Sit-a-Long with Taigu: Zazen for Beginners (Part III)

[Jundo]

Like me (Jundo Cohen), Rev. Taigu Turlur is also teacher at Treeleaf Sangha. Born in France in 1964, he started Zazen early — at age 13! — and received Shukke Tokudo ordination in 1983 — at age 18! — from Rev. Mokudo Zeisler of the Deshimaru Lineage, and Dharma Transmission from Chodo Cross in 2003. A lifelong student and servant of sewing the Kesa (Buddhist robes), he now resides near Osaka, Japan.

Taigu will be speaking in our series “Zazen for Beginners” (because we’re always beginners) on sitting with the body … as body-mind are not two.

Taigu writes …

Sitting with our body-mind is the very heart of our tradition. How to sit? You will find on line a lot of information about it. People tell you what you should be doing or what you should not. In some Zendos, firm hands may correct your posture so it looks as if it gets closer to what they imagine to be the real thing. In some instances, Zen practice may nurture in us an army-like attitude, alongside we may display some arrogance and intolerance and sit like huge stones, filled with tensions and knots.

I would like to invite you to something slightly different.

Tricks and methods can work to a certain extent. We may receive very helpful instruction and guidance, but eventually, we are alone and it is within and with this body-mind of ours that we sit. The problem is that everybody is different and you cannot correct somebody’s sitting from outside. The activity of sitting is to allow the flower of the Dharma to blossom, to let sitting sitting us and not to force the body into a rigid-fixed composure.

I am not an expert at sitting. I have no diploma about body-work or the like. Although I started sitting more than thirty years ago, it feels like yesterday. So please, take my words with great caution. I would like to provide a few directions and invite you to start where you are with who you are. Beware of not cultivating a particular thought or of toying with a certain idea during sitting, for instance, the picture of the flower blossoming is just a metaphor to give you a flavor or the balanced way to release the lower part of the body into the ground, it is not supposed to be present in your mind during sitting itself. Sitting itself is free of any clinging, so in Shikantaza, following the breath, counting the breaths, or focusing on a koan are not required. It is coming to a place where through not-doing and not-knowing one enjoys the complete and vast scenery of things-as-it-is. Sitting is to realize , not just intellectually, but through our whole body-mind that nothing is lacking, that our being is imperfectly perfect. Sitting is to strip the doing and thinking habits, which is what we can truly call karma, and return to our true home, always where we are. And please, just be humble, forget your knowledge and experience, drop your bag at the gate of sitting, if you keep the weight of a straw or even a tiny thread, it’s extra. To be a beginner is to come to sitting as a beginner. It is open to everybody. As Master Dogen guided in Fukanzazengi…

In general, a quiet room is good for Zen practice, and food and drink are taken in moderation. Abandon all involvements. Give the myriad things a rest. Do not think of good and bad. Do not care about right and wrong. Stop the driving movement of mind, will, consciousness. Cease intellectual consideration through images, thoughts, and reflections. Do not aim to become a buddha. How could it be connected with sitting or lying down?

Usually on the place where we sit we spread a thick mat, on top of which we use a round cushion. Either sit in the full lotus posture or sit in the half lotus posture. To sit in the full lotus posture, first put the right foot on the left thigh, then put the left foot on the right thigh. To sit in the half lotus posture, just press the left foot onto the right thigh. Let clothing hang loosely and make it neat. Then place the right hand over the left foot, and place the left hand on the right palm. The thumbs meet and support each other.

Just sit upright, not leaning to the left, inclining to the right, slouching forward, or arching backward. It is vital that the ears vis-à-vis the shoulders, and the nose vis-à-vis the navel, are caused to oppose each other. Let the tongue spread against the roof of the mouth. Let the lips and teeth come together. The eyes should be kept open. Let the breath pass imperceptibly through the nose.

Having regulated the physical posture, breathe out once, and sway left and right. Sit still, “Thinking that state beyond thinking.” “How can the state beyond thinking be thought?” “Non-thinking.” This is the vital art of sitting-zen.

What is called sitting-zen, sitting-meditation, is not meditation that is learned. It is the Dharma-gate of effortless ease. It is the practice and experience that gets to the bottom of the Buddha’s enlightenment. The laws of the Universe are realized, around which there are no nets or cages. To grasp this meaning is to be like a dragon that has found water, or like a tiger before a mountain stronghold. Remember, true reality spontaneously emerges, and darkness and dissipation vanish at a stroke.

CLICK HERE for today’s Sit-A-Long video.

[youtube] [/youtube]

Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 15 to 35 minutes is recommended.

[Ray]

Thanks so much. I had always been sitting very rigid and tense. Wtaching/listening to your talk has given me a sense of releif that I can be flexible and it is not about attaining this perfect posture!

Kind Regards,

Ray

[Sleeps]

Wow, I had to go back and sit with the other videos because I'm still working on letting the habbit of rushing as if the house is on fire peter out. Noticed that at the bottom it recomends to sit after each clip. Lots of instruction in books and online I found stresses "BACK UPRIGHT, IF YOU SLOUCH, GET BACK UP, CHIN TUCKED IN, FOLLOW THE BREATH", those three being the main stressed points. I've been doing it like that for a long time and it always felt intuitively wrong, "if I'm supposed to be just sitting, why am I engaged in all these other activities?". You put it really well, just let yourself blossom like a flower. When I was doing all that other stuff besides sitting, I pretty much ended up going towards one thought or another or running away from others and ended up in more of a habbit energy fueling pattern if I'm understanding it correctly.

I can see how "sitting with what is" that present stillness in the middle of even some pretty epic mental storms makes sense. You're free to just let stuff come and go and not engage with it really. I'd get troubling feelings and thoughts but it was very distinct the last few times sitting, this "open stillness" with the activity.

I have a question about following the breath though, is it a tool to "ground" yourself every now and then? If not, when and why would someone bring their attention to the breath during sitting? I'd really like to hear more about this because before I came here I'd be just sitting...and following the breath, pretty forceful activity...

Cheers,
Greg

[Taigu]

In this sangha, we generally follow the breath to settle the mind but we just let go of it and just be. You may just rest the mind in the palm of the left hand as instructed by Nyojo and Keizan, you may just be aware of your straight spine or rest in the open space created by the non dualistic body-mind.

I hope this helps

gassho

Taigu

a lovely quote from Suzuki roshi:

Why it is difficult is—you have to—you have to have right posture, and you have to make—and all parts of your body should participate in the practice of counting breathing. And your mind should follow the counting, and your arm, and mudr?, and legs, and spines, and, you know, muscles should join—participate [in] the counting-breathing practice. And it is more than concentration to—it is more than to be concentrated on your counting. Concentration usually means mental practice, you know, but counting-breathing practice is not just a mental practice but also physical practice too. Then not much difference between shikantaza and counting-breathing practice.



Shikantaza means to practice zazen with your whole body and mind—that is shikantaza. So maybe after you—you can practice counting-breathing practice pretty well, you can practice following-breathing practice—to just, you know, follow your breathing without counting. Your mind is always in—on breathing, and your physical practice is participate [in] the breathing. That is to follow the breathing. And shikantaza, you know, is more than that. You don’t even try to follow your breathing. Maybe you can say more advanced practice. Hai.

[Koshin]

Now I begin to understand how to sit ... before, with the information I got, I sat in a strained and artificial way... Now understand that I need a relaxed way of sitting, arising from the interior, as part of the "world as it is" ... the tip about a little tilt in the Zafu before sitting is wonderful, transformed my sittingfrom torture for my lower and higher back, into a much better position to let the mind and body drift away ... I still feel a slight pain in the center of the upper back but I attribute that in itself I have always tended to bend my back forward, but hopefully with practice this will go away too. Thank you!

[BrianL]

This is a relief to hear; I've been very rigid in my sitting and have figured that the muscle pain resulting from arching my back was supposed to help somehow.

Thinking about it, it makes sense: No one 'perfect' posture is going to work for all body types, and thinking you have to mold your posture to a conceptual ideal seems to work against there being 'nothing to attain'...

[Rousie]

Many thanks! I mostly sit on a bench but your instruction here is very useful. The relaxed, "flowering", base of shikantaza is a breath of fresh air to my zen studies. Again, thanks.

[Neika]

Thank you Taigu.