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<\/a><\/p>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n<\/p> I\u2019m back into it today after a wonderful sesshin. Some reflections about that below.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s my first day of summer break (wholehearted Whoopee!) so I get to focus work on some dharma<\/a> projects, futz with the house, enjoy time with my rapidly growing kids (including the advanced practice of dodging teenager mud balls [or getting hit in the back of the head with \u201cequanimity!\u201d] ), connecting with some old friends, and taking a couple vacations too. Ahhh, sweet life.<\/p>\n During this past sesshin we officially suspended direct Dogen reflection, although the old dog kept creeping up on us. Seemed to me that it\u2019d be helpful for us Wild Foxes to see the dharma from a different perspective. As I noted in the last post, I encouraged the observation of the 9 Stages for Calming the Mind<\/span><\/a> and Case 31 of the <\/span>Gateless Gate<\/span><\/span>, \u201cThe Old Woman of Taizan\u201d (see below).<\/span><\/p>\n Some might call me a Soto Zen heretic for suggesting the mind calms down in stages, given our sudden school proclivities, with D-z saying that he does not teach step-by-step zazen (although he grew up in the Tendai schools elaborate step-by-stepness), and \u201cfrom the first dullness and distraction are struck aside,\u201d and all that important stuff.<\/p>\n Suggesting that there are stages in the path also trips many of our self-hatred triggers, so it is delicate material, probably best presented in the context of close teacher-student relationships.<\/p>\n On the first point about me being a heretic, I confess.<\/p>\n And basic zazen instructions are to turn the light around, returning to the breath, the body, the hara, or themelessness \u2013 right?<\/p>\n Here\u2019s why I find the 9 stages important. Many people following the above instructions get stuck and don\u2019t understand why. I\u2019ve found through experience and by helping people through these stages that they are a great help to unstick us.<\/p>\n In my view, these 9 stages are just the \u201cnatural\u201d way the mind unfolds in calmness and the instructions of the stages subtly inform us how we can turn the light around in successive open spaces. They\u2019re a mind map (like the Wheel of Life tanka) of how to be intimate with the vividly hopping along mind shifting through the 9 stages. They are descriptive as well as prescriptive.<\/p>\n Uninformed shikantaza might well be simply rehearsing our habits, like Bobby singing \u201cthe mind has been mismanaged with great skill.\u201d<\/p>\n By the way, a similar system advocated by Hakuin is taught in Rinzai Zen, especially by Harada Shodo Roshi. See this very clearly presented in The Path of Bodhidharma<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n