One theme in Zen is that to become enlightened you must know your true nature. This was frustrating and eluding me until I realized that my true nature is not to become enlightened.

There are some nice ideas from zen. In Hindu as well as Buddhist thought there is mention of being and becoming. Of the action and the object. The thought and thinker. It all seems to come down to there are two natures, things and actions. Which is summed in the two words being and becoming. Things exist. Or they are coming into existence, though to be coming into existence is to exist. The action is not the thing and the thing is not the action. Everything is. Also everything does. (Action does not always imply movement.)

I've read that many times in religious literature but don't usually make the connection and realize what it means.

One thing I don't like reading in zen is how often the teachers hit their students. It was very telling in an old tale where the monk asked his master some obscure question and was hit in reply. The master said "If I do not hit you for that question the other masters will laugh at me."

Hitting is part of being a zen teacher. Being hit is part of being a zen student. Yet hitting in and of itself does not lead to enlightenment, nor does it not lead to enlightenment. It merely is what zen teachers do. Part of their true nature, rather their expected role. Pity the poor zen master.

Anyway the main message of zen, and most or all religions for that matter, is to realize your true nature. That wouldn't be a bad slogan to have sitting on a desk or on the wall to see regularly.

Sometimes I say "know thyself" and sit there with no thoughts and then go, "now what?." But if thinking is important (and thinking is part of my true nature) then it is always possible to come up with things that are not part of my nature and even some ideas of things that are. The trick is that these ideas can be simple and obvious, they do not have to be profound.

When trying to realize your true nature it is easy to look at the affectations picked up over the years, character traits, and say that is part of my true nature. While such traits will point to some aspect of our nature (there must be a reason why we have adopted them) they are often superficial. Left long enough, they become part of who we think we are. Yet it is the basic traits the underlying core that defines who we really are. Our perceptions of ourselves, our social situations, our accomplishments create judgements we bring upon ourselves. But what is it that we really are? What aspects really manifest themselves throughout?