{"id":2328,"date":"2024-08-10T13:54:46","date_gmt":"2024-08-10T20:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/?p=2328"},"modified":"2025-04-10T22:02:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T05:02:24","slug":"the-inconceivable-nature-of-the-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/?p=2328","title":{"rendered":"The Inconceivable Nature of the Wind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"raven<\/a>In a previous post, I quoted the twentieth-century Indian sage Nisargadatta:<\/p>\n

Meditation means you have to hold consciousness by itself.<\/p>\n

(Gaitonde, Mohan [2017]. Self \u2013 Love: The Original Dream [Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj\u2019s Direct Pointers to Reality])<\/p>\n

In that post, I used Nisargadatta\u2019s description of meditation to make sense of two lines from Dogen\u2019s \u201cGenjo Koan\u201d.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the first line from “Genjo Koan”, and my explanation:<\/p>\n

When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.<\/p>\n

(\u201cGenjo Koan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Tanahashi)<\/p>\n

Given a presence of mind that can \u201chold consciousness by itself\u201d, activity in the body begins to coordinate by virtue of the sense of place associated with consciousness.\u00a0 A relationship between the free location of consciousness and activity in the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, \u201cpractice occurs\u201d.\u00a0 Through such practice, the placement of consciousness is manifested in the activity of the body.<\/p>\n

Here’s the second line, again with my explanation:<\/p>\n

When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point\u2026<\/p>\n

(ibid)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you find your way at this moment\u201d, activity takes place solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness. A relationship between the freedom of consciousness and the automatic activity of the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, practice occurs. Through such practice, the placement of consciousness is manifested as the activity of the body.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a third line about actualization in \u201cGenjo Koan\u201d:<\/p>\n

Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent.<\/p>\n

(ibid)<\/p>\n

Kobun Chino Otogawa gave a practical example of that third line, even though he wasn\u2019t talking about \u201cGenjo Koan\u201d at the time:<\/p>\n

\u00a0You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around.<\/p>\n

(Lecture at S. F. Zen Center, 1980\u2019s)<\/p>\n

Activity of the body solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness can sometimes get up and walk around, without any thought to do so.<\/p>\n

Action like that resembles action that takes place through hypnotic suggestion, but unlike action by hypnotic suggestion, action by virtue of the free location of consciousness can turn out to be timely after the fact.\u00a0 When action turns out to accord with future events in an uncanny way, the source of that action may well be described as \u201cthe inconceivable\u201d.<\/p>\n

I have found that zazen is more likely to \u201cget up and walk around\u201d when the free location of consciousness is accompanied by an extension of friendliness and compassion, an extension beyond the boundaries of the senses. Gautama the Buddha described such an extension:<\/p>\n

[One] dwells, having suffused the first quarter [of the world] with friendliness, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth; just so above, below, across; [one] dwells having suffused the whole world everywhere, in every way, with a mind of friendliness that is far-reaching, wide-spread, immeasurable, without enmity, without malevolence. [One] dwells having suffused the first quarter with a mind of compassion\u2026 with a mind of sympathetic joy\u2026 with a mind of equanimity that is far-reaching, wide-spread, immeasurable, without enmity, without malevolence.<\/p>\n

(MN I 38, Pali Text Society Vol I p 48)<\/p>\n

Gautama said that \u201cthe excellence of the heart\u2019s release\u201d through the extension of the mind of compassion was the first of the further concentrations, a concentration he called \u201cthe plane of infinite ether\u201d (MN 111; \u00a9 Pali Text Society Vol III p 79).<\/p>\n

The Oxford English Dictionary offers some quotes about \u201cether\u201d:<\/p>\n

They\u00a0[sc.<\/em> the Brahmins]\u00a0thought the stars moved, and the planets they called fishes, because they moved in the\u00a0ether, as fishes do in water.<\/p>\n

Vince,\u00a0Complete System. Astronomy\u00a0vol. II.\u00a0253 (1799)<\/em><\/p>\n

Plato considered that the stars, chiefly formed of fire, move through the\u00a0ether, a particularly pure form of air.<\/p>\n

Popular Astronomy\u00a0vol. 24\u00a0364 (1916)<\/em><\/p>\n

(https:\/\/www.oed.com\/dictionary\/ether_n<\/a>, as of 6\/19\/2024)<\/p>\n

When the free location of consciousness is accompanied by an extension of the mind of compassion, there can be a feeling that the necessity of breath is connected to things that lie outside the boundaries of the senses.\u00a0 That, to me, is an experience of \u201cthe plane of infinite ether\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dogen didn\u2019t offer an explanation of his third line, but he did provide a case study from the literature of Zen:<\/p>\n

Mayu, Zen Master Baoche, was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, \u201cMaster, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. Why then do you fan yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent,\u201d Mayu replied, \u201cyou do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?\u201d asked the monk again. Mayu just kept fanning himself\u2026<\/p>\n

(\u201cGenjo Koan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Tanahashi)<\/p>\n

The wind that reaches everywhere was actualized immediately in Mayu\u2019s fanning.<\/p>\n

Kobun said:<\/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, p 48)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a previous post, I quoted the twentieth-century Indian sage Nisargadatta: Meditation means you have to hold consciousness by itself. (Gaitonde, Mohan [2017]. Self \u2013 Love: The Original Dream [Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj\u2019s Direct Pointers to Reality]) In that post, I used Nisargadatta\u2019s description of meditation to make sense of two lines from Dogen\u2019s \u201cGenjo Koan\u201d.\u00a0 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Inconceivable Nature of the Wind”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2328"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2415,"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328\/revisions\/2415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}