Opening the Zen Soto Mind
to the realization of the Caodong Model, 曹洞宗, of True Mind
Since most people tend to think of serious meditation as just “sitting” in a manner that permits the reaching of a state of “no thought,” it might be wise here to explain what traditional Chan sitting is all about and what has happened in this world of Samsara to the ideas of Zazen, which due to its popularity has been misunderstood even within traditional Zen circles and even by Zen teachers who have not adequately understood the basic concepts of their own practice.
We can add to them those who term their meditations "Zazen" without the slightest idea what the true original Chan contemplations were all about or how true Zazen should be practiced.
Zazen is in fact considered by many adepts as a method with objectives benefitting physical and mental health, a tranquil spirit or to resolve personal agitation.
In fact neither the original methods of Chan, which developed from its roots in the first century, nor those derived from Chan in Japan in the 13th century later as Soto can be classified as meditations of this type.
Sōtō Zen (with Rinzai and Ōbaku), one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism.
Sōtō was first established as the Caodong zong 曹洞宗 during the Tang Dynasty China by Dongshan Liangjie in the 9th century, which Dogen Zenji, a Japanese monk, eventually brought to Japan in the 13th century.
Dōgen returned to Japan after studying Chan in China and settled at Kenninji in Kyoto. In China Dogen had received Dharma teachings from Tiantong Rujing at the same monastery where Hongzhi Zhengjue was once abbot. This Hongzhi had written on Chan "silent illumination" and this influenced Dogen's personal conception of shikantaza (just sitting), which is an objectless meditation.
One just sits, not concentrating on any particular object of awareness, focusing on clear, non-judgmental, holistic attention to all of the myriad arising phenomena in the present experience. As such it is akin to Vipassana Jivitindrya.
Dogen returned with his own "sitting" realization and various koan anthologies and other papers; thus, Dogen did contribute to the transmission of the koan that the Rinzai Japanese group proposes as their main practice.
But he advocated zazen as the supreme Buddhist practice for both monks and laypersons. This aroused the anger of the monks of a complex of Buddhist temples called 延暦寺, Enryaku-ji, in the area of Mt. Hiei, northeast of Kyoto, where he had settled after his return to the capital. They managed to drive Dōgen from the community.
According to Philip B. Yampolsky, "Finding the atmosphere of Kyoto not conducive to his aims, Dōgen transferred his activities to the remote area of Fukui where he established a monastery in 1243. Here he devoted himself to the strict instruction of his disciples. But with the premature death of Dōgen the group lost its focus and internal conflicts led to a split. Dōgen's followers soon introduced such esoteric elements as prayers and incantations into the teaching."
In Chan one of the forms directly projected in modern Chan is a “sitting meditation” rather like that of “true zazen” and like the other Chan meditations, which we prefer to call contemplations and are not in any way “states of spirit.”
Dôgen (1200-1253) considered the “posture of the lotus,” in Japanese termed kekkafuza, as the key to Zazen and described Zazen as “sitting immobile like a powerful mountain,” but this too gives the impression unfortunately that nothing is really happening except a silence.
However, neither this kekkafuza, "the lotus posture," nor the sitting in and of itself is ever to be considered as the objective of contemplation.
Those in Zazen, if true to the Chan tradition of “sitting contemplation,” must never consider contemplation as a mental exercise or a strictly mental transformation. The mind does not exist separate from the body. In a loose way one can consider the meditative spirit as a content of the mind-body continuum, while remembering that it is also not separate from it.
In Oriental medicine the harmony of the internal system is of great importance and any problems considered by Western practitioners as a mental illness are really just a lack of harmony with either the body components themselves or the mind-body continuum.
It is said by many Zazen masters that the body/spirit is emptied by the simple act of sitting in kekkafuza, yet we cannot agree that that is so. In the zazen posture, it is essential to find this place and function in the dimension of a unified body-spirit.
Here is where the normal Zazen practitioners make their great mistake, for paradoxically thinking that you are sitting in kekkafuza does not mean that you are actually sitting in kekkafuza.
When the head is lightly activated cognitively, there appears a divided and unbalanced life.
We can say then that the zazen ideal, like that of the Chan base, is when the mind/body system is perfectly integrated, the practitioner does not feel that each part of his/her body is separate from others or performs its function independently here or there in the body.
This is no more than what in all Chan and contemplations we describe as maintaining the total defensive sensorial Qi without particularizing attention.
While describing zazen one can speak about focuses with one-pointedness on correct sitting posture with the whole body, but during the earlier training periods one cannot attain this immediately.
In Zazen there is the particular order in harmonizing the body (燮身 xiè shen, Jap. chôshin), harmonizing breathing (燮呼吸 xiè huxi, Jap. chôsoku) and harmonizing the spirit (燮神 xiè shen, Jap. chôshin).
But, after this preliminary phase, all is integrated in one.
In our Chan that final integration is also essential, but while the order of attaining the final integration is the same, the initial one-pointedness is directed at the in-and-out breathing not on harmonizing the respiration and there is not a one-pointedness on the actual sitting. This allows Chan to speak of “sitting with the mind,” while permitting the contemplation to take place without physical precise sitting.
In our Chan we use the one-pointedness upon the tactile sense of breath at the nostrils not the initial “physical sitting” position. This allows the five other methods of Chan Contemplation to not require a fixed sitting position and can be accomplished with different equally effective approaches just as Rinzai is practiced in Japan.
That is why Huineng referred to contemplation as “sitting with the mind and not the body,” although he did not anticipate future Chinese developments.
It is therefore extremely important that any students of Zazen understand that sitting in the physical kekkafuza is really not just sitting with the body, it is really letting go of all conceptualization. But it is not creating an empty mind that ceases operating, for the subconscious non-cognitive processes of mind must be free, as well as the human capacity to be conscious, alive and attention alert.
We will not go into the details and differences of the Chan and Zazen meditations, since our interest here is to help those who think that popular Zazen is as easy as just sitting and attaining that perilous empty mind. In Chan we make sure that that is well understood but unfortunately in the West that is not always made clear.
We also make clear that, although non-Chan meditations do use the conceptual idea of looking for “Shen” to be converted into Buddha and we ourselves speak of the illusion of a human nature, it does not really exist. To believe in the real existence of a mental concept is a grave error and leads on right into the waiting arms of identity before one can begin.
But at the same time one must beware of the concepts of abandoning those illusions or attaining anything. Remember, all is constructed by the mind. So if you are a Zazen adept be sure that your teacher really understands and does not induce you to simply sit like a stone statue with an empty mind.