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The
Tiny Book of
Stopping and Looking
by
Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho
a
Series of Three Dharma Talks
Zazen-ji, February 1996
Talk
1: Samatha
Good
morning.
Well,
here you are sitting in the Zendo at Zazen-ji, doing our practice. Shojo
no shu: realized-practice. The practice of alignment with what is true
through opening to experience as it is without manipulation or strategy.
Anzan sensei says: "The root practice is Awareness itself."
Dogen
zenji says that this practice is the practice of shikan taza. Which means,
"sitting exerts sitting" or even "sitting strikes sitting"
or "sitting as BANG!" Anzan sensei: says,
Zen
does not offer some little technique that one can do. It does not offer
some shining bauble that one can play with. It demands, instead, everything
that you are in order to receive what Zen offers... Our practice is
not about meditation; it is about realization...
Our
practice is the realization of Aware Space, of Awake Awareness, of Buddha
which has been directly and intimately Transmitted from Teacher to student,
from Buddha to Buddha. Buddhist meditation on the other hand, is meditation
done by Buddhists...and it is very important that we do not stray into
this.
Anzan
sensei often says, "It is important that we understand our practice.
If we misunderstand our practice, we will practice our misunderstandings."
All
forms of meditation can be divided into two types: Samatha and Vipasyana.
The Ratnamega sutra (Cloud of Jewels sutra) (Discourse Like a Cloud of
Jewels) defines these quite simply. "Samatha is concentration. Vipasyana
is analysis of details of experience."
Most
meditations are samatha. Literally: "abiding in calm." The creation
of states of concentration, states of calm. Dogen zenji called this "self-tranquillization"
Vipasyana
is observing or analysing experiences, understanding through looking deeply.
Buddhist
meditation can involve either, but usually both, with samatha being cultivated
as a basis for vipasyana. In Kamalashila's “Stages of Meditation” it says,
"Having pacified distraction towards external objects, one abides
in a mental state of suppleness and delights in internal focusing."
The
Suppleness, although it sounds attractive, is mental space folding into
itself, folding in like a contortionist. Now this is what we do all the
time, not just when we are sitting. This is when attention moves into
and focuses on objects of attention.
"Having
this state of calm and abiding therein, one investigates its Suchness.
This is called vipasyana."
Now
focusing in and interpreting any particular state of mind as being more
meaningful or true than any other state is dangerous: because all states
come and go. And approaching practice as a gradual cultivation of particular
states, acquiring this and getting rid of that, is an approach easily
co-opted by self-image.
Jamgon
Kongtrul Lodro Thaye in his “Treasury of Knowledge” says that samatha
is like the oil in a lamp, vipasyana is like the flame. Thus, first one
cultivates samatha and then gives rise to vipasyana Another take on this
metaphor which cuts through the gradualist approach implicit in this,
was told to me by Anzan sensei. He said that samatha is the thin shell
of glass protecting the flame of insight from the wind of habitual tendencies.
They can and should be practiced together. A little samatha is just being
sincere, steady. Mostly, one should just look clearly at what's going
on In Chinese samatha and vipasyana are called shi and guan and in Japanese
shi and kan .
In
both cases they mean stopping and looking.
Now
they may sound the same as the shikan in shikan-taza but they're not.
And this is important. They are different characters, different meanings,
different practice.
Chinese
Tiantai Master Zhiyi who died in 598 C.E. presented a very comprehensive
body of work on shikan. This was in Chinese, the “Mo Ho Shi Guan”; in
Japanese “Maja Shi Kan ”. And this the Sensei translates into English
as “The Big Book of Stopping and Looking”.
Zhiyi
was later acclaimed as the Fourth Ancestor of the Tiantai school. Seven
hundred years later Dogen zenji received Transmission from Rujing at Tiantong
si quite close to where Zhiyi's monastery was located. This approach is
of interest to us because it is pervasive in Far East Asian Dharma and
as a young Tendai monk Dogen practiced shi-kan on Mt. Heiei (along with
such Mikkyo practices as goma).
Zhiyi
saw samatha and vipasyana, shi and kan as the two wings of a bird in flight.
In other words they should be practiced together, each informing the other.
Shikan-taza,
on the other hand, is the sky the bird flies in.
Now
samatha is a strategy of avoidance, a focusing and narrowing of attention.
Our practice is opening attention, attending not only to what arises within
attention but to the very structures that seem to limit and narrow attention
Self-image is always practicing a low-grade kind of samatha; focusing
on hope and fear, thoughts and feelings, and bla bla bla.
High
grade or quality samatha would simply result in being zoned out, a zombie,
like a kid playing Super Mario Brothers.
Shikan-taza
is out of the reach of most of us when we begin to practice because it
is the realized-practice of ungraspability. Some elements of samatha and
vipasyana or shi kan might constitute some of the baby steps we might
walk on this Pathless Path of the Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors. They
might be like those little blow-up plastic water wings we stick on kids
when they venture into the wading pool. Now, we might have to wear them
at first when we are flung into the Ocean of Reality transmitted to us
through the Teachings, but, as the Sensei says, the realization of this
practice is to "drown in that Ocean".
Well,
my advice is to know that you're wearing them, know how to balance them,
and don't worry about it if you get a puncture.
[Pause]
Thank
you for listening.
Talk
2: Vipasyana
Good
morning.
Can
you smell the incense in the air? Can you feel the breeze from the fan
on your cheek, on your ear? Can you feel the left hand resting in the
right hand? Can you see the seeing? Can you hear the hearing? Can you
feel the space around you as bodymind exerts itself in the posture of
zazen?
Are
you drowning in the Ocean of Reality or are you clutching onto a little
bundle of thoughts and feelings and descriptions of what's going on? Let
it go...and just drown.
Drowning
in the Ocean of Reality means being Reality itself, without separation,
without stances or strategy. This is the practice of reality.
Whatever
we have understood through this practice, we must practice it. Through
this, we might begin to understand something of shojo no shu: realized-practice.
Now,
perhaps our understanding was the smallest gap, the smallest hole, appearing
for just a moment in the midst of our usualness. Perhaps, it was the hissing
of air leaking from the little plastic water wings we have used as we
have been bobbing about on the surface of that Vast Ocean.
The
practice of samatha: calming or concentration, in isolation from vipasyana;
insight, looking, is an attempt to hold ourselves still in the midst of
the waves, the coming and going of experiences that our lives, inescapably,
are. Samatha is attempting to control our thoughts, feelings, states through
focusing on the breath, or whatever kind of technique or object our little
samatha technique has involved.
Vipasyana,
in isolation from really, stably, facing our lives as they are, puts us
just as out of balance as a trance state would. Now, by vipasyana, I am
not referring to a practice commonly referred to as vipassana. These are
different. Vipassana is a Burmese revival of Buddhist meditation that
really only has a history stretching back around 150 years. While, in
many ways, vipassana is similar to foundational elements of our practice
of zazen, in particular the emphasis on mindfulness, it is not the same.
Vipassana is concerned with attending to details of experience.
In
our practice, the subtle structures of attention and the presumption of
locatedness, directionality and so on all must come into question, must
be exposed through direct insight.
Now,
it is certainly not my intention to critique Theravadin vipassana. Some
of what we discuss here about samatha and vipasyana will however no doubt
apply. Vipasyana is as Master Zhiyi describes, "observing, examining,
introspecting."
Samatha
has traditionally been compared to placing a stone on top of a weed, suppressing
the weed. The problem with suppression is that we just save the nastiness
for later. The stone will be on top of the weed but eventually there will
be little tendrils, little pale bits, that will sneak out from around
the edges of the stone. And when the stone is removed the weed will spring
up again. Vipasyana has been compared to digging up the root of the weed.
However,
instead of direct insight into the groundlessness, the Openness, the luminosity
of experience revealing that there is nowhere for the weed to be rooted,
often vipasyana becomes a strategy.
The
Anzan sensei told me a little story about our stories using this metaphor:
To
pull out the weed we begin to map out a plan of attack. We map out a
diagram of winches and pullies, cables and packhorses, scaffolding,
and a cafeteria for the workers. We become so involved in planning how
to deal with the disputes between management and labour and so proud
of the craftsmanship with which we have drawn such straight lines on
our blueprint that we forget about the weed.
Or
we look at the weed. We count its leaves. We measure the angle. We note
how s they lie in relationship to each other. or...we count them ...add
up the numbers, reduce them to a single digit, add it to the original
number, double it, then subtract 76.9... And buy a lottery ticket with
the results.
And
as I myself have witnessed, sometimes we pluck the leaves from the weed,
wrap them up ever so nicely in raffia...beautiful little bundles... and
wave them around our heads to ward off bad juju.
Often,
vipasyana devolves into a way of providing ourselves with a story that
can explain away our confusion. Now if we have a good enough story, we
can feel wise. If our story is maudlin enough, we can feel kindly, compassionate,
or even...spiritual. In some cases, vipasyana has been called "looking
deeply" when, really, it means looking away and looking towards and
listening to our story.
The
story might be that all is dukkha and nothing matters. Or it might be
that what is called "I" is "a mere imputation upon a nominal
designate which in actuality is the assemblage of the skandhas, ayatanas,
and nidanas.” It might be that... everyone is Buddha, so smile, smile,
smile.
Whatever.
Direct
insight is practiced with the whole bodymind, balanced and open. Insight
is, in fact, this exposure. Now, the samatha part would be doing this
again and again and again in each moment. In particular, when we just
don't feel like it. Self-image is always practicing low-grade samatha,
focusing on hope and fear, a face, shadows and lights, the flowers in
the ikebana, the breathing of the person beside you. As well, self-image
is also always practicing low-grade vipasyana: trying to explain itself
to itself, to find justification and resolution. To make it all fit. To
make a more perfect storyline.
This
practice, the one, of course, you're doing right now, is the practice
of yourself as you are. It is simply attending to what is going on; seeing
what you see, and hearing what you hear. This practice is attending to
the process of experiencing as such. It is directly experiencing what
you are experiencing. This is what we must understand.
Thank
you for listening.
Talk
3: Balance
Good
morning. Traditionally samatha and vipasyana have been compared to the
two wings of a bird. As Tientai master Zhiyi said some 1300 years ago,
the bird needs to have both wings in balance so that it can fly properly.
The essence of our practice is to align ourselves with what is true about
experiences and experiencing. This is shojo no shu, realized-practice.
It is the practice of Aware Space, as taught by Zen Master Anzan Hoshin.
This is the vast sky in which the bird soars.
States
of samatha or focusing arise within your practice. When you fall into
them for whatever reason, you don't recognize concentration as concentration,
focusing as focusing, a state as a state, and your practice is out of
balance. As you learn to recognize concentration states, states of samatha...
you can apply what you have been taught to balance them out. The counterbalance
to samatha, traditionally, has been vipasyana or insight, clear seeing
or looking.
The
moment of recognizing that you have fallen into focusing on a thought
or on some quality of concentration is a moment of vipasyana. In the next
moment, this recognition can become an opinion, a judgement. Vipasyana
has then become out of balance and is now the propagation (or prapanca)
of a state or a stance.
We
really just can't seem to help ourselves. We need to make a big deal out
of everything. I guess we're just all drama queens. Propagation or prapanca
is such a habit for us. The Sensei was telling me something about the
Sanskrit word "prapanca." It seems that "panca" means
"five." So prapanca means something like "going on about
it five times as long as is necessary."
So
just stop!... And look! Remember, that in our practice, the practice of
Awareness itself, samatha and vipasyana are not strategies. The point
is to see how you are; dense or more open, or concentrated and focused,
or seeing clearly. And to open to the basic clarity which is always already
available past all strategies. In your practice this means seeing clearly
the mechanisms of the movements of attention.
[Pause]
In
the beginning you can't do that because you simply don't know how. Most
of the things that Usual mind, the mind that doesn't do this practice,
has tried out before are various and sundry, tawdry bits of samatha. There
are many concentration practices that are recipes for the creation of
dense states; focusing on the breath, a mantra, an object such as a candle;
visualizations; affirmations ...They come in many disguises. Belief systems;
belief in a higher self, spirit guides, spirit animals, channeling and
so forth; They come as descriptions such as "being open to the light".
They come as dancing, as drumming, as marching, as chanting. as ecstatic
states. And people like them...because they suit the project of self-image.
And that project is to produce such a dense state that self-image is not
aware of itself.
Self-image
gets so caught up in the state, and its descriptions of, and storylines
about, the state; storylines such as being "spiritual", being
"in tune", being "in harmony", being "at peace"...
that it is oblivious to itself. Self-image is able to block out, momentarily,
its usual repertoire of doom and gloom storylines, wishful thinking and
fantasies, petty concerns, claustrophobic anxieties. It is also oblivious
to seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, feeling, smelling...the rest of
your actual life.
Now
this sounds a bit like falling in love or....patriotism...a night at the
disco...a good day at the football game... doesn't it? The coin of trade
in the realm of self-image then, is basically samatha. And it's a counterfeit
coin. It won't buy you anything. Not only will it not buy you anything,
it robs you. It robs you of your life.
The
other side of that coin is vipasyana. When self-image grabs onto it and
stuffs it into its bank of "thingies", it becomes merely a description
of "how things are".
Rather
than actual insight or clear seeing or looking into the reality of this
moment of experiencing, it is a description. It is counterfeit as well.
You can't buy and sell Reality. You can't make a deal with it. You cannot
invest in it or save it. It is free, all-pervasive, and rich. None of
the strategies of poverty that are intrinsic to self-image have anything
at all to do with it.
Vipasyana,
when it is misunderstood, is a perfect subject for the manipulations and
grasping of self-image. Self-image uses the concept of insight or clear
seeing to manufacture for itself a nice bundle of misunderstandings about
"understanding" what Zen practice is or what the Actual Nature
of experiencing is or how well or badly it is doing. Rather than actually
experiencing your moment to moment experiencing, you are experiencing
your ideas, thoughts, storylines, about your experiencing. You have fallen
into a stance towards, and strategy about, your practice.
Now,
this isn't a problem. It isn't a problem because at some point, as long
as you continue to do this practice, you will see the movement of attention
into stances and strategies. (And if you don't, a Practice Advisor will
point it out to you. If they don't, the Sensei will have our jobs.)
In
your practice, you will experience a moment of vipasyana or clear seeing,
or looking. You can't help it. Because despite your counterfeit coins,
you're all basically honest.
It
seems that for usual mind that the noticing of anything at all is done
through focusing, through a kind of samatha or fixation. In this practice
you will have learned to recognize the narrowness of that and it will
strike you as unnecessary. Even uncomfortable. But when you notice the
fixation, you loosen it a bit but wind up with just a subtler kind of
samatha.
However,
through mindfulness, through attending to the narrowing of attention,
you eventually wear away the tendency to fixate or to tell yourselves
and each other stories about what's going on. Samatha and vipasyana, concentration
and insight, focussing and attending, stopping and looking, have balanced
each other out. In fact, if either samatha or vipasyana are noticeably
present in shojo no shu or realized practice, our practice is out of balance.
The
main thing is not to struggle with it, to try to fix it, to salvage something.
In this practice, you can just throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Just throw it, throw yourself, throw everything, into the Ocean of Reality
. Release whatever has been noticed into the Ocean of Reality .
Through
moment to moment attending to the balance of body, breath, speech and
mind, we are able to attend openly to experiencing. Through moment to
moment attending to the presencing of bodymind we are able to recognize
balance point. Knees on the zabuton, your bum on the zafu, hips open,
the spine elegantly rising, head balanced on the spine, eyes open, seeing,
hearing, tasting, touching, feeling, breathing in, breathing out, recognizing
the presencing of balance point...centred...whole...
As
Dongshan Liangjie wrote in the “Hokyo Zanmai”, The true centre subtly
holds the rhythm and song together.
The
true centre is not something fixed. It is not even something stable. The
true centre is Reality. The true practice is exposure, opening.
Thank
you for listening.
 
©
1999-2004 White Wind Zen Community. All rights reserved.
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