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This past week, I received an email from a S\u014dt\u014d Zen priest who trains under the guidance of good friends. \u201cDoes\u00a0kensh\u014d need to be realized by the discriminating mind?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
I figured he was probably thinking of how practitioners ripen differently, some more prone to sudden experiences, while others seem more predisposed to the gradual process of steady cultivation. And perhaps he was thinking of D\u014dgen\u2019s passage in \u201cGenj\u014dk\u014dan,\u201d\u00a0\u201cWe should not think that what we have attained is conceived by ourselves and known by our dis\u00adcriminating mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before I share my response, a quick \u201ckensh\u014d\u201d review.<\/p>\n
The way Hakuin used the word, kensh\u014d refers to an abrupt experience of nonduality, \u201cas clear as the palm of your hand,\u201d he frequently said. People often report that while kensh\u014d-ing is startling, it also seems intimately familiar. Another important aspect, as Hakuin put it, \u201cYou will experience a joy of unprecedented depth and intensity. You will soar like the phoenix when it breaks free of the golden net, like the crane that is liberated from its pen\u201d (1).<\/p>\n
With kensh\u014d, nondual embodiment, nothing is left out. That includes the discriminating\/divided mind. Indeed, through the kensh\u014d experience, the divided mind is healed and we realize that it isn\u2019t the problem after all. The Heart Sutra<\/em> supports this view from beginning to end:\u00a0\u201cAvalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when deeply practicing prajna paramita, clearly saw that all five aggregates are empty and thus relieved all suffering.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Heart Sutra<\/em> doesn\u2019t say that Avalokiteshvara saw that four aggregates are empty. But one, consciousness (aka, discriminating mind) is clueless.<\/p>\n So in answer to the above Zen priest\u2019s question, I responded, \u201cYes, the discriminating mind is realized through kensho.\u201d<\/p>\n If someone were to say \u201cNo, the divided mind is not included in\u00a0nondual kensh\u014d-ing,\u201d I\u2019d wonder if their awakening was limited, so as not to include the self and the 10,000 dharmas. Maybe their \u201ckensh\u014d\u201d was a trance state apart from our belching, farting, divided world. This is important, because if the divided mind is left out of\u00a0kensh\u014d, how you going to make it work in daily life?<\/p>\n Unfortunately, in modern usage, kensh\u014d, and more frequently, \u201cawakening,\u201d are terms used to refer to the gradual process of the transformation of consciousness, usually before or instead of a sudden and distinctive awakening, as well as to abrupt experiences of nonduality. Although gradual cultivation\u00a0before and after kensh\u014d is a vital part of the Zen path, in my view, it doesn\u2019t serve practitioners or the buddhadharma to conflate gradual transformation of consciousness with sudden kensh\u014d.<\/p>\n The Mahayana classic, The Awakening of Faith<\/em>, has something to offer here. The text is short and sweet with crisp and clear definitions. It says, \u201cTwo relationships exist between the enlightened and unenlightened states. They are \u2018identity\u2019 and \u2018nonidentity'\u201d (Hakeda translation, pp. 45-46).<\/p>\n So kensh\u014d and the divided mind are the same and<\/span> they are different.<\/p>\n The text then uses the example of pottery. In terms of identity, \u201cJust as pieces of various kinds of pottery are of the same nature in that they are made of clay, so the various magic-like manifestations of both enlightenment and nonenlightenment are of the same essence, Suchness.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of nonidentity,\u00a0The Awakening of Faith <\/em>continues, \u201cJust as various pieces of pottery differ from each other, so differences exist between the state of enlightenment and that of nonenlightenment\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n So, again, conflating\u00a0kensh\u014d and nonkensh\u014d is one aspect \u2013 they are the same. The other aspect, though, an aspect unappreciated in too much of contemporary S\u014dt\u014d discourse, is that they are different.<\/p>\n What about the D\u014dgen\u2019s passage from \u201cGenj\u014dk\u014dan\u201d quoted above? \u201cWe should not think that what we have attained is conceived by ourselves and known by our dis\u00adcriminating mind.\u201d<\/p>\n D\u014dgen seems to be talking mostly here about the importance gradual cultivation. I think of another D\u014dgen phrase, \u201cWalking in the mist, suddenly your coat is soaked through.\u201d Suzuki Roshi elaborates:<\/p>\n \u201cSo D\u014dgen-zenji says our practice is like to go through the fog.\u00a0 It is not like to go out in thunderstorm [laughs].\u00a0 If you go out in heavy rain, your clothes will be all-at-once wet.\u00a0 You will be soaked in water, but sudden rainstorm will not penetrate in your, you know, underwear.\u00a0 It will [laughs] [probably gestures to show water running off a surface]\u2014but fog\u2014when you walk through the thick fog for a long time, even though you don\u2019t know\u2014realize your clothing is wet, it is wet, and it will penetrate into your underwear.\u00a0 This is the true practice.\u00a0 You don\u2019t think you made some progress, but [laughs] you did a remarkable progress if someone who knows what is real practice will acknowledge it\u201d (2).<\/p>\n \u201cWalking in the mist\u201d (or fog) refers to the steady process of daily sitting, reflection, and application. \u201cSuddenly your coat is soaked through,\u201d is\u00a0kensh\u014d. And it\u2019s an important thing to check with \u201csomeone who knows real practice.\u201d<\/p>\n Shifting metaphor, gradual cultivation is like turning the lid on a Mason jar. Who knows where we\u2019re at in the process? Then suddenly it pops off.<\/p>\n In other places in the Sh\u014db\u014dgenz\u014d<\/em>, \u201cSelf-Realization Samadhi (Jish\u014d Zammai),\u201d for instance,\u00a0D\u014dgen insists on the importance on an abrupt nondual kensh\u014d. He challenges his favorite nemesis, D\u00e0<\/span>hu\u00ec<\/span>, for instance, for not having had a sufficiently unitary kensh\u014d experience.<\/p>\n The Tanahashi translation has a key passage of D\u014dgen\u2019s criticism like this: \u201cAlthough\u00a0[D\u00e0<\/span>hu\u00ec<\/span>] often tried to open up for one phrase of enlightenment, he was lacking a single experience. He could not take hold<\/em> of or drop away from this single experience\u201d (3).<\/p>\n While Nishijima and Cross have it like this: \u201c[D\u00e0<\/span>hu\u00ec<\/span>] ultimately kept missing that one experience, and there is no way of compensating for that, for one cannot omit that experience\u2026. He did not grasp that to study and train is to awaken to one\u2019s True Self. He did not hear that to delve deeply into the writings of myriad generations is to come to realize what that Self truly is.<\/p>\n In conclusion, both gradual cultivation and sudden realization are vital aspects of the Zen way. And the spirit of both\u00a0D\u014dgen Zen and Hakuin Zen is to do gradual cultivation with the spirit of sudden realization \u2013 with wholehearted effort without figuring, practicing as if our hair were on fire.<\/p>\n (1)\u00a0Complete Poison Blossoms in a Thicket of Thorn\u00a0<\/em>#8<\/p>\n (2) Suzuki Roshi dharma talk<\/a> from July 29, 1965<\/p>\n (3) Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen\u2019s Shobogenzo,<\/em> \u201cSelf-Realization Samadhi,\u201d translated by Kaz Tanahashi<\/p>\n (4) Shobogenzo<\/em>, \u201cJish\u014d-zanmai: Sam\u0101dhi as Experience of the Self,\u201d Nishijima and Cross, p. 48<\/p>\n D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach Sensei, with the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training<\/a>, an internet-based Zen community. D\u014dsh\u014d received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi and inka sh\u014dmei from James My\u014dun Ford R\u014dshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. D\u014dsh\u014d\u2019s translation and commentary on The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is now available (Shambhala). He is also the author\u00a0of\u00a0Keep Me In Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri<\/a><\/i>. Click here<\/a> to support the teaching practice of Tetsugan Sensei and\u00a0 D\u014dsh\u014d R\u014dshi.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 This past week, I received an email from a S\u014dt\u014d Zen priest who trains under the guidance of good friends. \u201cDoes\u00a0kensh\u014d need to be realized by the discriminating mind?\u201d he asked. I figured he was probably thinking of how practitioners ripen differently, some more prone to sudden experiences, […]<\/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":[68,11,129,73,137],"class_list":["post-4155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-awakening","tag-dogen","tag-hakuin","tag-kensho","tag-soto"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/88\/2018\/02\/Half-Day-Practice-for-Women-Saturday-March-24th-1_30-5_00pm-doshoport@gmail.com-Gmail.jpg\")
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Back to the question in light of\u00a0D\u014dgen\u2019s teaching<\/h4>\n
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