See Nature and Become Buddha

To know that the world is entirely everything that is experienced is to turn toward our actual living reality. To see that without exception experiences come and go, they are unstable, is to comprehend the nature of reality. When an experience - a physical impression, an emotion, an idea - is grasped, that is where something imaginary is created, and within that imagined realm all sorts of craving and hatred can occur, thus with grasping comes dissatisfaction, and with dissatisfaction further pain ensues. To be free from all that trouble caused by grasping is to see the world for what it is: unstable experiences only imagined to be reliable, true and personal. As it is perfectly clear the moment you look at the ongoing experiences, there is nothing that endures, nothing reliable, consequently no matter what view seems true, it is necessarily construed, and no matter what feels yourself, it is necessarily an unreliable mental image.

Although it may be clear that the whole reality is only unreliable experiences, one can be shocked to inactivity and uncertainty about what to do then, or one can turn that realisation into a concept about the world and then easily forget about it the next moment. Actually, both are products of thoughts, one falling into the extreme of nothingness (not thinking of anything), and the other into the extreme of objectification (thinking of something). But thoughts come and go anyway, just like everything else. They are not the cause of dissatisfaction and suffering. Imagining them to be reliable and personal are the real culprits. But if you try to think of them as unreal, that's fighting against shadows.

Do not expect to get all the answers from words. Not because words are somehow deficient, but because life is too complicated and relying only on teachings is tiresome. Rather just see the nature of reality for yourself and then experiment. Be open and aware to whatever comes and goes. Know that what is imagined exists in a context, everything is always interdependent - i.e. one thought has innumerable thoughts behind it and can generate innumerable other thoughts. The meaning of a single thought depends on the meaning of all the other thoughts. Since no meaning can be found in only a single thought, many meaningless thoughts still make no meaning. Nevertheless, everything looks meaningful. That's the illusion of the imagined world.

So, relax and experiment. Life is just life. You already have many skills and know how to eat and sleep. Beyond that, you fall from one mental complication into another. Just as you don't put your hand in fire, so you should see that different thoughts lead to different experiences. Anyway, this is just one small post, not a treatise on everything. There are all sorts of resources to turn to for more words. Besides that, just see experiences for what they are, that way you stop making a fuss.

Zen Stages or No Stages

On one hand, there is just morality, meditation, and wisdom. On the other hand, it is a cardinal point of the Zen teachings that unlike the so called gradual path, it is a direct one.

If we just go and break down the immediate path to the bodhisattva way, that's basically calling Zen's bluff and bursting its bubble of fancy rhetoric. That is, in my view, perfectly fine, but then it should also be accepted that once the veneer is blown away the whole Zen set up is untenable, and the so called masters of present and past are nothing more than clowns.

Or we can take the message seriously and consider the possibility that there is more to Bodhidharma's arrival than entertaining words. If the mind transmission actually means something, this is not found in historical records, written words, meditation practice, or nice robes with cool titles. It is simply realising for oneself that all experiences are empty and unattainable. That insight is of course no different from what the sutras and the gradual path teaches. The question then is: how can one go directly instead of by stages? That's what all the Zen teachings are the answer for. Anyone can easily confirm that no bodily or mental occurrence remains for a moment, and it is only out of ignorance of this simple truth that one pointlessly attempts to hold on to something and experience dissatisfaction. So the mind is indeed originally pure and can never be tainted. Therefore, engaging in any kind of cultivation is not only meaningless but actually contra-productive and misleading.

What may be lacking to put a finger on the subitism of Zen is the general context of everyday life either in a monastery or as a lay person. That's a false impression texts (and films) can make, as inevitably the whole picture cannot be included into a few pages, not to mention all the things that were evident for contemporary readers. Basically, Zen is not a separate school or organisation, but exists as a (small) part of the larger East Asian tradition where monastics follow the precepts and perform rituals, and the laity visits the monastery to gain merit and hear some chanting. It's like high brow theology for everyday church goers and parish priests.

Real Mark Buddha Remembrance

In Chinese Pure Land you find the four types of buddha-remembrance (四種念佛), and among them the real-mark (i.e. ultimate) buddha-remembrance (實相念佛). See a brief explanation here.

The Zen explanation of that practice is from Daoxin, the fourth patriarch, in his "Fundamental Expedient Teachings for Calming the Mind Which Attains Enlightenment" (T85n2837p1286c19), who sums up the definition of yixin sanmei as "the mind which is aware of the Buddha is the Buddha, whereas [the mind which] does false thinking is the ordinary person" (tr. David W. Chappell), based on the Manjusri PP Sutra. After that he quotes the Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue (T09n0277p0393b10-11): "The ocean of impediment of all karmas / Is produced from one's false imagination. / Should one wish to repent of it / Let him sit upright and meditate on the true aspect [of reality]." (tr. Bunno Kato) And here meditation on the true aspect is "念實相", i.e. (using the translation above) remembering/thinking real-mark. Further on repentance, or rather formless repentance, there is the 6th chapter of the Platform Sutra. Then Daoxin (tr. Chappell) continues:

"The Dapinjing [couldn't find what it actually refers to, but an almost identical teaching is found in the first volume of the Fozangjing T15n0653p785a25] says: "No object of thought (wu-suo-nian) means to be thinking on Buddha (nianfo)."
Why is it called wu-suo-nian? It means the mind which is "thinking on Buddha" is called thinking on no object (wu-suo-nien). Apart from mind there is no Buddha at all. Apart from Buddha there is no mind at all. Thinking on Buddha is identical to the thinking mind. To seek the mind means to seek for the Buddha.
Why is this? Consciousness is without form. The Buddha lacks any outer appearance. When you understand this truth, it is identical to calming the mind (anxin). If you always are thinking on Buddha, grasping [onto externals] does not arise, [and everything] disappears and is without form, and thinking is impartial without [false] discrimination. To enter into this state, the mind which is thinking on Buddha disappears, and further it is not even necessary to indicate [the mind as Buddha]. When you see this, your mind is none other than the body of the real and true nature of the Tathagata."

Uchiyama's zazen is letting go of thoughts, what Dogen calls hishiryo, what the Platform Sutra calls no-thought (wunian). It is the same as real-mark nianfo. Not anything complicated. But whether one manages to abide by not abiding anywhere is another question.

Zero, One, Two, Six

Wisdom and samadhi cannot be separated, just as wisdom and compassion cannot be separated. The wisdom that is without samadhi and/or compassion is not the wisdom of the buddhas, but rather some ideology, emptiness grasped incorrectly.

I don't mean ultimately. It is more a matter of how those words are defined. On the one hand, there is the path of sila-samadhi-prajna. On the other hand, there is the unity of samadhi-prajna in the Platform Sutra, or Keizan's statement "Zazen is also not based upon discipline, practice, or wisdom. These three are all contained within it." And even the PP8000 (3.4) says, "The five perfections are in this manner contained in the perfection of wisdom, and the term ‘perfection of wisdom’ is just a synonym for the fulfillment of the six perfections. In consequence, when the perfection of wisdom is proclaimed, all the six perfections are proclaimed." At the same time, Dazhu Huihai writes, "People who are confused or deluded do not understand that the other five paramitas all evolve from the dana-paramita. Therefore, in practicing the dana-paramita, one also fulfills the practice of the other five paramitas." How does all this work? Nagarjuna explained it in the MPPU (p 41-45) that one can cultivate any one of the six that includes all the others, or can focus on one or two paramitas and thus cultivate the rest, or it is also possible to cultivate none and thus realise all.

In the case of the immediate enlightenment of Zen, there are no stages or levels, everything is included in the single realisation of no-mind. Talking of the general teachings for bodhisattvas is another matter.

As Dogen said, zazen is dropping body and mind. It means that, as you can always see for yourself, that all physical and mental experiences are impermanent, they don't last even for a second. Dropping them is not creating an issue, not taking a position. On the other hand, if one takes up a gradual training, instead of practising enlightenment, then I think it should be done properly, following the well established tradition, like the instructions found in Zhiyi's Smaller Samatha-Vipasyana treatise or some others. It is better to be clear about the methods being used, otherwise they bear no fruit.

With Superpowers to Enlightenment

What may seem mystical and supernatural in Buddhism are generally about the inner world. Just consider how the various heavens are connected to different levels of absorption (see here). The various visions of the world can be summed up in what is called the five eyes, where the first one is our ordinary eye, and the second one is where all the supernatural things can be seen, while the other three are actually different levels of wisdom. Karma also is something that operates within one's inner world, defining one's perception of things and what could be called one's personality.

With a materialist ideology the entire inner world of one's mind is disregarded as if it had never existed. But we all experience thoughts, emotions, dreams, visions and various mental states. In fact, the concepts of materialism are also mental creations. Every experience one can have is within the mind, otherwise there is no consciousness of the experience and as such it cannot be called an experience. Since suffering/dissatisfaction exist within experience, it is within the realm of experience where one needs to look for solutions. Similarly, dreams and visions are also experiences, no different from ordinary events, like drinking a cup of tea. The difference is that while common people rarely encounter anything beyond the everyday worldly experiences, those who engage in spiritual cultivation - like meditation - can and often do have so called other-worldly experiences. Those other-worldly events are then reflected in the teachings and numerous stories that modern people easily and unthinkingly disregard as myths.

It is actually not particularly difficult to get in touch with the mystical side of our world. What it takes is to move our attention from the outside world of ordinary experiences to the inner realm. Normally the path to do that in Buddhism is to gain a firm foothold within the basic levels of absorption, that is, to be capable of maintaining a stable, calm and attentive mind at your will. There are other ways as well, generally not used by Buddhists, because those are not really conducive to liberation. Once one has a fairly good command of one's mind, it is then a matter of directing one's attention toward a particular topic or area of investigation. It can be used for the cultivation of the six supernormal powers (e.g. AN 5.28), while in Mahayana it is applied to so called visualisation practices, where one can visit buddhas and buddha-lands (e.g. Pratyutpanna-samadhi Sutra). Used properly, one can gain the benefits of both concentration and insight.

Bodhisattva life

It is taught that bodhisattvas should overcome two hindrances: afflictions (klesa) and knowledge (jneya). It is done through gaining insight into the emptiness of persons (pudgala) and phenomena (dharma). This can be translated to ordinary language as: emotional and conceptual attachments; meaninglessness/unimportance of persons and things.

Personal feelings

The more obvious type of attachments are about people and things we take personally. The strongest emotions of love and hate occur in relation to other people. That's why the precepts are primarily about organising one's behaviour towards fellow humans. As long as one is disturbed by various feelings, the mind is not calm, and an agitated mind is unfit for gaining insight. Therefore the prerequisites of wisdom are moral discipline and meditation. Discipline placates the outward actions, meditation calms down the inner disturbances. Then one can begin to look into the nature of body and mind, and see them to be nothing but momentary conglomerations of conditioned experiences, in other words: the four elements (the body consisting of solidity, liquidity, heat, movement), the five aggregates (physical impressions, basic feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness) and the six sensory areas (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tangible, mental experiences). That's all how the threefold training works.

What is good to understand is that no self in practice means not taking things personally. When something is considered the self (I am X) or belonging to the self (my X), it means attachment. The basic signs of that attachment are the feelings of defensiveness, fear, longing, craving, anger and love. Although the statement 'I am liberal' is fairly innocent, in the right circumstances lot of emotions and actions can occur from that single assertion of self, when one feels the need to prove something, defend something, convince someone, etc. Similarly, saying that 'this is my laptop' sounds commonplace and uninteresting, only until the moment when it is in danger of being damaged or when it is stolen.

While it doesn't make much sense to remove the pronouns from our vocabulary, what one can learn is that the self and its possessions are nothing more than concepts. That way the whole business loses its importance and it becomes clear how it's always us who make a fuss of everything based on misconceived ideas. And even when the loss of a beloved person hurts, or when we experience some illness, the feelings are not held on by baseless thoughts. (see: SN 42.11, SN 36.6)

All is meaningless

The second hindrance is the one from concepts. This is eliminated by realising that not only there is no self inside/outside/as the body, but even the parts making up the body are without any substance to grasp. In other words, whatever that can be attached to are concepts, conceptual creations, words and names, mental fabrications. And since they are just concepts, not real objects, they have no importance, no value, no actual meaning. That is, we hold on to an idea because we believe that it carries a meaning, that it is somehow true, that it refers to something real, or the idea itself is the truth. But actually all words gain meaning only from their context, and that context itself is made up of meaningless concepts. It's not that there are no thoughts at all, but they are definitely without any value of their own. Since one thought is pointless, more of the same cannot create true meaning either. That's why the scriptures and treatises talk about the world as illusion, dream, mirage, magical apparition and such.

Already such

It should be understood that there is nothing to make empty, there is no new reality to discover. Our entire world of experiences is already such that it is without anything that can be truly clung to. If we just sit down a little and calmly see whatever experience happens, they always and inevitably just come and go. Bodily feelings, emotions, thoughts - come and go. And if you imagine that somehow there is a present moment that is real, just try to find it. The present moment is as theoretical as the past and the future. Or if you believe that there is a mind, an awareness, a watcher behind all experiences, just try to find it. That is really nothing but a concept. It's not just that there is no need to find something, there is nothing that could be found. Relax. No need to improve things, since they are already such.

Drink tea

Since the present mind, the past mind and the future mind are all ungraspable, with what mind are you going to drink tea? This whole post is made of words. Meaningless words that magically seem to be meaningful. Cause and effect are unavoidable, even if they are just meaningless concepts. That way we can do good without any worry. Save all beings without any concept of anyone saving anybody. That's the bodhisattva life.

Mystical Empowerment, Special Transmission

Why the need for so much hot air and self praise? Entire litanies of the speciality of whatever transmission - normally an artificially concocted list of a mixture of famous and unknown names - just to say how unique and wonderful the current living heir is. Or there is the other end of the same approach, loads of critical and denigrating words about everyone else, although this is not a popular style nowadays - except maybe online where "my vehicle is superior to yours" - one just has to read some works of people like Nichiren and Dogen to see that.

But what is it that one can actually learn after listening to an hour of "we are the champions"? The same thing as always: all appearances are unstable, unsatisfactory, impersonal and insubstantial. Because that is the true nature of the world. There is nothing more to see, regardless if you have gone through years of koan training, dark retreats, dozens of empowerments, a five-year Dharma course, or whatnot.

Nobody owns that Dharma. And there are at least two reasons for that. First is that the Dharma is the truth, the reality. That is how things are, and nobody can do anything about that. Either one clarifies this Dharma for oneself or not. Others cannot do it for you. Second reason is that every descendant of Shakyamuni Buddha is the transmitter of the same insight into that nature of reality. Actually, every tradition upholds the very basics of the four noble truths (etc.) as the authentic and original doctrine of the Perfectly Awakened One. Words and styles vary, but practically it's the same thing everywhere: things are impermanent, don't attach.

Some may object that one needs a reliable teacher in order to be able to realise the Buddha's teachings. That is partially true. The reliable teacher everyone needs is Shakyamuni Buddha. That's the first refuge. Then there is the third refuge, the community. What makes the community a refuge? That it maintains the Buddha's Dharma. So, if a teacher - a community member - teaches in agreement with the Dharma, then it is an authentic teaching. What is the Dharma? It is what the Buddha taught. Not too complicated.

I can only rejoice that so many great teachings and teachers are accessible nowadays. It just requires internet connection. And I am happy for all sorts of traditions, as they all transmit the Buddhadharma in diverse forms and styles. There is hardly enough time even just to know about all the resources, not to mention in depth study. At the same time, the essentials of the path of liberation can be learnt in just a few sentences. Or even just one sentence.

vayadhammā saṅkhārā, appamādena sampādethā 

(All fabrications are subject to decay. Bring about completion by being heedful.)

常當一心勤求出道。一切世間動不動法。皆是敗壞不安之相。

(You should always single-mindedly and diligently seek the way out of all the moving and unmoving dharmas of the world, for they are all decaying, unfixed appearances.)

Dogen said about that last saying of the Buddha: "disciples of the Tathagata unfailingly learn this [instruction]. Those who do not practice and learn it, and who do not know it, are not the Buddha’s disciples. It is the Tathagata’s right Dharma-eye treasury and fine mind of nirvana." (Shobogenzo, vol 4, p 321, BDK Edition)

Rebirth and Liberation

Thoughts come and thoughts go. Is there anything that stays in your experience? Still, there is cause and effect. That is, patterns of thinking that make us do this and that. That is karma. Since the mind is not the body, nor is it made by the body, it does not begin with one's current birth, nor does it end with one's corporeal death. The motivation of becoming someone is the root cause of being born again and again. Learning not to grasp, and release one's habitual patterns is the way to be free from compulsive actions.

Zen and True Self

Enlightenment is a human experience, knowing clearly that all experiences are impermanent, without self, empty. That no matter what occurs within the six sensory areas, they all just come and go. The problem is that we imagine this and that as real, independent and permanent - that is, we reify experiences, idealise self and things - and so grasp at them, want to keep them, or get rid of them. This is falling into hope and fear, attachment and rejection, love and hate. Thus we end up always dissatisfied as reality does not match our ideas. And so zazen is "When various thoughts arise in your mind, do not become caught up by them or struggle with them; neither pursue nor try to escape from them. Just leave thoughts alone, allowing them to come up and go away freely." as taught on the Soto Zen website. Or as Okumura - disciple of Uchiyama - writes: "In zazen we simply allow any thought, feeling or emotion to come up and then we simply let them go away; we actually do nothing." What more do you think should be there? What else could there be to be realised but the realm of complete freedom?

Linji said, "You who come here from here and there all have a mind to seek buddha, to seek dharma, to seek emancipation, to seek escape from the three realms. Foolish fellows! When you’ve left the three realms where would you go?"

Dogen writes in the Bendowa: "How could we say, on the contrary, that the body is mortal but the mind is eternal? Does that not violate right reason? Furthermore, we should realize that living-and dying is just nirvana; [Buddhists] have never discussed nirvana outside of living-and-dying."

Although there are various Chan teachers who say that there is a true self and a real mind, it is a mistake to take it as something separate and independent, because then it would have nothing to do with life. When there is talk about buddha-mind as the pure self, it is just the natural knowing and aware quality that is without attachment.

Jinul writes in the Secrets of Cultivating the Mind: "In the womb, it is called the body. In society, it is called the person. In the eyes, it is called seeing. In the ears, it is called hearing. In the nose, it distinguishes scents. In the tongue, it takes. In the hands, it grabs and holds. In the feet, it walks and runs. It manifests all over, including everything; countless worlds are collected in a single atom. Perceptives know this is the Buddha-nature the essence of enlightenment. Those who do not know call it the soul."

The reason Bankei calls it the Unborn is because it is not born as this or that sate of mind. That unmoved mind is the wisdom that sees emptiness. But it is not outside of this everyday world. Everybody uses this mind. It's just that they believe that it is this or that, that there is a permanent perceiver and doer. But it is quite the opposite.

All beings have buddha-nature, since it is nothing else but the awareness that makes us all sentient. The mistake is to believe that awareness is substantial, while actually it is empty. There is no mind beyond appearances. Awakening is awakening to this.

When it comes to being called eternal, there are two things to consider here. One is the Platform Sutra where Huineng corrects a monk, saying that appearances are what eternal and buddha-nature is impermanent. The second is that essence and function - to use expressions common in Zen - are not two. In fact, the highest level in Huayan/Kegon is the interpenetration/non-obstruction of phenomena with phenomena. This is what Nagarjuna talks about when he says that emptiness and dependent origination are one and the same. This is one the Heart Sutra says that the aggregates and emptiness are no different. Dogen talks a lot about this, or rather he almost always talks about this.

It's not just the past and the future mind that cannot be grasped, but the present mind is also ungraspable. Finally, a nice quote from Dogen's Kuge, on there being nothing beyond illusory flowers:

"Because [stupid people] attach to this theory, they have concluded that the triple world, the six states, the existence of the buddha-nature, and the nonexistence of the buddha-nature all do not exist, but are deludedly seen to exist. They excitedly consider that if we could stop this deluded cloudedness of the eyes, we would not see this floweriness in space, and this is why we say that “space is originally without flowers."

Absolute is Relative, Relative is Absolute

The teaching of the two truths is meant to point out that what common people believe to be absolute is relative. Once phenomena are understood as relative, that is the absolute truth. That is, as long as one grasps at words and concepts as something real and independent, that is taking the relative as absolute. Once it is obvious that words are just words and concepts are just concepts, that is seeing the absolute. It is not the case that we should find some absolute beyond the relative, rather just know that the relative is relative.

For interpreting the teachings, there is the distinction between neyartha (figurative) and nitartha (literal). Literal is mostly where there is an explicit teaching on no-self and emptiness, figurative is the rest. The two truths of samvrttisatya (conventional) and paramarthasatya (absolute) are similar, however, conventional stands for dependent origination and absolute for emptiness. Still, there can be a literal teaching that talks explicitly about conventional reality, and there can be figurative teaching that means emptiness. Also, dependent origination and emptiness are actually one, but conventionally talked about separately.

Mind Only or Real? It's the Same!

There are different levels of meaning. The confusion comes from assuming that they are contradictory or exclusive instead of complementary and inclusive. That is, the reality of Amitabha and that all appearances are mind only are not opposing views. In fact, they perfectly support each other. For those who naturally inclined to viewing Amitabha as a real entity, they are gradually introduced to the teaching of emptiness, if they are open for it in this life. For those who prefer everything as empty, they definitely have to understand that there is no emptiness besides dependent origination, and the Pure Land path is real and effective exactly because reality is mind made. An important difference is that while relying solely on buddha-remembrance leads to birth in the Pure Land, failing to see that there is no emptiness besides appearances leads only to some higher heavens at best, or to lower realms if one also denies the functioning of karma.

Harmonising Mind and Body

Zen is about internal attitude, not behavioural precepts. The instruction of "neither taking nor rejecting" cannot apply to physical activities, just consider how we must be able to tell the difference between edible and inedible objects. Zen (and Buddhism in general) pertains to the problem of existential dissatisfaction generated by emotional and conceptual attachments. On the physical level of precepts, what one is recommended to follow are rules based on cultivating harmlessness, goodwill and compassion. Thus, one saves all beings without the concept of beings, gives without the ideas of giver, gift, and receiver. In other words: eat when hungry, sleep when tired. Daily activities and ordinary experiences are not the problem, people already know how to dress, wash the dishes, do their job - and if not, information and instructions are readily available from many sources. Problem arises if we feel dissatisfied with our life, when we are bothered by the weather, others, the colour of the sky, and such. Suffering is when we don't find our place, can't find the meaning of life, when we are stressed and frustrated by whatever event there is because we think it should be something else. Neither taking nor rejecting is opening up to whatever happens, not making issues out of non-issues. 

If it itches, scratch it. Don't blame the world for the itch, don't be afraid of scratching, don't feel guilty because you scratched it. And if it is not the right time to scratch, don't get angry.

Is That Zen?

After reading this article on What is Zen? I had the following thoughts.

Although it starts with the usual four lines attributed to Bodhidharma, it apparently presents only a shallow understanding of the first line (in his translation) about avoiding scriptures. The rest about seeing mind and becoming buddha remains a mystery. Instead there are rules, rituals and priests. And of course lots of sitting silently. Then in the second part there is some discussion about how Zen people should be nice, compassionate and socially engaged. So, if someone defines Zen like that, sadly Zen amounts to nothing more than an afternoon yoga class with some witty quotes pasted on the walls of the gym.

Let me offer a short commentary, to show how I like to think of Zen.

教外別傳。
Separate transmission outside teachings.

That transmission not found in the teachings is from mind to mind. While this is easily confused nowadays with paper transmission, it actually means very simply understanding the Dharma. That is, whoever knows first hand that nothing can be attained has received that transmission. It has nothing to do with authorising people to perform ceremonies in black robes.

不立文字。
No reliance on words and letters.

Buddhism has a lot to say about language and its immense role in defining our reality of everyday experiences. Generally we see things depending on what we think about them, and what we think are conceptual constructs. Not relying on words does not mean being mute, it means seeing through the web of linguistic fabrications, or rather understanding them for what they are. Just words and letters. But without any essence or any real substance to refer to with them.

直指人心。
Points straight to your mind.

This is the primary message of the four lines. Look nowhere else but your own mind. Zen is the sudden path, the way of direct enlightenment. Everything else are just decorations and distractions to entertain us. First difficulty is to know what mind means. Mind is the totality of our experience. It is nothing hidden but readily apparent. The reason it can be easily missed is that instead of just looking at our present experience we prefer coming up with ideas and explanations, that is, relying on words and letters. What is obvious for everyone about their ongoing experiences is that they are coming and going. We cannot keep it. Experience is totally ungraspable. There is not a single moment we can stay with. While we can think about past events, imagine future ones and label presently occurring impressions, feelings and thoughts, that very thinking itself is momentary. The Buddha taught that attachment is the cause of suffering. When we look straight at our experience it is perfectly clear that it is actually impossible to attach to anything.

見性成佛。
Become buddha by seeing nature.

Seeing the nature of mind, of the totality of experience, is enlightening the truth that appearances are already free from conceptual and emotional limitations. In other words, emotional and conceptual attachments are themselves ungraspable experiences. Nowhere to go, nothing to attain. That is perfect liberation, buddhahood. 

Neither Walking Nor Sitting

After reading this thread I was again a bit amazed how watered down and useless what people imagine Zen is. Of the four samadhis taught in Tiantai/Tendai, the fourth is neither walking nor sitting, and that is the one recommended for householders busy with everyday matters. That's because it does not require a retreat environment but can be used everywhere. The same is true for the essential practice of Zen that is often called non-thought. No matter what goes on, if there is no grasping of any experience as substantial, as oneself or as one's own, but because it is clear that everything that occurs necessarily passes away, the mind is naturally open and aware.

What often goes for Zen is nothing more than the Zen of humans and gods, while the Zen of the Tathagata is something unimaginable for such people. When there are so called practitioners and teachers who can only advise others to sit fixed in a certain posture for a while, they not only don't know anything about what Shakyamuni and Bodhidharma taught, they cannot even understand such simple methods devised for ordinary people as investigating a phrase.

This is not an issue because of some sort of doctrinal purity, but because when there is a way that can help people it is a shame if not used. The whole point of Zen is to be simple and direct, nothing complicated or difficult. But either it is taken as some sort of mystical puzzle (koans), or oversimplified as a physical training (zazen). So seeing the nature of mind as the primary directive of Zen is totally lost.

[I will now] elaborate on [this teaching]. Because for numerous kalpas we have not encountered the true teaching, we have not known how to turn back and find the [true] origin of our bodily existence but have just clung to illusory phenomenal appearances, heedlessly recognizing [only] our unenlightened nature, being born sometimes as an animal and sometimes as a human. When we now seek our origin in terms of the consummate teaching, we will immediately realize that from the very outset we are the Buddha. Therefore, we should base our actions on the Buddha's action and identify our minds with Buddha's mind, return to the origin and revert to the source, and cut off our residue of ignorance, reducing it and further reducing it until we have reached the [state of being] unconditioned. Then our activity in response [to other beings] will naturally be [as manifold as] the sands of the Ganges— that is called Buddhahood. You should realize that delusion and enlightenment alike are [manifestations of] the one true mind. How great the marvelous gate! Our inquiry into the origin of humanity has here come to an end.

(Guifeng Zongmi: Inquiry into the Origin of Humanity) 

Sentient Beings are Buddhas

Our reality, our life is this present world of experiences. Every moment we have visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile and mental experiences. That is where we and our whole world exist. The first five we call the bodily senses and impressions from the material world, while the last one is the inner world of mind. And they all exist as conscious phenomena that we systematise in a conceptual framework, like objective and subjective.

What we can readily tell about our experiences is that they are universally impermanent, changing moment by moment. While we form a mental narration, the story of our life, all the time, that exists only in the realm of abstract concepts, and the actual experiences are always passing away without a moment delay. That means that whatever we like or dislike, consider as this or that, they are all without exception mental concepts, ideas and thoughts. At the same time, those very thoughts are also just passing away every moment.

Problems therefore are only our own making, just like everything else. To be mesmerised by the illusory world is to get lost in thoughts and ideas. It is illusory in the sense that it's built up by concepts that are themselves without any basis, thoughts that just come and go. Getting lost means thinking that there is a graspable essence in concepts, that they are important and real. Awakening from the dreamworld thus means seeing that all experiences are impermanent and insubstantial, that thoughts, concepts and ideas are ephemeral and unstable.

Although us, the world, this whole reality of experiences are already changing every moment, if that is not understood and seen clearly, we fall into the web of illusory concepts. Once the actual nature of everything is clear, there is no more reason to worry or fear, and simultaneously we can be open and embracing towards all that happens. That is the world experienced not in a narrow, self-centred, obsessed way, but as something alive, vivid, loving and peaceful.

True Nature of This Mind

Thoughts are what define whatever experience we have, both physical and mental. We have labels, categories and associations that build our thinking, and thinking is what gives shape and meaning to all our impressions and at the same time controls and guides our actions and reactions. Thinking is what our personality is made of, it is behind both our feelings and behaviour. From the intimate level of family relations to the global stage of international politics, from our attitude towards our own body to the construction of megacities - they are all regulated and formed by thinking. Past experience and future expectations are present as thoughts. All in all, the spatial and the temporal, the inner and the outer world are what thinking makes them to be.

Therefore, if we want to go to the very root of whatever problem we may have, we have to look at our thinking. As it has been summed up before, it is us who call something a problem and it's not the thing itself that says so. The raw experience without concepts is meaningless and ungraspable. It is meaningless as it has no definition and no relation to anything without names and ideas. It is ungraspable because both past and future exist only in our mind, and this present moment itself is just a theoretical measurement that cannot actually be pinpointed as anything in particular.

Thinking as a type of experience is also meaningless and ungraspable. Thoughts come and thoughts go, if we let them. However, we regularly select certain thoughts as important and substantial, concepts that are presumably relevant for us. This habit of choosing and rejecting is our conditioning, a result of past learning and repetition of similar thought patterns. The older we get the more fixed certain patterns become and they also grow in numbers, that's how we can easily cope with various situations in life, except when something unknown happens. But even in case of an event that is foreign to us we habitually try to rely on past knowledge. Only very rarely, when we are strongly forced to come up with a new perspective, do we reluctantly change our mind. In other words, the personality - a set of habitual thinking patterns - prefers the known and familiar over the unknown; it wants permanence and not change.

The illusion of stability is the basic mistake that makes us feel dissatisfied and powerless whenever we encounter change. And change is all there is. There is not a single moment of life that stays for another moment. Thus the constant struggle to project our habitual thinking on our experience and manipulate both our inner and outer world according to our preferences. In order to be free from this basic tension and existential uncertainty we need to let go of the desire to control everything. Control here means both defining, interpreting and integrating experience, and manipulating, changing and regulating the objects of perception. The wish to control is based on the belief in stability, that there are a fixed person and a fixed object.

To remove this urge to control everything we have to discover for ourselves that the reality created by our thinking is nothing else but our thoughts. Thoughts that are themselves without any meaning or substance. Once it is clearly understood and perceived that thoughts are actually ungraspable it comes naturally that the whole personality and the entire world built of and on nothing substantial. It doesn't mean that nothing exists, it's just that it doesn't exist as we have imagined it. And that makes all the difference between being stuck in habitual thought patterns and being free from the ideas of permanence. Thoughts come, thoughts go. Thoughts build personalities and worlds. It is exactly because thinking is alive and changing that construction and destruction, connecting and disconnecting, that is, life is possible.

Householder Chan

As I see it, this idea that one should be free of all attachments is a misleading one. The solution is not in reducing one's life to the bare necessities. The source of suffering is the idea of permanence, substance, meaning, importance, etc. Attachment is wanting things to be in a specific way, and that desire is based on concepts that declare what is true and what is false, what is good and what is bad ultimately. It is this projection of absolute reality that creates the duality between ordinary life and ideal life. Emptiness means that whatever supreme concept we have of ideal life is nothing but a passing thought.

It can be really difficult to know what "kleshas are bodhi" stands for. Either we are attached to something or not, there is no third option. Either we live a pure life or an impure one. But to see that this tainted realm is itself the pure land, that often feels nothing but clever sophism. What should be understood is there is nothing beyond this present reality. All humans can do are eat, shit and sleep. Whether you eat a seven course meal or a single bowl of rice makes little difference. Trouble comes one we want to force an ideal life on our ordinary one. And religious ideals are not much different from secular goals. We can dream about how sitting crossed leg facing the wall the whole day is the ultimate achievement, but that's just another false idea.

This existential unease that can drive us to philosophy and religion is the understanding that life is in general meaningless and without any real basis. The error most people make is that they look for some supreme truth beyond the present realm of experience. But as the Buddha taught, even the highest heavens are impermanent and unreliable. In other words, even the deepest meditative trance and the most wonderful realisation are meaningless and without essence.

As human beings we have bodily senses, we have emotions and we have thoughts. That's our complete realm of experience, our life. Senses, feelings and concepts are all temporary. Whether we enjoy our situation or hate it, does not matter. it will pass anyway. In fact, right in this present moment we cannot hold on to a single experience even for a millisecond. It's all inconceivable.

So, instead of labeling one idea as true and arranging, measuring, judging everything else relative to that, we need to realise that there is always a network of associations without any true centre. Our attention constantly moves from one thing to another, and whatever happens to be in the focus, that becomes our true world, our self, the most important thing ever. Ignorance comes in the moment we explain it to ourselves as the only truth, that is, we build an ideology, a personal story.

Facing everyday events may give us the desire that we want only the good states, the good moments, the good situations. Actually, that's what we and everyone else wants. This cannot be helped. This is life itself. Life without this basic intention to want the good things is an imaginary dead state. Instead what we should see is that nobody else but us label things as good and bad, we are the ones driven by our conditioning to highlight one thing and forget about the rest. That is the work of our conceptual network of associations. It's not good or bad, it's just how we are. We may not like how our nose looks like, but that's just how it is. The moment we want an ideal nose instead of the present one, we fall into a big trap. Because while we can go for surgery. our actual problem lies in this feeling of "not good". Changing the object, reshaping our nose, our mind, whatever, does not change the cause of the problem, that the present experience is labeled as not good. However, the Buddha says that it is never good, it is unsatisfactory, it is suffering. It is never good because we want it to be something else, something ideal, meaningful, substantial, self.

Chan is seeing the nature of mind, that is, the reality of our present experience. What we can easily see is that it is changing no matter what we do. If we want it not to change or change in a specific way - i.e. want the ordinary to be the ideal - we only strengthen this feeling of unease and pain. Practising Chan is the practice of not setting up and following ideologies and personal stories. However, there is no clear recipe but just a general instruction. First one has to clarify the nature of mind, then go on from there and face whatever comes on the basis of that. That is, acting without raising the mind. Then life is just ordinary.

Sudden and Gradual in Brief

In short, the basis of ignorance is conceptual attachment, that is, believing in essentially existing things and beings. From that come emotional attachments, and from that all sorts of deluded actions. One can go gradually by first restricting one's actions with the precepts, calming emotional states with meditation and eliminating false ideas through insight. Or one can go directly to the root cause, that is clinging to thoughts, and see that there is nothing to grasp. The result is the same.

Buddhism is neither Method nor Philosophy

There is the belief that Buddhism is a method, a technique, a practical teaching that can be used for one's benefit in this life, in everyday matters, in stress reduction and other psychological matters. The traditional materialisation of that attitude is in ritual activities like offering incense and prayers. The modern form is meditation. The other approach is that of those who study Buddhism as a matter of scholarly investigation or as an exotic philosophy.

The common element in both is that neither practice nor study has a personal importance for the individual, the Dharma is no different from a tool one can use for a while and then discard it. It is not integrated as the guide of one's actions. Therefore such people do not take refuge in the Triple Jewel. They grasp at the outer forms without understanding the real value of the teachings.

Let me use here as examples zazen and nenbutsu. Zazen literally means seated meditation, and nenbutsu is buddha remembrance. Both terms are as old as Buddhism itself. Originally zazen referred to the posture only that did not define the type of meditation performed, while nenbutsu was about recalling the Buddha's wonderful qualities as a way of inspiring oneself. Today zazen is regularly associated with meditation by upholding a specific posture and nenbutsu with the verbal repetition of Amida's name. But most importantly, it is the ideology that such physical activities encompass the essence of the Buddha's teaching that allows the simple shift from religious life to mundane self-help. Although there is a difference between the two that explains the popularity of nenbutsu in the traditional and zazen in the modern approach. It is that zazen promises liberation in this life while nenbutsu in the afterlife. The common element is that besides being an occasional activity they have virtually no influence on one's day to day life.

On the contrary, as ultimate teachings they were taught as life changing realisations by their famous advocates Dogen Kigen and Honen Genku. Dogen's zazen is called practice-enlightenment because it includes and accomplishes the whole path of morality, meditation and wisdom. Honen's nenbutsu guarantees birth in the Pure Land because it includes and accomplishes the three minds and the four practices. That is possible for both of them not because of the outer form, the actual activity performed by the body, but because of the mind.

In zazen it is the non-abiding awareness and in nenbutsu it is the faith in Amida's vow. The outer activities themselves are not unique to the Zen or the Pure Land school, and neither Dogen nor Honen would have had any reason to leave the Tendai school to sit or to recite. So while both are called practice oriented schools, it is not the method but the doctrine that makes them distinct from other traditions.

Since it is the mind that matters and not the activity, we could say that there is no need for the physical part. And that is partially true. Most of the Zen teachers - that is, before the times of Dahui Zonggao in China - only pointed to the nature of mind. In fact, that has been the definition of the Zen tradition since the beginning without any reference to common practices. However, while in China the heirs of Bodhidharma always lived within a Buddhist environment, Dogen separated himself from the established tradition and initiated an institutionally separate school. That way zazen became the primary representation of his style. Honen separated himself in a similar way from others and focused on recitation as the chosen expression. It is like with our thoughts, they cannot be communicated without words. The teaching has to take form and that form has to become the carrier of the teaching. And while Dogen and Honen had their respective practices selected as the most important, they did not deny or leave out other activities, like reading, reciting and copying sutras, doing prostrations, and other things. With giving a specific form to their teachings they managed to transmit them.

If one focuses only on the words, that is turning the Dharma into a study material. If one sees only the outer practice, that is turning the Dharma into gymnastics. If one knows only the meaning and has the realisation without the words and the outer practice, that is being a pratyekabuddha, where no communication is possible. But I think it is mostly a theoretical possibility and not something anyone could see or confirm (besides that they exist in the Buddhist tradition). The unity of practice and realisation, of methods and understanding, that is the real and living path of enlightenment. That unity is what zazen and nenbutsu embody according to Dogen and Honen.

So, Buddhism is neither a method nor a philosophy. When one wants to grasp the true meaning of the Dharma it takes moving away from one's previous conditioning, giving up both body and mind, and taking the teachings to one's heart. Through that transformation it becomes the living reality and not just some part time occupation between dinner and bedtime. After that every movement is zazen, every sound is the nenbutsu.