FU: Non-Sidedness
I love the fact that when the enlightened Dogen returned from China to his own narrow island, inhabited he thought by a small-minded people, the first Chinese character he wrote down in earnest was this one:
FU is the Chinese-sounding reading of the above character. The corresponding Japanese word that existed before Chinese characters were imported from China into Japan is AMANEKU. So if you look up this Chinese character in a Japanese-English character dictionary, it will be given as FU (Chinese-sounding reading) and amaneku (Japanese sounding reading).
AMANEKU means widely, extensively; far and wide; generally, universally; everywhere; throughout; all over.
Sometimes at the end of sitting practice, tentatively suspecting that there might have been some merit in the sitting we have just been practising, we express our exuberance by reciting out loud the following Japanese sentence:
NEGAWAKUWA KONO KUDOKU O MOTTE AMANEKU ISSAI NI OYOBOSHI, WARERA TO SHUJO TO MINA TOMO NI BUTSUDO O JOZEN KOTO O.
“I hope this goodness will spread to everybody everywhere, so that we and living beings will all together realize the Buddha’s truth.”
Everywhere is AMANEKU, that is, the FU of FUKAN-ZAZENGI. The meaning of AMANEKU is not this group, not that group; not our side, not the other side; not our friends, not our enemies; not self, not others; not the righteous, not the unrighteous; not Buddhist monks, not non-Buddhist non-monks: everybody everywhere.
Ten years ago my Zen teacher, Gudo Nishijima, observing my enthusiasm for the discoveries and work of FM Alexander, took a view of me as being a potential enemy of his “real Buddhism," and acted in accordance with his view, moving to protect our English translation of Shobogenzo from me who was translating it. One of the things that has impressed and inspired me over the ensuing years in which Gudo and I (in his words) have "crossed the Rubicon," has been the ability of one or two individuals among his students not to do the easy thing -- which would be to take the side of the perceived good shepherd against the perceived black sheep.
It seems to me, although this may seem fanciful, that this ability to remain impartial and unbiased is intimately related with a relative lack of attitude in a person’s sitting posture.
What does an open-minded, attitude-free sitting posture look like? I don’t know. But I know what a close-minded posture that is bursting with attitude looks like. I have got the photos to prove it -- of Mike Cross circa 1992.
When I google Fukan-zazengi, one of the first things that comes up is the commentary I wrote on Fukan-zazengi a few years ago that Eric Rommeluère published on his website (http://www.zen-occidental.net). I don’t know Eric personally, I haven’t met him face to face, but my impression of him, judging from his actions in conducting his website and from a bit of email correspondence, is of somebody open-minded who sees the Buddha’s teaching as a broad church, and equally somebody who is not burdened by particularly strong views on the importance of good posture.
People are prone to think that Alexander work entails learning a physical technique for maintenance of good posture. But nothing could be further from the truth.
In his fourth and final book FM Alexander wrote the following clarifying footnote:
‘When in my writings the terms “correct,” “proper,” “good,” “bad,” “satifactory” are used in connection with such phrases as “the employment of the primary control” or “the manner of use,” it must be understood that they indicate conditions of psycho-physical functioning which are the best for the working of the organism as a whole.’
FM was not talking about holistic hairdressing. He was talking about eradication of the end-gaining idea, about inhibition of unenlightened behaviour, about having no agenda, about non-sidedness. "People who have no fish to fry," FM used to say, "they see it all right."
Gudo Nishijima has suspected me of having my own egoistic agenda by which I would adulterate his own "real Buddhism" with my "Alexander theory." Is Gudo's suspicion valid? I don't know. How could I know? But if his suspicion were real, there would be a great irony in that. Why? Because the essential challenge, from whichever side we look at it, is to enjoy, in movement and in stillness, the ease and freedom which come from dropping off our own limited, partial, one-sided agenda.
NEGAWAKUWA KONO KUDOKU O MOTTE AMANEKU ISSAI NI OYOBOSHI, WARERA TO SHUJO TO MINA TOMO NI BUTSUDO O JOZEN KOTO O.
“I hope this goodness will spread to everybody everywhere, so that we and living beings will all together realize the Buddha’s truth.”
FU is the Chinese-sounding reading of the above character. The corresponding Japanese word that existed before Chinese characters were imported from China into Japan is AMANEKU. So if you look up this Chinese character in a Japanese-English character dictionary, it will be given as FU (Chinese-sounding reading) and amaneku (Japanese sounding reading).
AMANEKU means widely, extensively; far and wide; generally, universally; everywhere; throughout; all over.
Sometimes at the end of sitting practice, tentatively suspecting that there might have been some merit in the sitting we have just been practising, we express our exuberance by reciting out loud the following Japanese sentence:
NEGAWAKUWA KONO KUDOKU O MOTTE AMANEKU ISSAI NI OYOBOSHI, WARERA TO SHUJO TO MINA TOMO NI BUTSUDO O JOZEN KOTO O.
“I hope this goodness will spread to everybody everywhere, so that we and living beings will all together realize the Buddha’s truth.”
Everywhere is AMANEKU, that is, the FU of FUKAN-ZAZENGI. The meaning of AMANEKU is not this group, not that group; not our side, not the other side; not our friends, not our enemies; not self, not others; not the righteous, not the unrighteous; not Buddhist monks, not non-Buddhist non-monks: everybody everywhere.
Ten years ago my Zen teacher, Gudo Nishijima, observing my enthusiasm for the discoveries and work of FM Alexander, took a view of me as being a potential enemy of his “real Buddhism," and acted in accordance with his view, moving to protect our English translation of Shobogenzo from me who was translating it. One of the things that has impressed and inspired me over the ensuing years in which Gudo and I (in his words) have "crossed the Rubicon," has been the ability of one or two individuals among his students not to do the easy thing -- which would be to take the side of the perceived good shepherd against the perceived black sheep.
It seems to me, although this may seem fanciful, that this ability to remain impartial and unbiased is intimately related with a relative lack of attitude in a person’s sitting posture.
What does an open-minded, attitude-free sitting posture look like? I don’t know. But I know what a close-minded posture that is bursting with attitude looks like. I have got the photos to prove it -- of Mike Cross circa 1992.
When I google Fukan-zazengi, one of the first things that comes up is the commentary I wrote on Fukan-zazengi a few years ago that Eric Rommeluère published on his website (http://www.zen-occidental.net). I don’t know Eric personally, I haven’t met him face to face, but my impression of him, judging from his actions in conducting his website and from a bit of email correspondence, is of somebody open-minded who sees the Buddha’s teaching as a broad church, and equally somebody who is not burdened by particularly strong views on the importance of good posture.
People are prone to think that Alexander work entails learning a physical technique for maintenance of good posture. But nothing could be further from the truth.
In his fourth and final book FM Alexander wrote the following clarifying footnote:
‘When in my writings the terms “correct,” “proper,” “good,” “bad,” “satifactory” are used in connection with such phrases as “the employment of the primary control” or “the manner of use,” it must be understood that they indicate conditions of psycho-physical functioning which are the best for the working of the organism as a whole.’
FM was not talking about holistic hairdressing. He was talking about eradication of the end-gaining idea, about inhibition of unenlightened behaviour, about having no agenda, about non-sidedness. "People who have no fish to fry," FM used to say, "they see it all right."
Gudo Nishijima has suspected me of having my own egoistic agenda by which I would adulterate his own "real Buddhism" with my "Alexander theory." Is Gudo's suspicion valid? I don't know. How could I know? But if his suspicion were real, there would be a great irony in that. Why? Because the essential challenge, from whichever side we look at it, is to enjoy, in movement and in stillness, the ease and freedom which come from dropping off our own limited, partial, one-sided agenda.
NEGAWAKUWA KONO KUDOKU O MOTTE AMANEKU ISSAI NI OYOBOSHI, WARERA TO SHUJO TO MINA TOMO NI BUTSUDO O JOZEN KOTO O.
“I hope this goodness will spread to everybody everywhere, so that we and living beings will all together realize the Buddha’s truth.”
posted by Mike Cross at 8:56 AM
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