Zen Mind and No-Mind

This track offers a brief commentary on Gakudo Yojinshu, "Guidelines for Practicing the Way" written by Eihei Dogen, the 13th Century founder of the Soto Zen School in Japan, which supports shikantaza, or just sitting, the central non-dualistic and goal free practice of Zen meditation.

Transcript

Welcome,

And thank you for being here for this talk,

Which is not a meditation.

However,

It's intended to support authentic practice from a Soto Zen Buddhist perspective.

In Gakuto Yojinshu,

The Practical Advice for Practicing the Way,

Ehei Dogen,

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

Writes,

The way cannot be realized with mind or with no mind.

The way cannot be realized with mind or with no mind.

What does this mean?

Either way,

It sounds like we're screwed,

Thinking or not thinking.

The Zen teacher,

Taishan,

Says to his monks,

Speak or don't speak,

It's all the same.

I'll hit you 30 times with my stick.

Whether you lean on the notion of existing or not existing,

Being or not being,

Thinking or not thinking,

Speaking or not speaking,

These are only human ideas created by the mind.

You view this body as the center of the universe where there is a me or an I sense,

And we split the world into a million dualities like subject and object.

From this vantage point,

This I takes the position of constantly labeling everything or not existing.

As long as we're caught up in this view,

Neither being,

Non-being,

Thinking or not thinking,

Speaking or not speaking is accurate.

However,

From the perspective of Zen realization,

There is no either or.

There is only both and,

Because nothing's excluded.

We can add delusion and enlightenment.

They're all abstract categories created by the I-oriented mind.

So maybe you wonder about this.

Maybe you don't.

Maybe Dogen and the teaching doesn't make any sense.

Maybe this is all esoteric nonsense to you,

So you're not really interested.

Well,

In this way,

It actually doesn't make sense because it needs to be lived.

On the other hand,

Maybe the idea of neither mind nor no mind is frightening because you worry that practice might make you crazy.

You'll lose your mind and never be sane again.

Well,

You may not be the same again.

That's true.

If you take the Dharma seriously,

If you take practice seriously,

Yet at the same time playfully,

You won't be the same again because your way of being in the world will be different.

Like the first ancestor of Zen in China,

Bodhidharma,

Responded when Huike,

Who became his successor,

Asked,

Master,

My mind is unsettled.

Please settle it for me.

Bodhi said,

Show me the unsettled mind and I'll settle it for you.

Huike looked and looked for a very long time.

Eventually,

He came back to Bodhidharma and said,

I looked and looked,

But I could not find it.

Bodhidharma said,

There,

Your mind is now settled.

Huike didn't lose his mind.

Rather,

He became the very wise second ancestor of Zen in China.

So what are your worries?

If he could do it,

So can you.

The problem is that from an I or me perspective,

The idea,

As Dogen says,

The way cannot be realized with mind or with no mind,

Seems absurd and simply at odds with the way we usually see things.

It is not the way we usually think.

So people start to worry.

If I really do this,

How will I be able to live my life?

Someone left the practice because,

As he said to me,

I'm afraid that I'll lose all motivation to succeed in my professional and relational life if I take Musho Toku or no gaining mind seriously.

The idea was extremely frightening to him,

But you see it was just an idea,

An unreal fantasy emerging from the I sense or the ego-oriented mind.

Of course,

With authentic practice,

With authentic teachings,

We don't go insane and we don't lose motivation.

There is a big difference between too far gone and one gone thus,

As the Buddha is often described.

We see reality as it is,

Which to me is going sane,

Going awake,

Realizing our inherent Buddha nature,

The Buddha that we all are.

However,

Me telling you this won't really help because you have to see for yourselves.

This raises the question,

Why come to Zen practice in the first place?

What brought you here?

My own truth and motivations were very simple.

I was in pain,

Dissatisfied,

And living a lonely,

Isolated,

And dysfunctional life.

You could say that I was kind of an urban hermit,

An urban hermit living in the midst of the sea of humanity in the big city,

But not feeling connected to anyone,

Not even feeling connected to myself.

I didn't read about the fact that I was in pain or what the Buddha describes as dukkha or dissatisfaction.

I felt it because I was living it moment by moment.

If we lived our way into it,

We can live our way out of it.

It depends on what path one chooses to take.

The Buddha's expression of the Four Noble Truths offers us a choice,

A path to increase dissatisfaction or a path to freedom.

It's our choice.

That is what the Dharma or the teachings is all about,

Living an awake life.

We study and we practice individually and as a group.

We have the three treasures,

Buddha,

Dharma or the teachings,

And Sangha or the spiritual community.

This is a three-way mutually interacting relationship,

So each aspect is important.

Buddha nature,

Our fundamental aliveness supports Dharma and Sangha.

Dharma,

The teachings,

Support Buddha and Sangha.

And Sangha,

Our spiritual community,

Supports Buddha and Dharma.

So going back to Dogen's quote,

If our usual dualistic ordinary way of thinking was sufficient,

We would have no need for the Dharma,

But it's not.

How do I know it's not?

Because if it was sufficient,

There'd be no suffering.

This is the case for all humanity.

No matter how much energy we exert,

No matter what kind of wonderful work you have done,

No matter that everyone,

Including yourself,

Approves,

There is still a feeling of dissatisfaction as long as we're caught in cycles of grasping and pushing away,

Clinging to what we cherish,

Fearful of losing it,

Pushing away what we are averse to,

Constantly on guard,

Protecting our imagined territory,

We fail to appreciate and to suffer or fully permit our lives.

Dissatisfaction continues.

This is the way we are.

This is the human condition.

This is the ongoing realization of Buddha Shakyamuni describes as the first noble truth,

Dukkha,

Or primary dissatisfaction.

But he also identifies how it originates through grasping and splitting the world up into dualities,

Like the examples I mentioned.

But Buddha was generous.

He also speaks of freedom from suffering and offers the Eightfold Path as the key.

The Eightfold Path includes right view,

Right speech,

Right intention,

Right action,

Right livelihood,

Right effort,

Right awareness,

And right meditation.

Remember,

When Emperor Wu met Bodhidharma,

He asked him,

I have built temples,

Many temples,

And financially supported thousands of monks.

How much merit do I receive?

You see,

He was grasping for merit,

For personal gain,

For satisfying the ego.

So Bodhidharma answered,

Vast emptiness,

No merit.

What do you imagine he meant by that?

The way cannot be realized with mind or with no mind.

It's really something.

Thank you.

Reviews

Enlightening

Thank you for this talk & thank you for your response to my last review. I have heeded your advice and deleted 'trying' and inserted 'practicing' into my lifestyle. 🙏

Thank you for an insightful talk and for telling us about your own struggles in the past. Your teachings are without doubt helping me and so many others to try to escape our own ego. I am happier and calmer thanks to your teaching.

"it's not either/ or, it's both /and, because nothing is excluded" is such a helpful clear and beautiful explanation thank you so much!

Thank you for this rich, thoughtful talk. It brought a smile to my face and tears to my eyes 🙏💛

Always a pleasure to learn from your talks. Many thanks 🙏

Thank you for the talk—it’s so important to revisit the roots of practice, as well as to practice!
Namaste,
Donna

A wonderful explanation of the principle that is very confusing. Thank you 🙏 very much.