Aspects of Zazen IV: Oneness with Every Thing.

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When we say something like 'oneness with the Universe' we might think of it as some transcendent state, or a head-trippy multicoloured experience with stars and rainbows, but actually it's already an everyday fact that we are a part of the Universe, every part of us, even the thoughts in our head to the contrary of this fact that chop our experience up into 'me' as opposed 'that' when we mistake them for broader reality.

After a while in zazen/ dropping-off-body-and-mind, when thinking calms down and our mind clarifies, we can notice times when we're sitting in an open, restful state where there is no 'me' as opposed 'that', no 'inside' as opposed 'outside'. This is us experiencing ourselves as undivided from everything else.

All that separates us from this state of realisation is a thin veil of thoughts and feelings that we might habitually mistake as the self. But the real self, the selfless-self or our 'buddha-nature', is manifesting along with every single thing we are experiencing right now, at all times.

It's not a far-off quality that we have to chase after, nor a special spiritual trip reserved for just a few 'masters' - it's what we all already are here and now. We just have to practice to directly realise it, because generally we tend to identify with our thoughts and feelings.

This is the last of the 'four aspects of zazen' that Nishijima Roshi drew our attention to. Many thanks to him for his special directness and clarity regarding these essential points.


4. Oneness with the Universe

When we are practicing Zazen, not only can we say that bodyand-mind are one; we are also sitting in the state where there is no distinction between ourselves and the external circumstances—the world around us. Most people have at some time experienced this simple feeling of oneness with everything, and in Zazen we can notice that it is not just a feeling, but the actual state of things in the present moment.

When we are sitting in Zazen we are one with the Universe, and the state includes all things and phenomena. In that sense, although we are experiencing the state, we cannot grasp it intellectually. We cannot describe it completely. We call the state “ineffable,” or “dharma,” or “truth,” or “reality.” But even these words are inadequate to describe the simple and original state that we return to in Zazen.

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