I have heard some folks misunderstand the "Nothing to Attain, Nothing in Need of Doing" of Shikantaza Zazen as meaning we "just sit there," wallowing in thoughts, stewing and tangled in emotions, drowning in the mud of the world. Nothing could be further from the Truth!
In fact, this radical Goallessness, "Nothing to Attain, Nothing in Need of Doing," this sitting just to sit a Zazen that is sensed as complete with nothing lacking, is the very MEDICINE for our tangled thoughts and storming emotions. Our 'little self' sustains its existence via a busy head full of goals and things that need achieving and doing, problems that demand fixing, judgements of lack and insufficiency, worries about what may happen, clinging to what did happen, attachments to things we want, resistance to what we do not want. I weigh you against me, the world as it is versus that world that I want, feeling that something is missing or needs doing in life. In Zazen, for a time, we neither cling to thoughts nor battle with emotions. We do not play thoughts' games, buy what they are selling, nor do we run away. The same for our emotions, which are met like passing weather, even the hard ones like a hard rain, accepted in profound equanimity.
It is our wallowing in thought, our drowning in emotions, our need to get, grab, keep, hang on, make as we want, fix, resist, fight, change that is the very source of our Suffering (Dukkha) and alienation from life. As Master Dogen advises in Fukanzazengi, "Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Don’t think about “good” or “bad”. Don’t judge true or false. Your mind, intellect, and consciousness are spinning around – let them have rest. Give up measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views." As well, "Put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases, and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward." Both in and out will drop away, "Your body and mind will drop away, and your original face will manifest."
He says, "Have no designs on becoming a Buddha." And in such moment, one can pierce the peace, equanimity and wholeness of a Buddha, sitting to sit under the Bodhi Tree just as the Morning Star shines just to shine. Buddha sits where one sits here and now, and this sitting is the sitting of a Buddha. Thoughts may come or not come, but one is not entangled. Emotions may rain or not rain, but one never gets wet! In a world of this and that, each thing, being and moment proves to be each other thing being moment and the whole thing!
Our practice does not end there, however, for when the bell rings, rising from the cushion, we get back to a life of things to do, problems in need of repair, tomorrow to plan for or be concerned about, events that make us smile yet sometimes break our heart. We get back to the race, doing what needs to be done while, hopefully, a bit less trapped and pulled into the quick sand of it all. We can know that this same "Nothing to Attain, Nothing to Do," is always present in our bones, like the clear and boundless sky shining and present on both cloudless days and stormy days. Each aspect of life now shines like a shining jewel ... even the parts of life that, frankly, we do not like so much or at all. We thus learn to bow to the problems of life, allow and know as sacred both the good events and the problems of this world, even as we pick up our tools and do what we can, solve what needs solving, cleaning up the mud that needs cleaning. We can face head-on the troubles in our own life, and on this whole planet, even though there is "nothing to do, not any problem to solve," and never has been. Acting with the grace and balance of a Buddha, one embodies Buddha and brings Buddha to life in this life. This is Master Dogen's way of "Ongoing Practice-Enlightenment."
This "Nothing to Do" does a heck of a lot!
Gassho, J
stlah
for positive poetry 優婆塞 台 婆
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