Precepts as fundamentals

[Ishin]

Hi Shinzan,

Most scholars these days believe that the expression "sit facing the wall" was actually closer to "sit like a wall". Traditionally, Soto Zennies would "face the wall". I actually think it is better for less experienced sitters to do so, as it reduces the sensory stimuli, thereby facilitating calming the mind a bit.

I tend to encourage folks to "face the wall", but it is not so important. I believe that the sitters' "looking downward toward the floor" also reduces sensory stimulation, so the effect is about the same. For more experienced sitters, I do not believe that it matters ... and, in fact, we should develop the ability to sit anywhere, however noisy, busy or distracting.

I was surprised when, a couple of years ago, I conducted an unofficial poll among teachers who are members of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association of North America, and found that most of the Soto teachers seemed to be open to sitting either way.

Anyway ... the historical reason may be a mistranslation of Bodhidharma, regarded as the First Patriarch of Ch'an or the Zen tradition, and a writing long attributed to him (The Two Entrances and Four Practices) that used the term in Chinese "biguan/pi-kuan". Historian Heinrich Dumoulin discusses Bodhidharma's wall-contemplation.



The actual meaning of "wall gazing" may not be a literal "sit while gazing at a wall", but closer to "sit as if a wall seeing". Nobody really knows what the term originally meant however. The great Zen Historian Yanagida Seizan has (ala Shikantaza) interpreted the term to denote a sort of witnessing of the world with the steadfast detachment of a wall in which one “gazes intently at a vibrantly alive śunyatā (emptiness).”

So, whether facing the wall, or away from the wall ... just sit, without thought of in or out.

Gassho, Jundo

Hello

I am very interested in the history of Bodhidharma, both in Zen and Kung Fu. Is it that he didn't sit facing a wall at all? Who were the first ones to sit facing walls as we do now? I guess I just wonder why this can't be be just translated as "he sat zazen for 9 years". Or in other words what is wrong with saying he sat "wall gazing" as that is waht we do now?

Just curious

Gassho
C

[Jundo]

Hello

I am very interested in the history of Bodhidharma, both in Zen and Kung Fu. Is it that he didn't sit facing a wall at all? Who were the first ones to sit facing walls as we do now? I guess I just wonder why this can't be be just translated as "he sat zazen for 9 years". Or in other words what is wrong with saying he sat "wall gazing" as that is waht we do now?

Just curious

Gassho
C

Well, no matter when, it is a good tradition.

Dogen does mention it in his rules for the monastery which means, I assume, that he also experienced such in China when he was there too. Another Zen Teacher once wrote me the following ...

In Fushukuhanpo, The drum and bell are sounded for breakfast and lunch. "At this time, if there are people sitting facing the wall they must turn and sit facing the center," ie, for the meal. p. 83
It's even clearer in Bendoho, Model for Engaging the Way, aka how to get through the day in the monastery --- p 64: "For evening zazen, when you hear the bell, put on your okesa, enter the monks' hall, settle into your place, and do zazen. The abbot sits on the abbot's chair facing [the statue of] Manjushri and does zazen, the head monk faaces the outer edge of the sitting platform and does zazen, and the other monks face the wall and do zazen."
Dogen is quite consistent on this --- after the evening and night, and early zazen, when the umpan and hans sing out the beginning of the monastic day, "gassho to the okesa . . . and place it on the top of your head" and chant the robe verse. Then, "after putting on the okesa, turn around to the right and sit facing the center." p 70
A little later comes breakfast, and a while later the han sounds for morning zazen. "The head monk and the assembly, wearing their okesas, enter the hall, and [the monks] do zazen facing the wall at their places. The head monk does not face the wall . . .". p 70.

Most paintings showing Bodhidharma facing the wall were painted long after his time ...



In any case, it is now Soto tradition that Dogen had folks face the wall. Why not? Ya gotta face someway, and we always face ourself.

Most Rinzai and mixed Rinzai Lineages sit faces away from the wall.
Gassho, J

[Ishin]

Well, no matter when, it is a good tradition.

Dogen does mention it in his rules for the monastery which means, I assume, that he also experienced such in China when he was there too. Another Zen Teacher once wrote me the following ...



Most paintings showing Bodhidharma facing the wall were painted long after his time ...



In any case, it is now Soto tradition that Dogen had folks face the wall. Why not? Ya gotta face someway, and we always face ourself.

Most Rinzai and mixed Rinzai Lineages sit faces away from the wall.
Gassho, J

Thank you. FYI I don't literally thinK Bodhidharma founded "Kung Fu" though he may certainly have been the first to suggest exercises were needed to help monks stay more focused. I do certainly find that there is something very Zen about being fully engaged in martial arts practice, but then the same can be said for any activity. The difference is that other activities don't cause you to get punched when you loose focus.

Gassho
C

[AlanLa]

It's funny how conversations turn. Thank you for the dharma talk, Jundo. I started this by talking about behavior, and now we are into wall gazing, sitting on a zafu, kung fu, etc. Anyway, you remind us that zazen is much more than a behavior, as is Buddhism, which was really my point.