How To Practice ZenIntermediate Zen
Step One - Seeking the Ox
Leaving The Tenth Dharma Realm
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 knows that hearing awareness hears the locusts chirping through the forest at night. As we will understand as we experience the jhanas, the "I" has nothing to do with hearing awareness.
In Intermediate Zen, we continue the Beginning Zen practice of first-thing-in-the-morning kinhin.
However, instead of beginning our morning meditation after the kinhin, we first practice the Eight Form Moving Meditation taught by Dharma Master Sheng Yen, founder of Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association. Then we sit for the morning Present Moment Awareness meditation.
Similar warm-up exercises are OK, of course, but this particular set comes to us from an awakened Master.
We perform the Eight Form Moving Meditation in a concentrated frame of mind. We concentrate on the movements without engaging in an inner dialog, thereby preparing for the Present Moment Awareness, the metta, and the Silent Present Moment Awareness meditations to follow.
This gentle daily warm-up will invigorate us and help us cultivate happiness throughout the day.
Qigong practices can be followed as well for variety. The best book I have found on that subject is authored by Kenneth A. Cohen and is entitled Qigong, The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing.
Since happiness is the foundation of all Buddhist practice, it's our number one job to cultivate it all day, every day. With a strong foundation of happiness, the other nine steps of practicing Zen will easily become second nature.
Once we master these ten steps, of course we can perform them in any order throughout the day.
Vigor is the fourth of the six perfections that are cultivated by Buddhas-to-be. So when we seek the ox with morning warm-up exercises, we not only climb out of the tenth, lowermost dharma realm, we also begin cultivation of an important perfection.
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
I wanted to pull the guy over and ask him if he could detect any incongruity between his bumper stickers. War is a Racket and it takes stupid people to proudly participate in one.
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 physical step to establishing a Zen practice is to become physically fit. The first mental step is to cultivate happiness until it becomes joy and bliss. This is the way we transcend the tenth dharma realm and rise to the ninth.
Cultivation of happiness requires that we first empty our cup of opinions and belief systems. We have been taught that there are some occasions where happiness is inappropriate. A big part of happiness cultivation is to realize that those who teach such nonsense are unenlightened.
Every moment is a joyful moment. No event in this empty world can change that fact. Nirvana is the ultimate truth and Nirvana is bliss. It permeates all beings and is realized by practitioners of the Way.
If we have not practiced zazen, sitting meditation, we know nothing about Zen, regardless of how many Buddhist books we've read and Buddhist 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."
Socrates was no Buddha but he was close. He famously counseled his students to "Know Thyself." As Hyon Gak Sunim says, Zen is all about answering the question: Who are you?
And the first step in answering that question is to cultivate happiness.
And we cultivate happiness by admitting 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.
Out of ignorance and unhappiness, we have been chasing after pleasures and running from pain. Once we cultivate happiness, we can put a stop to that foolishness.
Leaning toward pleasure and away from pain is evidence of Wrong Thought. Right Thought walks the middle way between pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. Right Thought leads to the realization that pleasure is nothing but a temporary end to pain and it is always followed by the resumption of pain, which is followed by more pleasure, and so on, endlessly.
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, i.e., emptying the cup.
If we refuse to empty our cup, we are just like our friend, the follower of Jesus who is a sniper and proud of it. As long as we refuse to empty our cup, we 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. All of these beliefs may be wrong.
We can never take anything for granted. Read what the great scholar Stuart Lachs has pointed out about teachers, for example. Ironic, isn't it, that Zen teaches students to question everything except authority, including the myth of the unbroken lineage from the Buddha to present day teachers.
We have to empty our cup of all mortal thoughts, including our deepest beliefs. Especially our deepest beliefs! Zen students are well-advised to enter into Zen with their eyes wide open. Read everything published by Stuart Lachs. Don't be fooled by anyone.
Our senses do not deliver to us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
When we can drop our opinions about everything, absolutely everything, then we can truly be free of likes and dislikes, begin to cultivate joy in every moment, every single moment regardless of what the apparent content of that moment might be, and leave behind forever the possibility of falling into the hell worlds of the tenth dharma realm.
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. 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 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, and expect a heavenly reward for your actions, 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 are demons living 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.
We Buddhists are not optimists who say the glass is half full or pessimists who say the glass is half empty. We are realists who know that the famous glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
As the Buddha himself said: "We are the happy ones." So we walk in kinhin, perform the eight form moving meditation offered by Master Sheng Yen, cultivate joy, empty our cup of opinions and sit in Present Moment Awareness.
But true Seeking the Ox requires that we persist in the practice even when we become discouraged. Buddhist scholars have commented that Seeking the Ox doesn't begin until the urge to give up has been overcome. And that most people give up.
Why give up? Nothing prevents us from waking up except our own lack of motivation. As long as there are snipers in our dharma realm, proud, religious snipers, we have a lot of work to do. The sniper is us.
Step Two - Finding the Footprints
Leaving The Ninth Dharma Realm
Along the riverbank under the trees,
I discover footprints.
Even under the fragrant grass,
I see his prints.
Deep in remote mountains
they are found.
These traces can no more be hidden
than one's nose, looking
heavenward.
All mankind's troubles are caused by one single thing, which is their inability to sit quietly in a room. Blaise Pascal.
In the commentary for the ox-herding pictures, the second step of Finding the Footprints is referred to as "Finding a path to follow." Loving Kindness meditation is indeed a path to follow.
This second practice of ten lifts us from the ninth dharma realm, that of the hungry ghosts, to the eighth, that of the animals.
Intermediate practitioners practice Loving Kindness meditation for thirty minutes. The quarter lotus and the half lotus are recommended. The Loving Kindness meditation follows Present Moment Awareness meditation and we maintain our present moment awareness throughout the Loving Kindness meditation.
Bodhidharma, an Indian monk, spent nine years meditating in a cave before beginning his career as a teacher at the now famous Shao Lin (Small Forest) monastery in China. He is credited with introducing gong fu (kung fu) to the monks to help them remain physically fit despite long hours of sitting meditation. He is also the twenty-eighth and final Zen patriarch of Indian Zen and the first patriarch of Chinese Zen
It is very difficult for a physically unfit person to practice zazen. If we are overweight, stiff and inflexible, we need to work on reducing weight and becoming more flexible. That's why the first step, Seeking the Ox, involves warm-up exercises at this intermediate level.
Although the term "zazen" is usually translated as "sitting meditation," the actual practice of sitting meditation is just a part of the Zen package, i.e., the full practice of Zen includes zazen but it also includes much more.
The practice of Zen is a full time undertaking. It's not separated from daily life in the way church-going on Sunday is. Zen isn't a hobby that you do one day a week. It isn't something you do for half an hour every day.
To start and maintain an authentic zazen practice, we need to create a practice space.
To Find the Footprints, we need to be happy, physically fit, and we need a meditation practice. An authentic meditation practice requires a home zendo. Going to a public place of meditation once a week is good but not good enough. Setting up a home zendo for daily practice is a critical step that should not be skipped. This is where we will nurture our authentic Buddhist practice every day, twice a day.
The photo below is a typical home zendo. ("Do," pronounced with a long "O," is Japanese for Hall so a zendo is a meditation hall or room). Note that the top shelf holds a Buddha statue; in Asia, it is felt that a Buddha statue should never be used as a casual home decoration. Accordingly, it is displayed only in a meditation room and it is the highest object in the room.
Asian Buddhist custom is also to display live flowers on an altar not just for their beauty but also because they die quickly, thereby serving as a reminder of impermanence. Most Americans prefer to use fake flowers, like those in the photo, to avoid killing flowers needlessly. Even though the artificial flowers seem to be permanent, we can still look upon them as reminders of impermanence.
In this particular arrangement, the main Buddha is flanked by a couple of Guanyin Bodhisattva figures and a couple of smaller Buddhas. There are no particular arrangement requirements. As you visit various zendos and temples, you will develop ideas for your home zendo. A table below the shelf can hold candles, a bowl of sand to hold incense sticks, or other suitable objects.
The long strip in the photo between the top shelf and the table is an inexpensive picture of a Thai version of the Buddha on a strip of wood that cost about $10.00. The gemstone inlaid picture of the Buddha below that, slightly obscured by a stick of Dragon incense, was purchased for a small amount on eBay.
In the photo below, the large square cushion (zabuton) and the smaller round one atop it (the zafu) are arranged directly in front of the table. A wide selection of zabutons and zafus is also available from Amazon. Most Zen centers use either black or brown/chocolate colors.
If we don't want to build a formal miniature zendo like the one pictured, we can at least get a cushion and place it about a foot or so from a wall. When we sit, we face the wall. Try to put the cushion in a special, dedicated place. When we sit, we start our practice right away because we are in our special practice place.
Here's a nice incense holder that pays homage to the fact that the Zen sect was created when classic Buddhism from India mixed with China's indigenous "religion": Taoism (pronounced with a "D" not a "T." The tai chi (taiji) symbol is of course Taoist.
The world's best-smelling (and best-selling) incense is usually associated with Hindu meditation (which has a religious flavor, as distinguished from the Buddha's rational approach to meditation). However, it's just incense so it's OK for Buddhists to use it!
Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki, founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, counsels us to approach Zen practice every day with the mind of a beginner. Thoughts such as: "I'm an advanced student; probably more advanced than anyone I know!" are the thoughts of a decadent, burnt-out practitioner who never got It. Start each sitting fresh, as a beginner.
The photo below is of a beginner.
The full lotus is the most anchored of all meditation postures and it is recommended only for the limber. The posture on the left is the full lotus and the posture on the right is the half lotus. Both postures show the hands in the classic zazen position.
Sitting in a chair requires one to maintain one's balance, but if we can get into the full lotus, the benefits are great. Obviously, it's an advanced yoga position.
It takes most of us a long time to gradually build up to the full lotus.
It's best for most people to sit in a half lotus position for a long time, alternating between left leg on top or right leg on top, before trying the full lotus.
If we can never get into the full lotus, that's OK. We can do the half lotus. That is still much more comfortable than the common cross-legged position. The quarter lotus is also an option; it's a good way to build up to the half lotus.
Other positions are the seiza position (sitting on the feet) and the Burmese position.
Here is a double photo of a practitioner in the seiza position with the aid of a bench on the left and a cushion on the right. The feet are tucked under the bench or positioned on opposite sides of the cushions.
This practitioner is sitting in classic seiza (sitting on the feet) without bench or zafu cushion. The square mat is a zabuton.
Be careful when buying a seiza bench because the size of the bench depends upon the height of the user. Here is a seiza bench for people who are 5'9" or less. The lotus flower is also a nice touch as the Buddha is often pictured as sitting atop a lotus flower.
Here is a photo of the Burmese position:
Both feet and both knees are on the mat. Note the hands with the thumbs touching. The left hand fingers overlie the right hand fingers.
I sat for years on a thin, uncushioned meditation mat providing a barrier between me and a floor. After about fifteen years of that, I started sitting at places that used cushions. A typical zendo (meditation hall) will have a large square zabuton at each sitting location. A round zafu is placed atop the zabuton, flush with the end furthest from the wall, and the practitioner sits on the zafu with knees resting on the zabuton. The idea is to elevate the rear end a little so that the backbone will be comfortable.
Most people sit just on the front half of the zafu but we can experiment to find how much of the zafu we like to use. We sit cross-legged if we can and use a bench or chair if we can't. When using a chair, we sit on the front edge with both feet on the floor, keeping our back straight and not using the seat back.
Most Zen centers are equipped with ordinary and ergonomic chairs in addition to zafus, zabutons, and seiza benches.
As a part of this step-by-step guide, we recommend practicing at home alone for quite a while before looking for a Zen center. First of all, we may not live anywhere near a Zen center. Even if we do, the practice is difficult and many people who visit a Zen center early in their practice soon abandon their practice. The sittings are often too lengthy and too numerous for beginners and they give up.
So let's practice at home until we can sit three rounds of thirty five minutes each, separated by five or six minutes of kinhin between rounds.
The following instructions apply whether we are sitting alone at home or with a group in a Center. A better, more comprehensive and much more authoritative set of instructions on meditation postures is found in The Three Pillars of Zen.
Once seated, we place the right hand on our lap, palm up. Then we place the left hand atop the right hand, also palm up and we let the thumbs touch each other lightly. We keep the thumbs in a vertical plane and put the tongue against the roof of the mouth. With the back and neck straight, the ears should be over the shoulders and the nose facing straight ahead. Some people find it useful to imagine a thread coming straight down from the ceiling or sky with its lowermost end attached to the center of the top of the head. The string is pulling up a little, taking some of the weight of the head away.
We should be seated with the front edge of our zabuton or the front legs of our chair positioned about a foot from a wall. Keep the eyes open just a little but don't focus on anything. We hold our head straight, not bending our neck to look down. We look down with our eyes only. If someone waves a hand in front of our eyes, we should be able to see it.
We are not trying to go into a trance and we will not be repeating a mantra until we get blissed out. Zen is not practiced to reach happy, blissful states of transcendence, although such states will appear as a by-product of our meditation. We practice Zen to be here, now. This now and this place is the answer to all questions. Unconditioned Awareness is never someplace else at some other time.
When seated on a meditation mat, we are not running around town, burning up gasoline, watching movies, engaging in frivolous chitchat and otherwise generating karma. At last, we are beginning to break free of the karma-generating activities that most people call freedom.
The deluded hear of people who sit on meditation mats and say to themselves: Poor things, their life is so boring. The meditator soon learns that the opposite is true; the unexamined life is indeed not worth living. Those who run around thinking they are having a good time are fish in an evaporating pool. Those who practice zazen are the boundless ocean.
Notice the absence of religious sentiment in all of the Buddha's teachings. No invoking of gods or gurus, secret teachings, no prayer to a deity, no philosophy, no divine revelations, just paying attention to the present moment.
Many people who know nothing or very little about Buddhism have concluded that Buddhism is an atheistic religion. It is not a religion, however, nor is it a philosophy or a belief system. It is just the practice of paying attention to the breath, or working on a koan, and nothing more. If you add anything more to it, you are, as the Chinese say, growing a second head or painting legs on a snake.
When sitting in Loving Kindness meditation, counting breaths, trying to solve a koan, or performing some other teacher-assigned practice, we are doing what a Buddha does; we are not engaging in abstract thought, metaphysical speculation, or wondering what's for supper. When we catch ourselves immersed in daydreams, we just drop them and go back to the practice.
How long should we sit and how many times per day? We just do whatever we can. The length of our sittings will increase if we stick with this program. The most important thing for now is to cultivate happiness, get fit, and start a daily home meditation practice in our home zendo.
The Hindu religion expresses the need for repeated spiritual practice by observing how cloth was dyed in the old days. A white cloth would be dipped in yellow dye and the bright yellow cloth would be laid in the sun. After a day of exposure, the cloth would return to almost white, bleached by the sun. The cloth would then be dipped into the dye again, and laid in the sun again. That process would be repeated daily until the bright yellow color would fade less and less until finally it would remain bright yellow even after long exposure to the sun.
Zen practice works the same way. Every day practice adds up. A tenuous, uncertain practice will morph into a rock solid practice.
Even after a few tastes of kensho (an experience of enlightenment that can range from shallow to deep), one must return again and again to the sun of daily life after each round of practice. Even the Buddha continued his meditation practice after his incomprehensible enlightenment.
Comfortable for at least thirty five minutes in the full lotus, the half lotus, or any other formal position? If so, you're ready to move to the next level, to sit with experienced practitioners in a formal zendo.
Sangha is a Sanskrit word defined as a community of monks or nuns. In the U.S., we use the word loosely to include a sitting group of lay people.
Buddhism is changed by every culture that practices it. In the States, Buddhism has changed in three major ways from Asian Buddhism.
First, Americans are not concerned with the Asian division of Buddhism into Northern School Mahayana practiced in China, Japan, Korea, Tibet and most of Viet Nam and Southern School Theravada practiced in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and parts of Viet Nam along the Cambodian border.
The division of Buddhism in Asia into two major schools was based primarily upon geographical separation and cultural differences. In the States, Mahayana and Theravada groups attend each other's events and individuals move freely between the groups.
Ch'an/Zen Master Hsuan Hua has worked in profound ways with the Theravada community, even to the point of donating land for use as a monastery. He once remarked that he had practiced in previous lifetimes with Ajahn Sumedo.
Secondly, Buddhism in the States is primarily a lay movement. There are very few people who qualify for the title Sensei or Roshi; the vast majority of practitioners are lay people. In Asia, few lay people who self-identify as Buddhists practice daily meditation and Buddhism is known primarily as a monastic practice.
However, at least a few American Buddhists are working to establish monastaries in the U.S.
When in Japan on business, I usually mention to my Japanese counterparts that I enjoy visiting and meditating in temples. When I tell them I meditate daily at home and that most of my friends do the same thing, even though none of us are monastics, they are simply flabbergasted. "Why, why?" they ask. Then they explain that it is the job of monks and nuns to meditate and to dedicate the merit thereby gained to lay people. Therefore, lay people do not need to meditate and if one does meditate as a lay person, it is as if they do not trust the monastic community to do its job.
Thirdly, men and women practice together in the States. Asian Buddhism is primarily segregated due to its monastic nature.
Most Zen practitioners belong to a sangha and have a teacher. A list of Zen centers in the U.S. can be found at www.buddhanet.net. (Click on World Buddhist Directory in the top line on the home page). Another good list is found at www.americanzenteachers.org. If you live near any of them, you should have no problem in finding a qualified teacher. Most are called Sensei, Japanese for teacher. A few older Senseis are called Roshi, Japanese for Old Master. If you can’t find a Zen center near you, start a center and get listed on buddhanet.net. Contact Us for detailed information on how to start a center.
Sensei Sunya Kjolhede and Sensei Lawson Sachter
If the Zen center nearest you has no ordained teacher, it's still better than nothing. Sitting with a lay group is good practice; there is a difference between sitting alone and with a group. If nothing else, group sitting motivates every member of the group because no one wants to be the one who quits! Perhaps that's a weak reason, but in the early days of a group, it's true. As the group grows and matures, no one wants to quit because everyone wants to continue practicing together.
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN VISITING A ZEN CENTER
You should arrive at least a few minutes before formal sitting begins just to say hello to your fellow practitioners. Just like church. In most cases, you will leave your shoes outside or in a rack in the foyer. Whether you go barefoot or with socks is your choice.
At the appointed hour, the Han will begin to play.
The Han is a flat wooden board that is struck by a wooden hammer. The person playing the Han will strike it once loudly, tap it twice lightly, and then repeat a loud, light, loud, light pattern several times and then the last loud will be preceded by two light taps so that the Timer will know that the last loud is about to be sounded. The Timer then brings a pair of wooden clappers together loudly, almost simultaneously with the final loud sounding of the Han.
Everyone heads for their mats during the playing of the Han and gets settled down before the Han stops playing. The player of the Han is watching the people in the room so he or she knows when to sound the final loud tap.
In most Zen Centers, the mat of the Timer is assigned to the Timer. You will see a mat with a clock or timer, wooden clappers, and a small hand bell positioned between the mat and the wall. If the Center has a Sensei, a Roshi, or a senior student who is the leader of the group, a mat will be reserved for them as well; it is usually directly beside the Timer's mat at the entrance to the zendo. All other mats are open; few Centers have assigned seating except during formal retreats when assigned seating is the rule.
Some large Centers also have a mat reserved for each tanto, a senior student charged with wielding the kyosaku (encouragement) stick. Whenever the seating arrangement is somewhat complicated by a number of reserved mats, someone standing by the zendo entrance will direct the sitters toward their individual places.
In a typical Zen center, you will hear the small hand bell ring three times as soon as the Han playing has finished and the wooden clappers have been sounded. The idea is to settle down as the three rings are sounded, spaced a few seconds apart. By the sounding of the last bell, you should be settled into a position that you can hold without movement for at least thirty-five (35) minutes. Some centers sit for twenty (20) and some sit forty (40) minutes or even longer. Call ahead or check the website if visiting an unfamiliar center.
The timer will ring the small hand bell one (1) time when the sitting is over. In Chinese Ch'an centers, it is common for people to perform a short self massage before rising from the mat. In Japanese Zen centers, everyone performs a palm-to-palm bow while still seated when the bell rings, and rises with no massage. We stand on the floor in front of our mat/zabuton, with hands in the gassho (palm-to-palm) position and facing away from the wall. When everyone is standing, the timer rings the small hand bell again, and we all bow to one another at the waist, bending about forty five degrees. We then turn to our left and begin kinhin.
Although the practice can differ between Zen Centers, the typical kinhin is a single file walk at normal speed. Just remember the person in front of you so if you leave the kinhin line to get a drink or go to the bathroom, you will be able to fall in behind that person as you re-enter the kinhin line. The person in front of whom you are stepping will have their eyes down so lower your right hand and perform a wave as you step in front of them. The kinhin will typically be traveling in a clockwise direction. If in a counterclockwise kinhin, the left hand would be waved.
Place your right thumb inside your right fist. Then bend your right elbow a little more than ninety degrees so that your right fist is centered on your chest, above your stomach. Then bend your left arm the same way and cover the right fist with your open left palm.
Some Centers will advise you to place your hands over your stomach so that your elbows are bent ninety degrees with forearms parallel to the floor.
The hands are held in the kinhin position during a fast outdoor kinhin or a slower indoor kinhin. If you need to leave the kinhin, keep your hands in the chosen position as you leave and as you return. At night when the sesshin day has ended, we go to our assigned sleeping spot with our hands in the kinhin position. During a work period, even if we are mopping a floor, we return to the kinhin position whenever we can.
As strange as it may seem now, we will come to appreciate the sound of the Han, the wooden clappers, and the hand bell. We will feel right at home, content in the knowledge that we are doing what a Buddha does.
It is perfectly OK to practice counting-the-breath meditation on your own, without a teacher. However, eventually you will want to talk to someone who is qualified to discuss your meditation. A Sensei or Roshi may assign a koan or shikantaza (just sitting) instead of a breath practice; however, they will do only what they feel is best for you after they become familiar with your practice.
Zen has several schools in China and Japan but in the U.S., most Zen Centers are either Soto or Rinzai but some Centers blend Soto and Rinzai practices together. The Zen centers of the Roshi Kapleau or the Roshi Aitken lineage, for example, sit facing a wall, Soto style, but most of the practitioners are working on teacher-assigned koans, which is a Rinzai practice.
In the Soto tradition, any one who has practiced for at least ten years is given authority to teach.
In the Rinzai tradition, authority to teach is much more difficult to obtain. The student must “pass” a large number of koans, for example, and the process typically takes more than ten years.
As a result, you will find many more Soto teachers than Rinzai. Both teach Zen, but a Soto teacher will go easier on you, encouraging you to awaken gradually by maintaining a sustained practice for a long time. A Rinzai teacher will put more pressure on you, encouraging you to wake up Now! A Rinzai teacher will hit you with a stick! (But it won’t hurt).
Both schools have their advantages and disadvantages, but ultimately they are the same. If your practice develops faster by following a Rinzai teacher, you will still maintain a meditation practice for the rest of your life. So it cannot be said that Soto is long, slow, and gradual and Rinzai is short, fast, and abrupt. Both require a lifetime of practice.
Tekishinjuku International Zendo
Read what Master Hsuan Hua has to say about the various sects of Buddhism.
Master Hakuin, a Rinzai teacher, is credited with having invented the counting-the-breath method in relatively modern times. (He lived in the eighteenth century; he also created the famous koan: What is the sound of one hand clapping?).
A period of formal sitting meditation is usually concluded by chanting The Four Bodhisattvic Vows, usually shortened to The Four Vows. A Boddhisattva is a Buddha-to-be. In a typical Zen center, instead of ringing a bell when the last meditation round is over, the lead chanter will begin the chant by intoning:
The Four Vows:
All beings without number...
and then the members of the group join in and conclude the first line and the remaining three lines of the chant:
I vow to liberate.
Endless blind passions, I vow to uproot.
Dharma gates, beyond measure, I vow to penetrate.
The Great Way of Buddha, I vow to attain.
The Four Vows are repeated three times.
At the obvious, mundane level, the first line of the chant means what it says: That the chanter, as a Buddha-to-be, will work to spread the Buddhadharma so that all sentient beings can attain Buddhahood. The great Bodhisattvas have already vowed that they will not enter into Nirvana, the first dharma realm, until the hell worlds are empty and all sentient beings have attained Nirvana. Like a captain of a sinking ship, they work to save themselves last. The Earth Store Bodhisattva is one of those Bodhisattvas.
On a more subtle level, the beings referred to in the first line are your thoughts. To liberate all beings is to stop clinging to your thoughts.
In Buddhism, everything can be understood at an obvious or mundane level, a more intellectual level, and a level that is not renderable in words. It is the continual recitation of The Four Vows at the conclusion of a formal round of meditation that leads to the beyond-words level.
The other three lines are self-explanatory, at least at the mundane level, but they require hard work. Try uprooting endless blind passions! That's why Zen is a practice. Pick out a passion that you would like to be free of and work on uprooting it. It requires patience, perseverance, and practice.
There is an interesting flow to the four vows: The vow to liberate all sentient beings obviously begins at home; you surely cannot liberate others before you have liberated yourself. To liberate all sentient beings including yourself requires no longer clinging to your thoughts, to your endless blind passions that must be uprooted. And uprooting endless blind passions requires penetration of Dharma gates beyond measure, the study of sutras, repentance...all aimed at the attainment-realization of Buddhahood.
A young monk in his studies came across a passage saying that a certain great master had meditated for eons without attaining Buddhahood. This discouraged him. He went to the Abbot of the monastery and inquired: "Why should I bother to meditate? Why did this great master fail to attain Buddhahood after so many lifetimes of meditation? How can there be any hope for me?"
The master replied: "He did not attain Buddhahood because he did not attain Buddhahood."
The young monk understood, and happily returned to the meditation mat.
From the very beginning, all beings are Buddha.
Buddhahood is inherent in all of us and it is not something we attain. When we vow to attain Buddhahood, the vow is to wake up and experience the Buddhahood that has been there all along. Not to intellectually attain Buddahood, but to experience it.
By cultivating happiness and Loving Kindness, overcoming greed, following the precepts, taking refuge, chanting, reciting the Buddha's name, studying the sutras, sitting twice a day in meditation, and sharing the Buddhadharma with others, all of which are Dharma gates, we are not causing awakening or enlightenment to occur but we are creating the conditions that allow it to occur.
Repeating the four vows at the conclusion of a formal meditation session is another way of reminding us that Zen practice never ends; we don't get up from the mat and forget all about zazen. We conclude by vowing to wake up and that keeps the meditation alive as we walk to our cars in the parking lot or head for the subway and re-enter the mundane world.
I once thought it would be funny to tell my Sensei that I had just discovered to my chagrin that I had been reciting The Four Vows incorrectly for years. I then chanted:
All beings without number, I vow to penetrate;
Endless blind passions, I vow to attain;
Dharma gates beyond measure, I vow to liberate;
The great Way of Buddha, I vow to uproot.
He didn't think it was funny.
But he did his best impression of the Queen and said:
"We are not amused."
Step Three - First Glimpse of the Ox
Leaving The Eighth Dharma Realm
I hear the song of the nightingale.
The sun is warm, the wind is mild,
willows are green along the shore -
Here no Ox can hide!
What artist can draw that massive head,
those majestic horns?
The third step on the path is depicted in the ox-herding pictures with the seeker seeing the rear end and tail of the ox as it goes around a corner, i.e., not seeing its head. That's what the old masters meant by calling this stage the First Glimpse of the Ox.
We have risen to the eighth dharma realm, the dharma realm of greed, and we transcend it by practicing generosity, gratitude, and Silent Present Moment Awareness.
Donations to the Tzu Chi organization are an ideal way to practice generosity. Similar to the American Red Cross but founded on Buddhist principles (your money will not be spent on meals for the needy that include the bodies of slaughtered animals), Tzu Chi is an international relief organization with nominal overhead.
Master Cheng Yen, founder of Tzu Chi
In Beginning Zen, after our Loving Kindness/metta meditation, we practice Silent Present Moment Awareness, followed by recitation of the Repentance Gatha. In Intermediate Zen, we do the same but lengthen our practice of Silent Present Moment Awareness to thirty minutes and we add a vow of renunciation upon completion of the Repentance Gattha.
And we contact Tzu Chi and ask for one of their donation-collecting containers. It is a cylindrical container, pictured below, that serves as a piggy bank. Master Cheng Yen asks that donors place a small amount in coins in the container each day. The containers are emptied each year into a collection vessel during the annual Chinese New Year celebration in Tzu Chi centers which are all over the world.
If you live far from any Tzu Chi center, you can support their work in the usual way.
Repentance means little without renunciation. Nazi SS members confessed their mass murders once a week throughout the Holocaust, only to repeat the transgressions the following week. The priests who granted weekly absolution were criticized for doing so but such criticism came too late.
The Repentance Gatha at the Intermediate Zen and Advanced Zen levels is therefore followed by a vow to renounce so that the repentance has meaning. It is not so easy as it may seem. It is not just a flippant renunciation; it is a deep, abiding vow to make further repentance unnecessary.
A monk or nun who leaves home to enter a Buddhist order must renounce family ties and all other worldly ties. Such renunciation should take place before marriage and children. The Buddha himself was married and had a child when he renounced all worldly interests but he lived in a different time and his wife and child were surrounded by servants. He also returned to them upon attaining enlightenment and both of them attained liberation.
This course is for those of us who have no intention to abandon our families and to enter into a Buddhist order as monks or nuns. We lay people can never renounce all worldly things to the same degree as does one who takes the vows of a renunciate for life.
But we need to associate with such people from time to time and to understand what renunciation really is.
We can renounce ill will, greed, meat-eating, drinking, desires for wealth and fame, etc., and any other activity that conflicts with the precepts.
Venerable Ajahn Brahm says that the Five Hindrances are the only hindrances between us and awakening.
1. Sense Desire (people or things we like)
2. Ill will (people or things we don't like)
3. Sloth or Torpor (sloth refers to sleepiness and torpor refers to mental dullness)
4. Restlessness, anxiety or worry.
5. Doubt. This word "doubt" is better understood when we read the Buddha's explanation of "doubt." He said a traveler lost in a desert with no map and no signposts is filled with doubt, not knowing which way is the way to safety. We therefore overcome doubt by following the Eightfold path announced by the Buddha.
Hindrances one and two are opposites. We run toward what we like and away from what we don't. The middle way is to walk down the middle, not chasing sense desires and not running away from everything else.
Hindrances three and four are closely related. Hindrance three arises from too little mental energy and hindrance four arises from too much. We can't be so dull that we lose our attentiveness (and mindfulness is attentiveness) but we can't be racing with hyper mental activity. The middle way is to pay attention but without ego-identification.
That means when a knee starts hurting, instead of thinking "Oh, this is just great. Now my knee is hurting," instead we note that the knee is hurting, note that it's just another passing phenomenon, and go back to the practice. We don't try to ignore or fight the pain, we just accept if with loving kindness as an old friend and return to the practice.
These Five Hindrances have been masterfully explained by the Venerable Ajann Brahm in Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond and there is no reason to add anything further to what he has said. Our Zen practice will come to naught if we do not fully understand these Five Hindrances.
The reason that most people sit for years and never awaken is due to their failure to overcome the five hindrances. These hindrances are of paramount importance. As Venerable Ajahn Brahm says, no deep state of meditation can be attained as long as the five hindrances are strong. Only when they are weakened can they be destroyed by deep meditation.
This is not a paradox. Although deep meditation alone will destroy the five hindrances, we can enter such deep meditation states when the five hindrances have been weakened by persistent daily practice.
After we have finished a sitting, we review it. What hindrances arose? Did restlessness cause the meditation to end after just a short while? Did sense desire take us to remembering old movie lines instead of following the practice? The Buddha made it very clear that we need to investigate in this way after a sitting. He said investigation was the second factor of the seven factors of enlightenment. So let's not neglect this important step after each sitting.
But most of all, we must never forget that it is the five hindrances that stand between us and enlightenment. So we act accordingly. If we cannot overcome the Five Hindrances, at least temporarily, we have no hope of awakening. And we loosen the Five Hindrances, at least temporarily, when we practice Silent Present Moment Awareness.
Step Four - Catching the Ox
Leaving The Seventh Dharma Realm
I seize him with a terrific struggle.
His great will and power
are inexhaustible.
He charges to the high plateau
far above the cloud-mists,
Or in an impenetrable ravine he stands.
The commentary for the ox-herding pictures says that Catching the Ox requires a great struggle because the Ox repeatedly escapes and the Zen practitioner must exert great discipline to bring it back.
In other words, the Ox is glimpsed frequently, but it keeps getting away. When you find a teacher, he or she will tell you to return to the practice whenever you drift away from it. Glimpse the ox, lose sight of it, glimpse it again, and so on. As you practice the discipline of returning to the practice, the glimpses will come more frequently; you will settle down and catch the Ox for extended periods of time.
The fourth step towards establishing an authentic Zen practice at the Beginning Zen level includes memorizing and following The Five Lay Precepts. This lifts us from the seventh dharma realm, the realm of the asuras, to the sixth dharma realm, the human dharma realm.
At the Intermediate Zen level, we recite, study, and try to live by the Ten Cardinal Precepts every day.
Precepts are commandments, not suggestions. A Buddha follows the commandments perfectly and without effort; the rest of us work at it, i.e., practice, until we can do the same. We do not take The Precepts flippantly as mere suggestions unworthy of our deepest consideration.
However, the Sanskrit word that is translated as "precepts" means "calming" or "soothing." Thus, following precepts is soothing, calming. Rejecting the precepts means that one chooses to be unsoothed, uncalmed. Rejecting the precepts means that one chooses not to awaken.
Those who spend many hours in meditation but who reject The Precepts are indistinguishable from those who spend no time in meditation and who also reject The Precepts. If meditation has no manifestation in our daily life, it is meditation without wisdom and is utterly meaningless. If we live heedlessly, behaving just like a non-meditator, why meditate at all?
The first precept, for most people, is the hardest.
The first five of The Ten Cardinal Precepts are introduced in Beginning Zen. These are the "lay" precepts; monks and nuns follow hundreds more. They date back to the time of the Buddha and before; the first five, for example, were practiced by the Brahmans long before the advent of the Buddha.
The ancient Buddhist masters tell us that there are ten Dharma Realms. The first four are heavenly realms and the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Pratyekabuddhas and Arhats/Arahants of those four realms can never be reborn into the six lower realms.
Chinese masters teach that keeping the first five precepts ensures that the precept-keeper will at least be reborn in the human dharma realm, which is better than being reborn in the asura realm, which is one rung down from the human realm, or the animal realm which is one rung down from the asura realm, or the realm of hungry ghosts which is below the animal realm, or the realm of hell dweller which is the lowermost rung, even down from the hungry ghosts.
They further teach that keeping all ten of the precepts ensures rebirth in the Pure Land. The Pure Land is a dharma realm conducive to spiritual practice, unlike the human realm which sometimes is and sometimes is not. Once the Pure Land has been attained, there can be no further rebirths in the six lower realms and enlightenment is guaranteed. We therefore strive to follow all ten precepts.
When the Virgin Mary became infinitely pure, she gave birth to the Christ. Western theologians can argue at length about whether the conception was immaculate, why God in his infinite power could not just create a Christ from a lump of clay as he did Adam, thereby not requiring the services of Mary, but Buddhists understand that purity produces perfection and that is the true meaning of the Bible story.
Whenever a person practices the Ten Cardinal Precepts to perfection, the Pure Land appears, a Christ appears, a Buddha arises. Different cultures use different words and symbols, but perfection is made manifest when purity is attained and attainment of purity flows from following the Ten Cardinal Precepts.
As enunciated in modern terms by the late Roshi Philip Kapleau, author of The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice and Enlightenment and founder of the Rochester Zen Center, here are The Ten Cardinal Precepts, the first five of which have already been introduced:
1. I resolve not to kill, but to cherish all life.
2. I resolve not to take what is not given, but to respect the things of others.
3. I resolve not to engage in improper sexuality, but to lead a life of purity and self-restraint.
4. I resolve not to lie but to speak the truth.
5. I resolve not to cause others to take substances that impair the mind, nor to do so myself, but to keep the mind clear.
6. I resolve not to speak of the faults of others, but to be understanding and sympathetic.
7. I resolve not to praise myself and disparage others, but to overcome my own shortcomings.
8. I resolve not to withhold spiritual or material aid, but to give them freely where needed.
9. I resolve not to indulge in anger, but to exercise restraint.
10. I resolve not to revile the Three Treasures (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) but to cherish and uphold them.
Taking Precepts at the Zen Community of Oregon
The first precept, the one that drives many people away from Zen practice because they can't keep it, is a call for not killing.
It doesn't say not to kill people. It says not to kill, period.
Again, following a precept results in a calm, soothed mind. The average vegetarian is a little less agitated, a little slower to anger than the average meat-eater.
People who eat animals argue that vegetarians also kill carrots, bacteria, etc. and that, therefore, no living being can avoid killing.
True, but there is a difference between killing a sentient being with a central nervous system that can feel pain and killing a carrot that has no central nervous system and that therefore has no means for feeling pain.
Meat-eaters like to say: "You can't hear the broccoli scream," as if killing a broccoli plant is the same as killing a cow or a human being. Nice try, but a broccoli plant is not a sentient being.
So the meat-eaters argue that Buddhism teaches that all things are one, that there are no distinctions between life and death, killing and non-killing, and so on.
They argue that a liberated mind could kill a human without karmic retribution, by maintaining a pure mind, just like killing an ant as one walks down a sidewalk absorbed in meditation and generating thoughts of goodwill towards all living things.
That is what Japanese Buddhists practiced during the Rape of Nanking (Nanjing). They beheaded people with "the life-giving sword." They were merely sending the Chinese off to a better world. "We kill them because we love them so much," said a Japanese general.
The argument that it is OK to kill people because they are merely being sent to a better world has a major flaw. The same flaw exists in the argument that it is OK to kill animals for food because Buddhists are free of distinctions such as good and bad, right and wrong.
Only an enlightened Buddha has transcended right and wrong. The rest of us have not and therefore we have no license to kill. And no enlightened master chooses to kill people, animals, or insects.
But the Buddha ate meat! Sure; he was a beggar, a mendicant who ate whatever was placed into his bowl. He would not eat the body of an animal if it had been killed for him; he merely accepted whatever leftovers people gave him.
When we walk into a grocery store, we are not a beggar who has to go to the meat freezer in the back of the store.
Although it is true that a broccoli plant, like all plants, lacks a central nervous system and thus lacks the ability to feel pain (we hope), nothing in the universe, not even an inanimate object, is dead.
The Buddha taught that there are no two things - the life/death dichotomy, the form/emptiness dichotomy, simply doesn't exist. That is the meaning of the enigmatic Heart Sutra, perhaps the most famous of the Mahayana texts. The Heart Sutra is chanted daily in almost every Zen monastery, temple, or meditation practice center in the world.
What was that? How could the life/death dichotomy not exist? The Buddha spent forty five years of his life explaining that only suffering arises and only suffering passes away. This thing we call "living" is just a string of thought moments. There is no thinker of the thoughts.
In the early years of World War II, before U.S. involvement, the Japanese bombed many Chinese cities and towns. Master Hsu Yun (Empty Cloud), the teacher of master Hsuan Hua, founder of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, lived in one of those towns. Witnesses reported that bombs landing near the Master's house fell silently, like snow flakes. Not a single one exploded.
Even a bomb knows when it is in the presence of a Buddha.
Years later, after founding The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas near Ukiah, California, Master Hsuan Hua visited a student who neglected to tie up his vicious dog. The dog charged up to the Master, growling ferociously until he got close. He then came to a stop, bent his front legs and dropped his head, performing a bow.
Even a dog knows when it is in the presence of a Buddha.
When the venerable Dau Sheng spoke the Dharma, dull rocks nodded their heads.
When Zen masters advise us to shun meat and fish eating as a part of our compliance with the First Precept, we should at least be as smart as a bomb, a dog, or a dull rock.
Please refer to vegetarianism and The Food Revolution for more information.
The second, third and fourth precepts are self-explanatory and easily understood. But not so easily followed.
The fifth precept is closely related to the first because it also refers to what we ingest. In the fifth precept we find the Buddha’s instruction to refrain from taking substances that impair the mind such as intoxicating drinks or drugs.
Tea is the drink of Zen, but caffeine can disrupt meditation. We should find a good source of tea that has either been de-caffeinated or better yet, one that is without caffeine from the beginning, like Roibos (red tea from South Africa). If we drink caffeinated coffee, we can gradually change to decaf and after awhile, drop the coffee and focus on tea, soy, almond, or rice-based milk, fruit juices, and water. We can break our soft drink habit if we have one. If we drink beer, we can switch to a non-alcoholic beer and then gradually cut it out as well so that we can live simply with water, tea, and other non-dairy drinks.
A smoker has a hard time practicing zazen as well; if we smoke, we must stop.
Those who eat animals, drink caffeinated products, smoke, or take drugs other than caffeine and nicotine cannot make it to the end of this program. A pure, undefiled mind cannot reside in a defiled body.
Even those who drink water and tea without caffeine have unstable, wildly veering minds that careen from one excitement to the next; caffeinated minds are even crazier. Those who imbibe caffeinated drinks and soft drinks and booze of any kind are just making a difficult situation worse.
Caffeine and nicotine, like alcohol, are drugs. As the Buddha always said, don't take anything I say in blind faith; always test it and see for yourself. The Buddha knew that those who take intoxicating drugs were setting up just another roadblock against awakening. So try it and see; as we transition from caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, and animal food, our sitting will become easier.
It may take a few weeks or even months to make the transition, but transition we must.
After we have emptied the cup, after we have learned the precepts by heart, and when we have made an authentic effort to follow them, then we must vow that we will always follow them.
If we feel that emptying the cup of opinions is too hard, or that the precepts present an almost insurmountable barrier, let's consider the heroic example of Tz'u-ming, a tenth century Chinese master. He would sit and meditate outdoors in the cold of northern China for days on end. When he felt drowsy, he would stab his thigh with a sharp tool known as a gimlet so that he could stay awake to meditate more. For Tz'u-ming, Zen was not a hobby to be casually approached or practiced half-heartedly.
We can follow the example of Tz'u-ming or the example of the average American Zennie who treats Zen practice as just one of the many things he or she likes to do. We can watch American Idol or we can sit in a snowy field and jab ourselves whenever our zeal fades.
Note that all ten of the Precepts include the word "not." They tell us what not to do. Recognizing that, Roshi Kapleau has added a positive step to each of them (animal food is not served at the Rochester Zen Center).
Step Five - Taming the Ox
Leaving The Sixth Dharma Realm
The whip and rope are necessary,
Else he might stray off down some dusty road.
Being well trained, he becomes naturally gentle,
then, unfettered, he obeys his master.
The Ox is now becoming gentle and obedient; it strays away less and less and the discipline required to return to the practice during meditation is also reduced.
Chanting is an important part of an authentic Zen practice. It lifts us from the sixth dharma realm, the dharma realm of humans, to the fifth, the dharma realm of the gods.
Learning chants takes a lot of time but is well worth the effort. When memorized, the chants become a part of us. A chant or a part thereof can be summoned at any time, any place; we won't need to carry a chant book with us if we have committed each one to memory.
Roshi Philip Kapleau said:
"Mind is unlimited.
Chanting, when performed egolessly,
has the power to penetrate
visible and invisible worlds."
Chanting also has the power to lift us from the realm of desire into the heavenly realms.
Roshi Kapleau advised against forced memorization, advising us to chant daily and to let the memorization happen gradually. However, some people who have practiced for more than ten years still reach for a chant book when a chanting service begins. Obviously, gradual memorization doesn't work for everybody.
Roshi Kapleau further advised us to chant in a voice near the lower end of our range. So we chant with a low pitch but not with a growl. When chanting with a group, we try to harmonize with the group. We chant in a monotone, without emphasizing syllables. This helps keep the mind on an even keel. A sing-songy, emotion-driven rendition of a chant dilutes its power.
I once had to lead a chant at a Vesak ceremony at a Unitarian-Universalist congregaton (held in May at about the time of the first full moon to observe the Buddha's birth) because no one else in our Zen group would do it. My plan was to open the chanting session by asking the audience - a non-Buddhist crowd - to chant with our chanters - a team assembled from our local Zen center - in a low voice, but not so low as to be a growling voice. However, we were preceded in the program by a Tibetan monk who chanted the Heart Sutra in one long growling growl; it was quite pleasant and well-received but of course I had to change my opening remarks.
Vesak Day at Wat Phra Dhammakaya
To chant, we kneel on a mat, with back straight and knees forward, spread apart at a distance that is comfortable, and sit on our feet. This is the seiza position mentioned in Step Four, Catching the Ox. We place our right hand in our lap, palm up, and then place our left hand, palm up, on top of the right hand with the thumbs crossing, not touching at the tips.
Unlike Master Hakuin's Chant In Praise Of Zazen, the other chants are chanted to the beat of a mokugyo (Japanese for wooden fish). You can purchase a small one for home use at The Monastery Store. Most Zen centers also have a large bowl-shaped gong known by its Japanese name, keisu, as well as a small one for use in chants.
The photo on the left shows a mokugyo and a keisu is on the right:
The drumstick of the mokugyo is stored in a slot in the back of the instrument. Only the drumhead is visible in the photo.
All of the chants and more are in bound form and can be purchased for a nominal fee at the marketplace of the Rochester Zen Center.
On the subject of chanting, it is worth noting that many Chinese Ch'an/Zen masters promote both the practice of Zen chanting as well as the practice of Pure Land (Jin Tu) chanting.
At the intermediate level, we continue to chant Master Hakuin's Chant in Praise of Zazen, and add three more, Affirming Faith In Mind, the Ten Verse Kannnon Sutra, and The Dharani to Allay Disasters.
Written in the six century by Chinese Master Jianzhi Seng Tsan, the Third Patriarch of Zen (even though he was a Taoist), scholars have praised Affirming Faith In Mind as "the highest achievement of the human mind."
That's why we have introduce this lengthy but profound chant at the intermediate level. It will make little sense so those who have not practiced Zen for some time.
"Thought cannot reach this state of truth" but these words come as close as it gets. This awesome work leaves no secret unrevealed. No one told me to memorize this lengthy chant. The first time I read it, I knew I would.
In Chinese it's called the Hsin Hsin Ming. It can be recited silently. The Great Way is the Tao; this is a Taoist writing, adopted by the Zen sect.
The great American Zen master John Daido Loori was given the name Daido by his teacher because he (Loori) was fond of this chant. He is said to have imprinted it on Christmas cards, New Year greetings, and so on. "Daido" is Japanese for "Great Way."
The author is talking about sakkaya ditthi. Only a self within can like or dislike a world without, only a self can hold opinions. The gap between where we are now and Nirvana is caused by the slightest distinction made between inside and outside; the presence of the slightest distinction is the manifestation of sakkaya ditthi.
Reciting the Hsin Hsin Ming every day provides a foundation for a strong Zen practice. Why? Because it helps us to empty the cup of our opinions. As Ch'an master Hsu Yun (Empty Cloud) said: "Drop everything, and let no thought arise." Dropping everything means to drop everything. Even the wrong view that we are a self in a world.
Affirming Faith in Mind
(Hsin Hsin Ming)
The Great Way is not difficult for those who do not pick and choose.
When pref'rences are cast aside, the Way stands clear and undisguised.
But even slight distinctions made set earth and heaven far apart.
If you would clearly see the truth, discard opinions pro and con.
To founder in dislike and like is nothing but the mind's disease
And not to see the Way's deep truth disturbs the mind's essential peace.
The Way is perfect like vast space, where there's no lack and no excess.
Our choice to choose and to reject prevents our see'ng this simple truth.
Both striving for the outer world as well as for the inner void condemn us to entangled lives.
Just calmly see that all is one and by themselves false views will go.
Attempts to stop activity will fill you with activity.
Remaining in duality you'll never know of unity.
And not to know this unity lets conflict lead you far astray.
When you assert that things are real, you miss their true reality. But to assert that things are void also misses reality.
The more you talk and think on this the further from the truth you'll be.
Cut off all useless thoughts and words and there's nowhere you cannot go.
Returning to the root itself, you'll find the meaning of all things.
If you pursue appearances you overlook the primal source.
Awak'ning is to go beyond both emptiness as well as form.
All changes in this empty world seem real because of ignorance.
Do not go searching for the truth, just let those fond opinions go.
Abide not in duality, refrain from all pursuit of it.
If there's a trace of right and wrong, True-mind is lost, confused, distraught.
From One-mind comes duality, but cling not even to this One.
When this One-mind rests undisturbed, then nothing in the world offends.
And when no thing can give offense, then all obstructions cease to be.
If all thought-objects disappear, the thinking subject drops away.
For things are things because of mind, as mind is mind because of things.
These two are merely relative and both at source are emptiness.
In emptiness these are not two, yet in each are contained all forms.
Once coarse and fine are seen no more, then how can there be taking sides?
The Great Way is without limit, beyond the easy and the hard.
But those who hold to narrow views are fearful and irresolute;
their frantic haste just slows them down.
If you're attached to anything, you surely will go far astray.
Just let go now of clinging mind, and all things are just as they are. In essence nothing goes or stays.
See into the true self of things, and you're in step with the Great Way, thus walking freely, undisturbed.
But live in bondage to your thoughts, and you will be confused, unclear.
This heavy burden weighs you down, so why keep judging good or bad?
If you would walk the highest way, do not reject the sense domain.
For as it is, whole and complete, this sense world is enlightenment.
The wise do not strive after goals, but fools put themselves in bonds.
The One Way knows no diff'rences, the foolish cling to this and that.
To seek Great Mind with thinking mind is certainly a grave mistake.
From small mind comes rest and unrest, but mind awakened transcends both.
Delusion spawns dualities - these dreams are merely flowers of air - why work so hard at grasping them?
Both gain and loss and right and wrong - once and for all get rid of them.
When you no longer are asleep, all dreams will vanish by themselves.
If mind does not discriminate, all things are just as they are, as One.
To go to this mysterious Source frees us from all entanglements.
When all is seen with "equal mind," to our Self-nature we return.
This single mind goes right beyond all reasons and comparison.
Seek movement and there's no-movement, seek rest and no-rest comes instead.
When rest and no-rest cease to be, then even oneness disappears.
This ultimate finality's beyond all laws, can't be described.
With single mind one with the Way, all ego-centered strivings cease.
Doubts and confusion disappear and so true faith pervades our life.
There is no thing that clings to us and nothing that is left behind.
All's self-revealing, void and clear, without exerting power of mind.
Thought cannot reach this state of truth, here feelings are of no avail.
In this true world of Emptiness, both self and other are no more.
To enter this true empty world, immediately affirm "not-two."
In this "not-two" all is the same, with nothing separate or outside.
The wise in all times and places awaken to this primal truth.
The Way's beyond all space, all time; one instant is ten thousand years.
Not only here, not only there, truth's right before your very eyes.
Distinctions such as large and small have relevance for you no more.
The largest is the smallest, too - here limitations have no place.
What is is not, what is not is - if this is not yet clear to you, you're still far from the inner truth.
One thing is all, all things are one - know this and all's whole and complete.
When faith and Mind are not separate, and not separate are Mind and faith, this is beyond all words, all thought.
For here there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today.
(End of chant)
As mentioned above, Kanzeon and Kannon are Japanese for Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of compassion. This short chant is typically repeated a number of times. Concentrate on this chant, especially the last two lines.
Ten Verse Kannon Sutra
Kanzeon!
Praise to Buddha!
All are one with Buddha,
all awake to Buddha--
Buddha, Dharma, Sangha--
eternal, joyous, selfless, pure.
Through the day Kanzeon,
Through the night Kanzeon.
This moment arises from Mind.
This moment itself is Mind.
The final chant at the intermediate level is made up of Sanskrit words transliterated into Chinese and transliterated a second time into Japanese. When chanted for long periods of time in a group, it is powerful.
Sho Sai Myo Kichijo Dharani
(Dharani to Allay Disasters)
No Mo Sam Man Da Moto Nan Oha Ra
Chi Koto Sha Sono Nan To Ji To En
Gya Gya Gya Ki Gya Ki
Un Nun Shifu Ra Shifu Ra
Hara Shifu Ra Hara Shifu Ra
Chisu Sa Chisu Sa Chisu Ri Chisu Ri
Soha Ja Soha Ja Sen Chi Gya Shiri Ei
Somo Ko
Step Six - Riding the Ox Home
Leaving The Fifth Dharma Realm
Mounting the Ox, slowly
I return homeward.
The voice of my flute intones
through the evening.
Measuring with hand-beats
the pulsating harmony,
I direct the endless rhythm.
Whoever hears this melody
will join me.
The picture entitled "Riding The Ox Home" is subtitled: "Great joy." This is the stage of where zazen has become the central focus of the practitioner's experience and great joy wells up from within. The Ox is ours, and we are riding it home.
Depending upon one's cultural background, True Nature may take the form of the Christ, the Buddha, the Prophet, a guru, or maybe just a feeling of peace and gratitude.
But true nature is emptiness and emptiness is not graspable by thought. It is experienced only by those who practice with diligence. And when it is experienced, the experiencer disappears.
The previous five steps have brought us to the fifth dharma realm, the realm of the gods. As we noted in Beginning Zen, the fifth dharma realm is one of the lower six realms.
The gods of the fifth realm are not infallible, omniscient or perfect. They too, can fall into the lower realms of humans, asuras, animals and worse if they fail to be happy, loving, kind, generous, and upholders of the precepts.
They, too, may endlessly circle the six worlds, i.e., the lower six dharma realms, if they do not practice. Without practice, even a large storehouse of good karma will eventually be used up.
These are the gods who have lifetimes, the ones who become jealous of other gods, the ones who command humans to smite their enemies, and so on. They have great merit but they still belong to the six dharma realms and can fall into any of them, including the lowest, the tenth dharma realm. For example, when the god of the Bible gets so angry that smoke pours from his ears, he is visiting - taking a vacation in - the evil dharma realms.
Still, when in the fifth dharma realm we feel that we are in the presence of something greater and other than ourselves. We have not yet conquered the feeling of duality, of a self within and a world of others without.
In the ten dharma realms, as mentioned in Beginning Zen, the leap from the fifth to the fourth is the biggest one: From the six lower realms, collectively known as the realm of desire, or the realm of suffering, to the four heavenly realms. As long as we are in the six dharma realms, we can visit all six of them and that is not a good thing. Only the upper four dharma realms are immune from falling into the lower realms, the six worlds.
Buddha Name Recitation is a Pure Land practice, and thus not a Japanese Zen/Chinese Ch'an practice. However, most Ch'an centers incorporate Buddha Name Recitation into their daily practice.Intermediate students perform fifty four Buddha Name Recitations every day.
The Pure Land is the Pure Lotus Land to which Master Hakuin refers in his Chant in Praise of Zazen.
The Pure Land sect, like Zen, is a Mahayana sect and therefore is practiced primarily in the Mahayana countries of China, Japan, Korea, and most of Viet Nam. (I don't know anything about Tibetan practice).
However, the Buddha mentioned the Pure Land when he discussed the four levels of enlightenment in the Pali canon: the stream winner, the once-returner, the nonreturner and the fully enlightened one.
Specifically, Venerable Ajahn Brahm in Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond cites the commentary on the Anguttara Nikaya for his observation that:
"Nonreturners have advanced even further to completely eliminate all desire within the world of the five senses and ill will. Should they not win full enlightenment at the time of their death, then they will arise in the pure abodes (suddhavasa) to attain full enlightenment there. They are never again reborn in the human world."
This passage from the Pali canon, and many other passages that refer to "the pure abodes" did not inspire the Theravada school to speculate at length about the pure abodes where one may practice until full enlightenment, samyak sambodhi, is attained wihout fear of falling back into the human dharma realm. But it inspired great speculation in the Mahayana school.
Since there is nothing outside us, we make our own world. We take ourselves to the hell worlds, the heavenly realms, the human dharma realm, the animal realm, and so on. We might as well take ourselves to the pure abodes, the Pure Land, the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
The Pure Land is described in the Mahayana sutras as a place that sounds to westerners like the Christian heaven. However, instead of sitting around singing hosannas to the King as in the Christian heaven, the beings in the Land of Ultimate Bliss are cultivating Buddhahood.
Unlike the earth, where cultivation is not always easy, practicing zazen and other forms of cultivation is easy in the Pure Land where everyone is a cultivator.
Pure Land practice requires Faith, Vows, and Practice. The following vow to be reborn in the "Western Pure Land" is recited at the end of a practice period:
"I wish to be reborn in the Western Pure Land, with the nine grades of lotus blossoms as my parents. When the lotuses are in full bloom, I shall see Buddha Amitabha and be enlightened to the Absolute Truth, with non-retrogressing Bodhisattvas as my companions."
Such a recital strikes us Westerners as bizarre but with repitition it becomes beautiful amd meaningful.
The practice is to recite the name of Amitabha Buddha; as such, it is reminiscent of the Biblical injunction to “pray without ceasing.” The practice is usually called Buddha Name Recitation or simply Buddha Recitation. English speakers are encouraged to chant in Sanskrit: “Namo Amitabha Buddha.” The term “namo” looks like the forerunner of the English work “name” but scholars translate it as "praise."
Amitabha Buddha is not Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha who announced the Four Noble Truths and taught The Anapanasati Sutta. According to the Mahayana sutras, Amitabha Buddha is a prehistoric Buddha, a Buddha of times that were ancient even during the lifetime of the historical Buddha. Amitabha Buddha vowed to help all sentient beings to awaken if they would but call upon his name.
In Japanese, the Buddha Name Recitation is “Namu Amida Butsu” and in Chinese it is “Namo Amituo Fo.” Chinese Buddhists (and others influenced by Buddhism as developed in China) routinely greet and say goodbye to one another with hands palm-to-palm and the words “Amituo Fo." ("Fo" is Mandarin for the Buddha).
Although already provided in the beginning Zen section, here again for convenience is an audio file of Namo Amituo Fo in Mandarin Chinese. You can transfer it to a CD for listening while driving or onto an iPod for other times. I have listened to it for hundreds of hours while commuting and it keeps getting better and better.
Practitioners of The Pure Land school outnumber Zen practitioners. Some observers conclude that The Pure Land School is for the masses and Zen is for the elite. Such observations are made by those who suffer from delusion, i.e., those who study Hsin Hsin Ming and still cling to their opinions.
Some Zen writers have said that The Pure Land school violates the basic principle of Buddhism that there are no two things and that we will therefore never find the Buddha outside ourselves. Accordingly, they equate Pure Land practice with Christian practice: Calling on a Savior to come and save us is reliance on an “other” whereas Zen teaches self-reliance because there is no other.
In Japan, the practice of Zen is characterized as "jiriki," meaning "self power," and the practice of Pure Land is characterized as "tariki," meaning "other power." Suffice it to say that even those who think they are reciting the name of someone other than themselves will eventually learn that they have been reciting their own name.
Even though Pure Land practitioners outnumber Zen practitioners, there are still very few serious Pure Land practitioners.
A Pure Land practitioner is not really calling upon an “other” for help. Amitabha Buddha is our true Buddha nature; when we practice Pure Land chanting, we are reciting our true name, remembering our beginningless beginning. It was we who vowed to save all sentient beings. When we chant the name of Amitabha Buddha, we are merely calling ourselves to ourselves, remembering our ancient vow. There is no "other" and there is no "out there."
When we recite the name of the Buddha, the Buddha is reciting the name of the Buddha.
Ch’an Master Hsuan Hua encourages Pure Land practice. It does not conflict with Zen practice in any way. He oftened assigned to students the koan: Who is chanting the name of the Buddha?
We Ride the Ox Home by performing Buddha Name Recitations. We remember our ancient vows by reciting the name of our original self. We are reciting our own name; we are beginning to remember who we are.
Master Chin Kung, greeting the Archbishop of Brisbane
Zen as practiced in the States is sometimes called Elite Zen because its practitioners tend to be middle and upper class. The majority of American Zennies, as they call themselves, are college educated and financially secure. Most are heavily into meditation and know little about the Buddhist sutras, the Precepts, and Buddhist practice in general. They pride themselves in being free of the cultural baggage of Asians.
This course begins with the act of cultivating joy, one of the seven factors of enlightenment, loving kindness meditation, overcoming greed through the practice of charity and repetition of the Repentance Gatha, following the precepts, and taking refuge, subjects seldom if ever discussed in American Zen centers. Very few follow the first precept and many ridicule the very idea of vegetarianism and threaten to leave the meditation group if the subject ever comes up a second time.
A number of prominent American Zen Centers have been led by sex-crazed Roshis, meat-eating Roshis, drug-taking Roshis, and others who deem themselves to be "above" such "trivial" matters as vegetarianism and a clean lifestyle.
Not only have they failed to repent of their pre-Zen ways, they have never taken the precepts seriously but they do wear a rokusu as if they have. They have no foundation upon which to stand when teaching students.
Starting a meditation practice without precepts and without repentance leads to a Zen practice that is not authentic.
An unrepentant, precept-shunning Zen practice that further ignores the sutras, that considers prostrations a waste of time, and that scoffs at Pure Land practices is equally lacking in authenticity. "Anything goes" Zen is not authentic Zen.
A Pure Land practice also requires authenticity. We cannot just say: "OK, it's the seventh step in the course so I'll do it."
Japanese Zen, as taught in the U.S., does not incorporate Pure Land practice. Chinese Ch'an does and this course obviously tilts toward Chinese Ch'an. Ironically, Pure Land practice is more popular in Japan than Zen.
Mark Unno at The Henry David Thoreau Sangha
There are ten great vows that form the foundation of an authentic Pure Land practice. They are recited in the Avatamsaka sutra by Bodhisattva Samantabhadra and form the basis of an authentic Pure Land practice.
The vow to venerate and respect all Buddhas is the first of the ten great vows. Every Buddhist tradition venerates and respects all Buddhas, so this vow is not unique to the Pure Land.
When we perform prostrations, we are bowing to our true selves; we are venerating and respecting all Buddhas. Practicing the third step of this course is therefore practicing the first great vow of Pure Land practice.
The second vow grows from the first. A sincere veneration of all Buddhas leads to the vow to praise the Buddhas. This may take the form of mentioning the Buddhadharma to one's confidants. Buddhists do not, however, proselytize.
The praise may also take the form of Buddha Name Recitation. Thus, when we perform Buddha Name Recitation, we are practicing the second great vow of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra.
If we can recite the name of Amitabha Buddha while performing prostrations, we are simultaneously practicing the first and second vows of the ten great vows.
Responding to a growing veneration for the Buddhas causes the practitioner to praise the Buddhas and to vow to make abundant offerings to them. We do not make abundant offerings merely by writing a check payable to a Buddhist organization. Abundant offerings are made when we cultivate joy through kinhin and Present Moment Awareness (Step one), perform loving kindness meditation (Step two), overcome greed through Silent Present Moment Awareness (Step three), follow the precepts (Step four), chant (Step five), perform Buddha Name Recitations (Step six), Take Refuge (Step seven), study the sutras (Step eight), perform night time meditation (Step nine), encourage others to practice, and perform a post-yaza kinhin (Step ten). It takes a great vow to follow through and practice these expedient means with diligence.
So our daily practice of performing all ten steps can represent our making of abundant offerings to the Buddha in fulfillment of the third vow.
We may also make abundant offerings to the Buddhas at our home zendo altar or the altar of our local Zen center in a more mundane way. Flowers, incense, fruits, and the like may be placed with respect on such altars. When we do so, we are practicing the third great vow.
The fourth vow is to repent of misdeeds. So when we follow our Silent Present Moment Awareness with recitation of the Repentance Gatha, we are practicing the fourth great vow.
The fifth vow is to rejoice over the merits and virtues of others. This is mudita, one of the four Brahma viharas. This erases envy and the belief in a separate, independent self that causes envy. When a practitioner awakens to the reality that there are no "others," the merits and virtues of the apparent "others" become a source of delight instead of envy. Our Loving Kindness meditation helps us uphold this vow.
We also practice the fifth vow when we follow the sixth and seventh precepts:
6. "I resolve not to speak of the faults of others, but to be understanding and sympathetic."
7. "I resolve not to praise myself and disparage others, but to overcome my own shortcomings."
The sixth vow is to request the Buddha to turn the dharma wheel (to teach the Buddhadharma) and the closely related seventh vow is to request the Buddhas to stay in the world so that the teachings continue. We address the subject of teaching in the tenth step of this course.
The eighth vow is to be reminiscent of the eightfold path, i.e., to follow the Buddha's path at all times in all situations. The Arhats of the fourth dharma realm have followed the eightfold path to perfection. We recite the eightfold path daily during our prostrations.
The ninth vow is to accommodate and benefit all sentient beings. This is the heart of the Mahayana path. Enlightenment is not pursued for self-gratification because such a pursuit merely strengthens the delusive belief in an independent self. To practice authentic Zen, not just a bare, meditation-only stripped down Zen that ignores the need to follow the precepts, and so on, is to practice for the benefit of all sentient beings.
The practitioner who desires to practice Zen in all of its fullness for the benefit of all sentient beings is a Bodhisattva, a Buddha-to-be, one who has developed the Bodhi Mind.
Recall the first line of the Four Vows: All beings, without number, I vow to liberate. We are making the ninth vow of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra when we repeat the Four Vows. We are also making the ninth vow when we recite the third line of the Three General Resolutions.
The tenth vow is to transfer all merits and virtues universally. The true Bodhisattva practices Zen in all its fullness and transfers the merit gained thereby to all sentient beings, universally, without discrimination. At the intermediate and advanced levels of this program, we end all chanting sessions with the Return of Merit.
All ten of these ten great vows are made daily. We breathe every day, we eat every day, we sleep every day. If we want to wake up, we repeat and practice the ten vows of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra every day.
Just as the sutras require study, so do The Ten Great Vows of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. An authentic Zen practice requires that these Ten Great Vows be taken seriously, analyzed, and put into action.
Those who ignore the fullness of Zen practice are ignorant of the benefits to all sentient beings that would accrue if they would only vow to study and actuate the Ten Great Vows.
The following lines may inspire us to perform Buddha Name Recitations:
Speak one sentence less of chatter;
Recite once more the Buddha's name.
Recite until your false thoughts die,
And your Dharma body will come to life.
In some countries, the practitioners of Buddha Name Recitation have reduced the practice to Christian-like prayer, asking Amitabha Buddha to help them pass school exams, have many children, etc. The degeneration of Buddha Name Recitation into mere favor-seeking from a god-like entity is the reason why it is not practiced in most Japanese-influenced Zen centers in the States. In centers influenced by Chinese Ch'an, the masters teach that there is no entity out there who is listening to the recitations, no one who will grant favors; again, we are reciting the name of our own original Buddha nature, seeing our face before our parents were born.
We therefore include Buddha Name Recitation as one of the ten practices that make up our daily Zen practice. Performed with no thought of personal gain, performed as a means for remembering who we are, it adds a valuable dimension to our daily practice.
If you join a Japanese-influenced center where Buddha Name Recitation is not practiced, it is of course OK to respect the teacher's decision not to include that practice as a part of the center's practice. We can practice on our own, outside the formal boundaries of the center.
In the ten dharma realms, the leap from the fifth, the dharma realm of the gods, to the fourth, the Pure Land, is the biggest one: From the six lower realms, collectively known as the realm of desire, or the realm of suffering, to the four heavenly realms.
That's why Buddha Name Recitation is important. As long as we are in the lower six dharma realms, we can visit all six of them and that is not a good thing. Again, only the upper four dharma realms are immune from falling into the lower realms, the six worlds. With this sixth practice, we gain that immunity.
Step Seven - Self Alone, Ox Forgotten
Leaving The Fourth Dharma Realm
Astride the Ox, I reach home.
I am serene. The Ox too can rest.
The dawn has come. In blissful repose,
Within my thatched dwelling
I have abandoned the whip and ropes.
This is the fourth dharma realm, that of the Arhats, the ideal of Theravada Buddhism. We take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha to transcend this realm so that we can enter the third dharma realm.
The seventh practice, which lifts us from the fourth dharma realm, into the third realm, the realm of the Pratyeka Buddhas, seems at first glance to have religious overtones. However, nothing in Buddhism is religious because there is no Great Entity out there to whom we must re-connect.
Religious people tell their god or savior that they are sorry for not believing in them earlier, or not following their teachings earlier.
Taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, on the other hand, recognizes that all is one, that there is no independent entity outside ourselves that we can say "I'm sorry" to.
After Buddha Name Recitation, we take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha by performing fifty four prostrations. The first twenty seven are as taught in Beginning Zen.
Taking Refuge with Master Hsing Yun
To complete the second set of twenty seven, we recite the Ten Cardinal Precepts in order to complete thirty seven prostrations. Then we recite the twelve Nidanas (the twelve steps of Dependent Origination) to arrive at forty nine prostrations. We then recite the five hindrances to arrive at the total of fifty four.
Thus, with prostration number thirty eight we recite:
I resolve to end the arising of ignorance that leads to volition.
The next eleven recitations (of course you can re-word these as you like) are:
I resolve to end the arising of volition that leads to consciousness.
I resolve to end the arising of consciousness that leads to name and form.
I resolve to end the arising of name and form that leads to the six sense organs.
I resolve to end the arising of the six sense organs (the five senses plus the mind) that leads to contact.
I resolve to end the arising of contact that leads to feeling.
I resolve to end the arising of feeling that leads to craving.
I resolve to end the arising of craving that leads to clinging.
I resolve to end the arising of clinging that leads to becoming.
I resolve to end the arising of becoming that leads to birth.
I resolve to end the arising of birth that leads to old age, sickness, and death.
I resolve to end the arising of old age, sickness and death that leads to ignorance.
That brings us to forty nine and the final five recitations relate to the Five Hindrances (again, re-word as desired):
I resolve to overcome sense desire (by practicing Silent Present Moment Awareness).
I resolve to overcome ill will/anger/hatred (by practicing Loving Kindness meditation).
I resolve to overcome sloth and torpor (by performing prostrations).
I resolve to overcome restlessness and worry (by practicing every day).
I resolve to overcome doubt (by observing how I change as I continue practicing every day).
Venerable Yin-Shun, a contemporary Chinese master (1905-2005), in The Way to Buddhahood, (Boston: Wisdom Publications) 1998, recommends taking refuge as the first step in practicing Buddhism.
We have placed seeking the ox (the cultivation of happiness through Present Moment Awareness), finding the footprints (the cultivation of loving kindness), first glimpse of the ox (the cultivation of generosity to counteract greed through the practices of charity and of Silent Present Moment Awareness), catching the ox (cultivation of the precepts), taming the ox (chanting), and riding the ox home (Buddha Name Recitation) before taking refuge simply because the Master wrote in Chinese to Chinese audiences who were already quite aware of basic Buddhist principles.
Only after we have practiced seeking the ox by cultivating happiness through Present Moment Awareness, found the footprints with our Loving Kindness meditation, caught a first glimpse with Silent Present Moment Awareness, caught the ox by following the five lay precepts, tamed the ox by daily chanting, and ridden the ox home with daily Buddha Name Recitation, can we say that we are ready to take refuge.
For the religious practitioner who feels that taking refuge in the Buddha is objectionable, just remember that the Buddha is our own inherent awakened nature. Taking refuge in the Buddha is not an act of worship of a man who lived twenty five hundred years ago. We take refuge in our inherent perfect nature, a nature obscured by greed, hatred, and ignorance.
We don't really take refuge in "our" inherent perfect nature. We don't own anything and there is no "we" or "I." Nor is there a Perfect Nature. Emptiness is all there is and it has no name, not even emptiness.
It is customary practice to perform a prostration as one takes refuge in the Buddha, a second prostration as one takes refuge in the Dharma, and a third prostration as one takes refuge in the Sangha. In a typical zendo, for example, there will be three prostrations at the end of a round of sitting.
Intermediate practitioners perform fifty four prostrations per day. With each prostration, we increase our committment to daily practice.
A diligent prostration practice lowers the mast of ego. Prostrations may or may not dissolve feelings of alienation or separateness, depending upon the efforts put forth, but they will strengthen the desire to awaken.
Enlightenment appears like a thief in the night, unsummoned and unannounced. When the Christ said he would appear like a thief in the night, he was talking about enlightenment.
The second coming of Christ has occurred many times in the past two thousand years; whenever a sentient being wakes up, that is the second coming.
We should build up our prostration practice at our own pace. We can start with the twenty seven prostrations of Beginning Zen and gradually build up to fifty four per day at this level of Intermediate Zen. We may even do one set of fifty four prostrations in the morning and another set at night. Some people go on retreats and do prostrations all day long.
A full set of 108 daily prostrations is practiced in Advanced Zen.
Most Chinese practice centers promote the practice of performing 88 prostrations at a time; the number 108 apparently derives from Hindu sources and is the number of prostrations performed in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The Chinese consider 8 to be a lucky number, as the world learned when the Beijing Olympics began at 8 minutes after 8 o'clock on 08/08/08.
For inspiration, we can read Heng Sure and Heng Chau, News From True Cultivators: Letters to the Venerable Abbot Hua, (Burlingame, CA: Buddhist Text Translation Society, 1983). That book will inspire almost everyone who reads it to start and maintain a prostration practice.
If prostrations make us feel sick or physically upset in any way, we should not do them or at least not exceed the number we feel comfortable with. If we can only do three prostrations per day, we do them slowly and mindfully. That will be better then running through 88 or 108 in an athletic manner.
A single mindful prostration exceeds in value a countless number of mindless prostrations.
A young monk once asked his teacher: "When will I have performed enough prostrations?" The teacher replied: "When you have performed enough prostrations, you will know."
Are we bowing to the Buddha when we perform prostrations? No, we are bowing to our inner Buddha nature, our original self. There is no one "out there." The infinite Buddha is us, always has been and always will be because there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today, and no us.
There is no self, no other, no time, no space, no sun, no universe, no life, no death. Empty your cup if you believe otherwise.
However, we cannot experience the truth of this assertion until we have experienced the four jhanas, the four immaterial attainments, and turned the super-mindfulness thereby created to contemplation of the four foundations (focuses) of mindfulness, or impermanence, fading away, cessation and abandoning/letting go, all as set forth in the Anapanasati Sutta.
As Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy so accurately observed, all thoughts of health and sickness, God on the one hand and self on the other, are merely "mortal thoughts," the thoughts of the deluded. How could we, on the one hand, bow to the Buddha on the other? The concept of bowing to some external agent is a deluded thought. There are no two things in emptiness, nor is there one thing or zero things or other mental perceptions.
The belief that there are two things is a mortal thought. How could there be a savior out there, separate and apart from us? Mary Baker Eddy, like the Buddha, had the insight that there are no seams in reality. So did Meister Eckhart who said: "The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me."
And there is no god in emptiness. Nor is there emptiness in emptiness.
Performing prostrations also increases our sense of gratitude for the Buddhas of the past, present, and future. Here is the greatest story ever told about gratitude:
In the eighteenth century, a samurai warrior was determined to bring all of Japan under his control. Assembling an army of like-minded ruffians, he attacked his first town and slaughtered the inhabitants without mercy. “When people see how ruthless I am,” he predicted, “they will stop resisting my advance and I will be the Emperor above all.”
A few people escaped from the destroyed town and warned the people in the next town down the road that a warrior who lacked mercy was approaching. The people of that town fled and the warrior was quite pleased when he learned that they had done so. “My strategy of putting all who resist me to the sword is working,” he smiled.
One day, however, his scouts did not make the usual report. Instead, they said: “The next town has been evacuated, Your Highness, thereby coming under your control and expanding yet further your majestic empire. However, there is one old Zen monk who declined to leave his monastery when we warned him of your approach.”
This infuriated the warrior. “How dare an old man resist me! I will teach him a lesson.” He stormed into the monastery, saw the monk sitting on the floor in the lotus position, pulled out his sword and roared: “Don’t you know who I am?” The old monk responded by saying: “Sorry, sir, but I do not know who you are.”
Brandishing his sword, the warrior said, with pride: “I am the one who could run you through, and think nothing of it.” To this the old monk responded: “Pleased to meet you. And I am the one who could be run through and think nothing of it.”
This reply so astonished the warrior that he sheathed his sword and said: “To face me so fearlessly, to be so unafraid of my sword, you indeed are a better man than I am. I see that you are a monk, a holy man. Teach me about heaven and hell. I have heard of these things but I never received an education on these matters.”
“I do not teach dogs or swine such as yourself,” replied the monk, without looking up.
Needless to say, the warrior was incensed by that answer and quickly retrieved his sword. Trembling with anger, he raised it high over his head, the better to decapitate the monk with a single stroke.
“That is hell,” said the monk.
“What did you say?” inquired the warrior. “This is hell? This anger? This hatred?” “Yes,” affirmed the monk.
“I see,” said the warrior. “Oh! I understand! This desire to kill, this feeling that comes with wanting to kill someone! So that’s hell! It’s such a terrible feeling! As I prepared to bring my sword down on your neck, I felt so bad! My rage made me truly miserable.”
“You did teach me! I have learned what hell is! Thank you kind sir for this lesson. Thank you, Thank you!”
And the old monk looked up and said: “And that’s heaven.”
I first ran across that delightful (even if apocryphal) story in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, the cite for which is Paul Reps, and Nyogen Senzaki, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, A collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings (Boston, Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1957).
The warrior emptied his cup, repented of his war-loving ways, and became a disciple of the monk who could be run through and think nothing of it - legend says it was Master Hakuin.
If we haven't yet committed to memory Master Hakuin's Chant in Praise of Zazen, let's do it now. See Norman Waddell, Wild Ivy: The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin (Boston & London, Shambhala, 2001).
Master Hakuin never mentioned an encounter with a warrior in his writings so we suspect the story is apocryphal - or it involved a monk or nun other than Hakuin - but it's still a great story.
We will move on to Step Eight only when our prostration practice has produced in us such feelings of profound gratitude.
We have to do prostrations until we want to perform prostrations. And then we will increase our prostrations both in quantity and quality.
What is there outside us? What is there we lack? Nirvana is openly shown to our eyes. This earth where we stand is the pure lotus land, and this very body the body of Buddha.
There is no place to go, no thing to do, no goal to reach. Awakening is the realization that there is no one to awake, no one to fear being run through.
Another advantage of taking refuge as the seventh step is that the prostrations end our morning practice and we can hit the shower, now that we need to! The prostrations invigorate us for the day.
Step Eight - Both Self and Ox Forgotten
Leaving The Third Dharma Realm
Whip, rope, person, and Ox -
all merge in No Thing.
This heaven is so vast,
no message can stain it.
How may a snowflake exist
in a raging fire.
Here are the footprints of
the Ancestors.
The original set of drawings known as the Ox-Herding Pictures ended with the eighth "drawing." It was a blank space, indicating that anything that was depicted about the eighth and final stage would be mis-leading.
"This heaven is so vast, no message can stain it" means that any words about the eighth and final stage were equally meaningless. Words are mere snowflakes that can't exist in a raging fire.
The circle indicating no beginning of practice and no ending to enlightenment was added as the eighth drawing when the eight Ox-Herding Pictures were augmented to include the ninth and tenth drawings.
Apparently, the augmentation took place when it was determined that forgetting the self and the ox, i.e., eliminating the duality between self and goal, placed the practitioner not in nirvana but in the neighborhood of nirvana.
The ninth step of reaching or returning to the source became the step about which nothing could be said or depicted, and the tenth step of returning to the marketplace to teach was added to show that the ideal of the Bodhisattva - teaching while refraining from entering into Nirvana until all others have done so as a result of such teaching - was the true final step.
Intermediate Zen practitioners study suttas each night for about half an hour. We recommend the Majjhima Nikaya, the middle length discourses of the Buddha, and the Digha Nikaya, the longer discourses of the Buddha.
The Majjhima Nikaya contains one hundred fifty two suttas, each just a few pages in length, that contain virtually all of the Buddha's teachings. The suttas are well introduced and well-footnoted by the translators, Bhikkhu Nanamoli (1905-1960) and Bhikkhu Bodhi.
The Satipatthana Sutta is sutta number ten in the Majjhima Nikaya. This is the sutta that teaches the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the heart of vipassana/insight meditation.
In the Theravada school, some practitioners practice vipassana (insight) meditation to the exclusion of tranquil wisdom meditation. This is known as dry insight but it is said to be as powerful as any other form of meditation and the Buddha called it the "direct path" to awakening.
A good book on the Satipatthana Sutta is The Heart of Buddhist Meditation: Satipatthana: A Handbook of Mental Training Based on the Buddha's Way of Mindfulness.
When both self and the idea of becoming a Buddha are forgotten, the practitioner is in the neighborhood of Nirvana.
The first seven practices help us to forget the goal of enlightenment. The eighth practice, sutta study, helps us forget the self as well.
More particularly, this eighth step lifts us from the third dharma realm into the second. The third dharma realm is the dharma realm of the pratyekabuddhas, those self-taught buddhas who have fully understood the doctrine of dependent origination. It is the third of the four heavenly realms.
The Zen Sect, because it is highly disciplined and stresses meditation more than sutta or sutra study or chanting, is considered by some Buddhists to be a radical sect. It is true that many meditation techniques are designed to make it to the top of the mountain by spiraling round and round, gradually ascending with great strain like a train gradually gaining elevation. Zen, however, has been compared to a rocket that blasts off and goes straight up, bursting through the clouds into the sky.
One of the great shortcomings of American Zen, however, is its lack of emphasis on following precepts and engaging in sutta study. Buddhists who study the suttas to the exclusion of meditation are making a mistake; meditation must be practiced. However, Buddhists who meditate without sutta study are also missing the boat. It is futile to meditate in total ignorance of the suttas.
Enlightenment doesn't happen magically. The conditions have to be ripe. Those who study without meditation and those who meditate without study have not created the conditions that allow awakening to occur.
Daily sutta reading, preferably near the end of the day, just prior to step nine, will become second nature. In this way, the eighth step, like the previous seven, is practiced daily.
In our previous lives, we skipped sutta/sutra study. That's why we have to do it now. We failed to awaken to Buddhahood then because we deemed such practice unimportant. Now we know better.
In addition to sutta reading, we also recommend How the Swans Came to the Lake and The Buddha and the Sahibs. These books do not contain Buddhist teachings but tell the story of how Buddhism came to the West. Despite similar objectives, the two books include little overlap. The former introduces the reader to many of the major Buddhist organizations that are active today and the latter tells the amazing story of how British officials uncovered India's forgotten Buddhist past.
Step Nine - Reaching the Source
Leaving The Second Dharma Realm
Too many steps have been taken
returning to the root and the source.
Better to have been blind and deaf
from the beginning!
Dwelling in one's true abode,
unconcerned within and without -
The river flows tranquilly on
and the flowers are red.
Reaching or more accurately, returning to the source, occurs when the Zen practitioner is "unconcerned within and without." According to the commentary that accompanies the ninth picture, all notions of subject and object, self and other, inside and outside, gain and loss, life and death, up and down, beginning and ending, are gone.
Reaching the Souce, also known as Breaking Through the Zen Barrier, is the hardest thing an untrained human being can do. However, those who have honestly followed the first eight steps of this course are no longer untrained.
And if you have worked diligently to get to this point, you are ready for a yaza practice that lasts a little longer than the short sitting of Beginning Zen. Ya is Japanese for night and of course za is Japanese for sit. Yaza thus means to sit at night.
After reading from a sutta, the mind is quiet and ready for night meditation. Nothing is better than meditation before retiring for the night. The work of the day is done and the world is quiet. A meditation of any length at this time of day has profound effects.
In the evening, we read suttas and practice yaza. The suttas prepare the mind for yaza.
Intermediate Zen practitioners are encouraged to sit for about thirty minutes prior to retiring. We sit in half lotus if we can.
We begin our evening meditation with the practice of Present Moment Awareness, Loving Kindness, and Silent Present Moment Awareness. Then we segue into Tranquil Wisdom meditation.
The counting of exhalations technique as introduced by Master Hakuin, introduced in Beginning Zen, is a simplifed version of what the Buddha actually taught. It is effective. Countless numbers of practitioners have awoken to their inherent Buddha nature over the centuries by following Master Hakuin's instructions. Its effectiveness and its awesome power lie in its Zen simplicity.
But for those of us who are curious to learn more about how the Buddha actually meditated, we must turn to The Anapanasati Sutta, the Mindfulness of Breathing Sutta spoken by the Buddha.
The Anapanasati Sutta is the one hundred eighteenth (118th) sutta in the Majjhima Nikaya. Anapanasati means "mindfulness of breathing" but the meditation is often referred to as Tranquil Wisdom meditation. The sutta is short but not easily understood without commentary. Venerable U. Vimalaramsi, whose photograph appears in About Us, has written a clear explanation of that famous sutta.
Another clear, but different, explanation is provided by Venerable Ajahn Brahm in Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond. Both of these books, when read together, provide a priceless introduction to the meditation "technique" taught by the Buddha.
This hyperlink provides a very brief overview of the sixteen steps of Tranquil Wisdom meditation and shows how these two prominent teachers diverge in their teachings of this important sutta.
The two best commentaries that I have found are those written by Venerable U. Vimalaramsi, author of The Anapanasati Sutta, A Practical Guide to Mindfulness of Breathing and Tranquil Wisdom Meditation, and Venerable Ajahn Brahm, author of Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond, a Meditator's Handbook.
Venerable U. Vimalaramsi's work has the advantage of including the entire text of the sutta, and Venerable Ajahn Brahm's work has the advantage of more practical teachings that make it easier to follow the steps of the entire mindfulness of breathing or tranquil wisdom meditation technique.
As we read and re-read both of these works, we learn more with each re-reading.
As instructed by the Venerable Ajahn Brahm, we begin Mindfulness of Breathing with Present Moment Awareness followed by Silent Present Moment Awareness. We modity that by practicing metta/Loving Kindness meditation after Present Moment Awareness and then we flow into Silent Present Moment Awareness. It natually appears as the Loving Kindness meditation is concluded.
When the Buddha spoke The Anapanasati Sutta, he said that it contained sixteen stages. He also explained:
Practicing the first group of four stages is the practice of mindfulness of the body;
Practicing the second group of four stages is the practice of mindfulness of feelings;
Practicing the third group of four stages is the practice of mindfulness of the mind or consciousness; and
Practicing the fourth group of four stages is the practice of mindfulness of mind objects.
In other words, he explained that one who practices the all-important preliminary steps of establishing mindfulness (Present Moment Awareness and Silent Present Moment Awareness), followed by all sixteen stages of the meditation that he practiced on the night he woke up and became the Buddha, The Enlightened One, has also practiced the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.
Therefore, mindfulness of breathing meditation, also known as Tranquil Wisdom meditation, is not just a samatha or calmness practice; it also includes vipassana or insight meditation.
The Buddha went on to say that one who practices all sixteen stages of Tranquil Wisdom meditation has experienced The Seven Factors of Enlightenment. Thus Venerable U. Vimalaramsi explains that Tranquil Wisdom meditation is a full, complete practice, a practice that requires no supplementation with other practices.
Interestingly, the two steps of Present Moment Awareness and Silent Present Moment Awareness are not counted in the sixteen steps as numbered by the Buddha. However, if they are skipped, practice of the sixteen steps becomes meaningless. The Buddha said: "Put mindfulness in front of you" before beginning the sixteen steps. Thus he made it clear that establishing mindfulness was a preliminary but essential step.
The Buddha did not elaborate further because he knew his listeners knew how to put mindfulness in front of them. We are grateful to Venerable Ajahn Brahm for showing us how to put mindfulness in front of us before beginning the sixteen steps.
Silent Present Moment Awareness is the most important meditation practice in all of Buddhism. It is the foundation of all meditation because we establish mindfulness, the first of the seven factors of enlightenment, when we practice Silent Present Moment Awareness. Without it, the sixteen steps are ineffective. And we can't get there without first practicing Present Moment Awareness.
However, unless we cultivate happiness (step one), practice loving kindness/metta (step two), practice generosity (step three), follow the precepts (step four), chant (step five), recite the Buddha's name (step six), take refuge (step seven), and study the sutras (step eight), our practice of Present Moment Awareness will probably be weak and we will probably not be able to practice Silent Present Moment Awareness.
All of these practices help us to cultivate pure minds, minds that can practice Silent Present Moment Awareness. Some teachers insist that steps two and four are essential prerequisites and some say there are no essential prerequisites.
But if one is unhappy and greedy, why not consider the first and third steps essential as well? We might as well make our foundation as strong as we can and practice all of the steps that will help us develop a strong meditation practice.
Of the five hindrances to meditation, sense desire is the strongest. When we practice Silent Present Moment Awareness, we overcome, at least temporarily, the most difficult of the hindrances. A practice that establishes mindfulness and that overcomes the most powerful of the five hindrances is an indispensible practice.
After we practice the preliminary steps of Present Moment Awareness and Silent Present Moment Awareness as described by Venerable Ajahn Brahm, and modified to include metta between them, we add the practice of lightly watching the breath as it goes in and out. More particularly, the Buddha said that after we perform the preliminary step of putting mindfulness in front of us, we merely "understand" that a breath is long or short.
This gives the mind something to watch during Silent Present Moment Awareness. This is a passive watching. We don't take a long breath so that we can say: "I just took a long breath." It is breathing that is doing the breathing, not us. We have to get out of the way and let it breathe. We are just passive observers, aware of long and short breaths.
When we practice Present Moment Awareness, forgetting about the past and not thinking about the future, we reduce the diversity of our consciousness, i.e., we become more focused on the present so our mind is less scattered.
When we practice Silent Present Moment Awareness by dropping the inner chatter, the inner dialog, we reduce the scope of consciousness even further, focusing even more on the present moment.
When we pay light attention to the breath, doing nothing more than watching the long and short breaths, we reduce the diversity of our consciousness even more. Now we are in a focused frame of mind, not thinking about the past or the future, not listening to inner chatter, and just watching our breath in a light, casual way that causes no strain or tension.
If tension arises, Venerable U. Vimalaramsi counsels us to relax, smile, and let it go.
Each step of the Buddha's meditation reduces the diversity of consciousness, increasing our concentration or focus on fewer and fewer things - goodbye past, goodbye future, goodbye thoughts, and goodbye everything except the breath. (And, as we shall see, that eventually goes away as well).
We are following a natural progression from diversity of thought or scattered thought to single-point mindfulness. And that single-point mindfulness is not the end, either.
Our practice is like operating a garden hose in a spray mode. As we turn the control knob, the wide spray gradually becomes a narrow spray and further turning of the knob produces a focused, pencil-thin stream. And we know that the pencil-thin, concentrated flow has more power behind it than the diverse, widely spread spray.
It may seem odd that the practice of being aware of long breaths and short breaths counts as the first two steps of the Buddha's meditation, not just the first step. However, the Buddha specifically stated that he awoke after experiencing sixteen stages of meditation, each deeper than the one before it. If awareness of the long and short breaths is counted as the first stage, then there are only fifteen stages.
Having casually (without tension) watched the breath, taking notice of the long and short ones, we now follow the Buddha's instructions to reduce the diversity of consciousness even more by paying sustained attention to the breath. This is the third stage of sixteen.
This means we watch each in-breath from its beginning to its end, noticing how it arises in a crescendo and then rapidly fades away. We do the same for each out-breath. And we pay attention to the pause, noticing whether it's long or short, between the end of an out-breath and the beginning of the next in-breath. We also notice the moment that the in-breath becomes the out-breath.
In other words, we go from casual, relaxed observation of long or short breaths to a more focused awareness of the entire body of each in and out breath. But we remain relaxed and drop tension whenever it arises.
It is important, however, that we dwell with patience in each of these stages before moving on. We need to sit in Present Moment Awareness a while before we can cut off the inner chatter and we need to sit in Silent Present Moment Awareness for a while before we start watching the long and short breaths and it is very important to maintain that practice for a long time before paying full sustained attention to each in and out breath.
These stages are not the end of the Buddha's meditation but until they are mastered, there is no reason to learn anything further.
In the modern world, the teacher who has probably done more than any other teacher to explain the Buddha's meditation in modern terms to people who know nothing about Buddhism is the venerable Ajahn Brahm.
We are merely summarizing his explanations of the Buddha's teachings. To practice generosity and to express gratitude to this modern day Buddha, click here.
Having practiced full sustained awareness of the breath for a long time, also known as experiencing the whole body of the breath, we now move on to the fourth stage of the mindfulness of breathing that the Buddha practiced.
However, this fourth stage, and all of the steps that follow it, is not produced by an act of will. It arises naturally as the meditator pays sustained attention to the full body of each in and out breath.
After paying attention to the full body of each in and out breath during the third stage, the mind focuses naturally, without effort, on just the breath itself in each moment. This is a further reduction on the diversity of consciousness as explained by the venerable Ajahn Brahm.
Now all of our consciousness is reduced to just the moment-by-moment experience of the breath. We have never experienced anything like this before.
We experience the breath in the moment without inner comment. Long forgotten is the past and future, the breaths both long and short, the entire body of the breath from beginning to end. Our world is now the breath and nothing but the breath. Our pencil-thin stream of water has become a laser beam. We are aware only of the present moment and the only thing in it is the breath of that moment.
Our focus is now so refined that we don't even know if the breath is going in or out. We just experience the breath in the eternal now and everything else is gone.
We are aware only of the breath. Nothing else exists.
We are following the path of the Buddha. But the Buddha taught that we can never reach this stage if we do not follow the precepts. He preached time and time again that without precepts, a meditator cannot follow his instructions. A defiled mind, ignorant or in contempt of the precepts, will never see the breath in the moment as the Buddha saw it.
If we practice the two preliminary steps and these four steps, we have practiced Mindfulness of the Body which is the first of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as mentioned earlier.
Then we add four more steps, the steps that the Buddha identified as being the equivalent of practicing mindfulness of feelings, the second of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.
The fifth and sixth steps cannot be forced to happen for obvious reasons. Only after the practitioner has followed every instruction, including the cultivation of happiness, the practice of loving kindness, and so on, can the fourth step evolve without effort and without tension into the fifth and sixth steps.
Happiness arises in powerful form in the fifth step or stage of the Tranquil Wisdom meditation. While enjoying the breath of the moment, it appears unannounced. It is a bubbling, unstable level of joy that naturally evolves into a serene, more stable form of happiness as the sixth step. This is not yet the joy and happiness of the first two jhanas; it is a herald, though, of what is to come.
Most of us are jolted out of our meditation by the sudden experience of the bliss of the fifth stage and the meditation ends abruptly. With practice, however, we can maintain our calmness and the stage five exhilerating joy will settle down into the stage six serenity that lasts a long time.
The practitioner is still aware only of the breath of the moment (the fourth stage) when stage five joy mellows into stage six serenity. Ajahn Brahm calls the breath of one who is experiencing the joy and happiness of the fifth and sixth steps: "the beautiful breath."
As the serenity of the sixth step continues, there will come a time, said the Buddha, when the breath of one who holds the precepts is no longer a physical experience. It becomes a mind object.
The meditator is no longer aware of the breath as something that is happening to a living body. From a physical perspective, the breath has become so subtle that it seems to have stopped.
The mind is now breathing. As Venerable Ajahn Brahm so eloquently puts it: In the seventh step of the Buddha's meditation, the beautiful breath is gone, only the beauty remains.
Only those who follow the precepts and only those who have placed their faith and trust in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha have any hope of experiencing not just the beautiful breath, but the beauty alone that follows it.
When the breath seems to disappear and only the beauty remains and the diversity of consciousness has been brought to this fine point, we still are not finished. As Ajahn Brahms says, there is more bliss to come.
However, remember that these experiences are not willed and we can't make them arrive. They flow naturally from the very first step of Present Moment Awareness but only if one holds the precepts.
Hold the precepts or the Buddhadharma in contempt and you can kiss enlightenment goodbye.
We might as well embrace suffering because we always get what we want. Mick Jagger, now (2011) practicing with Theravada monks in Laos, was wrong when he said we can't.
After the breath seems to have faded away, we arrive at the eighth step, the Still Forest Pool made famous by the great Thai forest monk Ajahn Chah. We sit by the still forest pool in this eighth step of the Buddha's meditation in absolute stillness and tranquility, and wait.
The Buddha said of this eighth step: "I shall breathe in tranquilizing the mental formation. I shall breathe out tranquilizing the mental formation."
So this eighth stage is when we allow the mind to become tranquil. If we become excited at our progress, such excitement ends the progress.
As intermediate practitioners, if we can make it to the Still Forest Pool, we are advanced intermediate practitioners. Only when we can get there should we move on to Advanced Zen. We recommend at least 108 days of Intermediate practice before moving on.
If we cannot make it to the Still Forest Pool, we can't move on and there is no reason to attempt to move on. However, once we arrive at the Still Forest Pool and stay there for awhile, the remaining stages of meditation will unfold for us just as they did for the Buddha in the year we now call 532 B.C. (The Buddha was born in 567 B.C. and experienced enlightenment at the age of 35).
As R.E.M. sings: "Oh, no, I've said too much. I haven't said enough."
This ninth practice, yaza, lifts us from the second dharma realm to the first. The second dharma realm is the realm of the bodhisattvas and the first is the realm of the Buddha.
Of course, if we really were bodhisattvas we wouldn't be taking a course on Buddhism but by equating this ninth step with the step of becoming a bodhisattva, we place our mind where it needs to be. Again, to paraphrase the words of Master Hsuan Hua, to become a bodhisattva, think like a bodhisattva.
When we have cultivated happiness, loving kindness, generosity, the precepts, learned the chants, performed Buddha Name Recitation, when we have taken refuge and performed prostrations, studied the most fundamental sutras, and have established a yaza practice, we are ready to start helping others in their practice.
When we sit with a group for an extended period of time, we are performing a bodhisattva service. Everyone who participates in a sesshin supports the others.
People who attend lengthy sesshins early in their practice usually quit practicing altogether; I have known several people who started off with a four day sesshin, never to be heard from again.
A strong foundation should be in place before a lengthy sesshin is attempted. That is why we recommend single day sittings (zazenkai) or weekend sittings at the beginning level, postponing four day and longer sesshins for those who have become comfortable with the intermediate practices.
Yaza is encouraged at sesshins, for example, and should not be attempted the first time at a sesshin. Sesshin attendees should have a full, well-rounded practice. When we have developed a strong yaza practice, and have attended multiple one day and weekend sesshins, then we are ready for the next level of Zen training.
Sesshin is Japanese for "collecting the heart." It is often called Zen boot camp because it is rigorous. In the states, sesshin typically begins at 5:00 AM and continues until 9:30 PM for several days. A short sesshin will begin on a Wednesday evening, for example, and end on the following Sunday afternoon. On Wednesday evening, everyone gathers for an orientation meeting where the various rules of sesshin are reviewed. The orientation is followed by a round or two of sitting, often accompanied by a brief tea ceremony. Here is a typical four day sesshin schedule. We can try a day or two of following the schedule at home before attending a real sesshin.
Thursday morning begins with a wake-up bell and everyone gathers for a brisk morning walk at 5:15. Known by the Japanese term "kinhin" mentioned earlier, this is a fast-paced single file walk through the grounds of the sesshin location. If we can walk quickly for ten or fifteen minutes, we will have no problem keeping up. We can train for such a walk a few weeks or maybe even a few months before attending a sesshin.
At 5:30 AM after the morning kinhin, we drink some water and head for the zendo for one round of sitting, typically 35 minutes. Then we can expect a chanting period where the Heart Sutra and the Hsin Hsin Ming (Affirming Faith in Mind) are chanted, along with one or two other chants.
Chanting is typically followed by two 35 minute rounds of sitting, spaced apart by six or seven minutes of single file kinhin, and then it's time for breakfast. The meal chants are included in RZC chant book.
About the only times our hands are not in the kinhin position is when leaving the zendo for a formal meal. Everyone files out of the zendo in single file, as during a kinhin, but the hands are in gassho (palm-to-palm, the "praying hands posture," with the thumbs centered on the chest and the elbows bent just as in kinhin) instead of the kinhin position.
A work period of about forty five (45) minutes follows breakfast. We will be assigned a job such as sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, etc. The work period is followed by an hour of rest where we are free to sleep.
The next round of sitting is followed by a live Teisho, a talk by an ordained Zen teacher, and the talk is followed by another round of sitting and an informal (no chanting) lunch. Another rest period follows lunch.
Next comes three rounds of sitting, separated only by kinhins. Dokusan is typically offered. Then there is an exercise period where an advanced student will lead stretching or yoga exercises, followed by an extended kinhin, another sitting, and supper.
Guang Ming Temple, Orlando, Florida
Supper is followed by the final rest period of the day and the day ends with three more sittings after that rest period. Dokusan is usually offered during these last three rounds of sitting as well. The final sitting ends around 9:30 PM. However, many teachers urge sesshin participants to stay up and practice as long as they can, foregoing sleep. That's yaza practice. Snacks are available for those who meditate throughout the night. Unless we have become a very advanced practitioner, we will probably need all the sleep we can get to be ready for the next day.
What does a Buddha do? A Buddha sits in meditation. Morning and evening.
The meditation doesn't end when the bell rings and we stand up to bow and begin kinhin. Nor does it end when the sesshin ends and we drive home or to a post-sesshin meal at a restaurant.
The whole point of Zen practice is to remain mindful of the Buddhadharma at all times. We stay with the koan or the breath, with the practice. The time spent outside of formal meditation is more important than the time spent in formal meditation because that is when we manifest the practice.
If we have honestly followed this program up to this point, we will understand what is meant by: "Sesshin never ends."
We meditate in the morning, we meditate in the night, and throughout the day we walk in Zen.
We should attend as many sesshins as we can.
Some sesshins are tougher than others. At the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, the first sitting of the day is 2:30 AM and the day ends at midnight. The sesshin schedule discussed in this chapter is a more typical sesshin for lay people, but even a short four day lay sesshin can be quite a challenge.
At Japan's Eiheiji Temple, founded by Master Dogen, sesshins are very strict, as is daily life at the temple. See Eat Sleep Sit.
Having performed seven morning and three evening practices every day, we have climbed the One Hundred Foot Pole and are ready to leap. The first nine practices create the conditions that allow us to break through the barrier, reaching the source.
Christmas Humphreys' commentary on the One Hundred Foot Pole koan explains that climbing to the top of the pole represents the height of thought. That's what most of us have been doing throughout this program; we are thinking about the steps of the program, and then we think about them some more.
He then explains that leaping from the pole, after we have climbed to its top, represents the existential leap from thought to direct awareness.
That's what it means to break through the Zen barrier; we must go from thought to direct awareness.
The ninth step is awakening itself. The tenth step flows naturally from the ninth so the ninth step is the big one.
How can we break through the Zen barrier? Zen Master Mumon, referring to working on the koan "Mu," said:
"Concentrate your whole self with its 360 bones and joints and 84,000 pores, into Mu and making your whole body a solid lump of doubt, day and night, without ceasing, keep digging into it. But don't take it as "nothingness" or "being" or "non-being."
"It must be like a red hot iron ball which you have gulped down and which you try to vomit up, but cannot."
"You must extinguish all delusive thoughts and feelings you have up to the present cherished."
"Zen means dropping off body and mind," screamed Ch'an Master Ju-Ching at a monk who had dozed off during zazen.
We can meditate before breakfast, before lunch, before dinner, and before bedtime.
At 2:00 AM, we can chant Master Hakuin's Chant In Praise Of Zazen and we can sit until 2:30 AM.
When we catch ourselves daydreaming, we can recite The Ten Cardinal Precepts, we can recite The Four Vows, we can recall all ten of the Ten Great Vows of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, or we can perform Buddha Name Recitations. That avoids wasting time on frivolity. As Roshi Kapleau said:
"Great is the matter of birth and death.
Life slips quickly by.
Time waits for no one.
Wake up! Wake up!
Don't waste a moment."
When feelings of lethargy arise, when we just want to lie down and take a snooze, we can hit the meditation mat instead.
After all, the last words of the Buddha were:
"All compounded things decay. Work out your salvation with diligence."
Let us resolve with all our might that our practice will never end, that we will carry it into the marketplace, into the hustle and bustle of daily life.
Why can't Zen just be a hobby like any other? Or just a once-in-awhile thing like religious services? Why must we memorize chants, follow the Precepts, exercise like a Marine, do so many prostrations and recitations and meditate so much?
Because we have done it before, but we didn't do it thoroughly, diligently. Millions have awakened. We are the slackers, the stubborn ones. This is our chance; we have a human body again and we have heard the Buddha Dharma again. We should not fail again.
In A Still Forest Pool, the authors relate a story about the time when Venerable Ajahn Chah of Thailand was approached by a monk who had spent three years in his monastery.
The monk announced that he would be moving on to another monastery because he wanted to practice under an enlightened master. He told Ajahn Chah that he noticed that on some days the master was cheerful, friendly, and soft, yet on other days he would seem hard and unapproachable. His moods seemed to swing up and down, just like those of a normal person.
"How can I obtain enlightenment when my master himself is not enlightened?" the monk asked.
Ajahn Chah smiled.
"See, there you go again," said the monk, "acting like you're pleased that I'm leaving."
"I'm smiling because I am happy," said the great master. "This is a wonderful day. Today, after wasting three years, you will finally begin your spiritual practice."
"You have been watching me, looking for the Buddha."
"Today you have finally learned that you will never find the Buddha outside yourself."
The monk performed a prostration, and returned to his meditation hut. He had understood the Buddha Dharma for the first time.
Many people wonder about the meaning of: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." It means to kill the notion that the Buddha is outside ourselves; if we think we have found the Buddha outside ourselves, we must drop that thought.
We will never find the Buddha on the road, in a book, or on a website. However, if we work hard and diligently follow the steps of this course, including working with a sanctioned teacher, we will find the Buddha within.
We do not look for a savior outside ourselves, we do not pursue external goals. We stay at the starting line; it is the finish line.
The Ox-Herding Pictures follow a cycle from beginning to end, and the end is the beginning.
But what is the point of realizing Buddhahood? It is not to selfishly acquire freedom from suffering for oneself because there is no independent self.
The point of attaining Buddhahood is to relieve the suffering of all sentient beings. This is done in our daily life by following The Precepts, maintaining our daily practices with diligence.
The famous Bible verse: "Judge not that ye be not judged" has two (2) meanings.
The obvious, mundane meaning is that the law of karma (the law of cause and effect) will operate and we will be judged by others if we first judge them.
The second, deeper meaning is that the very act of judging creates an apparent independent self. We must be separate from that which we are judging. Judge not, that an independent self be not formed by the act of judging.
A famous saint was invisible to demons because his thoughts were pure and nonjudgmental. One day a demon had a brilliant idea. Knowing that the monastery where the saint lived had a requirement that not a single grain of rice was to be wasted, the demon spilled a bowl of rice on a path where the saint walked daily. Sure enough, the saint saw the spilled rice and thought: "This is terrible; someone has acted foolishly. Seeing so much wasted rice really makes me angry." At that moment, the demon finally got to see the saint.
Our practice should include daily or at least weekly recitation of Affirming Faith In Mind. Repeated recitation of that truly great work of art will gradually wear down the habit of judging, the habit that creates belief in an independent self standing apart from, and in judgment on, everything else.
It is the act of making distinctions, judgments, that creates the dual world of inside and outside, self and other, thereby creating the idea that the earth and the Garden of Eden are two (2) different places, that life and death are two (2) different states, that ourselves and the Buddha are two different beings.
Such thoughts are mortal thoughts. That's why the innermost selves of Adam and Eve told them not to enter into the knowledge of good and evil. When reality is cut in two, good and evil appear. Life and death appear. How stupid it is to create problems where none exist.
An authentic Zen practice mends the rip in reality created by delusion, knitting reality back to its oneness. Beginnings and endings return to their original beginningless beginning and endless ending, the dharma realm of the Buddhas, free of mortal thoughts.
We have started a Zen practice, but we have to sustain it every day. It's easy to slide back, like a rowboat on a river when the oars are not used.
When the bottom drops out of the bucket, when we feel like a fish swimming in cool, clear water after having been stuck in glue, as did Roshi Kapleau, we will understand, for the first time, Yuanwu's words:
"Fundamentally, the Path is wordless and the Truth is birthless. Wordless words are used to reveal the birthless Truth. There is no second thing. As soon as you try to pursue and catch hold of the wordless Path and the birthless Truth, you have already stumbled past it."
This is the secret that Zen practice reveals: There are no secrets because everything is obvious. Nirvana is openly shown to our eyes. If we use our discriminating, thinking mind, the mind that divides everything into parts, then we make it hidden and non-obvious. We do that to ourselves; no one is doing it to us.
Why were Adam and Eve told not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? Because knowledge of good and evil breaks the one true reality into two deluded realities; wisdom becomes stupidity.
Having taken the fruit, we now believe that we are independent entities having a birth date when we entered into existence and that we will have a death date when we exit existence. We have fallen from wisdom into idiocy. We have to empty the cup that holds two things.
There are no seams in a stupa. There are no beginnings nor are there endings. There is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today. Reality is indivisible; we can divide it in our minds, but it is our mind that gets divided, not Reality. It's like time; we say it is limited but it is us who are limited. Time is inexhaustible; use up quadrillions of years, and nothing has been used up.
The Chaukhandi stupa, Sarnath, India
To judge, to divide good from evil, today from tomorrow, life from death, is to create the thinking mind, the self that is separate from the whole, the self that expels itself from the Garden, the self that is a collection of mortal thoughts.
The Second Noble Truth is Right Thought. Right Thought does not run towards what it likes and away from what it dislikes. It follows the Middle Way, neither liking nor disliking, free of judgment.
We left the Garden of Eden because we chose to choose, to weigh, to decide, to activate our thinking mind. No one kicked us out of the garden. No one observes us and decides if we should be punished or rewarded. The law of cause and effect is real and it is all there is. We create our own experiences. Nothing could be more obvious.
We experience our inherent Buddhahood by dint of diligent daily practice, including emptying the cup of mortal thoughts, and not engaging in philosophical or religious speculation.
This is the birthless truth, known by those who have established an authentic Buddhist practice. Only those with sharp karmic roots will understand this birthless truth and maintain their practice with diligence.
This website provides step-by-step instructions that anyone can follow, but few will. As the Bible wisely points out, broad is the path that leads to destruction, but narrow is the path that leads to salvation.
Reaching out to grab enlightenment is a sure way to miss it. Zen teachers often tell the story of a young monk who asked a Zen master:
"How long will it take me to attain enlightenment?"
The master thought for a few moments and replied: "About ten years."
The young monk was upset and said: "But you are assuming I am like the other monks and I am not. I will practice with great determination."
"In that case," replied the Master, "twenty years."
A grasping, ambitious mind is an impediment to enlightenment.
Zen practice is not about aiming at a target and trying to hit it or setting a goal and trying to attain it.
To the contrary, Zen practice is about letting go.
In the practice of Zen, we create the conditions that allow enlightenment to be experienced. And then we let go and experience the Incomprehensible Unconditioned State of Ultimate Reality.
Remember we spoke earlier of T'zu-ming; when he felt himself becoming drowsy, he would stab himself in the thigh with a sharp tool.
That's the kind of dedication it takes to wake up.
Master Hakuin tells of a time when he and another monk vowed to sit for seven days together without eating or sleeping. They placed their mats a few inches apart and faced each other. They put a bamboo stick between the mats and agreed that if either meditator saw the other one getting sleepy, he was to pick up the stick and whack the sleepyhead between the eyes.
Master Hakuin reports that for seven days, neither monk so much as flickered an eyelash; the bamboo stick was never used.
The Buddha, having sought without success a teacher who could point the way to enlightenment, vowed that he would sit under a Bo tree until he either died or woke up.
It takes the determination of a Hakuin, a Tzu-ming, a Buddha to wake up.
Hakuin praised a book entitled "Breaking Through the Zen Barriers." Note the plural in "Barriers." Solving the koan "Mu" is not the end of practice. Many koans must be passed. Many barriers must be broken through.
There is no beginning to practice, no end of enlightenment.
So for our ninth step we perform yaza every night and attend as many sesshins as we can.
What happened to Moses on the top of Mount Sinai? What is the burning bush that burned but was not consumed by the flames? Why did the bush say: "I am the Great I Am"?
If we sit every night, the answer will become obvious. Zen teachers tell us to place our attention about three finger widths below our belly button and into the center of our body (called the hara or tanden in Japanese or the dantian in Mandarin). This is the site of the third chakra in Hinduism.
Despite our best efforts, there will come a time when the pleasant burning sensation we feel in our hara rises to the top of our head. Whenever I reported that event to my teacher during a dokusan he would bristle: "That's not Zen! Return your attention to the hara."
So the hair of our head becomes the burning bush that burns but is not consumed by the flames. We have left the hara and climbed to the top of the mountain, the top of our head, home of the chakra the Hindus call the crown chakra.
And when the flame roars, we hear what Moses heard and we know what he experienced.
Step Ten - Returning to the Marketplace
Arriving At The First Dharma Realm
Barefooted and naked of breast,
I mingle with the people of the world.
My clothes are ragged and dust-laden,
and I am ever blissful.
I use no magic to extend my life;
Now, before me, the dead trees
become alive.
Returning to the marketplace refers to what an awakened Master does. Instead of spending all of one's time on a meditation mat, removed from society, an awakened Master teaches the Buddhadharma.
However, even the Buddha continued his meditation practice after his Great Enlightenment, thereby demonstrating that just as practice has no beginning, enlightenment has no ending.
An awakened master spreads enlightenment by mingling with humankind. Maybe even with animals, insects, and dull rocks as well.
How do dead trees become alive? We are the dead trees of whom the Master speaks. An enlightened Master works to awaken the dead trees - those of us who are asleep.
Intermediate students can start a Zen sitting group by using Meetup.com and meeting at a place like Starbuck's, for example, until the group is big enough to rent or buy a practice center. The Meetup group continues to meet so that new members are continually welcomed into the practice center.
As in Beginning Zen, we perform a kinhin at the conclusion of the yaza sitting, keeping the practice going and completing the circle by ending the day as we started it. Unlike Beginning Zen, we vow to maintain the practice as we sleep. We set our intention to dream about practice.
Many of us will not reach the stage of Returning To The Marketplace in this lifetime. But it is Returning To The Marketplace that is the goal that we must reach without striving to reach a goal, without leaving home, without embarking on a self-improvement project.
So what do we do? When we begin a meditation practice, we are told to return to the practice whenever we start daydreaming. The same applies to all of Zen practice. When we reach a point beyond which it seems we cannot transcend, we return to step one, cultivating joy through Present Moment Awareness to transcend the tenth dharma realm.
We then move on to step two, practicing loving kindness meditation, transcending the ninth dharma realm, and so on until we reach a plateau again. Then we cultivate joy and loving kindness and generosity through Silent Present Moment Awareness and so it goes until one day the bottom of the bucket drops out and we reach the source. The final step of Returning To The Marketplace is then the easiest step of all; it comes naturally. One for whom the bottom has dropped out will naturally become a teacher in order to fulfill the ancient vow of liberating all sentient beings.
However, every step should be just as natural. Each step should flow into the next. If difficulties arise, it just means that it is not yet time to move on to the next step. Only when the flow is natural should we move on to the next step.
We seek the ox, find its footprints, glimpse the Ox, catch it, tame it, ride it home, and forget it. Then we forget the self, reach the source and return to the marketplace. And if our practice is authentic, we repeat those ten steps until the practice cultivates itself without beginning and without end.
Although we don't practice to get benefits, by working hard at each step of this program, those with whom we come into contact may reap the benefits of our practice. One cannot follow the steps outlined here without becoming more kind to people, animals, insects, and the non-sentient world. We will naturally find ourselves making many changes in our mundane lives as awakening begins to manifest itself.
Entrance Gate City of Ten Thousand Buddhas
Ukiah, California
Those of us who go through this course many times, until it becomes second nature to practice all ten steps every day, and to attend sesshins whenever we can, do not become enlightened teachers by doing so. Again, we are merely creating the conditions within which awakening may occur.
In the Rinzai tradition, we must be tested by a sanctioned teacher before our awakening can be confirmed. There are small awakenings, large awakenings, and an infinite degree of awakenings therebetween. What one may think is a major awakening experience may actually be quite small.
But those who have persisted in this course until it becomes second nature are at least qualified to share this course with others.
The Zen sect of Buddhism traces its origins to a story that, most admit, probably never happened. The Buddha stood before a multitude of monks who had assembled at the Vulture Peak in India to hear him speak. Instead of speaking, he held up a Golden Lotus. Of all the monks present, only Mahakashapa got it. He smiled, the Buddha handed him the flower, and the sermon was over. The Buddha had transmitted the Buddha Dharma to Mahakashapa without words and Zen became known as the teaching that does not rely upon words.
A lovely story, but it doesn't appear in the Pali canon so it is probably apocryphal. The Nichiren sect really hates the story, saying it was designed to prevent people from studying the sutras, specifically the Lotus sutra.
But it gets a beautiful point across; that not even an avalanche of words can convey the deepest of meanings. The perfect Zen website is the one that was never uploaded. The most beautiful music is silence. The most enlightened words are no words at all.
As soon as we try to describe what Zen is, we have stumbled past it. But perhaps we have to stumble past it at least a few times just to realize what we have done - unleashed a cavalcade of words and thoughts, stumbling past enligtenment while as clueless as Wily E. Coyote contemplating a burning fuse. As we follow the steps of this course on a daily basis, perhaps we will become less clueless.
So let's go back to step one and go through the program again and again until - until what? Until we practice Zen all day, every day, with a full understanding of what we are doing. Until our practice becomes second nature, until our every act helps create the conditions for awakening to occur.
The incomprehensible state of insurpassable enlightenment is our birthright. We can practice daily, with diligence. The Buddha within us will awaken if we mindfully create the conditions that allow awakening to occur. By following these ten steps of Intermediate Zen, over and over, deeper and deeper, we are doing what a Buddha does. We are not separate from Buddhahood.
If we practice the ten steps of Intermediate Zen for a long time, we can truly say that we have at least found the footprints. We have reached the point where we will not turn back.
Here is a Summary of Intermediate Zen.
When we feel that Intermediate Zen practice has become second nature, we are ready for Advanced Zen.