How To Practice ZenTeaching
Returning to the Marketplace
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 one's time on a meditation mat, removed from society, an awakened Master teaches the Buddhadharma.
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.
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, emptying the cup. We then move on to step two, adopting the precepts, and so on until we reach a plateau again. Then we empty the cup 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 empty the cup and follow the precepts. We 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.
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 by distributing the Beginning Zen tri-fold brochure. Contact Us to ask for the tri-fold brochure that includes the steps of Beginning Zen in a handy format.
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. 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, over and over, deeper and deeper, we are doing what a Buddha does. We are not separate from Buddhahood.
Intermediate Zen
Intermediate students can distribute the Walk In Zen Center brochure and start a Zen sitting group that follows the ten steps outlined in this course. Contact Us to get the brochure.
Detailed, step-by-step information on how to start a Walk In Zen Center is on our Meetup page. Just go to meetup.com, enter Zen as the subject and Dunedin, FL as the location and click on The Dunedin Walk In Zen Center. Then click on "read more about this group."
Advanced Zen
Advanced practitioners, upon obtaining permission to teach, will of course do so.
Until we awaken and become teachers, we can:
Speak one sentence less of chatter;
Recite once more the Buddha's name,
and repeat steps one through ten every day.
