Talk Notes:
I am going to talk today about the Dyana, the Paramita of concentration or meditation. I’ll be referencing 2 texts throughout this exploration: The Anapanasati Sutra (Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing), which contain the Buddha’s teaching on meditation as recorded in the Pali Canon, and Fukanzazengi, Dogen’s instruction on sitting meditation. Dogen, having brought Chinese Zen to Japan, is often referred to as the “father” of our Soto Zen lineage.
I can’t, and won’t even try, in this 40 minute talk, to offer an exhaustive commentary of either the Anapasati Sutra or Fukanzazengi. Each of these writings is rich with meaning and opens a window to the depth and breadth of meditation practice. Instead, my aim is to introduce you to these teachings, and what each might offer you - and then to give you the invitation to continue your exploration of Dyana through practice.
We chanting the Fukanzazengi this morning in service, so I’m going to start by introducing the Anapanasati Sutra, Buddha’s instructions on the awareness of breathing:
He offered these instructions on the night of a full moon, and begins this way:
It is like this, Bikkhus: the practitioner goes into the forest or to the food of a tree, or any deserted place, sits stably in the lotus position, holding their his (or her or their) body quite erect, and practices like this: Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know I am breathing out.
And then the Buddha innumerates the 16 contemplations. These are divided into 4 categories: the contemplation of body, feelings, mind and wisdom. The first 4 contemplations of body (and that includes breath - since we experience it within the body) are:
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Breathing in short, I am aware I am breathing in short.
Breathing out short, I am aware I am breathing out short.
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Breathing in long, I am aware I am breathing in long.
Breathing out long, I am aware I am breathing out long
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Breathing in, I experience the whole body.
Breathing out, I experience the whole body.
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Breathing in, I calm the body.
Breathing out, I calm the body.
Note the emphasis is on awareness - awareness of the quality of the breath. It could be a long breath or a short breath, as Buddha states - or a jagged breath, a shallow breath, a rapid breath, a deep breath, and so on.
Contemplation of the breath naturally leads to experience of the body. Breathing in, I experience the body. Breathing out, I experience the body. The movement of the breath happens in the body, so experience of the breath fully supports an embodied awareness. And when we follow the breath in the body, what follows is in the 4th contemplation, calming the body.
There are 3 more tetrads- groupings of 4 contemplations - that follow a similar pattern. The contemplations of feeling include:
Breathing in, I experience joy. Breathing out, I experience joy. Likewise, I experience pleasure, I experience mental processes, and I calm mental processes.
The contemplations of mind include: experiencing the mind, pleasing the mind, steadying the mind and liberating the mind.
The contemplations of wisdom include: observing impermanence, dispassion (impartial or unbiased), cessation and relinquishment.
The word anapanasati is comprised of 2 words: ana which refers to the lifeforce energy that comes in and out (the breath), and apana is the waste that is expelled. The sutra is concerned with the entire process: breathing and letting go. This implies breathing, with awareness, invites letting go - or “dropping body and mind” as Dogen would say, a sort of ultimate letting go.
What strikes me about this Sutra is HOW detailed meditation instruction given by Buddha is. Our Zen tradition, however, is known for its bare bones or brevity in instruction. In our tradition, Shikantaza is emphasized - just sitting. What does Shikantaza mean? Its literal translation is “just sitting.” No particular technique - in fact, it’s sometimes referred to as a “non-method.” Dogen, our lineage founder, offers brief instruction on Shikantaza, which includes these 3 things:
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Sit in an upright posture
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Settle an open (non-conceptual) awareness
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And allow thoughts to emerge and pass away (like clouds)
And that leaves me with the question of how are we supposed to get there?
Some of us have been instructed to count the breath. I have never seen in Dogen’s writing the technique of counting the breath. It is, however, an ancient teaching of the Tendai Buddhist tradition. And some time between Dogen’s life in the 1200s and our modern day world, it was understood by our teachers that we need a technique to focus our mind. So, this ancient practice of breath counting was offered. I learned breath counting from Norman Fischer at Green Gulch (a Zen Monastery) 35 years ago, and he instructed me to count on the exhale - emphasizing letting go.
Let’s take a look at the instructions Dogen did offer us on meditation. The Fukanzazengi begins like this:
The Way is originally perfect and all-pervading. We are already Buddha.
How could it be contingent on practice and realization? So why bother with practice? He says the same thing:
The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort?
Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Again, we are already liberated, pure and untainted. So, he asks:
Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very place; what is the use of traveling around to practice? You could also say what is the use of trying this practice or that one? Then he tells us:
If there is a hairsbreadth deviation, it is like the gap between heaven and earth.
So, first he tells us the Way is all-pervading, then he says if there is the slightest deviation from the Way, the gap between who we really are and who we take ourselves to be is as wide as the space between Heaven and Earth. I think this is how we often feel - far or disconnected from Buddha, our true nature, trapped in our identity, unable to access the equanimity and liberation we associate with Buddhahood.
So, Dogen suggests Zazen. He stresses the importance of dedicated sitting practice by citing the examples of both the Buddha and Bodhidarma. In Fukanzazenki, he writes:
Need I mention the Buddha, who was possessed of inborn knowledge? The influence of his six years of upright sitting is noticeable still. Or Bodhidharma’s transmission of the mind-seal? The fame of his nine years of wall-sitting is celebrated to this day. Since this was the case with the saints of old, how can we today dispense with negotiation of the Way?
This is so classically Dogen! First he tells us that the Way is all-pervading, so how can it be contingent upon practice. Now he is asking us “how can we today dispense with the negotiation of the Way?” How can we dispense with this practice? I suppose this is why so many people find Dogen frustrating to understand.
But it’s not either/or. It’s a both/and. You are already Buddha. But life happens - to all us. We are conditioned by our upbringing and culture; our life experience leaves an imprint on our soul (not a term often used in our tradition, but for me it conveys the experiencer, the one who experiences). How we experience ourselves and our life reflects the imprinting of our history, our childhood, our culture, our language, our religion, and so on. Some imprinting we would call “positive,” while other imprinting we feel is “negative.” But Buddhists agree on this: that none of that imprinting is real. This imprinting leaves us with a set of beliefs about ourselves, self-concepts and identities.
So, we are both the enlightened and the diluted one simultaneously.
This reminds me of something Suzuki Roshi (founder of SF Zen Center) would say, “You are already perfect. And you could use a little improvement.” You are already Buddha. The Way is all-pervading (Dogen’s words). But life happened to you and to me. So, here we are - maybe feeling lost and confused. Somehow it seems that we’ve lost this all-pervading Way, and are looking for a practice to show us the Way, to offer a path back to our true nature: our wise and compassionate self.
Dogen offers a couple techniques in fascicle on Zazen, first emphasizing the environment suitable and position optimal for sitting:
For sanzen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Cast aside all involvements and cease all affairs. Do not think good or bad. Do not administer pros and cons. Cease all the movements of the conscious mind, the gauging of all thoughts and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha.
Ok, so like the Buddha, who recommends going into the forest or to a deserted place, Dogen recommends a quiet place, removed from worldly affairs. But then he tells us to have no preference, to cease all movement of the mind, and have no goals of attainment of liberation. Easier said than done.
Then he gets quite practical in his instruction, going on in great detail about positioning and posture:
At the site of your regular sitting, spread out thick matting and place a cushion above it. Sit either in the full-lotus or half-lotus position. In the full-lotus position, you first place your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on your right thigh. In the half-lotus, you simply press your left foot against your right thigh. You should have your robes and belt loosely bound and arranged in order. Then place your right hand on your left leg and your left palm (facing upwards) on your right palm, thumb-tips touching. Thus sit upright in correct bodily posture, neither inclining to the left nor to the right, neither leaning forward nor backward. Be sure your ears are on a plane with your shoulders and your nose in line with your navel. Place your tongue against the front roof of your mouth, with teeth and lips both shut. Your eyes should always remain open, and you should breathe gently through your nose.
I think this is Dogen’s way of saying, “Pay attention to your body.” Be mindful of your posture, the alignment of your spine, your mudra, your eyes half open, and gentle flow of your breath. This has a similar intention to the first 4 contemplations of the Anapasati Sutra. Although expressed quite differently, both Dogen and Buddha gave deliberate instruction on grounding your awareness in the body. This is the foundation of practice. Contemplation of the body is the first set of contemplations. Awareness of the body precedes awareness of feelings, mind and wisdom.
Dogen continues:
Once you have adjusted your posture, take a deep breath, inhale and exhale, rock your body right and left and settle into a steady, immobile sitting position. Think of not-thinking. How do you think of not-thinking? Non-thinking. This in itself is the essential art of zazen.
Think of not-thinking? How do you do that? “Non-thinking,” he says. A rather obscure way of saying there is no need to try to stop thinking or to cease all activity of the mind. Instead, he suggests non-thinking which is Dogen’s way of saying “don’t engage with the thoughts.” Thoughts will arise (inevitably), but just as they arise, allow them to pass. In Zazen, you practice awareness - or mindfulness - of thoughts, without engagement with them. The practice is to allow the train to pass, without jumping on it. This is the essential art of Zazen.
This is reflective of the Buddha’s contemplation of the mind in Anapanasati Sutra: Breathing in, I experience the mind. Breathing out, I experience the mind. This contemplation is followed by pleasing the mind, steadying the mind and liberating the mind.
Larry Rosenberg, in his book called Breath by Breath, offers commentary on each of the Buddha’s contemplations. On the contemplations of the mind, he offers us this:
The challenge of the 9th contemplation is allowing the mind thoroughly and fully just as it is…We are learning to observe states of the mind in a friendly way, instead of identifying with them, resisting them or rejecting them. The point is to change our mind from a battlefield where we’re fighting these states (mind states) of getting lost in them, to a place of peace where we can co-exist with these states. End of quote. I think this spacious acceptance of mind states that Larry is encouraging might actually be a necessary precursor to non-thinking.
After shining the light of awareness on the mind, The Anapasati Sutra continues: Gladdening the mind, I breathe in. Gladdening the mind, I breathe out. This contemplation points us to knowing the Dharma as a source of joy. I think most of us who have practiced for some time would agree that we experience happiness in life through the practice of Buddha’s Way. Larry says it like this: “A concentrated mind is a happy mind.”
Back to the Fukanzazengi. Dogen then writes:
The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the Dharma gate of repose and bliss, the practice-realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the manifestation of ultimate reality.
This part of the Fukanzazengi expresses Dogen’s teaching that practice IS enlightenment. We don’t practice to GET enlightenment. He already told us in the beginning of the fascicle that the Way is all-pervading. His practice assumes a faith in just sitting. With little instruction after finding a suitable place and position for sitting, he invites open awareness and non-thinking.
Speaking for myself, the need for an object of concentration in my meditation practice has been paramount. Following the breath, counting the breath, mindful of body and posture have helped tremendously in strengthening my concentration and stabilizing my mind.
But I find, after years of practicing breath counting, that I can count on autopilot. I can jump on that train (the train of thought) and still be counting. It’s like having 2 computer tabs open at once. Have you ever noticed this in your practice?
So, in the last couple of months, I have added some of the Buddha’s recommendations to my practice. I have been going through a particularly challenging time in my life, and have turned (almost by accident) to the contemplation practices of the Anapasati Sutra to help settle my mind. I have enjoyed working with the contemplations in the style that Thich Nhat Hahn encourages: as meditative verses to concentrate the mind. And he encourages us to find our own words - to express them in a way that feels natural.
I started with the first contemplation: Breathing in short, I am aware I am breathing in short. Breathing out short, I am aware I am breathing out short. Breathing in long, I am aware I am breathing in long. Breathing out long, I am aware I am breathing out long. Again, this is about noticing the quality of the breath. I found myself shortening the verbiage: Breathing in, long, Breathing out, long (or whatever quality was present).
Once I established focus on the breath, I added the second contemplation: Breathing in, I experience the whole body. Breathing out, I experience the whole body. For me, this became: Breathing in, awareness. Breathing out, full body. Over time it became: Breath (in the inhale). Body (on the exhale).
The next contemplation: Breathing in, I calm the body. Breathing out, I calm the body. For me: Inhale, breath. Exhale, letting go.
Here are some examples of how Thich Naht Hahn uses the contemplation verses in walking meditation. on p.107.
I suppose it’s possible to practice this way with any of the verses of the Anapanasati Sutra, but I personally haven’t made it past the first 4 verses. I hope it wasn’t too confusing my going back and forth in this talk between these 2 texts on meditation instruction. They seem so very different. Buddha’s instructions are much more detailed and prescriptive than Dogen’s. I personally find Dogen’s teaching so very inspirational. And I need both: the clear techniques offered by Buddha and the inspiration I experience with Dogen.
I want to end this talk with some encouraging words offered by Dogen at the end of the Fukanzazengi:
Devote your energies to a way that directly indicates the absolute. Revere the person of complete attainment who is beyond all human agency. Gain accord with the enlightenment of the buddhas; succeed to the legitimate lineage of the ancestors’ samadhi. Constantly perform in such a manner and you are assured of being a person such as they. Your treasure-store will open of itself, and you will use it at will.
I find Dogen’s words so inspiring to practice with.
If there is time, I want to practice together with the first verses of the Anapanasati Sutra - I will guide you in meditation, giving you space to find your own expression of verse.
