Zen as Embodiment (7) - Of the Body, Of the Mind
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Master Dogen wrote, "There is just sitting with the mind, which is not the same as just sitting with the body. There is just sitting with the body, which is not the same as just sitting with the mind. And there is just sitting that is free of body and mind, which is not the same as 'just sitting that is free of body and mind.'" (from Zanmai o Zanmai). What might this mean?
Zen folks typically speak of "body and mind," or simply bodymind, with body and mind as an integrated whole. Zazen is not a practice of the mind alone, nor a practice of the body alone, with the two mutually supporting and inseparable. We say 身心一如, literally body (身) and heart/mind (心) one and the same (一如). However, in my experience with many practitioners, I believe that some folks lean more toward Zazen as a mental practice, some more toward Zazen as a body practice, although neither should be truly neglected. What do I mean?
"Zazen of the mind" refers to such aspects as not investigating words or chasing thoughts, leaving aside the turning wheels of intellect and consciousness, putting down weighing, ideas and views, sitting goallessly, all as described in Dogen's "How To Sit" instructions such as Fukanzazengi. It is very much a mental experience of being untangled. It is also Zen sitting with a subtle sense of all time and space and all reality embodied in sitting, just as we have touched on in previous installments of this series.
"Zazen of the body" means the aspect in which we pour ourself into the physical posture of sitting in as balanced, stable and comfortable a posing as we can, just letting the body do its thing, the breathing breathe, nothing to think about and all absorbed in the form and graceful activity of sitting.
In fact, both poles come together in Zazen, such that effortlessly releasing oneself into the body, and effortlessly letting thoughts go, are two sides of a single Zazen coin. However, I do think that sitters, by personal temperament, may often favor more one facet over the other.
This was shown to me in talking with many sitters (such as my own teacher, Nishijima Roshi) who would compare the physical sensations of Zazen to long distance running, or dancing, of martial arts Kata, or other like physical, often repetitive activities, in which one may experience the body just "taking over," great reliance on body memory without particular effort, the rhythm of breathing, physical balance and ease discovered in the activity, often being "in the zone" and such. Practitioners who tend to such way are often heard to say that Zazen is "primarily a practice of the body" in their view. Other practitioners may experience more the mental equanimity, acceptance and detachment from tangled thoughts of the psychological aspect. They may savor the mental release, equanimity and freedom from intellectualizing more, and the insights of Wisdom. Still other practitioners may swing between or balance all such aspects.
In fact, I believe that neither kind of practitioner is wrong regarding the flavor of Shikantaza they sit, and it is just personal predilection. The body folks may tend to be a bit more athletic, active, physical, slightly less "idea oriented" perhaps. The sitters who emphasize more the mental aspect may be a bit more "in their heads," intellectual, philosophical types perhaps. (This is just my own whimsy and thought, and I don't think it always so "black & white" actually.)
But neither is "wrong" in whichever flavor of Shikantaza they benefit from more. In fact, Zazen is always a combination of the body aspect and the mind aspect together, although in varying degrees, perhaps sometimes more one than the other for a particular person or on a particular day, but always a union of both. We sit in a posture and yield to it, we drop thoughts and mental entanglements. We taste all of reality flowing in and out of our sitting. Furthermore, Master Dogen and our Soto way also emphasize so many other physical activities as "moving Zazen," such as walking Kinhin, vigorous cleaning, flowing ceremonies, calligraphy, tea ritual, gardening and general labor. One pours one's "self" into the action, all to lose the "self" and find the flowing energy and wholeness of one's true self again.
The end result is "dropping both body and mind," the "being free of bodymind" that Master Dogen next mentions, and which will be our topic next time.
Gassho, J
STLah
