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and so beings do not see and hear of them and do not come to understand
them. But you should understand that even though these merits are not
revealed, they are not concealed. It is unstained by concealing, revealing,
dwelling, or decay.
What is obvious to a person is usually just what they are used to.
Occasionally something stands out, something occurs, something happens that they
just don’t expect. Usually the first reaction to this is fear. If, after the fear, the
something that happened was not as bad as they came to expect or was not in fact
bad at all, then they might chuckle in relief as they go back to the round of what
they are used to. The turning of the wheel of continuous practice can seem very slow
because the endless activity which is continuously coming and going as each
moment moves so quickly it is usually barely noticed at all. And even then it’s
because a birthday has rolled round or the strangeness of a Monday morning is
somehow suddenly stark. 
The continuous practice of zazen and the Way of the Buddhas certainly does
not appear to be anything worth being interested in. Perhaps the person sees a
photograph in a news magazine about a famous singer who has been living in a Zen
monastery for a few years. “Oh, how odd. Aren’t they funny looking? Ha ha.” Or they
might have heard of Zen as something having to do with samurai, sushi, anime films
about giant robots, and stone gardens with no flowers in them. Nonetheless, they
pick up a book, or look at a web site, or see a poster announcing an introductory
workshop and there is something about this encounter that moves them. Of course,
regardless of what moved them originally, when it comes time to turn and face the
wall and do zazen, they generally lose interest. Some people however do come to
the monastery to receive an introduction to the practice. The robes the monks wear
are interesting, the Zendo looks strange and kind of like something in a movie, but
there’s no action. “Where are the samurai? When do we get some sushi? Am I
enlightened yet?” Some people are frightened not so much by the foreignness of
black robes and shaved heads but by how foreign to them everything that is said and
done is in the monastery. “Of course thoughts are just thoughts. I know that. I was
just thinking about that. What I want to know is why can’t I look around at
everybody else in the room after you hit the bell thingee?” 
Some people however are struck by the simple sensation of their hand
touching the wooden floor and how the instructors are pointing to the richness of this
simple sensation. Something about not just the environment of the monastery, not
just the conduct of the monks, not just curiosity, stirs. Something becomes evident
to them, but they don’t know what it is. They recognize it because it has been
evident here and there in odd gaps through their lives. Yet although it is recognized,
it’s difficult to say what it is. In fact, as soon as the person tries to talk to themselves
about it, it’s not there at all because they are there with all of their talking. However,
the instructions there are given about mindfulness of the breath, of opening up the
senses, are telling them very directly how to follow through on what has been
recognized.
If the person continues in their practice, they will have to move past their
memory of what originally moved them in order to progress into the ordinary world
of the Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors. Whatever became evident to them was not
all that there is to see about the continuous activity that upholds them. But to see it,
they must see it with the eyes that are the endless activity of continuous practice as
continuous practice. It is not that continuous practice and its merits hides from
them, although it can never be made into something apart from them that they can
pick up and show to others. The merit, the power, the endless energy of continuous
practice is primordially as it is, regardless of whether it is recognized or not and
regardless of the coming and going of moments of confusion and clarity. What is