Wild Fox Zen
At the workshop at Boundless Way a couple weekends ago, like usual, I emphasized the importance of discovering the subtle point of what Dogen refers to as the Buddha and ancestors’ wondrous method. In this spirit I offered a Dogen verse in zazen that included this line:
Do not control the monkey mind
or the horse will.
Make effort like a lotus in fire.
The week before, the online practice period studied a section of Dogen’s Instructions for the Cook that included this passage:
That you still do not grasp the certainty of this principle is because your thinking scatters, like wild horses, and your emotions run wild, like monkeys in a forest. If you can make those monkeys and horses, just once, take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward, then naturally you will be completely integrated.
There seems to be a contradiction here, don’t you think – don’t control the monkey mind and do make the monkey turn around. What do you make of this?
Dogen could have been offering different advise to different audiences although both seem to have been given to his monks.
He could have changed his tune. The first passage is from late in his career and the latter is from early. However, I once asked Katagiri Roshi if Dogen’s thought developed over his career. “No development,” he said, “exactly same and one from beginning to end.”
Another possibility is that the limitation is from the side of the mind that sees the contradiction, and that Dogen’s subtle point is free within not controlling and controlling.
How does this roll out in your practice?
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In