Why a Wall?

[Charles]

Why do we do zazen staring at a wall? I know that Dogen's instructions for zazen say (or at least intimate) to do this, but does he anywhere give an explanation of why the practice is done like this?

What prompts this question is reading about Buddha having sat underneath a tree, thus presumably outdoors. Things must have been moving in his field of vision. And things are always moving. Even when I'm sitting in front of a wall, my heart is beating, I'm breathing, blood is flowing...things are in constant motion. So why do we practice in such a way as to 'artificially' create a field of vision in which there is no motion?

So: what's up with the wall?

(Sorry if there's a very obvious answer to this that I'm missing; I'm really new at this, please bear with me.)

--Charles

[Gregor]

Sensory deprivation

[Jun]

So the story goes, Bodaidaruma sat in meditation facing the wall of his cave.

Not every Zen practitioner faces a wall, some Sõtõ-shu groups do not, Rinzai-shu does not, my own little group does not.

Facing a wall or facing the world is no different.

[Keishin]

Hello Charles and Gregor
What a fantastic question. I was blown away--all these years sitting and I've never asked this question!
The wall gazing comes to us from Bodhidharma, who brought the Dharma from India to China and became the first Chinese Patriarch.
In other words, it's Bodhidharma's wall, not Gautama Buddha's wall.
When you think about it, a wall makes beautiful sense and is an elegant and simple solution for a practice easy to take with you no matter where you go or find yourself.
What is the closest thing to closing your eyes without closing them?
It is such a radical thing to do--I mean my associations with a wall in our culture is that of a mild 'punishment': children are told to stand in a corner or stand facing a wall, as an opportunity to reflect on their behavior/its consequences and turn themselves around/turn their day around when they can go and rejoin their companions. It wasn't a punishment I ever received as a child (my parents believed in hitting us kids), but it was a punishment we gave children at the group home I lived at. When I first started sitting I had to come to terms with the association I had with facing a wall and being 'on punishment.'
A wall is readily available--who doesn't have access to one? With a wall you can sit alone/with others with minimum distraction, it's the closest thing to closing your eyes while keeping them open. And, of course, even though we spend so much time gazing at it, how many of us actually see the wall (I spent 6 weeks or better seeing shoes--see other thread on sitting).
Thanks to your question, I'm 'seeing' the wall for the first time all over again!

[Chris H]

An interesting question. I wondered about this myself because I live in a smallish apartment and have virtually no space where my field of vision doesn't include some piece of furniture, art work, guitar, power strip and so on. The Zen aesthetic is one of bare bones simplicity.

I guess the obvious answer is that a blank wall doesn't offer any distractions. Nothing to catch the eye that might carry you into a train of thought.

Gassho,
Chris

[Rev R]

When outward becomes unremarkable, your mind begins to look inward and finds nothing to latch onto.

That's my guess.

[Jun]

The wall gazing comes to us from Bodhidharma, who brought the Dharma from India to China and became the first Chinese Patriarch.

The list of 28 patriarchs, including Bodaidaruma, has no historical warrant. The entire story of Bodaidaruma is historically questionable. Much like the Moses and Jesus characters, no doubt Bodaidaruma was invented. The T'ang Chinese after all needed a lineage of patriarchs (in the Taoist tradition) in order to prove a direct transmission linking back to the Buddha.

[Skye]

For me, its part of that whole "simultaneously true perspectives" thing. Whether you're sitting and looking at a wall, or one with the wall, it's still just a wall. When you sit, the whole world sits with you - looking at a wall. I think there's an element of humour to it

[Jundo]

And of course, we must ask ...

... Why not sit facing the wall?

After all, we have to face something ...

... if not the wall, then it would be something else!


No matter what, we are just facing ourselves.


Gassho, Jundo

[Longdog]

Any one sat facing a mirror? Could be an interesting experience depending on how you see/feel about yourself?

[nikolelie]

I will sit in front of this mirror and report my findings. It might be a vacation from the demands of a wall. Or in my case, my random belongings. My place is a complete mess.

[Charles]

Wow. Thanks for all the replies.

A lot of what people are saying seems to boil down to...

Sensory deprivation

...or something approaching that. I can see a logic to that. Though so far, when I sit, I don't feel sensory deprivation so much as sensory acuity. I'm much more aware of things around me than I usually am -- I notice sounds that my creaky old house makes that I've never noticed before, I notice the way paint is distributed on the wall, things like that.

...I mean my associations with a wall in our culture is that of a mild 'punishment'...

My two main associations with walls are boredom, and being trapped or cornered (as in the phrase, 'my back's up against the wall'). I've felt both so far while sitting.

My understanding of terms such as 'stillness' and 'silence' in practice is that they are poetic and relate to a condition of acceptance of phenomenon.

That makes a lot of sense to me.

No matter what, we are just facing ourselves.

Yeah. The first time I sat, for the first few minutes, I was shocked -- kind of frightened, actually -- at how much 'noise' I was willing to throw around 'in my head' to avoid just sitting there quietly. It was a kind of panic, and was a very new experience for me. My reaction was something like: how could I not have known this about myself before? Things have quieted down a little (honestly, very little) since then.

Any one sat facing a mirror? Could be an interesting experience depending on how you see/feel about yourself?

For some reason I think I'd find that pretty creepy. Not sure why.

--Charles

[Jun]

A lot of what people are saying seems to boil down to...

Sensory deprivation

...or something approaching that. I can see a logic to that.

I can't.

[Ankai]

In my little group, we sit facing toward the walls for a very practical reason. In a room full of people sitting Zazen, especially with several almost TOTALLY inexperienced Zensters, if two people were facing each other and happened to glance at one another at the sam time, they'd very likely get the giggles. Trying to stop when one has the giggles not only makes it worse, it makes it very contagious.
Facing the wall is safer. LOL

[Gregor]

A lot of what people are saying seems to boil down to...

Sensory deprivation

...or something approaching that. I can see a logic to that.

I can't.

It seems to make a great deal of sense to me. But, if you can't see it, then you can't not a big deal. I really don't care to explain it. Not that important after all it's just a technique or style of practice . . .