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Originally Posted by Janne H
Right concentration is part of the Eightfold Path, so it should be there in our practice, right?
Shikantaza seems to have a different approach to concentration, maybe the open awareness and concentration co-exist when praticed correctly, they are not one and also not two.
This may run a bit long, for which I apologize ...
Well, a funny thing about the "
concentration" in "
Right Concentration" (
samyak-sam?dhi in Pali,
samm?-sam?dhi, in Sanskrit) ... the meaning and content of what constitutes "
Samadhi" can be very wide, very varied throughout history, depending on the school of meditation and the perspective. The etymological root (thank you to translator Greg Wonderwheel) of
samadhi means "
“putting together,” “to join,” and “to combine.” He offers translations of samadhi as
“union”, “unification”, and “absorbtion” in which all discriminations are joined or combined into a realization of the great non-dual harmony of true suchness." An important section of the Platform Sutra (Greg's translation) states the following, and notice the emphasis on being "unperturbed" "unstuck" "unattached" to circumstances, dropping thoughts about conditions ...
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Learned and virtuous ones, what is called zen-samadhi (dhyana-samadhi)? Outwardly, to be free from characteristics is doing zen. Inwardly, to not be perturbed is doing samadhi. Outwardly, if one attaches to characteristics, inwardly, the heart-mind is immediately perturbed. Outwardly, if one is free from characteristics, the heart-mind is immediately not perturbed. The root nature by itself is pure, by itself is samadhi. Only by seeing conditions and thinking about conditions is one immediately perturbed. If someone sees various conditions and the heart-mind is not perturbed, this is real samadhi. Learned and virtuous ones, outwardly, to be free from characteristics is immediately zen. Inwardly, to not be perturbed is immediately samadhi. Outwardly, zen, inwardly, samadhi, this is doing zen-samadhi.
So, Zen practice tended to take a view of Samadhi very different from those schools of meditation which held to to be a deep state of one pointed concentration leading to "
Jhana" (which leads to another story ... the "
Jhana" story)
A book that should be mentioned is the recent "
The Experience of Samadhi" by Richard Skankman, a survey of historical and modern Theravadan interpretations of
Samadhi and
Jhana. What is particularly interesting in reading the book is the extent of disagreement and widely varied interpretations from teacher to teacher, Sri Lankan vs. Burmese vs. Thai vs. Westerners, Lineage to Lineage even in that neck of the Buddhist world. Here is a Buddhistgeeks interview the author gave ... and as he discusses, there is little agreement, either currently or in centuries past, among the South Asian traditions either about "what the Buddha taught", or at least, how to interpret "what the Buddha taught" on the subject of Jhana. In the book, he interviews about two dozen teachers in South Asian traditions, and gets about two dozen, often very dissimilar interpretations.
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We continue our discussion with insight meditation teacher and author, Richard Shankman. In this episode we continue to dissect the different kinds of samadhi and their respective fruits--what in the Theravada tradition are called jhana (or "meditative absorption"). According to Shankman there are two ways of approaching the attainment of jhana, one as was taught in the original canonical texts of the Theravada, the Pali Suttas, and the other from the later commentaries on the Buddha's teachings, the Vishudimagga. As a result we get two different forms of jhana--one called Sutta jhana and the other called Vishudimagga jhana. ...
http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/2 ... 1166-power
http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/2 ... shudimagga
Richard Skankman's book makes one very interesting point that, perhaps, can be interpreted to mean that practices such as
Shikantaza and the like actually cut right to the summit of
Jhana practice. You see, it might perhaps possibly be argued (from some interpretations presented in the book) that Shikantaza practice is very close to what is referred to as the "
Fourth Jhana in the Suttas" ... as opposed to the highly concentrated, hyper-absorbed
Visuddhimagga commentary version. The Fourth Jhana in the Pali Suttas was considered the 'summit' of Jhana practice (as the higher Jhana, No. 5 to 8, were not encouraged as a kind of 'dead end') and appears to manifest (quoting the sutta descriptions in the book) "
an abandoning of pleasure.pain, attractions/aversions, a dropping of both joy and grief", a dropping away of both rapture and bliss states, resulting in a "purity of mindfulness" and "equanimity". Combine this with the fact that, more than a "one pointed mind absorbed into a particular object", there is a "
unification of mind" (described as a broader awareness around the object of meditation ... whereby the "
mind itself becomes collected and unmoving, but not the objects of awareness, as mindfulness becomes lucid, effortless and unbroken" (See, for examples. pages 82-83 here))
http://books.google.com/books?id=lQ_ZzF ... q=&f=false
A bit of the discussion of the highest (in Buddhist Practice) "Fourth Jhana", and its emphasis on equanimity while present amid circumstances (and a dropping of bliss states), can be found on page 49 here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=lQ_ZzF ... th&f=false
This is very close to a description of
Shikantaza, for example, as dropping all aversions and attractions, finding unification of mind, collected and unmoving, effortless and unbroken,
in/as/through/not removed from the life, circumstances, complexities which surround us and are us, sitting still with what is just as it is.
There has always been the tendency in meditation (including, but not limited to, Buddhist meditation schools of many flavors) to seek for special, extraordinary states of mind. Such states can be attained too with sufficient effort and concentration. It is possible and even highly likely that the Buddha himself taught forms of meditation emphasizing various Jhana states, although perhaps just to certain kinds of people needing it, as skillful means perhaps. Many paths, One Vehicle.
In any event, there are always those who are seeking to escape from this world, attain various bliss or unusual mental states. And (coming at it from another approach) there have been those (such as in my own tradition of
Shikantaza Zazen) who have instead found that this very world, and this ordinary life-mind is the most special, miraculous and extra-ordinary state when realized as such (and even when, in our delusion, not).
SO, IN ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION ... :) :oops:
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maybe the open awareness and concentration co-exist when praticed correctly, they are not one and also not two.
Shikantaza and intense concentration practices can certainly "co-exist". Yet (for the reasons stated), when practiced correctly ... as the complete and whole-some path to '
at one-ness with/as/realizing just this' which it is ... there is no other meditation path needed
for/as/realizing Realization than
Shikantaza. (And to do more may be like hitting the gas pedal and the brakes on the car at once ... counter-productive at best.)
Gassho, Jundo
