Nothing Happens, Everything Happens, Good Happens - REDUX-DUX-DUX

[Jundo]

Thanks for the suggestions. Further tweak of the first paragraph ...

I am often asked what happens when sitting Shikantaza. And what happens if we stop? I answer that absolutely "Nothing Happens" when we sit Zazen, nor should we ever even want anything to happen. However, this wonderful "Nothing Happens" is not just something not happening! Absolutely not. That's why, when "Nothing Happens" stops happening, then unfortunately, suffering happens!

[Jundo]

Also added:

It is vital to drop away, to the marrow, any instrumentalist view whatsoever of Zazen as a tool. Then and only then, this "Good for Nothing" is a Treasure of infinite value, and all the world.

[Risho]

You zen teachers always like to repeat yourselves - you are always making the same sausage but market it differently based on the different casings

Seriously, I like hearing these things articulated in different ways; I'm always getting hung up on one thing or another.

Gassho

Risho
-stlah

[Jundo]

You zen teachers always like to repeat yourselves - you are always making the same sausage but market it differently based on the different casings

You figured it out! Yes, just spicing the meat a bit differently each time.

But, actually, I could not leave well enough alone, so I have reworked it again. I wanted to emphasize the "Nothing Happens"/"Zen is good for nothing" DOES NOT mean that very good things don't happen as a result of Zazen and Practice (they do!!), nor that we avoid to live gently by the Precepts.
~~~~~

NEW NEW TITLE: Nothing Happens, Everything Happens, Good Happens

I added some lines ...

I am often asked what happens when sitting Shikantaza. And also, what happens if we stop? I answer that absolutely "Nothing Happens" when we sit Zazen, nor should we ever even want anything to happen. However, this wonderful "Nothing Happens" is not just something not happening. Nor is "Nothing Happens" our just passively letting bad things happen! Absolutely not! Rather, "Just Sitting," free of demand that anything happen to please us, is letting EVERYTHING in the universe JUST HAPPEN! No less, "Nothing Happening" is freedom from greed, anger and other divided thoughts and acts happening, thus a Gateway to Liberation happening.

That's why, when "Nothing Happens" stops happening, then unfortunately, suffering happens! But when "Nothing Happens" truly happens, then happily, many good things happen.

---

For that reason, to the uninitiated, Zazen probably makes no sense at all! Why do something that has no pay-off? Perhaps it is mere passivity, letting all the world's terrible things just happen?

---

But make no mistake, this "Nothing Happens" is not mere passivity: Sitting without demand that desired things happen, letting the world's Everything Just Happen, DOES NOT means that we should let harmful things just happen. Far from it! "Nothing Happens" means a life untangled from excess desire, hate, jealousy and other divided thoughts happening. When one lets the world Just Happen, but at the same time, lives a life avoiding greed, anger and ignorance happening, then some very, very good things happen!! Greed, anger and a deluded views of division, desire, conflict and friction, are the doorways to suffering. Instead, realization is peace, generosity, and wholeness happening, and our living in such ways happening, avoiding bad things to happen, making good acts happen, even as we let life happen.

---

Sawaki Roshi's "Zen is Good for Nothing" never meant that Zen is only good for nothing.

---

It is vital to drop away, to the marrow, any instrumentalist view whatsoever of Zazen as a tool. It is also vital that we live by the Precepts, avoiding excess desires, violence, jealousy and other divided thoughts. Then and only then, this "Good for Nothing" is a treasure of infinite value. "Nothing Happens" Zazen is sitting in the radical equanimity of everything just happening, then getting up to make life happen! It is the "Good for Nothing" that leaps through our endless judgements of good vs. bad ... then lives by doing good, avoiding the bad. This is Just Sitting, then doing, illuminating the Emptiness which is never nothing, the Wholeness of "all things" so good!

Yes, Good for Nothing Happens, Everything Happens, so Good Things Happen.

Gassho, J

stlah


tsuku.jpg