Meditation for Beginners by Nyogen Senzaki
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:41 pm
Nyogen Senzaki (Like a Dream, Like a Fantasy, p. 73-74)
A Lecture on Meditation: For Beginners
"Quietness is an element in meditation, but merely striving to attain quietness leads nowhere. It is like putting a paper bag over a cat’s head: It will walk backward but will never be able to advance. A cranky old man who scolds children for making noise violates with his loud voice the very quietness he upholds. The same thing happens when one forces oneself to enter quietness. It is only when one forgets both the world of noise and the realm of quietness that one is able to enter into the kingdom of true silence. This, however is not what we are gathered here for, either. Watching movies or resting in the park is just as good as sitting in a zendo, if what you want is quietness. Strangers to a zendo usually are unable to see anything more than its atmosphere of quietness; the vastness lying beyond can only be detected by those who know what real Zen practice is all about.
You should never for a moment think that you are dwelling in quietness. You are students of nonthinking—what right have you to tarry in tranquillity! Just march on bravely, regulating your breath or working on your köan. Zen meditation is the most simple method in the world for mind-training. Meditation is complicated and difficult only when one becomes more interested in one’s own opinions and ideas than in disentangling oneself from all traces of dualistic thinking. As Zen Master Nanin once said: “Unless you empty your teacup, I cannot fill it.”
In the beginning, you aim to empty your mind and try to drive all thoughts away. But aiming and trying are also thoughts! So aiming and trying keep you from your goal, of becoming emptiness itself. When you think you are in emptiness, you are not in emptiness. When you think you have discovered your Buddha-nature, you are far away from it. When no thought arises, there is no need to drive thoughts away. When nothing is born, nothing dies. When nothing is good, nothing is bad. What you never had, you will never miss. What you do not see does not disappear. What cannot increase cannot decrease. This is true emptiness. This is samädhi. ‘When you enter into this condition, then you are walking in the Palace of Realization. Never to think—even for a moment—that you are enlightened: This is the ideal of Zen meditation."
Some points to ponder about this text:
You don't work on attaining quietness but you have to regulate your breath.
Students of nonthinking has to work bravely on their koans.
No aiming, no trying - a student has to cultivate zazen to attain it.
When there is no thought they don't have to be driven away, but if there are thoughts of emptiness and buddha-nature it is bad.
True emptiness is that non-existent things are non-existent.
If you don't think you're enlightened you've attained Zen meditation.
A Lecture on Meditation: For Beginners
"Quietness is an element in meditation, but merely striving to attain quietness leads nowhere. It is like putting a paper bag over a cat’s head: It will walk backward but will never be able to advance. A cranky old man who scolds children for making noise violates with his loud voice the very quietness he upholds. The same thing happens when one forces oneself to enter quietness. It is only when one forgets both the world of noise and the realm of quietness that one is able to enter into the kingdom of true silence. This, however is not what we are gathered here for, either. Watching movies or resting in the park is just as good as sitting in a zendo, if what you want is quietness. Strangers to a zendo usually are unable to see anything more than its atmosphere of quietness; the vastness lying beyond can only be detected by those who know what real Zen practice is all about.
You should never for a moment think that you are dwelling in quietness. You are students of nonthinking—what right have you to tarry in tranquillity! Just march on bravely, regulating your breath or working on your köan. Zen meditation is the most simple method in the world for mind-training. Meditation is complicated and difficult only when one becomes more interested in one’s own opinions and ideas than in disentangling oneself from all traces of dualistic thinking. As Zen Master Nanin once said: “Unless you empty your teacup, I cannot fill it.”
In the beginning, you aim to empty your mind and try to drive all thoughts away. But aiming and trying are also thoughts! So aiming and trying keep you from your goal, of becoming emptiness itself. When you think you are in emptiness, you are not in emptiness. When you think you have discovered your Buddha-nature, you are far away from it. When no thought arises, there is no need to drive thoughts away. When nothing is born, nothing dies. When nothing is good, nothing is bad. What you never had, you will never miss. What you do not see does not disappear. What cannot increase cannot decrease. This is true emptiness. This is samädhi. ‘When you enter into this condition, then you are walking in the Palace of Realization. Never to think—even for a moment—that you are enlightened: This is the ideal of Zen meditation."
Some points to ponder about this text:
You don't work on attaining quietness but you have to regulate your breath.
Students of nonthinking has to work bravely on their koans.
No aiming, no trying - a student has to cultivate zazen to attain it.
When there is no thought they don't have to be driven away, but if there are thoughts of emptiness and buddha-nature it is bad.
True emptiness is that non-existent things are non-existent.
If you don't think you're enlightened you've attained Zen meditation.