I went up to Sonoma Mountain Zen Center today, and the lecturer reminded the audience of advice from “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” about placing the mind in the left hand of the mudra.<\/p>\n
Chris the lecturer also spoke about Zhengjue’s “The Lancet of Seated Meditation”, which Chris said could be translated as “The Acupuncture Needle of Seated Meditation”. Chris talked about the last lines:<\/p>\n
The water is clear right through to the bottom;
\nA fish goes lazily along.
\nThe sky is vast without horizon;
\nA bird flies far far away.<\/p>\n
Chris mentioned that the acupuncture needle was a reference to mind, maybe because the title is “zazenshin”. I don’t know if his translation information is correct, but I like to think that makes the poem title “The acupuncture mind of seated meditation”. This would be what I’m talking about, the cranial-sacral respiration and the pulmonary respiration use the place of occurrence of consciousness to effect stretch and open feeling, in a kind of healing acupuncture by mind.<\/p>\n
Here’s the whole poem as translated by Carl Bielefeldt, from the Stanford project (zazenshin):<\/p>\n
LANCET OF SEATED MEDITATION
\nby Zhengjue
\nby imperial designation the Chan Master Spacious Wisdom<\/p>\n
Essential function of buddha after buddha,
\nFunctioning essence of ancestor after ancestor —
\nIt knows without touching things;
\nIt illumines without facing objects.
\nKnowing without touching things,
\nIts knowing is inherently subtle;
\nIllumining without facing objects,
\nIts illumining is inherently mysterious.
\nIts knowing inherently subtle,
\nIt is ever without discriminatory thought;
\nIts illumining inherently mysterious,
\nIt is ever without a hair’s breadth of sign.
\nEver without discriminatory thought,
\nIts knowing is rare without peer;
\nEver without a hair’s breadth of sign,
\nIts illumining comprehends without grasping.
\nThe water is clear right through to the bottom;
\nA fish goes lazily along.
\nThe sky is vast without horizon;
\nA bird flies far far away.<\/p>\n
Nice poem, and the curious part of it is that Zhengjue is talking about two things through the whole poem, yet the title is about the mind\/healing needle of zazen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I went up to Sonoma Mountain Zen Center today, and the lecturer reminded the audience of advice from “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” about placing the mind in the left hand of the mudra. Chris the lecturer also spoke about Zhengjue’s “The Lancet of Seated Meditation”, which Chris said could be translated as “The Acupuncture Needle … <\/p>\n