Fukan-Zazengi 12: Just Doing is 'Different-From-Thinking'.


 

When the physical posture is already settled, make one complete exhalation and sway left and right. Sitting immovably in the mountain-still state, “Think about this concrete state beyond thinking.” “How can the state beyond thinking be thought about?” “It is different from thinking.” This is just the pivot of Zazen.


Having explained the cross-legged physical posture of zazen, Master Dogen now addresses the mental area of zazen, or the area of mind.

The quotes in this section are from this famous koan exchange: 

 

Once, when the Great Master Hongdao of Yueshan was sitting [in meditation], a monk asked him, "What are you thinking of, [sitting there] so fixedly?"

The master answered, "I'm thinking of not thinking."

The monk asked, "How do you think of not thinking?"

The Master answered, "Nonthinking."


This 'nonthinking' (Japanese: 'hishiryo') has been translated by Nishijima/ Cross and others as 'different from thinking', which may be a better translation as 'nonthinking' might suggest a sort of mental effort, a mental 'doing' or goal to strive for, which is not the direction being indicated by Master Dogen.

Just acting, actually engaging in the activity of sitting, is 'different-to-thinking', and is what we're already doing effortlessly in the real world when we sit zazen. Embodying this, we sit vividly and effortlessly in the present and, when we begin to settle and clarify naturally, we can see our mental comings-and-goings for what they really are and just stop thinking up the story of our imaginary lives when we notice we're doing it.

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