{"id":2493,"date":"2014-07-18T08:33:57","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T14:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?p=2493"},"modified":"2014-07-18T09:34:47","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T15:34:47","slug":"what-is-earnest-vivid-sitting-how-its-often-missed-in-american-zen-and-why-it-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/07\/what-is-earnest-vivid-sitting-how-its-often-missed-in-american-zen-and-why-it-matters.html","title":{"rendered":"What is Earnest Vivid Sitting, How it’s Often Missed in American Zen, and Why it Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Big life event \u2013 retired in early June from a thirty-some year education career (except for a few stints of full time Zen, I\u2019d been at it since I was 22) and headed here to Portland, ME, to start a Zen training center, Great Tides Zen<\/a>\u00a0(oh, and please sign up for our newsletter updates in the bottom right sidebar).<\/p>\n

Our apartment wasn\u2019t going to be available until July 1, so we drove from Minnesota to Maine at a leisurely pace. I took the opportunity to listen to a half dozen or so dharma<\/a> podcasts by as many teachers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s really quite wonderful how available the dharma is these days and I enjoyed much of what I heard. There is a similar flavor to a lot of it, a distinctive and emergent American Zen, characterized by a fuzzy emotional tenderness. Quite lovely. If that\u2019s what you\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n

I chose podcasts that were about one of my long-time favorite subjects for inquiry \u2013 what is shikantaza<\/em>? Shikantaza<\/em> is also known as \u201cearnest vivid sitting\u201d and is misknown, I argue, as \u201cjust sitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust sitting\u201d has come to suggest a fuzzy, spacing-out, lulling vacancy that is not the way.<\/p>\n

I began this inquiry in 1984 with all the energy of a youngster when Katagiri Roshi gave a series of talks extending over several years on Dogen\u2019s Zazenshin<\/em> or The Healing Point of Zazen<\/em>, as I render it now. Of all of Dogen\u2019s writings, it is this fascicle that most thoroughly unpacks the nature of what he elsewhere refers to as the wondrous (or mysterious) method of buddhas and ancestors \u2013 shikantaza<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Zazenshin<\/em> is sometimes translated as The Lancet of \u00a0Zazen<\/em><\/a>\u00a0which is okay. The \u201cshin\u201d in Zazenshin<\/em> is also the character used for the acupuncture needle \u2013 thus, \u201chealing point.\u201d But perhaps \u201cdynamic balance point\u201d would also work.<\/p>\n

In any case, I\u2019ve been at this inquiry for 30 years, doing zazen, studying, traveling to do sesshin, monastic practice, koan introspection, etc., all in the service of this inquiry.<\/p>\n

In Dogen\u2019s dharma milieu, the two most common expressions for practice had been Silent Illumination and Key-Word Koan Introspection.\u00a0Dogen coined the term shikantaza<\/em> specifically for the essential method of buddhas and ancestors, going beyond these expressions. One important point here is that Dogen didn\u2019t see himself making up a new practice, simply finding a new and more accurate expression for what all buddhas and ancestors have always \u00a0practiced.<\/p>\n

Dogen, a successor in the Soto line associated with the Silent Illumination expression, doesn\u2019t use the phrase a single time in all his voluminous writings. That\u2019d be like a successor in Suzuki San Francisco Zen not saying \u201cbeginner\u2019s mind\u201d ever in 2000 pages of dharma talks. Clearly, there must be some meaning.<\/p>\n

In my view, a key point of Dogen\u2019s Zen is to present a clear and lively integration of the Silent Illumination and Koan Introspection branches of the buddhadharma. He does this in part with the single word\u00a0shikantaza<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Listening to the above-mentioned dharma talks, I noticed that what is called shikantaza<\/em> in contemporary discourse bares little resemblance to Dogen\u2019s shikantaza<\/em>. It has become a catch-all term that includes things like bare attention, receptive awareness, panoramic awareness, mindfulness of mind, following the breath, and themeless meditation.<\/p>\n

Another view has it that shikantaza<\/em> is a mindfulness of body practice and regards the pose itself as sacred and drifts into cargo-cult<\/a> (as John Tarrant has said) or fetish attitudes about it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve come to look at the difference this way \u2013 there is meditation practice in contemporary American Zen that is called shikantaza<\/em>. Then there is the shikantaza<\/em> that Dogen points to. They really don\u2019t have much relationship.<\/p>\n

I suspect that the Rev. Big-Mac Wrappers who go on about shikantaza\u00a0<\/em>as a method for vacant lulling,\u00a0approach it\u00a0as a belief system.<\/p>\n

Why does it matter?<\/p>\n

It matters because what we\u2019re talking about here is the essence of practicing enlightenment and the above listed techniques are mostly forms of congealing in tranquility.<\/p>\n

So what is shikantaza?<\/p>\n

Dogen says repeatedly that \u201c\u2026it is the realization of the k\u00f4an.\u201d<\/p>\n

He goes on, \u201cThe \u2018healing point\u2019 in the Healing Point of Zazen<\/em> is \u2018the manifestation of the great function\u2019, \u2018the comportment beyond sight and sound;\u2019 it is \u2018the juncture before your parents were born.\u2019 It is \u2018you had better not slander the buddhas and ancestors;\u2019 \u2018you do not avoid destroying your body and losing your life;\u2019 it is \u2018a head of three feet and neck of two inches.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, the old dog kindly and uncompromisingly gives us a nod toward the many faces of shikantaza<\/em> as the presentation of the koan.<\/p>\n

In our post-Hakuin world, I\u2019d add this \u2013 shikantaza<\/em> is the sound of one hand.<\/p>\n

What can you do to begin the inquiry? I\u2019d say that for most people, it might be necessary to do koan introspection (with someone who is clear and insists on clarity and doesn\u2019t wantonly pass students through the system) to discover shikantaza<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Short of that (or in conjunction with that), \u201csit down, shut up, and pay attention\u201d (as James Ford summarizes the path), is very sound advise.<\/p>\n

So here in Portland, ME, we\u2019ll soon begin again the work of this ongoing inquiry.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Big life event \u2013 retired in early June from a thirty-some year education career (except for a few stints of full time Zen, I\u2019d been at it since I was 22) and headed here to Portland, ME, to start a Zen training center, Great Tides Zen\u00a0(oh, and please sign up for our newsletter updates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[83,82,5,15],"class_list":["post-2493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-zen","tag-dogen-zen","tag-shikantaza","tag-silent-illumination"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is Earnest Vivid Sitting, How it's Often Missed in American Zen, and Why it Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  Big life event - retired in early June from a thirty-some year education career (except for a few stints of full time Zen, I'd been at it since I\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/07\/what-is-earnest-vivid-sitting-how-its-often-missed-in-american-zen-and-why-it-matters.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is Earnest Vivid Sitting, How it's Often Missed in American Zen, and Why it Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Big life event - 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