Thank you Jundo. Lots of good information here, I will be sure to go back to this post.
I was originally taught to count the breath by a Ch'an teacher years ago. I just couldn't do it, drove me crazy. Later, after doing other stuff for a while, watching the breath became easier, but I probably would've given up if I tried to persevere with the breath at the beginning. I've heard similar things from other people. It seems like watching/counting the breath is a good way to start out for some, but for others it's better to keep the attention wider and let the mind calm down on its own. If they choose to, they can experiment with watching the breath and developing concentration states later.
I'm wary of making a concentration practice my primary thing, because it does have a gaining/striving element at work within it. But it's important to keep some perspective. Jhanas can only be cultivated by letting go. If the mind starts to get excited ("yes, here we are, I've been with the breath for ages/The breath is subtle now, Jhana is close, keep going, nearly there") then concentration is lost and the meditator needs to go back to the start. So, yes, there are goals, but the goals can only be achieved in practice by dropping gaining mind and non-judgementally watching the breath. As the suttas say, this process of letting go and returning to the breath trains the mind to let go of unwholesome habits and attachments. It is the "pleasure borne of non-attachment", or something like that.
Either way, we end up at goallessness and being with things as they are. Zen really foregrounds the significance of non-striving and emphasises this from the beginning. Other schools take people towards this goal in phases. Whichever road we take, in the end there is only this moment, and everything we've been looking for is right here.
If someone wants to watch the breath and explore these states, it's certainly a lot better than many other activities they could be doing. It will probably have some indirect benefits on their Zazen and life in general. But, at some point, they'll need to drop the desire for concentration/pleasant states arising therefrom, and abide in the here and now.
It's impossible to really meaningfully say that one method or approach is truly "better". Sometimes Shikantaza seems like a refinement of earlier meditation styles. Starting at the end, in a way. But all I can be sure of is that it feels like home to me.
For me there is nothing I need to do or focus on. It's all right here if in the awareness that includes everything; breath, thought, non-thought, noise, intention, attention, pain, bliss and silence. Like Dogen said, Zazen is a process of constant returning. We return to what's here again and again, billions of times. But, after a while, it seems to stick more and more and become our natural state. Nothing to do or gain, it's all just here and now. I've got a long way to go, but this process involves deeply realising that there is really nowhere to go and nothing to do, and it seems clearer every day. I'm sure this feeling, paradoxical as it is, is something you all relate to.
All of the roads lead to the same place, but I connect with the non-linear, we-are-already-here, nothing to be done approach of Zazen. Recently, on the cushion, the sense that "nothing needs to be done" has been taking on deeper and deeper significance.
But, again, what is good for me isn't the best thing for everyone.
Gassho,
SatToday,
Chris
I was originally taught to count the breath by a Ch'an teacher years ago. I just couldn't do it, drove me crazy. Later, after doing other stuff for a while, watching the breath became easier, but I probably would've given up if I tried to persevere with the breath at the beginning. I've heard similar things from other people. It seems like watching/counting the breath is a good way to start out for some, but for others it's better to keep the attention wider and let the mind calm down on its own. If they choose to, they can experiment with watching the breath and developing concentration states later.
I'm wary of making a concentration practice my primary thing, because it does have a gaining/striving element at work within it. But it's important to keep some perspective. Jhanas can only be cultivated by letting go. If the mind starts to get excited ("yes, here we are, I've been with the breath for ages/The breath is subtle now, Jhana is close, keep going, nearly there") then concentration is lost and the meditator needs to go back to the start. So, yes, there are goals, but the goals can only be achieved in practice by dropping gaining mind and non-judgementally watching the breath. As the suttas say, this process of letting go and returning to the breath trains the mind to let go of unwholesome habits and attachments. It is the "pleasure borne of non-attachment", or something like that.
Either way, we end up at goallessness and being with things as they are. Zen really foregrounds the significance of non-striving and emphasises this from the beginning. Other schools take people towards this goal in phases. Whichever road we take, in the end there is only this moment, and everything we've been looking for is right here.
If someone wants to watch the breath and explore these states, it's certainly a lot better than many other activities they could be doing. It will probably have some indirect benefits on their Zazen and life in general. But, at some point, they'll need to drop the desire for concentration/pleasant states arising therefrom, and abide in the here and now.
It's impossible to really meaningfully say that one method or approach is truly "better". Sometimes Shikantaza seems like a refinement of earlier meditation styles. Starting at the end, in a way. But all I can be sure of is that it feels like home to me.
For me there is nothing I need to do or focus on. It's all right here if in the awareness that includes everything; breath, thought, non-thought, noise, intention, attention, pain, bliss and silence. Like Dogen said, Zazen is a process of constant returning. We return to what's here again and again, billions of times. But, after a while, it seems to stick more and more and become our natural state. Nothing to do or gain, it's all just here and now. I've got a long way to go, but this process involves deeply realising that there is really nowhere to go and nothing to do, and it seems clearer every day. I'm sure this feeling, paradoxical as it is, is something you all relate to.
All of the roads lead to the same place, but I connect with the non-linear, we-are-already-here, nothing to be done approach of Zazen. Recently, on the cushion, the sense that "nothing needs to be done" has been taking on deeper and deeper significance.
But, again, what is good for me isn't the best thing for everyone.
Gassho,
SatToday,
Chris
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