Dogen’s Circle of the Way

[Jundo]

A very nice article from Bro. Brad Warner on "Continuous Practice" ...

Dogen’s Circle of the Way


Until Dogen met his teacher Tendo Nyojo, he had been taught that zazen was a means to an end, a way of attaining a specific goal. You do zazen in order to become enlightened.

That’s the way most meditation is taught. You want stress reduction? Do this! You want peace of mind? Do this!

But it’s not just meditation that’s taught this way. Nearly every activity we do in life is divided into ends and means. You do your job to get a paycheck. You jog to lose weight. You practice violin to play at Carnegie Hall. You write books to become a famous author. The list goes on and on.

The problem is that we often do not attain our goals. Maybe our paycheck is less than we deserve, or we never get to play at Carnegie Hall, or we don’t lose that weight as fast as we want, maybe we become a well-known author but not a famous one and we don’t make any money, etc. This causes us a lot of disappointment. It often is enough to make us give up whatever it is we’re doing well before its benefits become evident.

Many, many people give up meditation practice for this reason. I can’t tell you how many times someone has forwarded me a very eloquently written essay by someone about what an obvious waste of time meditation is. This one by John Horgan is a great example. Horgan was disappointed by Zen practice and he explains why in terms that are very hard to refute. But I’d say he was just doing it for the wrong reasons. And the wrong reasons for doing Zen practice are any reasons for doing Zen practice.

http://hardcorezen.info/dogens-circle-of-the-way/2548

By the way, I have given up on trying to get Brad here to lead a Zazenkai for us at Treeleaf. After months and months of promising, he kept pleading that he was too busy and promised it would be soon and soon. I have finally given up, and expressed my regrets to him. In any case, we will have some other guest teachers here in the coming weeks, stay tuned.

Gassho, Jundo

[Jundo]

By the way, Brad's essay also pointed to a great comment on this from Alan Watts ...

Tendo Nyojo told Dogen that zazen practice is enlightenment itself. There is no separation between the activity and the goal. This doesn’t just go for Zen practice. It goes for everything.

There’s a very good piece by Alan Watts about this idea. He compares the absurd idea of doing something in order to reach a goal to a composer who creates music that is all about the ending of a performance. The South Park guys did a great animation of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4&feature=youtu.be

I would say that neither do we need to be still. We have things to do ... projects and dreams. Nothing wrong with that. Build buildings, compose music, learn the violin, raise children, get that degree, work for world peace. One cannot and need not just simply sit on one's laurels or hindquarters, letting life drift by.

However, one can know the Stillness right at the heart of both stillness and motion ... the "Non-attaining" right all through attaining, win or lose. The best of both views As One.

Gassho, J

[Vincinho]

Thanks for that Jundo,

It's a good article. I constantly have to remind myself of this very fact, when playing guitar, when playing Go etc. Play just to play, not always to get better so the next time you play it will be better, that process will take care of itself.

I just wish the website wasn't banned at work because it has the word "Hardcore" in the url!!.

Gassho,

Dave.

[Jundo]

I just wish the website wasn't banned at work because it has the word "Hardcore" in the url!!.

Gassho,

Dave.

Hmmm. Right now, just work to work. You can look at internet websites later.

Gassho, J

[Vincinho]

Right now, just work to work. You can look at internet websites later.

Touche!

[Nameless]

Thank you Jundo. Much of the unhappiness in our lives comes from reaching for future external incentives. As we know, there is really on Now, and that peace can never be attained externally or otherwise (can't get what ya already have). In articles for meditation journals I've been saying, "let the motivation be the incentive," lately. Sweep to sweep, not to clean. Go to school to learn, not to get a degree. Whatever comes of the behavior is just a fortunate byproduct.

In psychology, this Zen concept was described by Gordon Allport as the functional autonomy of motives in which motivation is only intrinsic, and the means to an end become the end itself. Just another example of researchers stumbling upon the Dharma without knowing it. Also an example of how society sometimes sweeps these things under the rug. Allport formed that theory in the 1930s...

Gassho, John

[Ryumon]

It's quite complicated, isn't it? We all get attracted to Zen - or other forms of meditation - because of the understanding of suffering, or an overall feeling of dissatisfaction in life. After all, that's the first noble truth (sort of). It's very difficult for that to change to sitting just for sitting's sake.

Gassho,

Kirk

[Daitetsu]

Hi Kirk,

It's quite complicated, isn't it? We all get attracted to Zen - or other forms of meditation - because of the understanding of suffering, or an overall feeling of dissatisfaction in life. After all, that's the first noble truth (sort of). It's very difficult for that to change to sitting just for sitting's sake.

On the one hand, I agree, it is difficult, but on the other hand it is not! (IMHO)
In my personal experience you "just" have to give up (yourself). Or as Taigu says "Throw yourself away."
The best thing to do is to sit (shikantaza) Zazen with an attitude that you are ready to die on the cushion. I don't want to sound melodramatic, I just don't know better words how to express this.

Gassho,

Daitetsu


PS: Thank you for posting Brad's article, Jundo!

[Jundo]

It's quite complicated, isn't it? We all get attracted to Zen - or other forms of meditation - because of the understanding of suffering, or an overall feeling of dissatisfaction in life. After all, that's the first noble truth (sort of). It's very difficult for that to change to sitting just for sitting's sake.

Gassho,

Kirk

And is that not the best medicine for our Suffering? The Third Noble Truth, the Cure for our unease and dissatisfaction: Just Sitting for Sitting's Sake, with no thought of a payout. Why?

Because dissatisfaction is the need to do, the need to go, the drive to get, the longing to reach some goal. Sitting in and as full satisfaction of the goal ... and so, oulà, the Payout!

Strange how that works!

Gassho, J

[Risho]

But we do work for a paycheck. It's nice to work for work's sake, but if that doesn't pay the bills, then you need to find a job that does. After you can pay the bills, work for work's sake. lol Isn't that the same as sitting for sitting's sake? I mean if that isn't curing the "dis-ease", then why sit?

It's a crazy koan. If you sit with some agenda, then it's just more of the same. But that agenda is what brings us to the cushion. It's almost like coming into life as a child; we think we are the center of the universe, but it turns out that it's backward.

I have to sit for just sitting's sake even though I constantly catch myself sitting for other reasons. I honestly do find myself sitting for stress relief, etc. But then I just come back, sitting for sitting's sake. It's like a life version of shikantaza.... on the cushion, coming back from some daydream or heated debate I'm having with imaginary people, just come back... breath of fresh air. In life... living for myself, caught in delusion... drop... ah breath of fresh air.

I'm very selfish; I don't mean that in a fishing for compliments sort of way. The more I practice, the more I realize almost all of my aim is for myself despite the welfare of others. So sitting is atonement, and I guess that's why this is ceaseless practice.

Gassho,

Risho

P.S. This was probably already said, but my bonehead had to restate it. hahahahaha

[Geika]

Nicely put, Risho

[Ishin]

My Kung Fu Sifu hates the belt system. The reason is he finds people begin to learn and train with an agenda. The agenda turns away from self development, and perfection of the art to the endless quest to just get to the next level. People then train martial arts just to get a belt. So many people train martial arts to become a black belt, they either get frustrated that they aren't attaining belts at the rate they thought they would, or eventually they do get a black belt and then they quit. Few of his students just train to train, but those are the ones that make it a part of their life and see the most benefit, because they just train for the sake of training.

Gassho
C

[Tiwala]

an attitude that you are ready to die on the cushion.

Gassho,

Daitetsu


PS: Thank you for posting Brad's article, Jundo!

Thank you. Very nice. To approach death with an open heart, paradoxically, opens you up beautifully to life as it is.

As for goals and guest speakers,
I'm still waiting for the day we somehow get Hyon Gak Sunim in our zazenkais! Haha. That would be interesting.


Gassho, Ben

[Jundo]

But we do work for a paycheck. It's nice to work for work's sake, but if that doesn't pay the bills, then you need to find a job that does. After you can pay the bills, work for work's sake. lol Isn't that the same as sitting for sitting's sake? I mean if that isn't curing the "dis-ease", then why sit?

I respectfully submit again that this is not an "either/or" choice. Sometimes we work for works sake ... sometimes we work for a promotion or a pay raise ... sometimes we work just to get through the day, pay the overdue bills.

At the same time, through Shikantaza we encounter that there is no "promotion", all raised to the level of Buddha transcending up and down. Such is a realm beyond "aversions and attractions" known simultaneously even as the job sucks, the boss is a pain in the butt and we want to get home. It is a Treasure always in hand, but does not pay the bill collector at the door.

Can you encounter life as both ways as one, like seeing the world out of the right eye one way and the left eye another? He who only sees through one eye is blind.

When the two merge and intermingle, well, the sucky job still sucks ... but perhaps not quite as before. Shall we describe even the "suckiness" as Sacred, and the "pain in the butt boss" as also a Buddha? We may actually work to accomplish projects, build and create and reach great goals (no need just to sit around all day, even as we sit sometimes) ... all while being not quite so attached to the outcome, and much less greedy about it all. It is a good way to experience life.

We might also learn not to fall so easily into our negative emotions, fears and resentments about it all. We may actually find a Light and Peace that shines through. Yippee! Nonetheless ... the job still stinks sometimes, we desperately want to get home sometimes, the boss is still a tremendous pain sometimes.

Not an "either/or" proposition, and more a dance of partners.

Gassho, J

[Risho]

Gassho

Risho