Glasgow Zen GroupNagarjuna once wrote, “Emptiness wrongly understood is like picking up a poisonous snake by the wrong end”. In this video John unpacks some of the meaning contained in this simile, while also helping us to engage with emptiness in our own practice, without getting bitten.
In this video John talks about the Buddhist concept of emptiness as an antidote to the habitual clinging and grasping we tend to unconsciously engage in.
The state of emptiness has often been depicted using various metaphors, one common one is the dream. That is to say, our experience is not simply an illusion, yet it is also true that our experience cannot be grasped. And because it cannot be grasped, it can be fully lived.
In the Buddhist Sutras one can find many ways in which the Buddha and his teachings have been described, one of the most persistent ways has been as a good physician, deftly prescribing just the right medicine for the patient at that particular time.
In this video, John explores this quite interesting way of describing the buddha and his teachings, which contrasts with early Abidharma attempts to create a complete philosophical system out the Buddha’s teachings.
The tendency to want to grasp for an explanatory schema is similar to our tendency to grasp our desires or fantasies. In this case, seen from the point of view of the Buddha as a physician, it is like we are swallowing the prescription instead of the medicine.
In this video John continues his theme of describing the core point of zazen with refference to the two pillars of non-attachment and non-separation. This time however he starts from the typical point of view of someone first starting out in practice. Taking the first steps in practice can often be the most difficult, since this is often the first time that we are really forced to listen to ourselves and our internal dialogue. Because of this it is often helpful to first get some distance from this ‘crappy person’, to stablise us, and for this we practice non-attachment. However true emancipation is attained through non-separation, the casting off of the self. It is through this non-separation that zazen can be seen as life afirming, joyful and connected.
In this video John clarifies what fundamentally the practice of zazen is, by reference to non-attachment and non-separation, which can be seen as the two principal pillars of Mahayana Buddhism. Although it is true that we cultivate non-attachment of thoughts and emotions to steady ourselves during our practice, it is non-separation which is the fundamental practice. In this we aim simply at sensation, without perception, discrimination, or judging. Such a practice manifests a world which is vivid, immediate, and momentary where there is no separation between this person and all beings.
In this Video John discssuss case 3 of the gateless gate.
The Case:
This Koan tells the story of the 9th-century Chinese Zen master Jùzhī Yīzhǐ. Whenever Jùzhī Yīzhǐ was asked a question about Zen he would answer by raising one finger. One day someone asked his attendant what his master preached. The boy raised a finger. Hearing of this, Jùzhī Yīzhǐ cut off the boy’s finger with a knife. As the boy ran away Jùzhī Yīzhǐ called to him, when he turned his head, Jùzhī Yīzhǐ raised a finger, the boy was suddenly enlightened. When Jùzhī Yīzhǐ was about to die, he said to his assembled monks, “I received this one finger zen from Tenryu, I used it all my life, but never used it up”.
In this video John discusses the importance of the sitting posture and the body during Zazen.
It’s easy to get caught in the idea that meditation is something that is primarily going on in the head, with the goal being the controlling of thoughts, the calming the mind and the attainment of something, and the body being of little importance.
John suggests looking at meditation in a different way, not primarily through the lens of consciousness but as a dynamic interplay between the alive and whole body, the dynamic breath, and wide awareness. Within that somewhere is the mind, but it’s no longer of prime importance. We put our body in the correct position and all of us is enlivened, undetermined by our mind.
Zen Master Dogen described zazen as ‘dropping off body and mind’. The plain implication is that both are dropped off at the same time. John explains how we can also see this in a sequential way.
First, by dropping the mind into the body, which we can only do to the extent that the body is already dynamic, alive and joyful. This is why we place such an emphasis on the posture: if our posture is right, the body is naturally expressing itself, it isn’t just “my body”. It’s no longer the subordinate, owned part of the mind/body split.
And once we’ve done that, we can drop off the body. That is, we let go of a sharp distinction between this body and the greater body of all being. And that’s easier to do if mind has already been “dropped off”, because the person/world split depends on the primary mind/body split. If that primary split drops off, it’s obvious within our actual experience: there isn’t a clear boundary between person and world. We no longer wither behind the wall of the self.
In this video John discusses a parable in chapter three of the Nirvana sutra describing Buddhist teachings as medicine, and the Buddha as being like a skilful doctor. John explains liberation not as an intellectual grasping or orienting of the believer around some kind of ultimate ‘truth’, but a compassionate strategy aimed at relieving suffering which orients itself around the particular ailments of the ‘patient’.
In this video John explains how a more holistic and body focused approach to the body in zazen can enliven practice and enable us to experience the world in a more non-dual way.
Awareness of sensations in our head: of air in our nostrils, tensions in our jaw etc tend to be more readily accessible, and can also help to break the familiar identification of the head with the mind. This awareness can seep downwards and outwards, helping to animate the whole body.
Often the breath is treated as separate from the body but focusing on the physical and energetic movement of breathing, and its non separation from the alive body can profoundly heal the wounds of duality.
Good posture also helps joyful sitting by uncompressing the torso and stretching the spine. This creates a dynamic relationship with the ground: the body’s weight drops while the ground pushes up, part of a dynamic relationship which the body can have with both heaven and earth.
These dynamic relationships break down the boundaries between our body and the world.
Zazen is not a practice of the self. It is the effort of all beings expressed through this person. The body, properly experienced, is our Dharma Gate to equanimity and joy.