{"id":1975,"date":"2022-09-11T13:52:22","date_gmt":"2022-09-11T20:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/?p=1975"},"modified":"2022-09-15T15:28:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-15T22:28:41","slug":"response-to-not-the-wind-not-the-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/?p=1975","title":{"rendered":"Response to “Not the Wind, Not the Flag”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A friend responded to my last post, Not the Wind, Not the Flag<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I cannot see the connection to life, cleaning cat boxes, cooking, shopping, driving, bathing and suffering.<\/p>\n

Let me try to make that connection explicit, here.<\/p>\n

Gautama the Buddha said that he returned to \u201cthat first characteristic of concentration in which I ever constantly abide\u201d after he lectured, and that first characteristic is likely to be \u201cone-pointedness of mind\u201d, as I described it in “Not the Wind, Not the Flag”.\u00a0 \u201cOne-pointedness of mind\u201d does seem like something one could strive to take into everyday life. However, although Gautama implied that he returned to \u201cone-pointedness of mind\u201d after he spoke, he nonetheless described the initial concentration as a state wherein thought is \u201capplied and sustained\u201d.<\/p>\n

Thought \u201capplied and sustained\u201d is seldom mentioned in Buddhist teaching these days. Zen teachers mostly recommend that beginning meditators focus on the breath in or out, and they will sometimes advise counting the breaths as a method to calm the mind.\u00a0 So far as I know, Zen teachers never recommend that thoughts be \u201capplied and sustained\u201d. Even the Theravadin Buddhist teachers of Southeast Asia, who follow the teachings of Gautama\u2019s sermons more closely, don\u2019t recommend \u201cthought applied and sustained\u201d to their students–instead, they emphasize something along the lines of the \u201cbare attention\u201d now taught in the West as the practice of mindfulness.<\/p>\n

A central theme of Gautama\u2019s teaching was the cessation of \u201cdeterminate thought\u201d (AN III 414) in action, meaning the cessation of the exercise of will or volition in action.\u00a0 A cessation of the exercise of will could be attained, said Gautama, through the induction of various successive states of concentration. As to the initial induction of concentration, Gautama declared that \u201cmaking self-surrender the object of thought, one lays hold of concentration, one lays hold of one-pointedness of mind\u201d.<\/p>\n

I begin with making the surrender of volition in activity related to the movement of breath the object of thought.\u00a0 For me, that necessitates thought applied and sustained with regard to relaxation of the activity of the body, with regard to the exercise of calm in the stretch of ligaments, with regard to the detachment of mind, and with regard to the presence of mind.\u00a0 I find that a presence of mind from one breath to the next can precipitate \u201cone-pointedness of mind\u201d, but laying hold of \u201cone-pointedness of mind\u201d requires a surrender of willful activity in the body much like falling asleep.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible to experience \u201cone-pointedness of mind\u201d and the movement of \u201cone-pointed\u201d mind in the body without experiencing a freedom of that movement in full. \u00a0I\u2019ve written about the analogies Gautama provided for the cultivation of \u201cone-pointedness of mind\u201d (The Early Record<\/a>), and I would say that it\u2019s only in the concentration where the body is suffused with \u201cpurity by the pureness of (one\u2019s) mind\u201d that the mind really moves freely. Gautama pointed out that with that concentration, \u201cdeterminate thought\u201d in action of the body ceases, in particular volition that affects the movement of inhalation or exhalation ceases.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean that action of the body can\u2019t take place, only that the exercise of will or volition is not involved.\u00a0 I have many times quoted a remark I heard Zen teacher Kobun Chino Otogawa make at the end of one of his lectures at the San Francisco Zen Center:<\/p>\n

You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around.<\/p>\n

If a person \u201ctakes the attitude of\u00a0someone who\u2026 lets go of both hands and feet\u201d (as Dogen instructed), then perhaps there will come a moment when the hands and feet walk around.\u00a0 At that moment, there will be new meaning to be had in cleaning cat boxes, cooking, shopping, driving, and bathing, though these experiences might not involve the attitude that advances from the top of a 100-foot pole throughout.<\/p>\n

Having said that, I have to add that it\u2019s my belief that not every Zen teacher has experienced the zazen that gets up and walks around.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t say that they haven\u2019t experienced the cessation of volition in action of the body, or that they are not qualified to teach Zen, but I think they must have a different perspective on the relationship of practice to the actions of everyday life.<\/p>\n

To be clear, the cessation of volition in the action of the body is not the experience Gautama associated with his enlightenment–that would be the cessation of volition in the action of the mind, in \u201cfeeling and perceiving\u201d. \u00a0Having attained to the \u201ccessation of feeling and perceiving\u201d, Gautama saw for himself that suffering is the last link in a chain of cause and effect, and his insight into the nature of suffering was his enlightenment.<\/p>\n

In one of his declensions of the cause and effect of suffering, Gautama spoke of how consciousness comes to be \u201cstationed\u201d as a result of \u201cthat which we will\u201d, and how that \u201cstation of consciousness\u201d gives rise to \u201cthis mass of ill\u201d:<\/p>\n

That which we will\u2026, and that which we intend to do and that wherewithal we are occupied:\u2013this becomes an object for the persistance of consciousness. The object being there, there comes to be a station of consciousness. Consciousness being stationed and growing, rebirth of renewed existence takes place in the future, and here from birth, decay, and death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow, and despair come to pass. Such is the uprising of this mass of ill.<\/p>\n

Even if we do not will, or intend to do, and yet are occupied with something, this too becomes an object for the persistance of consciousness\u2026 whence birth\u2026 takes place.<\/p>\n

But if we neither will, nor intend to do, nor are occupied about something, there is no becoming of an object for the persistance of consciousness. The object being absent, there comes to be no station of consciousness. Consciousness not being stationed and growing, no rebirth of renewed existence takes place in the future, and herefrom birth, decay-and-death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow and despair cease. Such is the ceasing of this entire mass of ill.<\/p>\n

(SN II 65, Pali Text Society SN Vol II pg 45)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my belief that the mind that moves is the opposite of \u201ca station of consciousness\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBirth, decay-and-death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow and despair\u201d\u2014in some of his lectures, Gautama summarized \u201cthis entire mass of ill\u201d by saying \u201cin short, the five groups of grasping\u201d.\u00a0 Grasping after a sense of self in connection with phenomena of form, feeling, mind, habitual tendency, or mental state is identically suffering, according to Gautama.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure that most people would agree with Gautama, that grasping after a sense of self is suffering.\u00a0 I think most people see suffering as something that takes place in connection with pain.<\/p>\n

There are at least two sermons where disciples of Gautama paid a visit to some member of the order who was seriously ill, because that member of the order intended to \u201ctake the knife\u201d (commit suicide).\u00a0 I believe the disciples were unable to dissuade the ill individual from taking the knife, even though all involved were well-versed in the teaching.\u00a0 My guess is that lacking Gautama\u2019s experience, both with the endurance of pain and with the surrender of volition, few can avoid the grasping associated with the desire to avoid pain.<\/p>\n

People also suffer from the failure to get the things that they desire in everyday life, things other than the relief of pain. \u00a0Maybe that\u2019s the kind of suffering my friend meant to imply when she said, \u201ccleaning cat boxes, cooking, shopping, driving, bathing, and suffering\u201d. \u00a0I find relief from that kind of suffering in \u201cmaking self-surrender the object of thought\u201d, and as I\u2019ve explained, for me that entails making the cessation of volitive action the object of my thought.\u00a0 I believe my friend also finds relief from suffering in \u201cmaking self-surrender the object of thought\u201d, but for her that has to do with good works.<\/p>\n

I hope I can say that my friend and I share a belief in the efficacy of selfless action in the relief of suffering, although I have yet to adequately explain to her how letting go of volition can result in action.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to teach the meaning of sitting. You won\u2019t believe it. Not because I say something wrong, but until you experience it and confirm it by yourself, you cannot believe it.<\/p>\n

(Kobun Chino Otogawa, \u201cEmbracing Mind\u201d, edited by Cosgrove & Hall, pg 48)<\/p>\n

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A friend responded to my last post, Not the Wind, Not the Flag: I cannot see the connection to life, cleaning cat boxes, cooking, shopping, driving, bathing and suffering. Let me try to make that connection explicit, here. Gautama the Buddha said that he returned to \u201cthat first characteristic of concentration in which I ever … <\/p>\n

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