It teaches that problems result from three evils" anger, greed and ignorance, all born of faulty conditioning of the mind. The astrology chart is a mandala that can be used as both an object of meditation and a way to discover the cause of our problems. The planets, signs and houses indicate clearly the mental conditioning that has distorted our way of perceiving life and is causing difficulty. For now let's just consider the signs of the zodiac and how they may reveal our individual dharma, or truth. The energy of the signs, as we know, can be expressed both positively and negatively. Negative expression occurs when we are acting or reacting in a conditioned state. Astrology and Zen together can help us decondition ourselves and express the positive energy of the signs.
The fixed signs indicate where an individual may become ensnared in the tentacles of greed in its many forms. Taurus relates to values, and when expressed positively, results in well-formed value judgments that lead to good decision making and goal formation. Zen turns our conditional way of setting values upside down. When Master Tung-shan was asked, "What is Buddha-nature (or the highest value)?" he immediately answered, "Three pounds of flax" (something seemingly valueless). Here clearly the master saw the conditioning of the monk's mind that led him to believe that Buddha-nature was just one more thing to pursue and possess in order to enhance his existence. Leo seeks to shine and be the best it can be. But when not fully aware of their inner processes, Leos can be too greedy for love, appreciation and acknowledgment. Yet the Sun, Leo's ruler, is also the key to personal salvationthe path one must walk. In Zen, when you give yourself completely to life, letting nature act through you, you are said to be a golden-maned lion. No other sign of the zodiac is more associated with desire than Scorpio. Scorpio is known for its intensity and the desire to be consumed totally by the object of one's passion. In Zen, this deep interpenetrating focus is known as Samadhitotal absorption of the mind in the practice of meditation, the individual merged with All, the One. Aquarius represents rebellion and innovation, and those who seek out the different, the shocking and the unique. Positive Aquarian expression is humanitarian and intuitive. A conditioned expression results in people who are greedy for attention by appearing too unique, too special. The Zen spirit is very Aquarian in nature, however, and enlightenment comes in a typically Uranian flash. Zen masters throughout history constantly used techniques that shocked and jolted their students. The remedy for psychological ills stemming from greed is love. Through unconditional love we no longer desire to possess and accumulate things for ourselves, but rather our focus is on what we can give to others.
Pisces energy is pure, unconditional love. But no sign has a greater potential for succumbing to delusion. Likewise, the Twelfth House, associated with Pisces, is the place where the mind either seeks enlightenment or becomes lost in illusions. Pisces is meditation, pure consciousness, and the place where we experience the truth of the words of Hui-Neng, the Sixth Patriarch (638-713 AD), "From the first, not a thing is." The cure for ignorance is the cultivation of wisdom. Following the Zen saying that "those who know, speak not, while those who speak know not," we must listen for the voice from within.