Master Dogen often spoke of Shikantaza Zazen as a way of "dropping body-mind". For example, in the Genjo Koan, he famously wrote the words, "To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by the myriad things. When actualized by the myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away."
But what exactly is this state to which he refers?
l have heard a variety of explanations, many of which seem on the money, some far from the mark. Actually, l do not feel it so hard to explain despite the confusion. "Dropping bodymind" is not so hard to explain at all if we just recall the division, fear, friction and longing of the human condition (Dukkha) that is the basic disease that sentient beings are to be liberated from on this Buddhist Path. ln a nutshell, sentient beings feel fundamentally separate and individual from the rest of the "not self" world, some of which "others" we love and long for, some of which we fear and run from, often feeling friction and conflict (and sometimes anger toward) so many of the things and other people in that "not-self" world. We fear for our deaths, feel loss and gain. We are constantly judging the things, people and experiences of life according to how they please us or do not please us (and to what degrees). This sense of a judging, sometime happy and sometimes sad, sometimes content but often discontent, "separate self" manifests through our body (things it craves such as air, water, food and sex, freedom from pain and much more) and the 10,000 things endlessly craved or judged by the thoughts and emotions of the mind. (Actually, it is wrong to speak of body and mind individually because they are integrated, thus Buddhists tend to speak of "body-mind.")
"Dropping body-mind" is simply to cure, reverse or drop away all the separation and discontent described above. lt ain't rocket science.
lt begins as the hard borders that separate self/not-self soften, or fully drop away. lt takes two to tangle, conflict and feel friction, and a singularity just cannot conflict and war with itself. The whole of reality is found to flow in and out of the whole of reality, as so thoroughly a singularity and wholeness that tension and conflict are impossible. Friction is replaced by flowing in which, not only are we individuals flowing along, but moreso are the flowing itself flowing. Death is not possible (nor is birth), because the whole does not truly come and go (only the appearances of separate things come and go). There is nothing to long for because, in the wholeness of the all which is all, nothing can be lacking, and all is just as it is. The separate self with its longings, dissatisfactions and fears (arising in the body and mind) is put out of a job. All is as it is, nothing lacking, nothing more in need of doing.
Shikantaza is our method to drop the longings, dissatisfactions and fears of body-mind because we sit as total completion, with nothing more to attain, no other place to be, no more to do, total equanimity, nothing lacking in sitting itself. (Thus we call this a "non-method," because a "method" is a means to get or attain something, and this sitting as Buddha sitting sitting Buddha is the very dropping away of all need to get, to go, to grab, to reach and attain. Furthermore, this is so much beyond some simple "being in the zone" like a runner or soldier (l have heard such descriptions), because it is truly the experience of being the whole of reality, the whole universe and every moment of time, every tiny atom and the farthest star as this body of tongue, eyes, heart and hand. Every atom and instant of time is fully held in every other atom and instant of time flowing flowing (the "Zone" is truly boundless, the whole universe and then some) ... and that includes every atom and instant of our world and our life.
ln Shikantaza, one assumes a stable, balanced, comfortable posture and then "just forget about it." Resistance to the state of the body is dropped away or forgotten. This is "dropping off body." ln Shikantaza, we drop away all desires, needs, feelings of lack, demands and hopes for what "should be," fears for what may be (fully content in the equanimity of "just what is.") Thoughts and emotions are not grabbed or entangling, and we are not their prisoner. We let them go and "pay em no nevermind." This is "dropping of mind."
Bodymind dropped away, dropped away bodymind. This is the power of Shikantaza, Just Sitting, without a drop lacking.
Of course, getting up from the Zazen sitting cushion, we return to this daily life and ordinary world of self and other, me and you, things we love and things we do not, ups and downs, goals and striving, lack and hunger, win and loose, war and peace, sickness and health, birth and death ... even though, we now realize, these are not other than the Wholeness of division dropped away in other guise. No birth and death, and yet birth and death (death yet no death as one!), and all the rest are "not two," and never have been all along.
Our Practice is just to figure out how it all fits together, as this "dropped away bodymind" resumes the day-to-day in a world of bodies and minds, lack, fear, coming and going and all the rest.
Very simple.
Gassho, J
STLah
But what exactly is this state to which he refers?
l have heard a variety of explanations, many of which seem on the money, some far from the mark. Actually, l do not feel it so hard to explain despite the confusion. "Dropping bodymind" is not so hard to explain at all if we just recall the division, fear, friction and longing of the human condition (Dukkha) that is the basic disease that sentient beings are to be liberated from on this Buddhist Path. ln a nutshell, sentient beings feel fundamentally separate and individual from the rest of the "not self" world, some of which "others" we love and long for, some of which we fear and run from, often feeling friction and conflict (and sometimes anger toward) so many of the things and other people in that "not-self" world. We fear for our deaths, feel loss and gain. We are constantly judging the things, people and experiences of life according to how they please us or do not please us (and to what degrees). This sense of a judging, sometime happy and sometimes sad, sometimes content but often discontent, "separate self" manifests through our body (things it craves such as air, water, food and sex, freedom from pain and much more) and the 10,000 things endlessly craved or judged by the thoughts and emotions of the mind. (Actually, it is wrong to speak of body and mind individually because they are integrated, thus Buddhists tend to speak of "body-mind.")
"Dropping body-mind" is simply to cure, reverse or drop away all the separation and discontent described above. lt ain't rocket science.
lt begins as the hard borders that separate self/not-self soften, or fully drop away. lt takes two to tangle, conflict and feel friction, and a singularity just cannot conflict and war with itself. The whole of reality is found to flow in and out of the whole of reality, as so thoroughly a singularity and wholeness that tension and conflict are impossible. Friction is replaced by flowing in which, not only are we individuals flowing along, but moreso are the flowing itself flowing. Death is not possible (nor is birth), because the whole does not truly come and go (only the appearances of separate things come and go). There is nothing to long for because, in the wholeness of the all which is all, nothing can be lacking, and all is just as it is. The separate self with its longings, dissatisfactions and fears (arising in the body and mind) is put out of a job. All is as it is, nothing lacking, nothing more in need of doing.
Shikantaza is our method to drop the longings, dissatisfactions and fears of body-mind because we sit as total completion, with nothing more to attain, no other place to be, no more to do, total equanimity, nothing lacking in sitting itself. (Thus we call this a "non-method," because a "method" is a means to get or attain something, and this sitting as Buddha sitting sitting Buddha is the very dropping away of all need to get, to go, to grab, to reach and attain. Furthermore, this is so much beyond some simple "being in the zone" like a runner or soldier (l have heard such descriptions), because it is truly the experience of being the whole of reality, the whole universe and every moment of time, every tiny atom and the farthest star as this body of tongue, eyes, heart and hand. Every atom and instant of time is fully held in every other atom and instant of time flowing flowing (the "Zone" is truly boundless, the whole universe and then some) ... and that includes every atom and instant of our world and our life.
ln Shikantaza, one assumes a stable, balanced, comfortable posture and then "just forget about it." Resistance to the state of the body is dropped away or forgotten. This is "dropping off body." ln Shikantaza, we drop away all desires, needs, feelings of lack, demands and hopes for what "should be," fears for what may be (fully content in the equanimity of "just what is.") Thoughts and emotions are not grabbed or entangling, and we are not their prisoner. We let them go and "pay em no nevermind." This is "dropping of mind."
Bodymind dropped away, dropped away bodymind. This is the power of Shikantaza, Just Sitting, without a drop lacking.
Of course, getting up from the Zazen sitting cushion, we return to this daily life and ordinary world of self and other, me and you, things we love and things we do not, ups and downs, goals and striving, lack and hunger, win and loose, war and peace, sickness and health, birth and death ... even though, we now realize, these are not other than the Wholeness of division dropped away in other guise. No birth and death, and yet birth and death (death yet no death as one!), and all the rest are "not two," and never have been all along.
Our Practice is just to figure out how it all fits together, as this "dropped away bodymind" resumes the day-to-day in a world of bodies and minds, lack, fear, coming and going and all the rest.
Very simple.
Gassho, J
STLah
Comment