Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘When I was in my early twenties, I practiced so I could rid myself of vexations like guilt and fear. I sought after freedom and awakening. I tried everything, from prolonged seated meditation (sleeping not lying down), to repentance prostrations (several hundred a day), to reading Chan texts. The more I did those things, the more entangled I became. I was seeking and rejecting. Then something shifted; I gave up all of the contrivance and just offered my life to each task at hand—body like a rag, mind like a mirror in all that I did, offering everything to support the monastery and others.’ (from Lion’s Roar)