UnMind 65. Keizan Quartet 3: Pure Meditation III

SUBSCRIBE TO UNMIND:

RSS FEED | APPLE PODCASTS | GOOGLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY

Contradictory —
that is pure meditation:
it is in your mind.

In the last segment we ended with Keizan’s “do not become involved in too many activities or too many studies,” weaving a complex web of contradictions in Zen practice, in particular those that inevitably arise when we attempt to share the Dharma with others. As Master Dogen says, “Thus the realm of self-awakening and awakening others invariably holds the mark of realization….” Without genuine insight, we are forever lost in the monkey mind’s niggling contradictions. Now the master veers back to zazen itself, with some down-to-earth suggestions, presumably based on his personal experience:

By no means sit in meditation in extreme brightness or dark, in extreme cold or heat, or the like, to say nothing of the places frequented by entertainers or gamblers. Within a monastery, at the home of good friends, deep in some forest or glen can serve you for this. By blue waters, in green hills are places to stroll quietly; near valleys, under trees are places for clearing the mind. Beholding impermanence, do not ignore it, for this encourages the mind to search the Way.

Again, the strange reference to meditating in public places of disrepute. We are left to wonder if there were schools extant that made public displays of their devotion in inappropriate settings. Or perhaps Keizan is putting his students on notice that if they are spotted in such places, it will not be for the purposes of Zen. Note that he does suggest the remote realms of nature, for sitting or walking, and “clearing the mind.” This seems an obvious meme of all cultures, but nowadays sitting outdoors is criticized by some as not the real zazen. Sitting inside the walls of a building is definitely less distracting, but in either case, Keizan’s emphasis on impermanence is germane. It applies to the self in any circumstance.

Next, Keizan goes into the equipment and environment of meditation and ceremonial halls, similar to the instructions in Fukanzazengi. It raises the question as to whether or not this seminal paper on zazen was available or not to the monastics just a few generations after Dogen. We get the impression that Keizan’s intent here is to cover any gaps in the promulgation of “pure meditation” that may have been perceived at the time, or perhaps only to flesh it out with more homely language to make it more accessible or, as we say today, more relatable to his followers. A lot can change in a couple of generations.

He does offer some mental attitudinal exercises, such as “Constantly dwelling with great benevolence and compassion, transfer the immeasurable spiritual merits of your seated meditation to all sentient beings.” This may be the root source of our Transfer of Merit, or Eko in Japanese, performed at the end of Zen ceremonies. And “Do not give rise to arrogance, conceit, or pride in your knowledge of the Dharma, for such attitudes lie outside the Way and are the methods of ordinary, everyday people.” Again, by criticizing “ordinary, everyday people,” Keizan’s message can be criticized as prompting the very us-and-them mentality that might lead to “arrogance, conceit, or pride.” Again, the inescapable koan.

Then, before going into some recommended hygienic practices around zazen, “…rinse your eyes and wash your feet before sitting,” he nails it:

Just sit, without “doing” anything: this is the essential technique for practicing pure meditation.

Finally, we cut to the chase. Non-doing follows on the heels of non-thinking, Dogen’s coinage. If we can regress to the point of non-thinking in zazen, neither thinking nor not-thinking, the next way station would be non-doing. This is akin to Dogen’s “being actualized within non-thinking, being manifested within non-interacting” from his brief poem, Zazenshin. If the effect of zazen is actualized in the normal state of awareness that he termed non-thinking, then it is manifested fully within non-interacting, which would be equivalent to non-doing, on the level of intention. Needless to say, actualization is something we can recognize and foster, through embracing non-thinking as our new normal; but manifestation is something totally outside the realm of doing. It is nothing-doing. It can happen, but we cannot make it. Referring to this as a “technique,” a translator’s choice, re-engages the duality dilemma. A technique is something we can apply intentionally. Non-thinking and non-doing are the absence of intent. In terms of intentional approaches to doing, Keizan provides a couple of memorable tropes:

Ten times having the urge to speak, let nine go past; let the moss grow around your mouth. Be like a fan in winter, or be like a wind chime hanging in space, which does not query which way the wind blows. Such are weathervanes for one who would tread the Way.

Shades of Master Dylan again. You don’t need a weathervane to know which way the Zen wind blows. Paraphrasing, for those of you old enough to remember. Conjuring images instead of laying out the logic of the practice, Master Keizan appeals to our intuition, our sense of channeling the experience of the insentient, the “sermon of no words.”

Pure meditation does not concern itself with teachings, practices, or realization and it encompasses the virtues of all three… Even though teaching is done with regard to pure meditation, it is not customary teaching; it is called “the way of direct pointing to Buddha Nature and single Transmission from mind to mind,” in which the Master gives his whole being to voicing the Truth; his words, from the first, do not have chapter and verse. It is the place where notions and ideas have come to an end, and the limits of reasoning are surpassed — one word encompasses the universe, even without the slightest shred of praise.

Here we have the bifurcation of Zen practice and zazen. In meditation, there is no further need for all the trappings of Zen practice, as Master Dogen reminds us in Jijuyu Zammai (Self-fulfilling Samadhi). The samadhi that we experience in zazen fulfils itself — it does not need anything to support it. Zen practice, however, involves the interaction with others, in the zendo, the monastery or practice center, and in the community at large. Here is where the necessity arises for agreed-upon standards of practice, in order that the community maintains harmony and can practice zazen in a conducive social environment. Sitting in your cave alone, not so much.

Keizan justifies his teaching as a full-throated effort to convey the essence of the teaching in the context of the method of meditation, understanding from the beginning that it has nothing to do with “notions and ideas” of a rational nature. Indeed, it surpasses language, as we learned from Hsinhsinming. One word, one gesture, expresses the whole of the truth, for those who have the eyes to hear and the ears to see. The underlined and, here and above, highlights the conjunction of both sides of the story. There is no actual separation of zazen and Zen practice, but all practices are not equal.

Keizan further explores and explains this: “On the one hand, A Master may speak of practice, but it is a natural, spontaneous practice free from defiling passions. It is called “having nothing that the body needs to do; having nothing the mouth needs to chant, even to itself; having nothing that the mind needs to seek after” — these are the Three Actions, which with practice become immaculate naturally. There is no special magic in doing specific things, even zazen; chanting incantations; or thinking better thoughts (another bow to Master Dylan). He extends further: “…the six sense faculties are naturally immaculate, without stain or flaw.” But he dismisses the traditional ways of interpreting the Four Noble Truths, the Twelvefold Chain, Six Paramitas and Ten Thousand Good Deeds of Bodhisattvas; they are trumped by “’the seeing of the Eternal before one’s very eyes’, which is therefore called ‘being a Buddha.’ Just reside at ease in the samadhi which the Buddhas themselves accepted and used.”

Then, “On the other hand, a Master may speak of personal confirmation, yet there is no confirming and there is confirmation.” After this apparent contradiction, he again effusively praises this as the “lord of samadhis” and curiously mentions “It surpasses any social rules of ‘being worldly’ or ‘being saintly”; It lays bare the emotional thinking behind ‘delusion versus enlightenment.’ How could this not be confirmation of Supreme Enlightenment?”

On that last, seeing is believing. We cannot take this at his word, even though we do not disbelieve. If and when we accede to this view ourselves, we may transcend the “worldly” and “saintly,” but up until then we live in separate worlds. Confirmation, if it is real, is not to be found in words, however eloquent. He also amplifies upon Dogen’s point that in zazen, all Precepts are already fulfilled:

Also, pure meditation does not stand against the Precepts, mindfulness, or wise discernment. Rather it combines with these three aspects of spiritual training…. When seated in pure meditation, we observe that there is no duality whatsoever; we cast aside the multitude of things and bring all conditions to rest. Neither the Teachings of the Buddhas nor the teachings of the world dominate us; emotional attachments to the Way and worldly feelings are both left behind. There is no “right and wrong,” no “good and evil,” for what is there to resist or cease from? This is what the Precepts that go beyond mental characterization are.

Now he seems to be cribbing directly from Fukanzazengi. Dogen advises to “set aside all everyday concerns, think neither good nor evil, right or wrong.” But Keizan is making a stronger statement, declaring that, actually, there is no right, wrong, good, or evil. But we should remember this is not a social motto, but only to be applied to us personally, reflecting our reality in the Zen mirror. This is not a rationale for tolerating injustice, or allowing oneself or others to become a doormat. It is necessary to proceed to this zero point, what I refer to as the “singularity of consciousness,” in order that we can shed our sentimental interpretation of societal and Buddhist teachings, along with all other confusion. This is passing the “event horizon” on the way to awakening. At the heart of the “Black Hole” of reality, none of these conditions obtain. When we return, however, nothing has really changed.

In the next segment, the last on Keizan Zenji, we will see what he as to say about mindfulness and wise discernment, the remaining two “aspects of spiritual training” he mentions. Until then, please take up his suggestions regarding pure meditation — which phrase, by the way, is not capitalized, indicating an attitude of humility towards something quite ordinary — in other words, the humble practice of zazen.