GAKU: A Learning Process
The pelvis belongs to the back. The pelvis is not part of the legs, the pelvis is part of the back. The pelvis is the base of the back. Originally, the pelvis is separate from the legs, at the hip joints.
There is nothing that you have to do when sitting in lotus to cause the pelvis to belong to the back. The pelvis belongs to the back already. (This is not “Alexander theory”; this is me, after 25 years investigating Master Dogen’s fundamental rule, telling you straight something that is blindingly obvious to anybody who opens their eyes and investigates honestly what the pelvis is.)
So if you are used to sitting, as I was (having been taught by the carrot and stick method transmitted from one blind end-gaining donkey to another), with the extensor muscles of your back over-working, and your legs and pelvis contracting into each other, so that the pelvis is pulled forward towards the knees, there is no urgency at all for you to do anything about that. There is nothing for you to do.
There may be, however, a lot for you to learn. It may take a very long time, and may involve you making a lot of effort to carry out an activity against the habit of a lifetime, before you really well and truly learn that the pelvis belongs with the rest of the back.
That the pelvis is the base of the back, not part of the legs, is not something anybody can learn, for example, just by reading a book on the Alexander Technique, or just by reading my blog -- although it is possible that reading the words that “the pelvis is part of the back” might spark off or help along a learning process.
The later edition of Fukan-zazengi has nine Chinese characters exhorting us to learn the backward step of turning light around and reflecting light. Those Chinese characters are recited in Japanese as “SUBEKARAKU EKO HENSHO NO TAIHO O GAKU SUBESHI.”
It may be revealing that in the earlier edition of Fukan-zazengi the exhortation is more direct, more urgent, a stronger stimulus to do something, a strong stimulus to end-gaining.
The earlier edition of Fukan-zazengi, the one thought to be written in Master Dogen’s own hand, has only eight Chinese characters, which look like this:
SU should [imperative]
E turn
KO light
HEN turn back, reflect
SHO luminance, light
NO [joining particle]
TAI backward
HO step
“Take the backward step of turning light around and reflecting light.”
Master Dogen decided, when he came to revise his rules of sitting-zen, to add, between the first and second Chinese characters shown above, the extra character read as GAKU, which represents a learning process. So the later version is less an exhortation to do something, less an exhortation to go directly for the end of non-end-gaining, more an exhortation to devote oneself to a learning process that will lead, indirectly, to the dropping off of two deep misconceptions born of end-gaining -- “body” and “mind.”
I rest my case... (temporarily).
Are there any questions?
posted by Mike Cross at 8:17 AM
5 Comments:
Perhaps it's youth and idealism in Shinpitsu-bon, the passion and excitement of discovery. I felt this myself when I realised what Buddhism was really talking about. I couldn’t wait to tell everyone, to teach it to people who hadn’t got it and settle into my joyful newly inherited universe. But it was only the faltering toddler’s steps of a journey that begins afresh in each moment. I had almost completely lost the vigorous road of getting the body out.
With a bit of water under the bridge and some good and steady teachers one understands in practise that the journey is the same as its destination, the means are the end. There is no escape from the real responsibility for this instant. You can stick your head in the sand and practise 'head in the sand' dharma and that is what you are doing.
But what does it mean to truly inhabit the teaching, to make it real every day, to be it, steadily and also right now? Because it is always in flux, it can never be grasped, it can only be done but how can it be done? A question asked every day…and occasionally, it answers.
Has Alexander work helped you to recognise what you are doing? Does this recognising help in providing the path for spontaneous undoing?
Has Alexander Work made you better at zazen?
Hi MT,
Abdominal breathing is definitely not it, but shallow chest breathing is not it, either.
Tucking in the chin is definitely not it, but leading with the chin is not it, either.
Even though leading with the chin is not it, sometimes a genuine devotee of sitting-zen dares to lead with the chin, knowing that being wrong is his best friend.
Therefore, for example, he may express a cheap view on oneness of means and end, even though, in reality, he does not know the means and has never arrived at the end. And, going further, he may ask a stupid question to which the answer has already been made blindingly obvious.
It is all included in the learning process. It is all good -- good at the beginning, good in the middle, and good at the end.
Leading with the chin is never a good idea for a street fighter, if you don't want to get knocked out.
But maybe a true devotee of sitting-zen does want to get knocked out, knowing that being wrong is his best friend.
You didn't answer my stupid question...directly.
Buddha’s teaching is to teach a buddha. To teach a buddha is to awaken him to his own end-gaining.
To wake up, on deeper and deeper levels, to our own end-gaining is to learn the backward step of turning light around. When we learn the backward step of turning light around, body and mind spontaneously drop off and our original face appears.
When my original face truly appears, it is always rooted in the pelvis. Since I began karate training 30 years ago what I have been learning, in fits and starts, one step forward, two steps back, is that my original face is nourished from the pelvis. When I come back to this realization, I am not the slightest bit bothered about getting better at sitting-zen -- I am too busy enjoying it.
In the last 3 years I have spent a lot of time not like this, not fully enjoying it, because I allowed myself to be bothered by a person about whom I cared too much, and by a translation done a million years ago about which I cared too much. But I won’t let that happen further.
MUNASHIKU KO-IN O WATARU KOTO NAKARE.
MUNASHIKU emptily, in vain
KO-IN light and shade, day and night, time
O [object particle]
WATARU cross over
KOTO [used grammatically]
NAKARE do not!
“Do not pass time in vain!”
The face of grim determination, demanding a straight answer, grasping for a clear resolution, is the face of end-gaining, the face of passing time in vain.
Because MT, you understand on the basis of your daily life that sitting-zen is the one great matter, you are not afraid to lead with your chin for the sake of clarifying it. You manifest your end-gaining while others, fearful chin-tuckers, don’t ask their own stupid questions for fear of being exposed. You are not a dabbler. You are very serious about sitting-zen. That is very good. But question one for the likes of you and me, who are very serious about sitting-zen, must always be:
Have you heard any good jokes recently?
I've seen some good jokes.
Paste this into your browser.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hN320NGHzXA%20
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