Click here for the whole essay.<\/a><\/p>\nI\u2019ve been rolling around with a similar William James point since the Deep Spring Sesshin a couple weeks ago as I met Kyoki\u2019s students in dokusan and we got to know each other. After reading David\u2019s piece, I\u2019m thinking of it as the unfolding of gravitas.<\/p>\n
Seems to me that Zen practice opens in a fairly lawful manner.<\/p>\n
When we come to practice we don\u2019t know what we don\u2019t know. After a while, the ego mask starts to crack and we begin to know what we don\u2019t know. With some diligent practice, we might have a break through and for a moment or so know what we know. And if we continue with this wondrous work, we might stumble back to not knowing what we don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
On a dark day it seems to be a circular process but on a bright day like this one, spiral-like. For the beginner, it can take ten years to really work around the block the first time. As time goes on, the length of the journey around the circle\/spiral seems to shorten.<\/p>\n
Let me offer you just a bit more about each stage.<\/p>\n
When we begin we don\u2019t know what we don\u2019t know. How could we? The process of really being a beginner requires an openness of heart and willingness to be change. Some of us tend to cling to this beginning movement as if the idea \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d is all there is to practice. That\u2019s a sad thing.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re offered the opportunity to actualize \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d and are sometimes just too scared to drop the idea of it and live it so go on singing a self-serving \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d dream song. We insist on not knowing what we know.<\/p>\n
Being stuck here is not only false and unwise. If someone asks such a person, \u201cHow do I sit?\u201d \u201cHow do I tie the oryoki knot?\u201d \u201cHow do I love?\u201d always responding with \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d is just unkind.<\/p>\n
A good teacher and a Zen team (more on that next time) can be great help here and throughout. If we practice alone, we might not have the great opportunity of discovering how stupid we really are. And if we only have the limited range of sense input offered in cyberspace, we might also use our practice to shore up the walls of defense.<\/p>\n
As we move along with wholehearted sitting\/living, we might bump our head into the wall one day and clarify what we don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is mu?\u201d is one helluva way of clarifying this point. Sometimes this part of the journey is accompanied by some real inner turmoil as the monkey faces it\u2019s limitations and reintegrates.<\/p>\n
Some fine day breaking through the haze of not-knowing will come and we\u2019ll know what we know. Unshakeable verification.<\/p>\n
Arrogance is the near-enemy at this point.<\/p>\n
It is wonderfully refreshing to hear and see someone dancing in full confidence, full self expression. I still remember 30 years ago reading Rujing say something like \u201cIn the last 500 years, I\u2019m the only one who\u2019s really plucked the eye of kinhin.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s gravitas \u2013 having a centerless center of gravity and moving from there.<\/p>\n
But if the plumb line goes rigid we\u2019re really dumb again and return to not knowing what we don\u2019t know. Imv, that\u2019s real Zen mastery.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just back from my ritual dog walk in the woods, savoring it all. The Robins are back and I could hear but couldn\u2019t see the Pileated Woodpecker. The Ticks will be out soon and then we\u2019ll be consigned to walking in the neighborhood and wishing we were William James. Huh? I woke up this morning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>Just back from my ritual dog walk in the woods, savoring it all. The Robins are back and I could hear<\/a> but couldn\u2019t see the Pileated Woodpecker. The Ticks will be out soon and then we\u2019ll be consigned to walking in the neighborhood and wishing we were William James.<\/p>\n