In Zen practice, the expression “Way Seeking Mind” means entering a path where the sacred and the mundane are not different. This is a simple, and profound insight, and way of living. Here are a few thoughts on developing a Way Seeking Mind:

For starters, you may experience being alive as a miracle; you may feel that our lives are often difficult and at times impossible. You deeply understand how short our lives are and that we are each on this planet for an extremely limited time. These experiences often come through feeling pain. The pain may be from ending a relationship, from losing a job or a business, from the death of a loved one, or from any difficult change in your life. Pain is often the stimulus that can open our hearts and minds. Our pain opens us to see our fundamental connection with all other human beings on the planet.

At the same time you deeply understand the possibility for change, the potential for finding real freedom by acknowledging and loosening habitual thinking and actions. You come to understand that the solution is not more money, fame, control, or power. You acknowledge that the only way to find real peace and happiness, for yourself and for others, is coming to a deeper understanding of yourself. You realize that the seeds to your own happiness and freedom lie within you. You know that you and the world are vast and mysterious, and you are determined to penetrate the issues of life and death, suffering and happiness.

Possessing a way seeking mind is the same as having the insight that freedom and happiness are possible and that much effort is required. You come to understand that your work is your life and that your life is your work. You see that work is an opportunity to go deeper, to find satisfaction, to awaken to your true nature.

It is difficult for me to pinpoint what first brought me to Zen practice, my original experience of the way-seeking mind. Was it my childhood vow to help my father through his mental illness, the pain of my first girlfriend leaving me and exposing my vulnerability, or seeing the television show Kung Fu (about a young boy receiving spiritual instruction from a Buddhist priest) and thinking, “that’s how I want to live my life.” Or perhaps it was reading Alan Watt’s book The Way of Zen when I was a freshman in college and realizing that nothing else seemed more important then freeing myself from habitual thinking so that I could help others.

When did you first uncover your way-seeking mind?