between what is "up here" and "out there". Is it possible that life, when engaged openly, can do what Chan masters set out to do as well, only in a more gradual way that twists and turns? I leave it to the reader to contemplate to what extent their lives are their "teachers" who open them to their true mind.

Sheng Yen (2013), Tea Words Volume II. Elmhurst, NY: Dharma Drum Publications.