Category: A Natural Mindfulness

In one of his lectures, Shunryu Suzuki spoke about the difference between “preparatory practice” and “shikantaza”, or “just sitting”:

But usually in counting breathing or following breathing, you feel as if you are doing something, you know– you are following breathing, and you are counting breathing. This is, you know, why counting breathing or following breathing practice is, you know, for us it is some preparation– preparatory practice for shikantaza because for most people it is rather difficult to sit, you know, just to sit.  (1)

Suzuki said that directing attention to the movement of breath (“following breathing… counting breathing”) has the feeling of “doing something”, and that “doing something” makes such practice only preparatory.

Although attention can be directed to the movement of breath, necessity in the movement of breath can also direct attention, as I wrote previously:

There can… come a moment when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a certain location in the body, or at a series of locations, with the ability to remain awake as the location of attention shifts retained through the exercise of presence.

There’s a frailty in the structure of the lower spine, and the movement of breath can place the point of awareness in such a fashion as to engage a mechanism of support for the spine, often in stages.

In the “question and answer” period after the lecture, Suzuki mentioned first, second and third stages in Theravadin practice:

Of course, to have good shikantaza, we have preparatory zazen. You know, from old, old time, you know, we have that technical term, konpunjo. Konpunjo means “to enter,” you know. That is started from Theravada practice, you know. To prepare for the first stage or second stage or third stage, they practice some special practice. Those practice is not the practice of the first stage or second stage or third stage, but to prepare for those stages.  (1)

Suzuki’s assertion that practicing some special practice is not the same as practicing concentration accords well with Gautama’s teaching. With regard to each of the stages, Gautama said:

… for whatever [one] imagines it to be, it is otherwise.  (2)

Moreover, Gautama described the key to the attainment of each of the stages of concentration as “lack of desire”.

Suzuki mentioned three stages in Theravadin practice. Gautama generally spoke of four, and Suzuki’s omission here is curious, as he did speak of four stages in another lecture (3).

The fourth stage (the “fourth musing”) is different from the first three, in that a particular quality of mind is applied:

Again, a [person], putting away ease… enters and abides in the fourth musing; seated, [one] suffuses [one’s] body with purity by the pureness of [one’s] mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of [one’s] mind.  (4)

“Pureness of mind” is what remains when “doing something” ceases. When “doing something” has ceased, and there is “not one particle of the body” that cannot receive the placement of attention, then the placement of attention is free to shift as necessary in the movement of breath.

Gautama recommended a way of living he called “the intent concentration on inbreathing and outbreathing”. The “intent concentration on inbreathing and outbreathing” consisted of sixteen thoughts, each applied or sustained in an inhalation or exhalation (5).

Applying and sustaining thought would appear to be a preparatory practice, but in Gautama’s “intent concentration”, the thought comes out of necessity in the free placement of attention in the movement of breath. When a presence of mind is retained as the placement of attention shifts, then the natural tendency toward the free placement of attention draws out thoughts initial and sustained, and brings on the stages of concentration:

… there is no need to depend on teaching. But the most important thing is to practice and realize our true nature… [laughs]. This is, you know, Zen.

(Shunryu Suzuki)(6)

☞ A Natural Mindfulness–PDF