Dear Harada Roshi The teachings often emphasize the importance of faith in Zen practice almost as a tautology i.e. that faith is a necessary predicate of deepening. Yet belief is difficult for some people. In this world there are so many things that people believe that seem obviously false even foolish and yet people at least appear to believe them fully. Outside of experiencing something like kensho how can it truly be known then that Buddhism and zen is not just another belief that man has made up? How can it be known without experiencing it that the Buddha Dharma is true? My question is whether or not one can truly practice when the mind harbors such an uncertainty or stated another way if following attentively the mind of practice may still deepen even with doubt. Thank you.

Even science is being driven by what is that force behind all. The question always is: What is the common base. For example 1 + 1 = 2 is a basic law. H2O is water all over the world. Science is about looking at the phenomena and finding a law for it.

The same is true for the law of the mind, there is an unchanging law of mind. But not like science, mind cannot be grasped and pointed at, but rather what is it that perceives these phenomena. This mind which can perceive and analyze, but can this mind be perceived and analyzed?

Like a mirror which can reflect the world but is not the world. This example of the mirror makes it more understandable. Our mind works just like a mirror, it straightforwardly reflects the world, clear and pure, without emotions and ego memories.

We can analyse our body, thus ít is outside of mind. Emotions, memories, knowledge – all are outside of our mind. Digging into this further, we get closer to awareness only. Finally we will reach the experience where we are aware of the world, where we can reflect the world, and then we find that clear seeing eye which cannot be reflected.

This is called the master within the master. All religious teachings come from this experience. This master within the master is not two, thus it is called the truth of mind. This is the experience of Kensho. This is the base of all beings on this planet. For you as well, this is the only thing you can rely on.