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<\/a>Many of us come to a place in our journey where what once worked is broken, where the path is dark, where we\u2019re at a loss \u2013 especially in these dark days of ongoing pandemic, climate crisis, social divisions, and political dis-ease.<\/p>\n
The phrase \u201cdark night of the soul,\u201d used variously in Christian mysticism, is often about the whole journey to union with God. In Western Zen, starting with Aitken Roshi, it is sometimes used for those very dry places on the Zen journey.<\/p>\n
It was this that I was thinking about in Keep Me In Your Heart A While<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>in \u201cCleaning Under the Hedge\u201d\u00a0(p. 53):<\/p>\n \u201cSomehow I had survived the idealization, covert clinging to hopes for magical gain, and very crabby stages\u2014this time around (but, the path being a spiral, I could have known this stage would come around again). Nonetheless, a level field was opening up. This was steadily walking without getting anywhere. More subtle work begins here. The practice at this stage is simply done for the sake of the practice itself. Searching for a motive at this stage is adding a head on top of a head. If we just stay with it, we might even start to get over our self a bit and direct our life to actualizing a purpose greater than our self.\u201d<\/p>\n During such times in the path of earnest dharma<\/a> practice, turbulence, past trauma, or other psychological and\/or physical issues emerge to seemingly block the Way. Sometimes a practitioner secretly believes that the arising of these issues is proof of their own lack of true practice or the dharma\u2019s lack of efficacy.<\/p>\n However, when worked through skillfully, these very times will later be seen as the fruit of the path. How? Subtle work is certainly called for. Some methods of engaging with whatever is arising may not work, are contraindicated, and so a freshness of view and careful attending to what is working and what is NOT is so important.<\/p>\n This requires a letting go of dogma, of what is \u201csupposed\u201d to work.<\/p>\n Proceeding tenderly and honestly is the Way. A teacher\u2019s guidance, of course, can be important. Going against one\u2019s proclivities to avoid interaction with others and being with dharma friends can also be a vital lifeline during these times. And it is at these times that we can seem so utterly alone even when we are with others.<\/p>\n I think here of\u00a0No Gate Barrier, \u201c<\/em>Case 44: B\u0101ji\u0101o\u2019s Walking Staff:\u201d<\/p>\n The Venerable\u00a0B\u0101ji\u0101o, presented to the assembly, saying, \u201cIf you have a walking staff, I will give you a walking staff.\u00a0 If you have no walking staff, I will seize your walking staff.\u201d<\/p>\n W\u00fam\u00e9n\u2019s Comment<\/strong><\/p>\n It supports you as you cross the water over the Broken Bridge. It is your companion, returning to the village, no moon. If you call it a walking staff, you enter hell straight as an arrow.<\/p>\n Verse<\/strong><\/p>\n Everyplace \u2013 deep and shallow The staff here might represent the practice-awakening that we\u2019ve discovered through our sincere efforts on the Way and that we\u2019ve settled into using to support us on our journey through the tough spots on the road. So we might think we have a staff, but it is at these times that the staff is taken and we find that we have no staff.<\/p>\n As W\u00fam\u00e9n compassionately points out, clinging to our old staff sends us to hell.<\/p>\n On the other hand, we might think we have no staff, no support, no refuge. But it is at these times of difficulty that we really learn what no-staff truly is.<\/p>\n This no-staff staff supports us as we cross the bridge from this time to another phase of the journey, from isolation to community, or from community to a period of isolation \u2013 across the bridge that only seems to be broken, wholeness confirmed through continuing on the Way. The no-staff staff is our only friend as we walk through the village at midnight.<\/p>\n W\u00fam\u00e9n\u2019s verse ends with \u201cEverywhere shaken by the school\u2019s wind.\u201d \u201cSchool\u2019s wind\u201d is the style, the customs, and the tradition of a lineage (\u5b97\u98a8, Japanese, sh\u016bjo). Rather than these times of difficulty reflecting something wrong with us, this line radically affirms these periods \u2013 this too is the Way.<\/p>\n It is the wind of our Zen Way that shakes such things loose and exposes them. Our skillful practice is what makes possible our steady (and sometimes steady within the not-so-steady) walking with it all.<\/p>\n Additional recommended resource: Philip Taiho Martin, The Zen Path Through Depression.<\/a><\/em><\/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<\/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":" Many of us come to a place in our journey where what once worked is broken, where the path is dark, where we\u2019re at a loss \u2013 especially in these dark days of ongoing pandemic, climate crisis, social divisions, and political dis-ease. The phrase \u201cdark night of the soul,\u201d used variously in Christian mysticism, is […]<\/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-5979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>
\nEntirely in its grip
\nSupporting the sky and propping up the earth
\nEverywhere shaken by the school\u2019s wind<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n