{"id":2538,"date":"2025-12-20T14:38:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T22:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/?p=2538"},"modified":"2025-12-26T10:22:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T18:22:53","slug":"drawing-water-and-chopping-wood-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/?p=2538","title":{"rendered":"Drawing Water and Chopping Wood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Over on the Dao Bums forum site, Tommy commented:<\/p>\n

I live and breathe. Wake up in the morning, cook myself a meal, boil water for coffee. What life is, is in front of me. When I read the saying \u201cbefore enlightenment, chop wood\u00a0carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood carry water\u201d, the question arises, what changed?<\/p>\n

The saying Tommy quoted is probably derived from a saying in the Ch\u2019an classics:<\/p>\n

Miraculous power and marvelous activity
\nDrawing water and chopping wood.<\/p>\n

(\u201cThe Recorded Sayings of Layman P\u2019ang:\u00a0 A Ninth-Century Zen Classic\u201d, Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Yoshitaka Iriya, Dana R. Fraser, p 46)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a similar saying in \u201cThe Gospel According to Thomas\u201d, a gnostic gospel:<\/p>\n

Cleave a (piece of) wood, I am there;
\nlift up the stone and you will find Me there.<\/p>\n

(\u201cThe Gospel According to Thomas\u201d, log 77; coptic text established and translated by A. Guillaumont, H.-CH. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till and Yassah \u2018Abd Al Masih, p 43)<\/p>\n

Sometimes people hold their breath in cleaving wood, or in lifting a heavy bucket or stone. Moshe Feldenkrais observed that some people hold their breath when getting up out of a chair, and he put forward a way to avoid that:<\/p>\n

\u2026When the center of gravity has really moved forward over the feet a reflex movement will originate in the old nervous system and straighten the legs; this automatic movement will not be felt as an effort at all.<\/p>\n

(\u201cAwareness Through Movement\u201d, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 78)<\/p>\n

Feldenkrais stipulated that:<\/p>\n

\u2026 there must be no muscular effort deriving from voluntary control, regardless of whether this effort is known and deliberate or concealed from the consciousness by habit.<\/p>\n

(ibid, p 76)<\/p>\n

The paired sayings highlight moments when the weight of the body combines with a singular location of consciousness to cause “reflex movement” in the action of the body.<\/p>\n

\u201cReflex movement\u201d can also be engaged to sit upright, as the weight of the body combines with a singular location of consciousness.<\/p>\n

In Gautama\u2019s teaching, a singularity in the location of consciousness follows \u201cmaking self-surrender the object of thought\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u2026 the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness.<\/p>\n

(SN 48.10, tr. Pali Text Society vol V p 174; \u201cnoble\u201d substituted for Ariyan)<\/p>\n

In my experience:<\/p>\n

\u2026\u201cone-pointedness\u201d occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person \u201clays hold of one-pointedness\u201d when they remain awake as the singular location shifts.<\/p>\n

(Just to Sit<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Gautama declared that feelings of zest and ease accompany one-pointedness, at least initially. He prescribed the extension of such \u201czest and ease\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u2026 (a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease.<\/p>\n

(AN 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, parentheticals paraphrase original)<\/p>\n

As I wrote recently:<\/p>\n

Words like \u201csteeps\u201d and \u201cdrenches\u201d convey that the weight of the body accompanies the feelings of zest and ease.<\/p>\n

The weight of the body sensed at a particular point in the body can shift the body\u2019s center of gravity, and a shift in the body\u2019s center of gravity can result in \u201creflex movement\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrenching\u201d the body \u201cso that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded\u201d with zest and ease allows the weight of the body to effect such \u201creflex movement\u201d wherever \u201cone-pointedness\u201d takes place.<\/p>\n

In falling asleep, the mind can sometimes react to hypnagogic sleep paralysis with an attempt to reassert control over the muscles of the body, causing a \u201chypnic jerk\u201d. The extension of a weighted zest and ease can pre-empt the tendency to reassert voluntary control in the induction of concentration, and make possible a conscious experience of \u201creflex movement\u201d in inhalation and exhalation.<\/p>\n

(Just to Sit<\/a>, edited)<\/p>\n

There can also come a moment when the feelings of zest and ease cease, yet \u201cone-pointedness\u201d and the conscious experience of \u201creflex movement\u201d in inhalation and exhalation remain. At such a time, said Gautama:<\/p>\n

\u2026 seated, (one) suffuses (one\u2019s) body with purity by the pureness of (one\u2019s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one\u2019s) mind.<\/p>\n

(AN 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, parentheticals paraphrase original)<\/p>\n

The \u201cpureness of mind\u201d that Gautama referred to is the pureness of the mind without any will or intention to act in the body.<\/p>\n

There is a feeling of freedom, when the activity of inhalation and exhalation is \u201creflex movement\u201d regardless of where \u201cone-pointedness\u201d takes place.<\/p>\n

Zen teachers demonstrate the relinquishment of \u201cvoluntary control\u201d of the body in favor of the free location of \u201cone-pointedness of mind\u201d, and they do so constantly. Reb Anderson observed such demonstrations in the actions of Shunryu Suzuki:<\/p>\n

\u2026 I remember (Suzuki\u2019s) dharma talks and I remember him in the zendo\u2014that was wonderful teaching. I remember him moving rocks\u2014wonderful teaching. I remember seeing him eat\u2014that was wonderful teaching. He was teaching all the time in every situation. But when he couldn’t sit anymore and couldn’t walk anymore, he still taught right from there.<\/p>\n

(Reb Anderson, from a 1995 recording<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Shunryu Suzuki moved some heavy stones by himself at the Tassajara Monastery, in part I believe as a demonstration for his students:<\/p>\n

Alan Marlowe is 6’4″ and he often used to work moving rocks with Suzuki Roshi. There was one large rock that Alan couldn’t move. Alan and Suzuki Roshi tried to move the rock together and they couldn’t. Alan said that what they needed was a block and tackle and more people. Suzuki Roshi told Alan to go away. “I want to work alone.” So Alan went to take a bath and when he returned the rock was moved and Alan found Suzuki Roshi asleep in his cabin. He also found vomit all over the floor. Suzuki Roshi slept for three days.<\/p>\n

(David Chadwick links page<\/a>, Cucumber Project on cuke.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The activity may have been the same for Suzuki before and after his \u201cenlightenment\u201d, but I would say his intention was different:<\/p>\n

So,\u00a0when you practice zazen, your mind should be concentrated\u00a0in\u00a0your breathing\u00a0and\u00a0this kind of activity is the fundamental activity of the universal being.\u00a0If so, how you should use your mind is quite clear.\u00a0Without this experience, or this practice, it is impossible to attain the absolute freedom.<\/p>\n

(Breathing<\/a>; Shunryu Suzuki; November 4th 1965, Los Altos; emphasis added)<\/p>\n

What will be the difference? You have freedom, you know, from everything. That is, you know, the main point.<\/p>\n

(Sesshin Lecture<\/a>, Shunryu Suzuki; Day 5 Wednesday, June 9, 1971 San Francisco)<\/p>\n

In Gautama\u2019s parlance:<\/p>\n

And what\u2026 is the ceasing of action? That ceasing of action by body, speech, and mind, by which one contacts freedom,\u2013that is called \u2018the ceasing of action\u2019.<\/p>\n

(SN 35.146, tr. Pali Text Society vol IV p 85)<\/p>\n

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Over on the Dao Bums forum site, Tommy commented: I live and breathe. Wake up in the morning, cook myself a meal, boil water for coffee. What life is, is in front of me. When I read the saying \u201cbefore enlightenment, chop wood\u00a0carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood carry water\u201d, the question arises, what changed? … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Drawing Water and Chopping Wood”<\/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-2538","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\/2538","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=2538"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2575,"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions\/2575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenmudra.com\/zazen-notes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}