How To Practice ZenMoving Meditation
Seeking the Ox
In the pasture of the world,
I endlessly push aside the tall
grasses in search of the Ox.
Following unnamed rivers,
lost upon the interpenetrating
paths of distant mountains,
my strength failing and my vitality
exhausted, I cannot find the Ox.
I only hear the locusts chirping
through the forest at night.
A fully awakened Buddha would know that hearing awareness hears the locusts chirping through the forest at night.
In the spring of 2009, I saw a pickup truck with "My boss is a Jewish carpenter" on one bumper and "This vehicle will be unoccupied in case of Rapture" on the other.
Centered on the glass behind the passenger compartment was the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor (the logo of the Marines), under which appeared the word:
SNIPER
A learned professor once sought out Japanese Zen master Nan-In. He told the master that he was well-read on Zen matters and did not need introductory lessons. He just wanted advanced instruction as to what should be done to attain enlightenment.
The master offered the visitor a cup of tea and began pouring tea into the cup. He continued pouring even after the cup had filled. Tea began to flow onto the floor as the master continued pouring.
The visitor asked why the master had not stopped when the cup was full. The master replied that the over-flowing tea cup was the visitor's mind and no teachings could be received by that mind because it was already full.
"If you want to be my student so that you can receive teachings from me, you will first have to empty your cup," said the master. The visitor, who had sharp karmic roots and understood what the master was saying, attained enlightenment at once.
If you saw Avatar, James Cameron's 3-D movie, you may recall that the tribal people told the ex-Marine that he would first have to empty his cup before they could begin teaching him their ways. He said something like: "Oh, my cup is empty, that's for sure."
The first mental step to establishing an authentic Zen practice is to empty the cup. If we have not practiced zazen, sitting meditation, we know nothing about Zen, regardless of how many books we've read and websites we've visited. We are like the scientist who studies sugar but never tastes it. Or the scholar who wrote books on Catholicism but was not a Catholic. When asked why he had never become a Catholic even though he was a world-class scholar on the religion, he said: "You can study a disease without catching it." A funny line. Obviously, however, he had no idea what Catholicism is all about because he had never experienced it.
To empty the cup means to drop opinions, to admit that we know nothing. As Socrates said: "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."
So the first mental step in every day Zen, for beginners, intermediates, and advanced students, is to admit that every thought we've ever entertained, every action we've ever performed, was under the influence of profound ignorance, a failure to understand the law of cause and effect. We have been chasing after pleasures and running from pain. Until we come to grips with the fact that we have been behaving foolishly, our cup is not empty and we will continue our foolish ways regardless of how much we read about Zen. The actual practice of Zen requires a threshold admission of past stupidity.
We are just like our friend, the follower of Jesus who is a sniper and proud of it. We, like him, know nothing of Zen.
If we cannot admit that we have been following the path of selfhood, the satanic I-think-therefore-I-am path that leads to greater and greater levels of delusion, deeper and deeper ignorance, then we can't get started on the path of awakening.
A clean break with superstitions and religious beliefs is required. A clean break with philosophical opinions or mind sets is required. We have to put our opinions down, i.e., relinquish them. That means we have to stop liking some things and disliking others.
But "empty the cup" goes even beyond that. We have a firm belief that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. We believe we are a living entity on the third planet from a star. We even believe that gravity holds things down.
We have to empty our cup of mortal thoughts like that. Our senses do not deliver to us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
If we can truly empty the cup, we don't need the remaining steps in this course. If we can't completely empty the cup, at least we can become aware that our old ways of thinking may be bogus, based upon ignorance.
The next time we become aware that we like something, or dislike it, we need to think about Seeking the Ox, and repent of such unenlightened modes of thinking. There is nothing outside of us so there is nothing to sit in judgment upon, i.e., there can be no judge and no adjudged because there is no subject and no object.
The Buddha said the same thing, using different words. He said: "There are no two things."
Everything we think we know about the objective world is just baloney - mind stuff; mortal thoughts. To empty the cup means to wake up to the reality that everything, absolutely everything, is not out there. There is no out there.
The belief that there is an "out there" is just an opinion to be dropped.
If we can empty our cup, we are truly Seeking the Ox. We have gone beyond the mere accumulation of information.
If your job is to shoot people you don't know in the head using a high-powered rifle having a telescopic sight, and if you are so proud of that job that you openly advertise it, this program was published just for you.
If you have a less aggressive role to play on this earth, perhaps you'll understand this course a little easier than someone who is hostile to the very idea of a human family, not to mention a family that includes non-human sentient beings as well.
Regardless of where we stand on the spectrum having on one end a fierce individuality, together with the anger, hatred and fear that comes with it and boundless freedom and kindness on the other end, this course will allow us to repent of our old ways and to realize the Buddha nature buried within us. Some may have a little more digging to do than others but everyone has the Buddha nature within them.
Those who proudly proclaim through their bumper stickers that they live in a dungeon can awaken in the twinkling of an eye if they would just empty their cup, if they would just drop their opinion that they are involved in a noble fight against people who need to be shot.
Intermediate Zen
After the morning walk, we perform the Eight Form Moving Meditation taught by Dharma Master Sheng Yen, founder of Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association.
Similar exercises are OK, of course, but this particular set comes to us from an awakened Master.
During our morning walk, we try to clear our minds of opinions, of likes and dislikes. This is the practice of the Second Noble Truth, i.e., Right Thought.
We perform the Eight Form Moving Meditation in a concentrated frame of mind. We concentrate on the movements. We practice Silent Present- Moment Awareness as taught by Venerable Ahajn Brahm in Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond.
Advanced Zen
After the morning walk and the Eight Form Moving Meditation warm-up, we perform either Tai Chi, Chi Gung, or yoga postures as preparatory steps to sitting meditation. We continue to practice Silent Present-Moment Awareness.