What is turning the light around? Or - how does insight arises from Zazen?

[MagnificentTreeFrog]

Hello friends,

I'm hoping to open up a discussion around the general question of "how does insight arise from zazen/shikantaza?" This is a question I've been thinking of as I pursue my Pali canon studies in conjunction with Zen practice.

Traditional commentaries on the Pali Canon express a "dual" path to meditation of samatha (concentration) and vipassanā (insight). While samatha is seen as necessary to develop one-pointedness, it is insight (re: the three marks of existence) that is regarded as necessary in the development of wisdom which leads to liberation. Of course, these need not be seen as entirely separate given that concentration supports insight and vice versa - which is a view supported by the Pali suttas as has been discussed before.

It's well-known that Chan meditation is sometimes regarded as a synthesis of samatha and vipassanā. In the Platform Sutra, we have Huineng putting it as follows: "Good friends, this Dharma teaching of mine is based on meditation (定) and wisdom. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that meditation (定) and wisdom are separate. Meditation and wisdom are of one essence and not two. Meditation (定) is the body of wisdom, and wisdom is the function of meditation (定)." I highlight the character 定 as it points to "fixing upon" or "settling" the mind i.e. concentration.

A cursory review of Theravadin meditation techniques reveals a vast library of technical manuals around how samatha leads to jhana and vipassanā leads to insight. We find comparably less 'gradualist' explanation from traditional Chan and Zen sources, which seem to emphasize more, for example, the natural unfolding or actualization of Buddha-nature in practice (e.g. Dogen). In place of technical meditation manuals we are often given poetic pointers. One such is the notion of "turning the light around."

From the Xinxin Ming: One moment of reversing the light Is greater than the previous emptiness. The previous emptiness is transformed; It was all a product of deluded views.

Shitou: Turning my own light in upon myself (迴光返照), I return And penetrate into the spiritual source, neither front nor back.

How might we interpret these pointers in light of Chan-Zen meditation as a samatha-vipassana practice? What is turning the light? How do we understand insight to arise from a practice like shikantaza? Another way to phrase this inquiry might be: what is practice really?

Gassho.

[Jundo]

Hi Adam,

Well, the Buddha is said traditionally to have preached many ways to many people with many needs, and also Buddhism flowered in many ways through the centuries, in some very good ways that made the old teachings blossom. So, I can only speak from the approach of Shikantaza.

In my viewless view, "to turn the light around" means to disentangle from events outside, and thoughts and emotions inside, but without either running toward or running away. As the Platform Sutra declares ...

Our nature is pure like the clear sky above, and our wisdom is like the sun and the moon, our wisdom is always shining. But if externally we become attached to objects, the clouds of delusion cover up our nature, and we can’t see it. Then, because we meet a good friend who explains the true teaching, our delusions are blown away and everything inside and outside becomes perfectly clear, and the ten thousand dharmas in this nature of ours all appear. This nature of ours in which the ten thousand dharmas are present is what we mean by the pure dharma body. ... They will see their nature and not dwell on the inside or the outside. They will come and go freely and be able to get rid of attachments and penetrate everything without restriction. .... If you’re confused about the outside, you’re attached to forms. If you’re confused about the inside, you’re attached to emptiness. To be free of form amid forms and to be free of emptiness amid emptiness, this is when you aren’t confused about the inside or the outside.

Or, as Dogen put it, 回光返照 Eko Hensho, which actually means turning the light and allowing it to reflect out (I like the Tanahashi translation from Fukanzazengi):

So cease the intellectual work of studying sayings and chasing words.
Learn the backward step of turning light and reflecting.
Body and mind naturally drop off, and the original face appears.

He also said in Gyobutsu Igi ...

... the awesome presence of active buddhas is thoroughly practiced immediately.
The teaching of birth and death, body and mind, as the circle of the way
is actualized at once. Thoroughly practicing, thoroughly clarifying, is not
forced. It is just like recognizing the shadow of deluded thought and turning
the light to shine within. The clarity of clarity beyond clarity prevails in the
activity of buddhas. This is totally surrendering to practice.

Shikantaza is not a practice of deep concentration. There is no need to attain some "one pointedness," for one is always existing at the still still point. We disentangle, and pour oneself into simply sitting (balanced 定 Zazen sitting is Wisdom, Wisdom is Zazen). We are untangled from inside and outside, from both external and inner things and even emptiness. Neither do we suppress the world and thoughts, run and hide. A light shines, simplicity and wholeness shine, insight shines and all becomes clear. There is no place else to be, no other place but this "one point," nothing more to do.

I believe that such Shikantaza is the fulfillment of the Fourth (and originally highest) Jhana of the Suttas, before various commentaries reinterpreted things as a deep concentration technique. You can read more here on in the Footnote 2 below.

Gassho, Jundo
SatToday

1- Adam, would you do me a favor an note "SatToday" and "Lah" when you post? Take a look here: LINK I also sent you a PM.

2- A book that should be mentioned is the recent "The Experience of Samadhi" by Richard Skankman, a survey of historical and modern Theravadan interpretations of Samadhi and Jhana. What is particularly interesting in reading the book is the extent of disagreement and widely varied interpretations from teacher to teacher, Sri Lankan vs. Burmese vs. Thai vs. Westerners, Lineage to Lineage even in that neck of the Buddhist world. Here is a Buddhistgeeks interview the author gave ... and as he discusses, there is little agreement, either currently or in centuries past, among the South Asian traditions either about "what the Buddha taught", or at least, how to interpret "what the Buddha taught" on the subject of Jhana. In the book, he interviews about two dozen teachers in South Asian traditions, and gets about two dozen, often very dissimilar interpretations.

We continue our discussion with insight meditation teacher and author, Richard Shankman. In this episode we continue to dissect the different kinds of samadhi and their respective fruits--what in the Theravada tradition are called jhana (or "meditative absorption"). According to Shankman there are two ways of approaching the attainment of jhana, one as was taught in the original canonical texts of the Theravada, the Pali Suttas, and the other from the later commentaries on the Buddha's teachings, the Vishudimagga. As a result we get two different forms of jhana--one called Sutta jhana and the other called Vishudimagga jhana. ...

https://art19.com/shows/buddhist-gee...d-611262bfad41

Richard Skankman's book makes one very interesting point that, perhaps, can be interpreted to mean that practices such as Shikantaza and the like actually cut right to the summit of Jhana practice. You see, it might be argued (from some interpretations presented in the book) that Shikantaza practice is very close to what is referred to as the "Fourth Jhana in the Suttas" ... as opposed to the highly concentrated, hyper-absorbed Visuddhimagga commentary version. The Fourth Jhana in the Pali Suttas was considered the 'summit' of Jhana practice (as the higher Jhanas, No. 5 to 8, were not encouraged as a kind of 'dead end') and appears to manifest (quoting the sutta descriptions in the book) "an abandoning of pleasure/pain, attractions/aversions, a dropping of both joy and grief", a dropping away of both rapture and bliss states, resulting in a "purity of mindfulness" and "equanimity". Combine this with the fact that, more than a "one pointed mind absorbed into a particular object", there is a "unification of mind" (described as a broader awareness around the object of meditation ... whereby the "mind itself becomes collected and unmoving, but not the objects of awareness, as mindfulness becomes lucid, effortless and unbroken" (See, for examples. pages 82-83 here))

http://books.google.com/books?id=lQ_ZzFgJ1AwC&dq=%22the+experience+of+sama dhi%22&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=Nej_Tar5b T&sig=4Aa-dpUHDX3TeIfMCoKHBbLZEC0&hl=en&ei=YJVMS5GkI8-HkAWOrPWcDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3 &ved=0CBQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=&f=false

A bit of the discussion of the highest (in Buddhist Practice) "Fourth Jhana", and its emphasis on equanimity while present amid circumstances (and a dropping of bliss states), can be found on page 49 there.

This is very close to a description of Shikantaza, for example, as dropping all aversions and attractions, finding unification of mind, collected and unmoving, effortless and unbroken, in/as/through/not removed from the life, circumstances, complexities which surround us and are us, sitting still with what is just as it is.

[Bion]

Hello friends,

I'm hoping to open up a discussion around the general question of "how does insight arise from zazen/shikantaza?" This is a question I've been thinking of as I pursue my Pali canon studies in conjunction with Zen practice.

Traditional commentaries on the Pali Canon express a "dual" path to meditation of samatha (concentration) and vipassanā (insight). While samatha is seen as necessary to develop one-pointedness, it is insight (re: the three marks of existence) that is regarded as necessary in the development of wisdom which leads to liberation. Of course, these need not be seen as entirely separate given that concentration supports insight and vice versa - which is a view supported by the Pali suttas as has been discussed before.

It's well-known that Chan meditation is sometimes regarded as a synthesis of samatha and vipassanā. In the Platform Sutra, we have Huineng putting it as follows: "Good friends, this Dharma teaching of mine is based on meditation (定) and wisdom. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that meditation (定) and wisdom are separate. Meditation and wisdom are of one essence and not two. Meditation (定) is the body of wisdom, and wisdom is the function of meditation (定)." I highlight the character 定 as it points to "fixing upon" or "settling" the mind i.e. concentration.

A cursory review of Theravadin meditation techniques reveals a vast library of technical manuals around how samatha leads to jhana and vipassanā leads to insight. We find comparably less 'gradualist' explanation from traditional Chan and Zen sources, which seem to emphasize more, for example, the natural unfolding or actualization of Buddha-nature in practice (e.g. Dogen). In place of technical meditation manuals we are often given poetic pointers. One such is the notion of "turning the light around."

From the Xinxin Ming: One moment of reversing the light Is greater than the previous emptiness. The previous emptiness is transformed; It was all a product of deluded views.

Shitou: Turning my own light in upon myself (迴光返照), I return And penetrate into the spiritual source, neither front nor back.

How might we interpret these pointers in light of Chan-Zen meditation as a samatha-vipassana practice? What is turning the light? How do we understand insight to arise from a practice like shikantaza? Another way to phrase this inquiry might be: what is practice really?

Gassho.

Since Jundo Roshi has already given you a great and comprehensive response, I'll add my two (unnecessary) cents in the briefest manner I can, in a sincere attempt to contribute something here, as unskillful as it might be...

In my mind, turning the light inwards also means to sit and to stop relying upon external factors as a way to "pursuit Enlightenment". To realize it is already here. In different words, to stop trying to meet the Buddha down the road or to fabricate one, but to realize Buddha is right here, sitting. It also means, I think, to return to this body-mind as the source for both delusion and awakening, to realize the true meaning of Buddha and Dharma as refuge.

I think calmness, insight and wisdom blossom from zazen naturally, as the profound experiencing of "just this" does not leave us, even after we rise from sitting. One who truly understands right effort and right mindfulness understands how to skillfully transform that samadhi into wisdom off the cushion. I tbelieve master Dogen referred to it as caring for it as for a baby, after we're done sitting. To have a taste of the effortlessness of practice through zazen offers an amazing insight into how we can engage with the world in the same uncomplicated manner, so that we can flow with the flowing and be the dancing, so that we can find stillness in the middle of stormy waters.

Something like that! I hope my comment does not muddy things up

Gassho
sat lah