Practice is being this that we are. Of course we are all living this. And yet when we exclude, when we cling, we miss this life that we are. This fundamental practice of Zazen is not excluding, not clinging. It is not a practice to get somewhere else but being who we are. Practice enables and supports us in being who/what we are, this nonthinking. We are so-called body, so-called mind; body-mind not two. So, zazen is simple, being stable, still, grounded, upright.
One of my teachers, Soen Nakagawa Roshi, encouraged us to 'elongate your spine'-because sometimes we collapse our spine, collapse our body, collapse our self. Practice is not to make something extra. Unfortunately, sometimes we cling to ideas, thoughts, what we understand, want or know-and exclude what doesn't fit, what is uncomfortable or painful, thereby collapsing around clinging and excuding. So in zazen we allow this form body-mind to support this functioning that we are.
Hakuin Zenji said, 'Don't try to enter anywhere, just don't exclude'. Practice is this fundamental being who we are. Just don't exclude. And yet we have to make practice effort-even not to go anywhere, not to enter anywhere. Doing nondoing. We make our effort to be who, where, we are. Though this doesn't require anything extra, yet this may seem difficult in the midst of the usual 'I want', 'I don't want', 'I've got to figure it out', 'I'-strategies that we operate out of. This is why sitting and practice are so simple and straightforward; yet being simple may seem so difficult for us. We don't want to be simple, we have gotten used to operating as if simple is unnatural for us, acting as if all sorts of I/me/my strategies and habits are natural.
In acupuncture, the needle releases blockages and allows the flow of life energies, supporting natural functioning, appropriate functioning, of the body/mind energies of being human. Wanshi's image is of zazen as the acupuncture needle which allows us to be, to manifest this functioning life that we are. Dogen says, 'this is the comportment beyond sight and sound'. Beyond sight and sound doesn't mean somewhere else; it means beyond our limited understanding of what this sight and sound is, what we usually see/hear is. This sound, this symphony of the traffic on this corner here, trucks, cars, birds, silence. It is not elsewhere. This is who and what you are; if we look elsewhere we lose our body, lose our life. Zazen enables us to not lose our life-because, despite being this life, we can lose our life. Life and practice are not two; doing zazen, practicing, is not doing something extra-it is skillful appropriate functioning which enables us to manifest who and what we are. Manifest in zazen; manifest throughout our everyday life. Nothing else; nothing extra.
An ancestor's functional key, is knowing without relating to matters and is illumining without opposing to objects. Zazen isn't a way to get somewhere else, to do something else-zazen is being this functioning essence of your life.
'Knowing without relating to matters' can also be translated 'knows without touching things'. We know, not because we think about things. Knowing is not limited to our perceptions-though we often limit to what we know, what we trust, to what we directly perceive and understand or figure out. Even more, we limit our self to how we think and perceive, as if it is the whole truth-limiting our self to what we are 'aware' of cognitively, emotionally. Understanding is an artificial construct, even though most of us see it as the truth, natural. Nothing wrong with understanding except if we limit knowing to our understanding. Do you limit illumining, clarifying and seeing to what you specifically understand right here?
This illuminitive function is not limited to or dependent on what we 'relate'to externally or internally. If we limit zazen to what we know 'in advance', 'to what we perceive and think about our perceptions, that much we can't deepen who and what we are, we don't allow this deepening functioning to come forth-not that this comes from something or someone else-this is our self.
The acupuncture needle image implies allowing this that we are to come forth; this nonthinking is the ancestor' 'comportment beyond sight and sound'. This is not mysterious or hidden-unless we limit. We even dismiss the ordinary that we see or hear, 'oh, that's just traffic sounds'. That much we don't hear the voice of the self. We don't hear the sound of touching; we don't taste because we limit this comportment, we do not know beyond perception. Practice is functioning, to trust being. It is not mysterious in the sense of something hidden but it is mysterious in that this is not limited to what we know-we are not limited.
Touching or perception are phrases to enable and encourage us to be more than just phrases. This is expressing directly what is so; practice enables us to take a step further than our usual ways. Often, we are willing to do this because we have discovered that our usual ways are inadequate and have gotten us into all sorts of trouble. It is not about correct, not correct. It is never about that-never about theory-it is being who we are. Dogen says, 'live in such a way, and you will be such a person'.
'Its knowing is inherently subtle, it has never had the thought of discrimination'. Not that discrimination doesn't arise, but we are not limited by the discrimination. See? This knowing, this subtle, mysterious, we are this all the time, this is seeing, hearing, functioning. We see nothing but our own life, very directly; this is beyond what we know, and it requires of us to see beyond what we know-this is practice. Being so, our knowing is the intimacy of seeing, hearing, smelling.
We often look for words and rules, for what we have figured out. None of those are problems, except if we allow them to exclude, except if we allow them to become what we cling to. Then we miss what is right in front of us. This is always right in front of us, this functioning manifesting. Zazen is 'turning us' towards this, practice is 'enabling' us to be so.
Ever without a hair's breadth of sign. Its illumining comprehends without grasping. So that you can trust your own experiential insight when this arises. 'The water is pure, clear right to the bottom'-do you see this life? So how does it function? 'A fish swims slowly. The sky is vast and finds no boundary'..This is not a matter of hidden or manifest. Water has no boundary. The water is clear, no limits. This life is so. There is nothing to gauge, no need to gauge it. The fish swims slowly. The nature of who and what you are, flying, swimming, natural functioning.
See, whether we know it or not, your life, my life, our life, is manifesting the truth of the universe right here. The truth of the universe is right here, the whole universe is right this moment, not somewhere else. Of course, we talk about far and near, but if we are trapped by those categories, then we don't know who we are, then we are clinging to the perceptions and understandings-which are useful but not adequate, and are limited and therefore can only be used in those limited ways. Unfortunately, we try to use these in ways beyond their limitations.
I drink water from this cup. But if I try to put the ocean into this cup, it will not fit. Nevertheless, the water in this cup is exactly the water of the ocean. This is exactly our life. We are the cup of water and the whole ocean at this time. And there isn't water separate from the ocean, there isn't ocean separate from the water. This is who we are, our zazen. Drinking this water. It is not some person in this bag of skin. That is not zazen. Your zazen is the whole universe sitting zazen.
Some phrases may seem mysterious because we try to understand them through limited lenses. You don't have to do anything to change those lenses; just don't use them were they are not appropriate. Some of us need special reading glasses. If you are trying to drive with reading glasses, you are going to get into trouble. We try to do all sorts of things with inappropriate lenses.
Please do not add judgments and say, 'Oh, that is bad, this is good', or 'I did something wrong'. Practice is not about judging. Manifesting this essential functioning is ongoing practice. The functioning essence of Ancestors. Not two-this is our life.
Elihu Genmyo Smith
Salam,
Cherine
