To: alt.zen
From: mahabarbara@delphi.com
Subject: Re: What is Zen?
Date: 49941116
Quoting: |bombadil@netcom.com (Tom Snider-Lotz) 
         |>misc206@csc.canterbury.ac.nz 

|>       Just out of curiosity what exactly is Zen? 

|Among some zen practitioners it's considered cool to answer innocent
|questions with obscure utterances that are supposed to be like things zen
|masters say to their students.  It communicates the notion that zen has to
|do with the mundane details of everyday life, while demonstrating disregard
|for mundane details of everyday life such as common courtesy.

Agree with you on this. In my sangha, such utterances are commonly
met with "Phew! What's that smell!"

|I couldn't explain what zen is.  In Taisen Deshimaru's QUESTIONS TO A ZEN
|MASTER, it's defined as "return to the pure, original mind."  

The poet Gary Snyder said, "Zen is a way of using your mind, living
your life, and doing it with other people." 

Also, as Yasutani Roshi pointed out, Zen can be practiced on 
different levels:

1. Bompu. Using zazen to concentrate and control the mind, primarily
to improve physical or mental health.

2. Gedo. Linking Zen practices to a religion or philosophy other than
Buddhism. E.g., zazen as part of a mystical Christian practice; the
quietist sitting of Confucianism.

3. Shojo. Shojo literally means "small vehicle." The individual
practices Zen to go from delusion to enlightenment, but not with
Mahayana understanding. Yasutani called this "an expedient Zen for
those unable to grasp the innermost meaning of the Buddha's 
enlightenment, i.e., that existence is an inseparable whole." I
suspect an example of Shojo Zen is the person who feels no need
for a teacher or sangha.

4. Daijo. Daijo literally means "great vehicle." The central purpose
of Daijo is seeing into your essential nature and realizing the Way
in your daily life. Yasutani's comment: "For those able to comprehend
the import of the Buddha's own enlightenment experience and with a 
desire to break through their own illusory view of the universe and
experience absolue, undifferentiated Reality, the Buddha taught this
mode of Zen."

5. Saijojo. Yasutani called this the expression of Absolute Life in
its purest form. It is the zazen of Dogen Zenji; it is where means
and ends coalesce. Daijo and Saijojo are complementary and not
completely separate.

IMHO there's nothing "wrong" with any of these levels. If someone
is practicing Bompu Zen and is content with it, it's certainly
OK with me. I've also met a number of people who have put together 
a Christian/Zen hybrid practice, and it seemed to be beneficial
for them.

|Most people swear that meditation is an essential part of zen.

Throughout his dharma talks Yasutani used "Zen" and "zazen" inter-
changeably. In his mind, clearly, they were inseparable. Shunryo
Suzuki Roshi said "There is no Zen without zazen." This is from
_The Eight Gates of Zen_ by John Daido Loori:

"Without zazen there is no Zen. Zazen is the manifestation of the
ten thousand dharmas, of the Great Way itself. We may study sutras,
liturgy, art, body, and mind but without zazen they remain only the
study of sutras, liturgy, art, body, and mind -- not yet the study
of the Great Way itself. To study face-to-face with a great master,
or even with the Buddha himself, remains only study. It is not
yet the eyebrow-to-eyebrow, mind-to-mind intimacy of the Way that
is realized through zazen. Zazen itself is the miraculous manifestation 
of supreme enlightenment. As such, all things sacred and secular, all
the so-called 'dragons and snakes,' when encountered through zazen, 
reveal the marvelous mind of nirvana, the exquisite teaching of formless 
form, the very body and mind of the Tathagata. Zazen gives life to the
Buddha.

"We should realize clearly, however, that zazen is not meditation,
contemplation, visualization, or mindfulness. It is not to be
found in the mudra, chakra, mantra, or koan. Neither in its stillness
nor its functioning, its seated nor its active form, can zazen be said to 
be meditation. Zazen is not single-pointed mind, no-mind, aware-mind,
or trance-mind. It is not revealed in words and letters, and is only
transmitted one-to-one, from Buddha to Buddha."

Brief editorial:

In _The Way of Zen_ Alan Watts took some passages from Hui Neng's
Platform Sutra and interpreted them as a repudiation of formal,
sitting Zen. Every English-speaking Zen teacher since then has 
criticized Watts for this and said he misinterpreted the passages
in question. There is a good discussion of this in _The Three 
Pillars of Zen_ by Philip Kapleau Roshi, in the Editor's Introduction.
However, Watts's anything-can-be-zazen notion spread like a
retrovirus, and is just as hard to eradicate.  Even if the Platform
Sutra did specifically say that sitting formal zazen was not necessary,
which is debatable, the fact is that Hui-Neng was one Zen teacher
in a 1,500-year-old lineage, and all the rest of 'em emphasized
sitting, meaning SITTING, from Bodhidharma to the present. 

|There's debate about whether you can really practice zen without being 
|a Buddhist.

Yasutani seemed to think so.

|Read.  Go find a zen center and ask there what zen is.  If they're good,
|they'll give you comprehensible help in finding out what zen is.

Yep. 

In loving kindness,
Babs