The knack of Zazen
Shobogenzo begins with the information that when buddhas are experiencing the supreme awakening (Sanskrit: anuttara samyak sambodhi), they have a subtle means which is supreme and natural. "Subtle means" is MYO-JUTSU (I am sorry I can't input the original characters with this PC). MYO means fine, wonderful, subtle--too subtle to be susceptible to verbal expression. JUTSU means art, technique, skill, means. This MYO-JUTSU is not something that Mike Cross or any other dumb-arse inherently possesses as soon as it touches down on a zafu. It is an art or a skill that buddhas have when they are experiencing the supreme truth of bodhi. In other words, MYO-JUTSU does not mean Zazen itself. It means an art, a skill, a knack that buddhas bring to Zazen. In his instructions for Zazen, Master Dogen uses the phrase ZAZEN NO YO-JUTSU. YO means essential, vital. So ZAZEN NO YO-JUTSU means the essential knack of Zazen, the secret of Zazen. Master Dogen states a simple criterion for whether a person has got this knack or not: the criterion is the samadhi of accepting and using the self.
posted by Mike Cross at 4:15 PM
6 Comments:
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Broken wooden dipper, maybe? Nothing really springs to mind.
Perhaps "wabi-sabi" would work?
P.S. Mike, How are you?
Thanks for the inquiry Michael. Spent several days over Christmas and New Year in the company of a very persistent virus. Still have a headache and am generally congested. Plentiful opportunities to reflect on the meaning of accepting and allowing.
What does it mean to allow? For me that question is the beginning and the end of practice. Nishijima Roshi goes on and on about balance of the autonomic nervous system. Physiological balance must be a vital part of what is allowed to happen in Zazen. But to focus too much on that, it seems to me, might be a kind of mistaking the finger for the moon. The essence of the practice is not in the physiology but in the allowing.
I hope you're feeling better, Mike, and I wish you and yours all the best in the coming year!
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