The Gap Revisited (2): Q & A with Gudo
My Question: I notice that it is still very difficult for me, when I practice sitting-zen, to be free of idealistic effort (trying to be right, trying to become somebody). After almost 70 years of daily sitting-zen and studying and teaching Shobogenzo, do you still notice any idealistic tendency within your own sitting-zen practice?
Gudo's Anwer: After almost 70 years of daily sitting-zen and studying and teaching Shobogenzo, I do not have any kind of idealistic tendency in my life. When I am practicing Zazen, I always keep my spine straight vertically, and such efforts can not do anything for me to do other than sitting.
Gudo's Anwer: After almost 70 years of daily sitting-zen and studying and teaching Shobogenzo, I do not have any kind of idealistic tendency in my life. When I am practicing Zazen, I always keep my spine straight vertically, and such efforts can not do anything for me to do other than sitting.
posted by Mike Cross at 2:48 PM
2 Comments:
Mike - Do you understand Gudo to mean that he has no idealistic tendencies while sitting or did he mean he has eliminated them from his life?
It is a good question, oxeye, and thanks for asking it.
It might be a question like: Why did Bodhidharma come from the west?
I don't know for sure what Gudo's intention was before and what it is now, but probably the ultimate answer has something to do with the lavender in the garden.
What I do clearly know is that idealistic effort to keep the spine straight vertically leads the sitter progressively in the direction not of stillness but of fixity.
What I do know is that I myself do have this idealistic tendency in my life, and being able to glimpse this tendency, even partially, is a kind of starting point of my happiness in sitting.
It has not been my intention to identify Alexander work and the Buddha's teaching, that is, sitting-zen, into one thing. But I have found Alexander work to be a very valuable tool in helping me to become aware of lengthening and narrowing as an idealistic tendency.
I consider myself really fortunate at least to have got this little bit of understanding about what true sitting-zen is. In many respects, I have been blessed with more luck than I deserve.
I couldn't be satisfied with Gudo's teaching alone, and neither could I be satisfied with Alexander work alone -- without sitting in lotus, wearing the robe, et cetera. But putting the two halves together, I have a dipper from which to get water. Lucky me!
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