How To Practice ZenYaza
Reaching the Source
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. Ya is Japanese for night and of course za is Japanese for sit. Yaza thus means to sit at night.
After reading from a sutra, 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 morning, we prepare for our morning meditation with the first three steps of the program, and we follow the meditation with The Four Vows, prostrations, and Buddha Name Recitations.
In the evening, we chant, read sutras, and practice yaza. Each of these three evening practices quiets the mind. Chanting prepares the mind for the sutras and the sutras prepare the mind for yaza.
When we have sat at home and with a group for at least a few months and have learned the most basic chants, practiced prostrations and Buddha Name Recitation, read the most fundamental sutras, and have established a yaza practice, we will be ready to start attending intensive meditation retreats known by the Japanese word sesshins.
People who attend sesshins early in their practice often quit practicing altogether; a strong foundation should be in place before this important practice is attempted. 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.
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 in Step Three, 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.
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.
Zen practice has no beginning and no end. 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.
Having performed six 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 Humphrey's 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, or we can recall all ten of the Ten Great Vows of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. 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 Master Achaan 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 Achaan 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.
Achaan 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 very 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 must not look for a savior outside ourselves, we must not pursue external goals. We must 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.
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 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 Zen practice. Only those with sharp karmic roots will understand this birthless truth and maintain their practice with diligence.
Those who know a little more about Zen don't practice it because no one ever taught them how to. This website provides step-by-step teachings 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 also 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. That's an old Zen saying.
Intermediate Zen
Intermediate practitioners are encouraged to sit for about thirty minutes prior to retiring and to attend sesshins lasting four days.
Advanced Zen
Advanced practitioners are encouraged to sit for about thirty minutes prior to retiring and may attend seven day sesshins. Monks and nuns, by the way, typically attend a seven day sesshin every month.
To help us remember the ten ox-herding pictures and the ten steps of practice suggested by each picture, we can learn the following haiku:
Empty cup, Precepts
Repent, Sit, Bow, Recite, Chant
Sutra, Yaza, Teach.
BEYOND ZEN
Zen is sometimes called stripped-down, simplified Buddhism. The Zen presented in this course is Chinese-influenced because it includes an emphasis on emptying the cup, following the precepts, repentance, renunciation, taking refuge, contemplation of the six paramitas, sitting in zazen, prostrations, Buddha Name Recitation, chanting, sutra study and yaza. Some of those practices are ignored or seldom practiced in Japanese-influenced American Zen Centers.
If you suggest to the typical American Zennie that he or she should try following the precepts, you may receive a loud tongue-lashing, advising you that meditation is the only thing that counts and that following precepts and reading sutras and all that other "stuff" is not Zen and is a complete waste of time.
It doesn't require much wisdom to see that meditators who smoke, drink, do drugs, eat meat, have no interest in the precepts, and otherwise believe that meditation trumps everything, have a much deeper affinity for the Buddhadharma than those who smoke, drink, do drugs, eat meat, have no interest in the precepts, and who have no interest in meditation.
You will find most people in most American Zen centers to be meat eaters who take great offense if the first precept is interpreted as a commandment not to kill animals. They will also take great offense if told that any of the precepts should be taken seriously; they want their booze, their smokes, and so on. You just have to remember that the bell has not yet sounded in their head, the light has not yet been turned on, but that they are at least trying to meditate, trying to follow the Buddhadharma. Remember that their karmic roots are much sharper than members of the general public, and admire them for being on the path even if they dismiss most of it.
But even this course, as presented in ten steps, is still a stripped down, light or abbreviated form of Buddhist practice.
For those interested in going beyond Zen, we offer the Thirty Seven Factors of Enlightenment for your consideration. A serious Buddhist practitioner will practice Zen fully as outlined in the ten steps of this course and will also incorporate each of these factors into his or her practice. They can be considered as part of Step Nine, Returning to the Source, because they permeate all of the preceding steps. When a practitioner fully develops all thirty seven of these factors, that practitioner will truly be in the neighborhood of Nirvana. Returning to the Source by making the leap from the one hundred foot pole will no longer be out of the question.
THE FOUR AWAKENINGS OF MINDFULNESS
1. Meditation on the body, including awareness of breathing, posture, grooming. Some teachers add that this includes awareness of the impurity of the body as well.
2. Meditation on feelings, including the senses and awareness of their transitory qualities.
3. Meditation on thoughts or the mind, including examination of mental states.
4. Meditation on all dharmas, including the lessons taught by nature such as the cycle of the seasons, the cycle of life and re-birth. Some teachers say this factor is a meditation on mental processes, seeing spiritual reality beyond the thinking mind.
These four awakenings of mindfulness are taught in Theravada centers.
THE FOUR PERFECT EXERTIONS
1. Preventing the birth of evil and bad states of mind that have not yet arisen.
2. Eliminating those evil and bad states of mind that have already arisen.
3. Producing good states of mind that have not yet arisen.
4. Maintaining existing good states of mind that have already arisen and enhancing them further.
THE FOUR WAYS OF POWER
1. Concentration on intention.
2. Concentration on progress.
3. Concentration on mindfulness.
4. Concentration on observation.
THE FIVE ROOTS
1. Root of Wisdom
2. Root of Meditation
3. Root of Mindfulness
4. Root of Zeal
5. Root of Faith
THE FIVE POWERS
1. Power of Wisdom
2. Power of Meditation
3. Power of Mindfulness
4. Power of Zeal
5. Power of Faith
THE SEVEN FACTORS OF ENLIGHTENMENT
1. Mindfulness: Balanced and un-biased mind
2. Meditation: Calming of mental activity
3. Equanimity: A mind elevated above distinctions
4. Joy: A joyous attitude to the teachings of the Buddha
5. Riddance: Pacification by overcoming passion
6. Energy: Needed to transform impure to pure
7. Discrimination: Distinguishing right from wrong
THE EIGHTFOLD PATH
1. Right View (Right Understanding of the Four Noble Truths)
2. Right Intention (Right Thought)
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Meditation
For more information about the thirty seven factors of enlightenment, see the thirty seven factors.
As mentioned in the introduction, Zen apparently developed in response to the highly analytical nature of early Buddhism.