Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on October 23, 2004.
Sometimes, when I am sitting at my desk working, I stop and think to myself, "Am I happy?"
When I think about it, my answer, like most people, is "No, not really." Like most people, I wish I could have more money, more this or better that. As I compare my life to what I "think" or “conceptualize" happiness to be, of course, my life doesn't hold up at all. I could have a better car, nicer house, and on and on and on or the things we “define" as to what happiness is.
However, if I don't think about whether I am happy or not and if I don’t compare myself to the "ideal" stuck in my head of what happiness is - I am actually quite happy after all.
Perhaps, happiness is something that we “are” and not something we “think.”
Practice is like this too, as are many things in life; we cannot hold them up to conceptualization by our calculating brains but must just realize them in life as a part of life and that is all.
This is what is meant in Zen, I think (haha), by mushin or "no mind."
We cannot practice blindly and thoughtlessly and indulge ourselves. We must not think and be more like the old adage, "Before entering the dojo, cut off your head and leave it outside." How true! How true!
Please try to be happy instead of thinking about happiness and achieve, "thought with no-thought" in your practice and in your daily life.