Zen is not Buddhism, Zen is not meditation.

[Lairg]

On 7/10/2024 at 8:29 PM, adept said:

They were "Zen is not Buddhism" and "Zen is not meditation".

 

Coming rather late to this discussion.

 

My repeated observations over at least a decade are that the intelligent energy within which Buddhism exists is not the same as the intelligent energy within which Zen exists.

 

Choose carefully

 

 

[Mark Foote]

On 10/18/2025 at 8:33 PM, Lairg said:

 

Coming rather late to this discussion.

 

My repeated observations over at least a decade are that the intelligent energy within which Buddhism exists is not the same as the intelligent energy within which Zen exists.

 

Choose carefully

 

 

 

The advice most zendos give beginners is to “follow the breath”, though as Shunryu Suzuki said, following the breath is only a preparatory practice:

 

… usually in counting breathing or following breathing, you feel as if you are doing something, you know– you are following breathing, and you are counting breathing. This is, you know, why counting breathing or following breathing practice is, you know, for us it is some preparation– preparatory practice for shikantaza because for most people it is rather difficult to sit, you know, just to sit.

 

(“The Background of Shikantaza”, Shunryu Suzuki; San Francisco, February 22, 1970)

 

 

Suzuki described shikantaza in more detail:

 

So most teacher may say shikantaza is not so easy, you know. It is not possible to continue more than one hour, because it is intense practice to take hold of all our mind and body by the practice which include everything. So in shikantaza, our mind should pervade every parts of our physical being. That is not so easy.

 

( “I have nothing in my mind”, Shunryu Suzuki, July 15, 1969)

 

 

Gautama spoke similarly about the mind pervading the body:

 

… seated, (one) suffuses (one’s) body with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind.

 

(AN 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, parentheticals paraphrase original)

 

 

“The pureness of mind” Gautama referred to is the pureness of the mind without any will or intent with regard to the activity of the body.

 

(Just to Sit)

 

 

Pretty much the same, there!

 

 

[Mark Foote]

On 10/18/2025 at 8:08 PM, Tommy said:

Yes, I have seen this creeping vines and the never ending narration of my life. Also, how the posture affects the mind. This only makes me know that trying to go forward without a teacher is not going to go well. Twenty to thirty years of practice and still stuck with the creeping vines. So, I positively understand this. Being 66 years old, I think I might have another twenty or so years left to life. And it still won't be enough time. But, I keep trying.

 

When there is such a block that I can not even sit for a minute, I rest and day dream and then I try again. Sometimes, I try to focus my mind and cut off the creeping vines with a mantra I learned long ago. Gate, Gate, Paragate, ParasamGate, Bodhi Svaha. That will get my mind to focus. Then later, back to paying attention to my present with silence. Sometimes, I feel the weakness in my bones and I can not sit. Other times, the peace I feel with the mind quiet, it lets me sit for an hour without realizing the time passing by,

 

I don't expect change and I don't really want a benefit from just sitting. I just want to feel the quiet and be present. I don't think I could be called a watcher, just sitting, cause there is no sense of time or change. Trying to grasp these moments of quiet make them vanish as quickly as thoughts enter and the mind chases these thoughts. But, got to focus the mind. Then hopefully, will one day drop this mind.
 

 

 

I am late to the dance, too, at 75.

 

In Gautama’s teaching, the extension of “purity by the pureness of mind” belonged to the last of four concentrations. The initial concentration is induced, said Gautama, by “making self-surrender the object of thought”:

 

… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness.  (The disciple), aloof from sensuality, aloof from evil conditions, enters on the first trance, which is accompanied by thought initial and sustained, which is born of solitude, easeful and zestful, and abides therein. 

(SN 48.10, tr. PTS vol V p 174; parentheticals paraphrase original; "initial" for "directed")

 

 

In my experience, “one-pointedness” occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person “lays hold of one-pointedness” when they remain awake as the singular location shifts.

 

Gautama described the “first trance” as having feelings of zest and ease, and he prescribed the extension of those feelings:

 

… (a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease. 

 

(AN 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, parentheticals paraphrase original)

 

 

Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey that the weight of the body accompanies the feelings of zest and ease.

The weight of the body sensed at a particular point in the body can shift the body’s center of gravity, and a shift in the body’s center of gravity can result in what Moshe Feldenkrais termed “reflex movement”. Feldenkrais described how “reflex movement” can be engaged in standing up from a chair:

 

…When the center of gravity has really moved forward over the feet a reflex movement will originate in the old nervous system and straighten the legs; this automatic movement will not be felt as an effort at all. 

 

(“Awareness Through Movement”, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 78)

 

 

“Drenching” the body “so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” with zest and ease allows the weight of the body to effect “reflex movement” in the activity of the body, wherever “one-pointedness” takes place.

 

In falling asleep, the mind can sometimes react to hypnagogic sleep paralysis with an attempt to reassert control over the muscles of the body, causing a “hypnic jerk”. The extension of a weighted zest and ease can pre-empt the tendency to reassert voluntary control in the induction of concentration, and make possible a conscious experience of “reflex movement” in inhalation and exhalation.

 

Gautama offered a metaphor for the first concentration that emphasized the cultivation of one-pointedness. Here’s the full description:

 

… just as a handy bathman or attendant might strew bath-powder in some copper basin and, gradually sprinkling water, knead it together so that the bath-ball gathered up the moisture, became enveloped in moisture and saturated both in and out, but did not ooze moisture; even so, (a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease. 

 

(AN 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, parentheticals paraphrase original)

 

The juxtaposition of a singular bath-ball with the extension of zest and ease such that “there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” might seem dissonant, yet in my experience the two can be realized together, and at least initially neither can be sustained alone.

 

(Just to Sit)

 

 

Shunryu Suzuki said, "in shikantaza, our mind should pervade every parts of our physical being." Gautama said, "… seated, (one) suffuses (one’s) body with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind."

The difference between "every parts of our physical being" and "not one particle of the body that is not pervaded" is the difference between "all over the body" and "throughout the body":

 

Yun Yen asked Tao Wu, “What does the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion use so many hands and eyes for?”

 

Wu said, “It’s like somebody reaching back groping for a pillow in the middle of the night.”

 

Yen said, “I understand.”

 

Wu said, “How do you understand it?”

 

Yen said, “All over the body are hands and eyes.”

 

Wu said, “You have said quite a bit there, but you’ve only said eighty percent of it.”

 

Yen said, “What do you say, Elder Brother?”

 

Wu said, “Throughout the body are hands and eyes.”

 

(“The Blue Cliff Record”, Yuanwu, tr. Cleary & Cleary, Shambala p. 489)

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 02:58 AM by Mark Foote