Essential Zen

Essential Zen defined

In order to attempt a definition of Essential Zen it is necessary first to provide a definition of Zen itself.

Wikipedia wrote:Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, translated from the Chinese word Chán. This word is in turn derived from the Sanskrit dhyāna, which means "meditation".

Zen emphasizes experiential prajñā, particularly as realized in the form of meditation, in the attainment of enlightenment. As such, it de-emphasizes theoretical knowledge in favor of direct, experiential realization through meditation and dharma practice.

The establishment of Zen is traditionally credited to be in China, the Shaolin Temple, by the Southern Indian Pallava prince-turned-monk Bodhidharma, who came to China to teach a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words". The emergence of Zen as a distinct school of Buddhism was first documented in China in the 7th century AD. It is thought to have developed as an amalgam of various currents in Mahāyāna Buddhist thought — among them the Yogācāra and Mādhyamaka philosophies and the Prajñāpāramitā literature — and of local traditions in China, particularly Taoism and Huáyán Buddhism. From China Zen subsequently spread south to Vietnam, and east to Korea and Japan.

Traditional Zen, or perhaps Conventional Zen then is a course of study and meditation, which if formally undertaken, will occur at a Zen monastery under the guidance of a previously acknowledged "Master" acting as abbot. The goal is to achieve enlightenment, and to have that enlightenment validated by the master.

So, what IS Essential Zen? As with other esoteric teachings, I believe it gets described and defined in the poetry associated with it. That includes the vignettes of those who have achieved, who could be called adepts, who could be called enlightened masters: that is, those who have achieved the goal as described by don Juan: "..what matters to a warrior is arriving at the totality of oneself."

Essential Zen is a thought process, not requiring meditation, not requiring monasteries, not requiring the approval of an acknowledged master. It is understood by recognizing the applicability of the teachings in everyday living. It is truly the lazy and indulgent man's way to enlightenment.

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Gonzo wrote:

Essential Zen is a thought process...

Is it?

Zamurito wrote:~

Gonzo wrote:Essential Zen is a thought process...

Is it?

It is. But then, all existence is a thought process. We have Descarte's "cogito" as well as Gautama's "We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.."

Meditation itself is a thought process, and supposedly meditation is the means to gain enlightenment. For that matter, any physical action, including martial arts, is preceded by a thought. The body is put into motion via thought. How much of Aikido is a thought process? Without that process, the discipline has little worth.

The Essential Zen thought process is one of understanding the poetry then observing its applicability in being, and usually a modification of the thought process. The whole business of recapitulation likewise is a thought process.

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Gonzo wrote:Essential Zen is a thought process...

Define "Thought Process" please.

Zamurito wrote:~

Gonzo wrote:Essential Zen is a thought process...

Define "Thought Process" please.

The Essential Zen thought process involves reading the poetry, reading the vignettes, responding to what is exhibited therein, pondering upon the relevance to one's life, then finally seeing the relevance in one's existence.

It might be helpful to provide an example using a Haiku by Issa:

One human being
One fly
In the spacious chamber.

That could be expanded to be whatever insect might fly in my open door, which, at the moment, includes myriad butterflies, wasps, a variety of flies, and of course, mosquitoes. To me, the haiku talks about a point of attention, perhaps the famous Assemblage Point. That is, when the bug enters, attention is focused there, and when they fly in, they do snag my attention.

I don't mind the bugs....in fact, I rather enjoy them. The butterflies are smart enough to fly in, realize there is nothing here they want, then fly out the open door. Mosquitoes obviously have food on their minds and enter to feast off me. The annoying ones are flies that enter and ignore my admonition to stay off my beer mug. They are free to land wherever they want...just don't mess with my beer, because if they do, I will attempt to kill them It's amazing to notice that flies are like humans...very individual...some listen, some don't...some are wise asses, and think I can't kill them...I had one yesterday, after I took a swing with a fly swatter, flew around and landed on my nose. Nice joke. I got his ass later.

How does this relate to enlightenment? In the whole of the thing is the notion of who am I, or better, I am sort of not in this whole thing. There is me, and the fly, and his attention is on me, mine is on him, and nothing else really matters. We two are in the moment...one human being, one fly, in the spacious chamber.

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Those who follow the Tao are clear of mind.
They do not load their mind with anxieties and are
flexible in their adjustment to external conditions.
Chuang-Tzu

The Tao that can be named is not the real Tao.

Which is similar to this one:

To say the word 'Buddha" is trailing mud and dripping water; to say the word 'Ch'an' is a face full of shame."

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In formatting another post on GG from Curtis Sensei, I ran across this bit that seems to relate:

Student: In this chapter, Sensei, you talk about sudden awakening, and how this is not something that sticks necessarily. In the previous chapter you talked about accidental awakenings. And it seems that you are saying that sudden awakening does not have as much merit.


Curtis Sensei:
Some schools of Zen training use koan. A koan is a question to which there is no logical or rational answer to be found. And by addressing the koan, sometimes for years, one can be brought to the point where this desperately seeking mind suddenly gives up. And right in that instant we get to see what’s actually going on. The mind that is seeking to try to understand is exactly what keeps us from seeing what really is going on. So koan is one way of bringing ourself to that point. But it doesn’t cause it. That’s why, in Zen, they always say that it’s as if you were having an accident. But by addressing the koan, you are making yourself more accident prone, more likely to wake up, more likely to have this experience.

FWIW...

Zamurito wrote:~

In formatting another post on GG from Curtis Sensei, I ran across this bit that seems to relate:

Student: In this chapter, Sensei, you talk about sudden awakening, and how this is not something that sticks necessarily. In the previous chapter you talked about accidental awakenings. And it seems that you are saying that sudden awakening does not have as much merit.


Curtis Sensei:
Some schools of Zen training use koan. A koan is a question to which there is no logical or rational answer to be found. And by addressing the koan, sometimes for years, one can be brought to the point where this desperately seeking mind suddenly gives up. And right in that instant we get to see what’s actually going on. The mind that is seeking to try to understand is exactly what keeps us from seeing what really is going on. So koan is one way of bringing ourself to that point. But it doesn’t cause it. That’s why, in Zen, they always say that it’s as if you were having an accident. But by addressing the koan, you are making yourself more accident prone, more likely to wake up, more likely to have this experience.

FWIW...

Sure...the sudden awakening (Satori), versus the gradual (I forgot its name), depending upon which traditional school of Zen Buddhism with which one is associated. Essential Zen is non-traditional. Whatever techniques one chooses to use are available.

In my opinion, enlightenment is a process rather than an end state. There are definite points of achievement, and with those achievements deeper appreciation of that which is exhibited in the poetry. Another aspect also in my opinion is that whatever stage of the process one is in, it is not a constant. That is, there seems to be continual wavering illustrated somewhat by the following quip:

An ordinary man is Buddha; desire and passion is enlightenment. One thought of folly makes a man an ordinary man; the next enlightened thought and he is a Buddha.

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Gonzito writes: "In my opinion, enlightenment is a process rather than an end state. There are definite points of achievement, and with those achievements deeper appreciation of that which is exhibited in the poetry."

Ok.

I suppose this is the point I've been alluding to all along: Do tell of this 'process' or, 'your thought process.' Tell me YOUR process. We can look at quips and koans and poetry all day long; how are you interpreting them??

Let's get inside Gonzito's head!

Zamurito wrote:~

Gonzito writes: "In my opinion, enlightenment is a process rather than an end state. There are definite points of achievement, and with those achievements deeper appreciation of that which is exhibited in the poetry."

Ok.

I suppose this is the point I've been alluding to all along: Do tell of this 'process' or, 'your thought process.' Tell me YOUR process. We can look at quips and koans and poetry all day long; how are you interpreting them??

Let's get inside Gonzito's head!

OK. I thought I had done that earlier talking about the insects that invade my camper. I think what you would like to hear is perhaps how I evaluate where I find myself being at the moment, and perhaps how that relates to what I'm trying to define as Essential Zen.

I got up this morning around 0430, not sleeping well from about midnight on, apparently a rat, or perhaps a cat finding a seam between Kim's trailer and a built on addition room. The trailer has shifted and there's perhaps an inch and a half between the walls, and the last two nights some critter has noisly made its way in there, then fortunately gone quiet, perhaps nesting somewhere underneath. It was also warm enough to turn on the ceiling fan, which was then making scritching noises, similar to other critters that had invaded the ceiling, probably cockroaches. (It's fun living in the near tropics.) So, both of these events provide opportunities, and the process, or thought process concerning them could have been a variety of things, from major annoyance (thought of using my shotgun on the cat/rat, but then it would fall under the trailer and rot and stink), to a rather perverse affection, reminiscent of the haiku I posted, about one human, one fly, in the empty chamber.

I used the opportunity to reminisce a bit, and to recall how I have reacted to similar annoyances in the past, and realized I react differently nowadays. I'm not sure if that's an age related thing, or part of the process mentioned. I prefer to think it is the latter, because getting from the prior state of being, or state of mind, to where I find myself now has taken conscious effort, and specific guidance, not all coming from studies. I'll provide details on those processes if that's what you're interested in.

The ceiling fan scritch provided an opportunity to play with attention. If I listened to the scritch, I imagined cockroaches consuming the acoustic ceiling tiles...the cockroaches we have here are large, and red, some locals call them water bugs, but they are cockroaches...and everyone has them, and they are annoying. The more I listened to the scritch, the more annoying it was, but then, playing a game of keeping the mind occupied, I realized I had gone several minutes without hearing a scritch. Perhaps the famous shift of the Assemblage Point? HA

So what's the point? The point is again a recognized attitudinal shift from past behavior to now. Instead of annoyances, they appear to be unique opportunities.

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Gonzo wrote:
OK. I thought I had done that earlier talking about the insects that invade my camper.

Thank you for sharing your tales of power.

I enjoyed them very much...

Kris

Zamurito wrote:~

Gonzo wrote:
OK. I thought I had done that earlier talking about the insects that invade my camper.

Thank you for sharing your tales of power.

I enjoyed them very much...

Kris

Hardly Tales of Power...tales of mud, blood, and beer...far more interesting.

Since starting this thread and attempting to fully describe Essential Zen, I've realized I started towards the end. What needs to be addressed first are some basic questions concerning goals, and the purpose of Zen.

Loosely stated the goal is enlightenment. No one so far has, to my satisfaction, defined enlightenment. Therefore, I've come to the conclusion the meaning is personal; it means different things to different people. Some associated terms are freedom, realization, awakening, achieving Nirvana, perhaps a permanent state of heightened awareness, perhaps don Juan's Man of Knowledge. Acutally, don Juan's "reaching the totality of oneself" is more relevant.

My personal definition arrived via a dream in Costa Rica: genuine contentment.

Regardless, enlightenment is reaching a state one views as exalted, minimally as "better" than the current state. What constitutes "better" constitutes personal enlightenment. Therefore, if one could become enlightened, one would be "better"...would actualize their higher self, would no longer dislike oneself, would be completely confident in all situations, would be completely vulnerable and transparent, or in the words of one Zen quip, "...like an autumn pond, limpid and clean. Pure and clear, without contrivance, quiescent and still without hindrance" and "...purified, naked, and perfectly at ease..."

Another aspect is achieving true spontaneity, in which one acts and speaks without restraint, without editing, fully trusting in one's true essence, not doubting.

Edited, to point to the bumped topic on enlightenment: Enlightenment Redux

Oh I wouldnt say it doesnt require meditation. One of the purposes of zazen and sitting in the posture is to meditate. If we're gonna become enlightened, we have to tame the mind, which acts like a wild tiger in its thots, when they arise. This is why you see depictions of monks riding the tiger, overcoming the nature of fleighty mind.

You still can be lazy in mediation. Wnile it is difficult to sit still and be silent for long periods of time, whats it gonna hurt? We're only going to get better in the process and shut down that internal dialogue with such a technique.