On What Zen Practice Has To Offer

What Zen practice has to offer is a way of deeply reflecting on our lives, through our lives, and leaping free of the cages we make for ourselves. There are many other things too but that’s the main course.

Why do we need that? Nine months ago it wasn’t only John McCain who was saying, “The fundamentals of the economy are strong.” Most “experts” thought we’d have a normal little recession and then get back to wanton consumption and debt, America first (click here for a Thomas Friedman essay on the Great Disruption). Imagine if more of us and our leaders had looked clearly and freshly at the well we were about to fall in. We may have been able to avoid the suffering that many are now experiencing and, imho, much more in the near term future, including the consequences of a debt of more than 500 billion dollars (if the Chinese and Japanese will cover us) out for ten years before things get worse.

“Just sitting” quietly as an esoteric ritual can contribute little to the deep reflection that is necessary now about how we can live together in peace and harmony.

Continuously learning how to practice and verify (and vivify) this life is what is necessary. That’s the heart of what the Soto Zen tradition has to offer – as well as a way of living simply with few desires and finding deep satisfaction that doesn’t rely on exploitation of the earth or other beings.

For example, one of my dharma ancestors, Gesshu Soko (1618-1696; his name in English: Moonlit Boat Rustic Essence) whose vivifying calligraphy appears above, initiated a powerful reform movement within Soto Zen (the Back to Dogen Movement), while living a quiet life of practice. His energy for reform flowed from breaking through his fixed ideas about the world, and doubt in particular, while contemplating No (fixed) Mind in an outhouse:

Sitting in an outhouse, I concentrated upon this doubt, and as time passed I forgot to leave. Suddenly a violent wind came, first blowing the outhouse door open and then shut again with a loud crash. My spirit instantly advanced and ripped apart my previous doubt; it was like suddenly awakening from a dream or remembering something forgotten. I began to dance in a way I had never learned, and there are no words to convey my great joy.
– from Stephen Addiss’ The Art of Zen

No quietism there! No witness consciousness arguing about No Mind, advancing opinions about practice, debating about koans and shikantaza. Gesshu Soko got inside No Mind and broke it open. Whether we’re contemplating “conveying the self (see bottom of the last post),” following the breath, or mu-ji, that’s what the world calls for us to do.