{"id":3195,"date":"2015-12-17T12:30:31","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T18:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?p=3195"},"modified":"2015-12-17T12:30:31","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T18:30:31","slug":"buddhas-enlightenment-yielding-assertively-touching-the-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2015\/12\/buddhas-enlightenment-yielding-assertively-touching-the-heart.html","title":{"rendered":"Buddha’s Enlightenment: Yielding Assertively, Touching the Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"FullSizeRender\"<\/a>Note: This is the fifth of five post based on talks from Rohatsu 2014. Students (Brian, Ryan, Erik, and Vera-Ellen \u2013 thank you!) transcribed them and I edited. The final one will be posted here soon. Click here for the first part: \u00a0<\/span>\u201cThe Root of Zen.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0H<\/span>ere for the second:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cSitting Through it All.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 Here for the third:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cNot Clear About the Self.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0And here for the fourth: \u201cBuddha\u2019s Enlightenment: A Single Body is Revealed.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

First, a word about \u201csesshin,\u201d the word we use for intensive Zen retreats. \u201cSesshin\u201d is composed of two characters. The second character \u201cshin\u201d is a very common character and means \u201cheart,\u201d \u201cmind,\u201d \u201cessence,\u201d or \u201cspirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first character is quite important. It is composed of the radical for \u201chand\u201d and then the character for \u201ca woman standing over,\u201d suggesting \u201cto connect\u201d or \u201cto join.\u201d One translation of \u201csesshin,\u201d then, is \u201cto join or connect with the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing a bit with the characters, we might portray \u201csesshin\u201d as a woman standing, touching her heart. And so with \u201csesshin,\u201d we have the two foci of receptivity and activity. The feminine, yielding principle, is standing up and touching the heart. The movement of the hand involved in touching the heart is the presentation of the essential activity of practice, turning the light around.\u00a0Given that these characters grew up in a Confucian culture where it would be unusual for a woman to speak standing, there may be a suggestion here that \u201csesshin\u201d is a bold act, an act that challenges the status quo.<\/p>\n

In the last post, I ended with Fayan\u2019s important expression of this principle, \u201cIn the myriad forms, a single body is revealed.\u201d\u00a0 One of the virtues of sesshin, the yielding principle standing assertively and touching the heart, is how the simplicity of the Soto forms are\u00a0illuminated. Indeed, the myriad forms \u2013 sitting, standing, walking, lying down \u2013 are our life as if it were composed\u00a0by\u00a0just four brushstrokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the myriad forms, a single body is revealed.\u201d Sitting, standing, walking, lying down.<\/p>\n

Instead of \u201cbody,\u201d Fayan could have used other things as well. In the myriad forms, the single mind is revealed. In the myriad forms, the single the single heart is revealed. In the myriad forms, the single eye, the single liver, the single finger, the single fist, the single hand, or the single liver.<\/p>\n

Here, though, the single body is revealed. We learn this practice in the body, from one person to another. And although there are many forms of practice, we studying the forms in the body. In my case, studying with Katagiri Roshi, was studying his body \u2013 how he walked, sat, ate. How he vacuumed the stairs, how he shoveled the sidewalk. I did that by yielding, being with him and touching the heart together.<\/p>\n

A little while before he died, right after he was diagnosed with lymphoma, I asked him if he\u2019d stick around awhile, \u201dWell, whatever happens,\u201d he said, \u201cI will always be there with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The single body is revealed.<\/p>\n

Our Zen lineage is intimately passed from person to person to person. We learn this too through koan introspection. In koan after koan, body meets body. How did those in this lineage embody this koan? A\u00a0guy called Dosho bowed together with a guy named Myoun and we examined case after case in this way.<\/p>\n

Transmission, then, comes from long study together.<\/p>\n

We remember that when we embody the lineage in the morning service. Most of the Soto chanting service is an expression of the heart and is characterized by beautiful flowing together. When we chant the lineage, however, the chant leader holds the large bell with thumb and two fingers, striking the bell with the tip of the handle of the striker, creating a disharmonious, dead-hit sound. BAM! This is repeated as we begin the names of each of the seven Buddhas. It is a sound that pierces the ears, touches the heart, and jolts the body.<\/p>\n

Just in this context, Keizan said, \u201cWhile the seasons come and go, the mountains, rivers, and great earth change with time. You should know that this is Buddha raising his eyebrows and blinking his eyes. So it is in the myriad forms, the single body is revealed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reference to \u201craising the eyebrows\u2026\u201d is to the story of the Buddha\u2019s transmission to Mahakasyapa. One day when Shakyamuni came to the assembly to give a dharma<\/a> talk, he just held up a flower, raised his eye brow, and blinked. Mahakasyapa smiled. This is regarded as the first transmission of the Dharma.<\/p>\n

Keizan brings it into the body even more definitively, saying \u201cthe seasons coming and going, the mountains, rivers, and great earth changing with time\u201d \u2013 this is the transmission of the Dharma. It\u2019s that embodied; it\u2019s that intimate.<\/p>\n

Keizan was influenced by Shingon or the \u201cTrue Word\u201d school, which emphasizes mandala and creating the sacred space. For Keizan, the mandala, the sacred space, is not only the physical space<\/em> of mountains, rivers, the great earth, and the whole great universe, but also the coming and going of time<\/em>, as he indicates with \u201cthe passing of the seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our practice and transmission takes place in that, as that universal mandala.<\/p>\n

However, when we\u2019re caught up in the maintenance of our dear little buddy \u201cyou,\u201d the \u201cartifact of unfulfilled ambition,\u201d we forget that this whole planetary system is the transmission of the buddhadharma and that practice and life occur as the expression of this huge, incomprehensible space.<\/p>\n

Also, when we\u2019re engaged in \u201cyou\u201d reification, it\u2019s very hard to pay attention to the body of practice, of how to do it. When we\u2019re absorbed in the \u201cyou,\u201d we can either be hyper vigilant about it and miss the point or just absorbed in our own world rather than seeing what needs to be done and doing it.<\/p>\n

How does body practice relate to our koan work? We put our body into the truth-happening-place narrative, put our body in the Buddha story. The unique power of the koan narrative is in finding a nonrepresentational way to present the truth.<\/p>\n

Sometimes just-sitting Zen friends point out that our practice is not having any \u201csweet cookies.\u201d Katagiri Roshi also said that quite often, \u201cZen practice is no sweet cookies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The implication seems to be that koan is somehow a sweet cookie, something to stop the baby from crying. Those of you who have taken up the mu koan might experience it differently. \u201cMu\u201d means \u201cno,\u201d \u201cnon,\u201d or \u201cnegation.\u201d And to see the koan, we must be the koan, in this case, we must be one with \u201cno,\u201d \u201cnon,\u201d or \u201cnegation.\u201d That\u2019s not much of a sweet cookie! Indeed, in becoming mu, it seems that the \u201cyou\u201d might be erased.<\/p>\n

When Xuishan, one of the monks who had accompanied Fayan when they first encountered Dizhang, returned from his pilgrimage and entered Dizhang\u2019s room. Dizhang said, \u201cWell, hi! Where have you been?\u201d<\/p>\n

Xuishan said, \u201cI\u2019ve been in the south.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dizhang said, \u201cOh, how\u2019s the buddhadharma doing in the south these days?\u201d<\/p>\n

Xuishan said, \u201cThere\u2019s much discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dizhang said, \u201cWhat does that have to do with me, planting my garden and harvesting rice?\u201d<\/p>\n

Our practice, day by day, is just taking care of business. The work of carrying beings from the shore of samsara to nirvana is an embodied activity. It requires, first of all, being willing to get your hands dirty.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your practice.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: This is the fifth of five post based on talks from Rohatsu 2014. Students (Brian, Ryan, Erik, and Vera-Ellen \u2013 thank you!) transcribed them and I edited. The final one will be posted here soon. Click here for the first part: \u00a0\u201cThe Root of Zen.\u201d\u00a0Here for the second:\u00a0\u201cSitting Through it All.\u201d\u00a0 Here for the […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-3195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBuddha's Enlightenment: Yielding Assertively, Touching the Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Note: This is the fifth of five post based on talks from Rohatsu 2014. 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