UnMind 52. Trusting Mind Quartet 4: Precious Mirror Samadhi

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What is so precious
About the mirror of Mind?
You cannot break it!

Finally we come to the third and last of the series, the middle-length liturgical poem from Ch’an Buddhism, Hokyo Zammai — Precious Mirror Samadhi by Tozan Ryokai, the founder of Soto Zen in China. Twice as long as Sandokai but only two-thirds of Hsinhsinming, we will have to compact our comments to squeeze it into a reasonably brief segment. So, jumping right in:

The Dharma of thusness is intimately transmitted by buddhas and ancestors
Now you have it; preserve it well

We can find sameness in the differing first lines, “The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences,” and especially “The mind of the great sage of India is intimately transmitted from the West to the East.” Preserving it well may have been more of an issue in the 800s than in the 600s and 700s. It is still an issue today. But are you sure that you really have it?

A silver bowl filled with snow; a heron hidden in the moon
Taken as similar they are not the same
Not distinguished their places are known

Again, I come down on the side of interpreting these compelling images as derived from direct experience, rather than abstract references to symbolism. The change in awareness and apprehension of nondual reality that come about through zazen may not be an object of perception, as Master Dogen reminds us, but it changes perception itself. That is, we recover our original mind, before we distorted it with delusional interpretation of experience. The difference, however, is so subtle as to be nearly indistinguishable, like the whiteness of the snow and the silver bowl, or the heron and the moon. Their separate places are known precisely when they are seen as inseparable.

The meaning does not reside in the words, but a pivotal moment brings it forth

A “pivotal moment” is experienced, not conceptually grasped through words, however eloquent.

Move and you are trapped; miss and you fall into doubt and vacillation

Moving toward it is a move away from it. Or, like the rainbow, causes it to recede ever further away. If you miss this simple point, you find yourself in doubt and vacillation. But the condition is not terminal.

Turning away and touching are both wrong for it is like a massive fire

It is burning, burning, burning, as Buddha taught. Like the sinner-man on the day of judgment, there is no escape. Everywhere you turn, there it is. But you cannot touch it, without getting burnt. It can, and will, touch you, however. The familiar nimbus, the flaming “halo” of Buddhist iconography, illustrates this. The increasing frequency and intensity of forest fires are manifesting it globally.

Just to portray it in literary form is to stain it with defilement

Actually it cannot be stained, and it cannot be reduced to defilement. But you can make this mistake. Nonetheless, you must say something, if you are to encourage others to practice Zen.

In darkest night it is perfectly clear; in the light of dawn it is hidden

Recalling Master Kisen’s darkness in light and light in darkness, it is more apparent when we are not overwhelmed with light and sound. This is why practice places are tuned to moderate levels of stimulus.

It is a standard for all things; its use removes suffering

There is nothing against which it can be measured. All the measurables we can come up with are arbitrary, against its immeasurable, all-penetrating clarity. Its use enables us to discern the difference between natural and intentional suffering, the former being built-in, the latter being unnecessary. In which case, even natural suffering is found to be no longer unbearable.

Although it is not constructed it is not beyond words

Words can point to it, but point to everything that is not it. It is the source of language, though as Master Sosan assures us, it is ultimately beyond language. Our consciousness is independent of language. Originally, consciousness is not constructed. It takes time and some work to do that. It will take some time and work to undo it.

Like facing a precious mirror, form and reflection behold each other

What is so precious about this mirror? Ordinary mirrors were surely precious in Master Tozan’s time, being handmade, but there is something extraordinarily precious about this Zen mirror. “Form and reflection” beholding “each other” is as close to a description of the nonduality of human consciousness as may be found. Each, taken together, is clearly not “other,” but not-two, to borrow from Master Sosan.

You are not it, but in truth it is you

Lest there still be confusion about self and other, form and reflection — and which is the subset of which — he kindly slaps you in the face with it. Otherwise, it is the wave, thinking that it is the ocean.

Like a newborn child, it is fully endowed with five aspects

A reminder that even a newborn child is as close to this truth as the most aged sage. The endowment? Aggregation of form, feeling, thought, impulse and consciousness. No sentient being excepted.

No going no coming no arising no abiding

The “unborn mind,” sometimes called the “uncreate.” Because it is unconstructed, it has no definable beginning or ending point. It does not begin with birth, does not end with death. While it appears to arise, abide, change and decay, it is only permanence that can apprehend impermanence. It is change.

“Baba wawa” is anything said or not?
In the end it says nothing for the words are not yet right

Like the newborn child, it is incoherent when it comes to expressing its truth. Long before language is acquired, the full expression of reality obtains. It does not rely on our knowing it, or on what we do or say. Matsuoka Roshi used to say, “You can talk all day and never make them understand.”

In the hexagram “double fire” when main and subsidiary lines are transposed
piled up they become three, the permutations make five
like the taste of the five-flavored herb, like the five-pronged vajra

No comment. I would have to study the I Ching to offer a credible interpretation. The five-flavored herb I take to mean all five basic flavors in one magical herb. Zen is tasteless, but nutritious, like water. The vajra is the thunderbolt, so one suspects this indicates some powerful mojo. The power of true self.

Wondrously embraced within the complete, drumming and singing begin together

Drumming and singing, again, probably have some traditional interpretation. I leave that to others. I take the drumming to be the initial pulse, the heartbeat, the vibrancy and thrum of inchoate life itself. The singing then would indicate the conscious celebration of life, which finds its beginning in drumming, but manifests later, in the full awareness of consciousness. They are of the same source, but different.

Penetrate the source and travel the pathways
embrace the territory and treasure the roads

This source is to be penetrated in the inmost consciousness, the seat of existence itself. The pathways are those blazed by our forefathers, both in the everyday sense of society’s history, and the particular directions established by our Zen ancestors. As Matsuoka Roshi would say, “The Zen person has no problem following the sidewalks.” The maps handed down to us are not the territory, as the saying goes, but we can treasure the roads, both internal and external, that lead to our original, true home.

You would do well to respect this; do not neglect it
Natural and wondrous, it is not a matter of delusion or enlightenment
Within causes and conditions, time and season, it is serene and illuminating

Cynics and skeptics abound, both today and in ancient times. It is difficult to accept that our birthright is so immediately accessible through so simple a method as just sitting still enough, long enough. But if we neglect this approach, in favor of the more intriguing and entertaining on offer, we may regret it. It is natural and wondrous, not artificial and ultimately disappointing. But the wonder of it is that it has nothing to do with delusion and enlightenment, other than sorting out our own delusion regarding enlightenment. No matter what the causes and conditions of this particular existence, no matter what season of the year, or of this life, we can return to this source, which is always there, serenely illuminating the reality of nonduality.

So minute it enters where there is no gap; so vast it transcends dimension
A hairsbreadth deviation, and you are out of tune

Again the measurables, the metrics, as we say today. Teensy-tiny beyond imagining, penetrating everywhere, inseparable from the all-encompassing, and in these days they did not have electron microscopes, or the Hubble telescope. But — and this is a big but — if you deviate even a hairsbreadth, which is pretty small, you get static. Like the old-timey analog radio dial. You have to be tuned in exactly. Zazen is your tuning fork.

Now there are sudden and gradual in which teachings and approaches arise
With teachings and approaches distinguished each has its standard
Whether teachings and approaches are mastered or not, reality constantly flows

Huineng had done his thing by now, so the so-called sudden and gradual schools were a thing. Various teachings and approaches had arisen throughout history, so these were just the poster-boys at present. Once we stray from the natural and wondrous, we have the corporate standards in their place. But no matter how thoroughly we master them, and please their masters, it doesn’t change a thing. What they are pointing to is, and was, flowing in front of your face, all along. And behind your face, as well.

Outside still and inside trembling like tethered colts or cowering rats
the ancients grieved for them and offered them the Dharma
Led by their inverted views they take black for white
When inverted thinking stops the affirming mind naturally accords

You can spend the rest of your life as if you are actually sitting in zazen, or shikantaza, on the cushion, when you are not. Tethered to the practice out of fear, or other unworthy and/or mistaken motives, true masters see your suffering and try to help you overcome your ignorance. The monkey mind can believe that black is white, and vice-versa. As Matsuoka Roshi also said, “Some people can talk themselves out of existence.” But there is a natural way out of this dilemma. Let the monkey lie down, and take a nap. Voila!

If you want to follow in the ancient tracks, please observe the sages of the past
One on the verge of realizing the buddha way contemplated a tree for ten kalpas
Like a battle-scarred tiger; like a horse with shanks gone grey

To want to follow in the ancient tracks, of course, implies that one already has some idea of where they purport to lead. We can no longer actually observe most of the ancient sages, of course, as they were not recorded for posterity in any medium other than their imputed, spoken words, and then much more than secondhand once written down. However, we trust the record to the degree that it can yield guidance concerning blind alleys and dead-ends to avoid. One of these is looking for the quick fix. This sage, reputed to be Shakyamuni, perhaps in a former lifetime, contemplated a tree for a long, long time. Endless lifetimes, in fact. The tree itself would have to be ancient, of course, much older than a horse with shanks gone grey. Maybe a redwood. But contemplation was apparently not all serene and blissful. Else, whence come the tiger’s battle scars? Been there, done that — seen it all, somehow survived.

Because some are vulgar, jeweled tables and ornate robes
Because others are wide-eyed, cats and white oxen

Back to the quality of student we might expect, these days. Some are impressed by outer pomp and circumstance. But a robe can also hide a lot of sins. “Wrapping ourselves in Buddha’s teachings,” as we chant when donning the robe, is already true, in your birthday suit. But in either case, you do not necessarily truly know it, becoming “wide-eyed.” “Cats and white oxen” are two answers to the popular question, “What kind of animal would you want to be?” As opposed to monkeys and wayward oxen, they represent the realization of true Dharma, which may be wild and natural, but also tamable.

With his archer’s skill Yi hit the mark at a hundred paces
But when arrows meet head-on how could it be a matter of skill?

Whether arrows meeting head-on was a common trope of the times, or an unattributed sampling of Sekito Kisen’s original coinage of a century before, we will leave to the scholars. Yi apparently was an archer famous for his skill, but arrow points coming together — e.g. form and emptiness — is none of our doing. We must go beyond doing, to the point of non-doing, for nonduality to become clear.

The wooden man starts to sing; the stone woman gets up dancing

If it — the insight that Zen points to — does become apparent, we are told, even insentient, inanimate objects begin preaching and illustrating the living Dharma. Matsuoka Roshi said, “That stone in the garden is alive!” The world comes to life with this insight, including our own life, the “roar of a lion in a hollow tree.” Like waking from a dream that seems real, as in the old standard. We have to hollow out the tree, however.

It is not reached by feelings or consciousness; how could it involve deliberation?

It bears repeating, again, that this awakening is birthed in shikantaza, “objectless meditation” — which seems an oxymoron. How can there be meditation, if there is no object? How can there be a subject, if there is no object for the subject to reflect? In form and reflection beholding each other, there is no room for anything else, such as an observer. No observer, no feelings. No feelings, no consciousness, as such. Deliberation outlived its utility long before, jettisoned with all the other excess baggage.

Ministers serve their lords; children obey their parents
Not obeying is not filial; failure to serve is no help

A nod to Confucianism, but now in the context of personal liberation, liberation from all the above. It does not help to willfully avoid the sidewalks, trampling on the lawns and flower beds. One cannot be a minister, or even a son or daughter, in name only. Both parent and child must function as such, or give up the claim to filial piety, with all that that would entail in a Confucian society. If ministers do not serve their lords, they better have a really good reason. Simply failing to serve helps no one. We all serve one lord or another.

With practice hidden, function secretly like a fool, like an idiot
Just to continue in this way is called the host within the host

If we make a big deal of our practice, showing up fully robed at inappropriate times and places, for instance, or making a show of our understanding of Zen in conversations about other issues, we are not understanding the natural and wondrous nature of Zen. Everyone is already practicing Zen, whether they know it or not, for Zen isn’t anything in itself. It is simply the living out of life in the most conscious way possible. Functioning secretly, with regard to Zen, we are more likely to have a positive influence on others.

A fool, or an idiot, here, simply means someone who does not care what impression is made upon others, and largely lives outside the mainstream of cultural norms and memes regarding fame and fortune, reputation, and so on. In doing so, one manifests the innermost, most intimate understanding — the host within the host — which naturally informs all interactions with the guest, any guest, whether the inner chattering monkey, or transactions with others in the normal course of events.

Skillful or expedient means stem most naturally, and wholesomely, from the inner sanctum of the true self, where it is clear that there is “neither self nor other-than-self,” in this not-two road to nonduality. You cannot tell a book by its cover. So, no need to go changing our dust jacket to impress others.