FORM

The spiritual path is equally not about asceticism or renouncing the material world (that, too, becomes its own attachment). Instead, Zen teaches in the 'Ox Herding' sequence that the final stage is a 'return to the marketplace with helping hands.'

The below selections from ‘the marketplace' highlight a variety of forms that, when appropriately recognized not as sources of contentment, but expressions of it, can contribute to bringing us closer to the formless, and serving to cultivate our 'helping hands' in our own unique ways.