4 Aspects of Zazen I: Different from Thinking.


Nishijima Roshi's first aspect of zazen is a main point from Master Dogen's zazen instructions Fukanzazengi and the 'non-thinking'/'different from thinking' koan that Dogen discusses in Fukanzazengi.

In other forms of Buddhist practice people try to cultivate concentration on an object such as the breath, or try to bring about certain states of calm abiding or mental stability... that comes in zazen, but we don't try to make it happen. Our thinking mind, that likes to think it's in control (it isn't!), might not like this at times, but it's through dropping off all intention and mental fabrication of methods and imagined goals that we directly clarify our experience.

It's like 'taking a step off a one hundred-foot pole' as the old koan says -- No mental nor conceptual safety net. We throw ourselves open to the whole world.

"Zazen is useless!," as Kodo Sawaki Roshi said, and that is a very advanced teaching in this regard, and it's very direct. 

'Concentrating on the posture' as stated below is not something that Master Dogen recommended explicitly, it was a direction that Nishijima Roshi liked to suggest, but 'the posture' here means engaging our body-mind as it is now, 'sitting' as a living action, and not some imagined nor idealised posture...


1. Different from Thinking

"The state in Zazen is without intention and is different from thinking. This statement sounds strange as we normally believe that we are always thinking. We avoid intentionally following a train of thought during Zazen by concentrating on maintaining the posture. Of course spontaneous thoughts and images arise in our consciousness during Zazen, but they are not important. When we notice that we are thinking about something, we should simply stop. If we correct our posture, the thought or perception will disappear and our consciousness will slowly become clear and we will feel peaceful. In this peaceful and balanced state, we are in the state that is “different from thinking.” However, if we intentionally try to attain the state that is different from thinking, we can never do so. When our consciousness is full of thoughts and feelings during Zazen, we should leave our state as it is. Our worries will bubble to the surface and evaporate into the universe! In this way, by concentrating on the posture, we will return naturally to our original state during our practice."

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