SHUZEN NI ARAZU: Not End-Gaining Zen
IWAYURU ZAZEN WA SHUZEN NIWA ARAZU, TADA KORE ANRAKU NO HOMON NARI
IWAYURU what is called
ZA sitting
ZEN dhyana, thinking, zen, meditation
WA [subject particle]
SHU learning
ZEN dhyana, thinking, zen, meditation
NIWA ARAZU is not
TADA just
KORE [emphatic] this, just is
AN ease
RAKU ease
NO [particle] of
HO Dharma
MON gate
NARI is
“What is called sitting-zen is not learning Zen; it is just a Dharma-gate of being at ease.”
To understand this sentence, Alexander’s distinction between end-gaining approaches and what he called ‘attending to the means whereby’ is, again, in my view, totally relevant.
An end-gaining approach is one that goes for some specific end without taking into account acceptance and use of whole body-mind.
Conversely, any approach that goes for some specific end without taking into account the bigger picture, including acceptance and use of whole body-mind, is an end-gaining approach.
The use of the phrase “seated meditation” by such dubious characters as James Cohen, as opposed to the traditional term sitting-meditation or sitting-zen, is a sure signal to me that the dubious character in question hasn’t got any real understanding of what Master Dogen is saying in this sentence.
“What is called sitting-zen is not learning Zen, not learning meditation; it is just a Dharma-gate of being at ease.”
To emphasize the meditating aspect of sitting-meditation while neglecting the aspect of physical sitting is end-gaining. Going further, for a self-proclaiimed teacher of ‘seated meditation’ to recommend a teacher of sitting-zen whom he has never even met to undergo psychological counselling, might be an example of Zen end-gaining which is rare through the ages.
Conversely, to emphasize physical sitting while neglecting the aspect of mental waking up, or mental thinking, might also be a kind of end-gaining.
However, if we are going to end-gain, it might be better to err on the side of emphasizing the physical and neglecting the mental. And this may be why Master Dogen invariably wrote of body and mind, rather than mind and body.
I am not an unduly enthusiastic fan of Brad Warner who, while utilizing my translation work, has shown a singular lack of respect for me -- egged on by a higher authority, of course. In Brad’s exhortation “proper posture required,” and in his hardcore Zen in general, I perceive an element of end-gaining on the physical side. This is my perception, which may be wrong. I don’t know Brad well. On the other hand, I know the person who taught him rather well.
So I wouldn’t be inclined to give Brad a ten out of ten rating as a Zen teacher, at least not yet. But as for James Cohen, I don’t rate him at all. Not even as a zero. As a teacher of sitting-zen, he doesn’t even register on my scale.
On the other hand, Gudo decided to transmit the Dharma to James Cohen, and in the end that decision has to be respected as it is. Your teacher’s decision is your teacher’s decision, hard though it may be to swallow.
So today on this earth Ven. James Cohen exists. He is a certified Buddhist teacher, having received the Emperor’s edict, who advocates seated meditation.
It was ever thus. It was ever thus.
When Master Bodhidharma came from India to China, Chinese end-gainers demonstrated that the mirror principle was also alive and kicking in those days by thinking that Master Bodhidharma was practicing end-gaining Zen. Hearing of his behaviour to sit all day facing the wall, they said he was learning meditation.
What Master Dogen is emphasizing here is that what he means by sitting-zen is most definitely not seated meditation, not any kind of end-gaining. It is the Dharma gate to what we experience when we quit end-gaining -- ease, comfort, joy, release, happiness.
I remember a conversation in Gudo’s office in which he said to me, “I cannot ask you to sacrifice your happiness for Buddhism.” The strong implication was that that was precisely what he wanted to ask me -- to sacrifice my happiness in order to do his bloody translation for him. But the truth was that by the time that conversation took place I had already sacrificed my happiness -- she was going out already with my best mate! But listen, I got exactly what I deserved. Master Dogen teaches in Shobogenzo that cause and effect works over three kinds of timespan -- short, medium, and very long term. I got what was coming to me, and I will doubtless continue to get it.
The reason that six years ago I bought this place by the forest in Normandy, where I am now, is something the Alexander teacher and fellow practitioner of sitting-zen, Marjory Barlow, emphasized to me about happiness. Doubtless perceiving my habitual grim determination to spread the Buddha’s teaching, even if it kills me, Marjory emphasized to me that if you want to spread happiness through this world, you have to be happy in yourself -- then happiness will ripple outwards from you.
Taking that on board, I came to France to find a place where I could sit happily, enjoying peace and quiet. Well, I found it and here I am.
When at university in Sheffield I was elected to be captain of the karate club. I was thrilled about that. I always like to be top of the class, and being captain of the karate club gave one a certain credibility among other students. But after a year or two in the post, I couldn’t wait to pass the baton on so that I could quietly get on with enjoying my own training and enjoying my own life.
As I may have let slip already, I was a tad disappointed when Gudo didn’t nominate me as his successor. I wanted to get the nod that Brad got, and for many years I had been lumbering around with a deep and heavy expectation that I would get the nod. But, as my wife pointed out to me when we were enjoying ourselves by the seaside this summer, I would not be happy at all doing the kind of work that Brad is doing, travelling around all over the place having to deal with a lot of media types.
My wife, who knows me well, who knows well me and my dodgy vestibular system, tells me that I am most happy living a simple life, in a settled daily routine, in a quiet place, with sitting-zen four times a day and the more physical work the better in between.
Well that’s exactly what I’ve got now -- at least I would have if I did a bit more work in the garden and a bit less work on this blog.
But thanks for asking again about this sentence, MT. It is a sentence that is worth re-visiting often. I think it is the key to Fukan-zazen-gi and the key to the whole of Master Dogen’s teaching.
IWAYURU what is called
ZA sitting
ZEN dhyana, thinking, zen, meditation
WA [subject particle]
SHU learning
ZEN dhyana, thinking, zen, meditation
NIWA ARAZU is not
TADA just
KORE [emphatic] this, just is
AN ease
RAKU ease
NO [particle] of
HO Dharma
MON gate
NARI is
“What is called sitting-zen is not learning Zen; it is just a Dharma-gate of being at ease.”
To understand this sentence, Alexander’s distinction between end-gaining approaches and what he called ‘attending to the means whereby’ is, again, in my view, totally relevant.
An end-gaining approach is one that goes for some specific end without taking into account acceptance and use of whole body-mind.
Conversely, any approach that goes for some specific end without taking into account the bigger picture, including acceptance and use of whole body-mind, is an end-gaining approach.
The use of the phrase “seated meditation” by such dubious characters as James Cohen, as opposed to the traditional term sitting-meditation or sitting-zen, is a sure signal to me that the dubious character in question hasn’t got any real understanding of what Master Dogen is saying in this sentence.
“What is called sitting-zen is not learning Zen, not learning meditation; it is just a Dharma-gate of being at ease.”
To emphasize the meditating aspect of sitting-meditation while neglecting the aspect of physical sitting is end-gaining. Going further, for a self-proclaiimed teacher of ‘seated meditation’ to recommend a teacher of sitting-zen whom he has never even met to undergo psychological counselling, might be an example of Zen end-gaining which is rare through the ages.
Conversely, to emphasize physical sitting while neglecting the aspect of mental waking up, or mental thinking, might also be a kind of end-gaining.
However, if we are going to end-gain, it might be better to err on the side of emphasizing the physical and neglecting the mental. And this may be why Master Dogen invariably wrote of body and mind, rather than mind and body.
I am not an unduly enthusiastic fan of Brad Warner who, while utilizing my translation work, has shown a singular lack of respect for me -- egged on by a higher authority, of course. In Brad’s exhortation “proper posture required,” and in his hardcore Zen in general, I perceive an element of end-gaining on the physical side. This is my perception, which may be wrong. I don’t know Brad well. On the other hand, I know the person who taught him rather well.
So I wouldn’t be inclined to give Brad a ten out of ten rating as a Zen teacher, at least not yet. But as for James Cohen, I don’t rate him at all. Not even as a zero. As a teacher of sitting-zen, he doesn’t even register on my scale.
On the other hand, Gudo decided to transmit the Dharma to James Cohen, and in the end that decision has to be respected as it is. Your teacher’s decision is your teacher’s decision, hard though it may be to swallow.
So today on this earth Ven. James Cohen exists. He is a certified Buddhist teacher, having received the Emperor’s edict, who advocates seated meditation.
It was ever thus. It was ever thus.
When Master Bodhidharma came from India to China, Chinese end-gainers demonstrated that the mirror principle was also alive and kicking in those days by thinking that Master Bodhidharma was practicing end-gaining Zen. Hearing of his behaviour to sit all day facing the wall, they said he was learning meditation.
What Master Dogen is emphasizing here is that what he means by sitting-zen is most definitely not seated meditation, not any kind of end-gaining. It is the Dharma gate to what we experience when we quit end-gaining -- ease, comfort, joy, release, happiness.
I remember a conversation in Gudo’s office in which he said to me, “I cannot ask you to sacrifice your happiness for Buddhism.” The strong implication was that that was precisely what he wanted to ask me -- to sacrifice my happiness in order to do his bloody translation for him. But the truth was that by the time that conversation took place I had already sacrificed my happiness -- she was going out already with my best mate! But listen, I got exactly what I deserved. Master Dogen teaches in Shobogenzo that cause and effect works over three kinds of timespan -- short, medium, and very long term. I got what was coming to me, and I will doubtless continue to get it.
The reason that six years ago I bought this place by the forest in Normandy, where I am now, is something the Alexander teacher and fellow practitioner of sitting-zen, Marjory Barlow, emphasized to me about happiness. Doubtless perceiving my habitual grim determination to spread the Buddha’s teaching, even if it kills me, Marjory emphasized to me that if you want to spread happiness through this world, you have to be happy in yourself -- then happiness will ripple outwards from you.
Taking that on board, I came to France to find a place where I could sit happily, enjoying peace and quiet. Well, I found it and here I am.
When at university in Sheffield I was elected to be captain of the karate club. I was thrilled about that. I always like to be top of the class, and being captain of the karate club gave one a certain credibility among other students. But after a year or two in the post, I couldn’t wait to pass the baton on so that I could quietly get on with enjoying my own training and enjoying my own life.
As I may have let slip already, I was a tad disappointed when Gudo didn’t nominate me as his successor. I wanted to get the nod that Brad got, and for many years I had been lumbering around with a deep and heavy expectation that I would get the nod. But, as my wife pointed out to me when we were enjoying ourselves by the seaside this summer, I would not be happy at all doing the kind of work that Brad is doing, travelling around all over the place having to deal with a lot of media types.
My wife, who knows me well, who knows well me and my dodgy vestibular system, tells me that I am most happy living a simple life, in a settled daily routine, in a quiet place, with sitting-zen four times a day and the more physical work the better in between.
Well that’s exactly what I’ve got now -- at least I would have if I did a bit more work in the garden and a bit less work on this blog.
But thanks for asking again about this sentence, MT. It is a sentence that is worth re-visiting often. I think it is the key to Fukan-zazen-gi and the key to the whole of Master Dogen’s teaching.
posted by Mike Cross at 6:35 AM
4 Comments:
Hello,
Sorry to trouble you. I'm curious to know where in your writings you may have addressed the much vexed question of lotus vs. seiza bench vs. chair vs. whatnot. I find your reflections on AT to be illuminating, to say the least. It must rub all the dogmatists just the wrong way. That said, I did find a post from someone's very obedient student insisting -- quite dogmatically, I thought -- that if it's not the lotus, it's not zazen.
Anyway, I have no wish to ask you to start from scratch here. I just imagined you'd already addressed the point, and I'm looking for directions where I might look.
Thanks in advance.
-- Randall
Hello Randall, and thanks for your question.
By all means ask me to start from scratch. No, bloody well demand that I start from scratch, every time. If I get fed up of starting from scratch you have my permssion, to borrow a phrase from the past, to use my skull as a piss scooper.
To start from scratch, dropping off all old viewpoints, is just the point.
The relevant phrase in Fukan-zazengi is:
ARUI KEKKAFUZA ARUI HANKAFUZA.
“Either sit in the full lotus posture or sit in the half lotus posture.”
So I agree with the obedient dogmatist you quoted. I also am an obedient dogmatist, endeavoring to uphold Master Dogen’s rules. Without that attitude I would only by a teacher of the Alexander Technique and could never succeed as a legitimate successor to the samadhi of the ancestors (SO-SO NO ZANMAI O TEKISHI SU).
If there is anybody who takes the view that they are keeping Master Dogen’s rules of sitting-zen with their arse on a seiza bench or on a chair, I would recommend them to start again from scratch, dropping off their view.
Hooting with the autumn moon
I piss on dew-dropped grass
Is that the shadow of an owl?
A seiza-bench my ass!
Hello, again,
Thank you for getting back to me. Since you've encouraged me to ask you to start from scratch, I hope my next question won't seem really annoying: what should I do about my feet falling asleep? For what it's worth, I'm a college professor, so I spend a lot of time at my desk reading and writing. Most of that time is spent in some sloppy version of a half lotus. This is the only comfortable position I know for these purposes, and if my feet go to sleep, I can stretch it out and get back to work. I used to be able to do this for relatively long periods of time without trouble. A week-long vipassana retreat was a snap (at least in this regard). But about 10 years ago, my feet started going to sleep. And if I'm "meditating," they really go to sleep. As in, if there's a fire, then I might as well plan on sitting through it, since I'm not going anywhere with wooden stumps for legs. That is, they're not just numb, but paralyzed. So . . .
Before I trouble you further about AT "directions," "inhibition," "primary control" and the rest of it (I've had a whole lot of lessons over the years) and zazen, I wanted to ask if you had advice about feet going so soundly to sleep. If it's a pain to address this stuff at this level and from such a distance, I understand. Either way, thanks for your time.
best,
Randall
Hello Randall and thanks for your question,
The first thing to say is: please, never hesitate to ask any question. Sometimes I get annoyed with questions that are not really questions but rhetorical devices people use to suggest they know what they don’t really know, and often I get annoyed with people who make comments as if they knew what they don’t really know -- but all such instances of getting annoyed are only illustrations of the mirror principle. There is only one annoying know-it-all around here, as I sit in a solitary log cabin facing the forest. Please ask me anything. As long as it pertains to Fukan-zazengi, please ask it on this blog. And the stupidder the better. The stupidder the question, the more likely it is that somebody is out there wondering, not asking the question for fear of seeming stupid.
The second thing is that I am thrilled to read that you are a college professor -- and one with experience of and interest in Alexander Technique and the practical side of the Buddha teaching, to boot. These past few weeks I have been coming to the undeniable conclusion that feudalistic, Japanese, close-minded, end-gaining Zen ways belong already to the past -- the non-existent past. Young minds, minds that are open here and now to the truth itself -- the truth which is not the encrusted views of some old bastard -- are the present and future. Because you have chosen the career of an educator of open minds, and yet you are evidently still seeking, I bow to you. In my book, there is nobody more valuable than you.
Finally, to come to your question of the legs going to sleep, don’t worry about it. Something is changing. That is the ultimate reality in which you are sitting -- something is changing. The right thing is waiting, tending, to do itself. There is nothing to worry about.
The relevant sentence in Fukan-zazengi may be: KOAN GENJO RARO IMADA ITARAZU. “The law of the universe is being realized and there are no hindrances.”
We have nothing to fear but fear itself. KONO I O EBA, RYU NO MIZU O URU GA GOTOKU. “To get this point is to be like a dragon finding water.”
The right thing is tending, waiting, to do itself -- if only I can get my fearful little self, my feeling/doing self and my view-encrusted thinking self, out of the way. In general, I can’t. I can’t drop off body and mind. There is nothing I can do to drop off body and mind. It can be very exasperating, and yet I keep trying.
Thanks again for your questions. Keep asking.
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