Post-kensho practice and enlightenment on the Zen path

Good friends, post-kensho practice and enlightenment is what taking the path of Zen is all about. If the path of Zen called only for achieving a state of emptiness or pure awareness or some other static condition, it would be the station of Zen rather than the path of Zen. You should not follow teachings that urge you to cling to the bliss of emptiness, making heroic efforts to detach from the world or sustain ‘pure awareness'. That would be what Dogen calls passing time in vain. Once you have awakened to your true nature, you should follow the instruction of all the sages and never waste another day.

Good friends, the truth itself is not separate from you here and now. To fail to continue along the Zen path of practice and enlightenment for the sake of the truth is to fail to realize or make real, your own true self. Once you have awakened to the true nature of your own mind through the realization of nonthinking, and learned to use your observing prajna, you should apply it in order to master the buddha-dharma or the truth of reality.

The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing