Polishing A Tile: Zen Practice

A talk about a traditional Zen koan, "Nangaku Polishes a Tile" in support of the Soto Zen practice of shikantaza (just sitting, only sitting) by describing a traditional commentary and Eihei Dogen's radically non-dualistic interpretation.

Transcript

We'll be talking about a traditional Zen Buddhist teaching story called Nangaku Polishes a Tile.

Let me begin by pointing out that this is a unique expression of our realized nature,

Our already realized nature.

We're all unique individuals,

Yet part of one interconnected humanity.

So we all express and live Buddha nature in our own unique ways when our humanness is fully and totally exerted,

When we sit in shikantaza,

Which is a Japanese expression for just sitting or only sitting.

We fully express our wholeness and naturalness in the most straightforward and simple way.

This is gujin,

A Japanese expression that means total exertion or total penetration,

Fully being who we are with no part left out.

Eihei Dogen,

The 13th century founder of the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition in Japan,

Expresses this notion clearly and cogently in his commentary to this classic Zen koan,

Nangaku Polishes a Tile.

In the koan,

Nangaku compares Vaso's practice of zazen to,

Quote,

Become a Buddha,

As useless and as futile as polishing a tile is to make a mirror.

In the Zen tradition,

The mirror serves as a symbol of the enlightened mind.

Here's the story.

Nangaku one day goes to Vaso's hut where Vaso stands waiting and Nangaku asks,

What are you doing these days?

And Vaso says,

These days I just sit.

Nangaku says,

What is the aim of sitting in zazen?

And Vaso says,

The aim of sitting in zazen is to become a Buddha.

Nangaku promptly fetches a roof tile and polishes it on a rock near Vaso's hut.

And Vaso upon seeing this asks,

What are you doing,

Master?

And Nangaku says,

Polishing a tile.

And Vaso says,

What is the use of polishing a tile?

And Nangaku answers,

I'm polishing it into a mirror.

Vaso says,

How can you polish a tile into a mirror?

How can polishing a tile make it into a mirror?

And Nangaku says,

How can sitting in zazen make you into a Buddha?

This encounter dialogue is a highly condensed,

Terse and deep teaching that goes to the heart of practice in the Soto Zen tradition.

It reflects at once the core belief and basic practice of the Middle Way of Buddhism.

Shikantaza,

As I mentioned before,

Or simply sitting,

Only sitting or just sitting,

Is the central Soto Zen Buddhist practice.

I've intentionally avoided the term meditation because,

As I will describe this practice as Dogen notes,

Is not meditation in the popular sense,

Although it may look,

Seem like,

Or be described as meditation.

Shikantaza is simply sitting,

Period.

Or as Dogen notes,

The Dharma Gate of ease and joy.

Now this koan can be taken in two radically different ways.

A popular view reflecting an immediate and naturalistic enlightenment orientation and an instrumental or facilitative approach to practice and interprets the dialogue as critical of a gradualist orientation to zazen practice because realization is considered natural and immediate.

At most,

Zazen functions from this point of view as a temporary tool.

Viewed from this perspective,

This conversation between Nangaku and Basu seems to imply that Basu is wasting his time practicing zazen.

However,

Dogen turns the meaning of the story around to support his radical non-dualism in terms of shusho ichinyo,

Which in Japanese means practice and realization are one.

They're not different.

He shifts the tile polishing metaphor around and characterizes both Basu's zazen and Nangaku's stone polishing as expressive of practice and realization.

He centers the emphasis on the activity of tile polishing.

In this way,

He verifies and validates Basu's zazen as expressive of realization.

That is,

Polishing a tile and zazen both become the activity of realization.

Dogen's interpretation is radically different from the popular view that I described a moment ago.

He upholds the centrality of zazen and the necessity of continued practice.

He notes that Nangaku is cautioning Basu against waiting for realization,

But not against the continued zazen practice.

Thus,

For Dogen,

Becoming a Buddha by sitting in meditation is impossible.

Why?

Because Buddhahood is not the end result,

But the starting point of spiritual endeavor.

In this way,

Dogen points to the dynamic here and now of tile polishing and sitting,

Not a final result.

The mirror is the act of polishing.

Buddha is the act of sitting.

Bood in this light,

Doing zazen becomes indispensable not so much as a means of seeking personal experiential verification of realization,

But as the enactment and lived-in-the-moment expression of our already enlightened being,

Our basic Buddha nature.

Further,

We express this basic Buddha nature just by being who we are.

Hence,

As Dogen notes in his commentary,

And I quote,

Clearly,

In truth,

When polishing a tile becomes a mirror,

Basu becomes Buddha.

When Basu becomes Buddha,

Basu immediately becomes Basu.

When Basu becomes Basu,

Zazen immediately becomes zazen.

In this regard,

Zazen becomes the prototype expression of realized being.

In other words,

Shikantaza practice has total and absolute meaning in and of itself.

From the outside,

Shikantaza appears to be a quietist-oriented contemplative practice geared toward a settled state of mind,

Or that it sets as a goal the elimination of thought.

The notion of zazen as silent illumination might reinforce such a view.

However,

Dogen criticized quietist practices as nothing but,

Quote,

Withered trees,

Dead wood,

And ashes,

And he abrogated an action-oriented,

Relational,

And realizational practice.

Dogen's terse expression,

Shu shou ichin yo,

Practice-verification oneness,

Points to his radically non-dualistic orientation through the act of zazen.

That is,

We practice realization and we realize when we practice.

This is not a linear,

One-dimensional sequence of cause and effect.

Dogen is saying that when we practice,

We express realization.

That is,

The activity of practice is already realization.

In practice,

This takes an enormous amount of pressure off of us.

So just keep practicing,

No matter what.

And thank you.

Reviews

Seiso
I have heard this story times over but tonight I understand it more clearly. Thank you for your excellent work 🙏🙏

“Zazen is good for nothing!” ~ Sawaki Roshi. Yet, we practice anyway.

Excellent example of why we practice.

Thank you 🙏🏼