Zen Story 
Joshu asked Nansen, “What is the Way?”
“Ordinary mind is the Way,” Nansen replied.
“Shall I try to seek after it?” Joshu asked.
“If you try for it, you will become separated from it,” responded Nansen.
“How can I know the Way unless I try for it?” persisted Joshu.
Nansen said, “The Way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion; not knowing is confusion. When you have really reached the true Way beyond doubt, you will find it vast and boundless as outer space. How can it be talked about on the level of right and wrong?”
With these words, Joshu came to a sudden realization.
Fickle Mind
It's raining right now outside my window. It's been raining all day, and I've been waiting for it to stop so that I can go out and make some errands.
But the rain simply will not stop. I could put on my raincoat and brave the weather, but I keep thinking - a few more minutes, and it will let up. I've been saying this to myself for several hours now.
This day is not living up to my expectations. But now I hear a bird singing: the rain has slowed and stopped. I hesitate to jump from my seat, thinking that once I get out there it will begin to pour again.
In these few moments I get to know again just how fickle my mind is, and how much I want the world to behave according to my plans.
I confront this tendency every day, and when I can sit quietly and just listen to the thoughts and their self-centered patterns, it can even be amusing. So much energy devoted to me! And yet when I look for something else, for some selflessness, emptiness, or higher state of being, it just ends up being little 'ole me looking for all that greatness.
I again find myself face to face with another set of expectations, that under all the selfish thoughts is some kind of spiritual person who is wise and enlightened. At this point I don't know which way to turn, and I feel in-between the spiritual and the mundane.
I'm dissatisfied with my mundane thoughts and desires, and yet I haven't achieved some great liberation from them. I know there's a way to truth and freedom, and I try to follow it, but I often feel far from it.
Striving For Big Mind
Joshu asked his famous question with a similar sense of discomfort. As any sensitive person feels when setting out on a spiritual path, he was a little lost and unsure of himself. He sought out help from the great teacher of his generation, Nansen.
The answer was not so helpful at first. Joshu knows his ordinary mind, and it was just that mind of expectations and selfishness which had been causing all of his problems. So he figured it must be some other kind of mind, some Big Mind, which he must strive to discover.
This was a natural idea, and we all find ourselves looking for something special, thinking that the spiritual life must involve a totally different or reformed "me", an egoless ego, a very bright enlightened self.
We instinctively carry such rarified notions of a spiritual life so that it becomes nearly impossible to live up to. But surely Nansen didn't mean that ordinary mind was the opposite of all these grand ideas, just the mind that we experience day in and day out?
Path Of Presence
Zen is the path of non-duality, of seeing the unity of opposites in life, and of appreciating this whole as the truth of the very life you are living. This truth is experienced from moment to moment, as we are aware of each change and experience in our minds and bodies.
The practice of Zen is to appreciate things as they are, to receive your life and to tune your awareness into the experience you are having.
It is the path of presence. Instead of grasping the pleasant and pushing away the painful, the Zen student stands fully with the experience and explores its reality. What is happening here and now? What is this moment about? What are my patterned reactions?
How can I open my mind to this? What is it teaching me?
Nansen did not affirm the everyday mind of desires, hopes and aversions as the Way, nor did he reject it. On the other hand, he didn't bring forth some vision of an exalted transcendent mind.
Nansen explained the inherent inexpressibility of what we take to be the great Way, or life itself. When we search for something, we have an idea of what we are searching for. That idea cuts us off from what we may find on the way.
If we think our ordinary minds are enlightened, then we've stopped the search, and the path becomes stale and dry. Yet if I search for something else, somewhere else, then I'm missing what's with me all the time - my own body and mind, as they are.
Trust
There is another way, however, and it is the way that cannot be defined apart from saying that we have trust. We can feel small or big, we can feel confused or clear, we can feel wise or ignorant, and still trust that we are on a path of awakening.
It takes a moment of awareness, of coming back to the present of what you are experiencing, to bring it into perspective. We breathe, and observe our lives.
Suzuki Roshi would say that the path is "nothing special." He didn't mean that it wasn't wonderful and incredible, but that if we make it into something special, something outside of our ordinary lives, then we will constantly be dividing life into "spiritual" and "not-spiritual."
By levelling the playing field, he meant that it was all worthy of our note, and it was all equally the great way. This is an attitude of trust we cultivate as we go, so that even when we are feeling lost in the difficulties, we can still summon that trust and appreciate in our consciousness that it is part of our path.
I am finishing writing, and the clouds have parted. The sun is peeking through the blue holes, and it seems that the rain has ended for the day. I can go out and ride around, just as I knew I would at some point.