Seeking Buddha, Non-Seeking Buddha
Hi,
I might say, very broadly, that meditation falls into two patterns:
First, those methods, the vast majority, that seek enlightenment or some altered state of consciousness, perhaps seeking a state of Buddhahood somehow distant or apart.
Next, there are forms that radically halt all seeking, sitting as all Peace, Fullness and Completion with nothing more to attain.
Both are ways to find the state of Buddhahood. The latter offers the advantage of "finding" what is here all along, and always has been, by giving up the idea of a goal that is someplace distant. The dog stops chasing its tail, and realizes and wags what it has had all along. Furthermore, one realizes the Peace, Fullness and Completion that is the very mind of Buddha without lack, for a Buddha would know a state where there is nothing more to do and no other place in need of going. Such meditation can be distinguished from a mere sitting in complacency, resignation and wallowing in a deluded mind, for the very sitting of Peace, Fullness and Completion is fulfilling and wholesome.
How strange it is to chase after an eventual sense of nothing more to chase. Better to simply realize the Completion of nothing more to chase. Especially these days in our goal and consumption oriented Western societies, the former kinds of meditation seeking for some goal may feed into the "spiritual materialism" that is driven by our modern, never satisfied consumerism and thrill oriented hungers that are always looking for the next high, the next wild experience, the next reward or acquisition. We don't know how to rest. still and totally Satisfied in the manner of a Buddha. We only know how to keep chasing chasing chasing.
In Shikantaza, one comes to put down the chase, to pause the race after the next acquisition. One learns to sit (and then, get up and live) in Total Wholeness and Satisfaction right here and now, with nothing more to attain. I think that is an important medicine to counter the "spiritual materialism" that always leaves us chasing after something more and more and more.
Further, in Master Dogen's way of Practice-Enlightenment, one can learn a further art: the Way of Seeking-Non-Seeking. One can learn to always seek to live more gently, to get things built and projects done, while simultaneously also knowing the Total Satisfaction of nothing more to build and nothing more to do. One can thus seek goals while also dropping all goals at once. It is a good way to live.
Now, I said that I describe my two categories broadly, because there may be ways of meditation besides Shikantaza that do seek goals and drop all goals at once. I leave that door open, and do not wish to say that Shikantaza is the only technique that pulls off that trick. Shikantaza does not have exclusive claim to such a way of Practice. However, Shikantaza is certainly a very pure form of Goalless Practice, a Goalless Practice that thus Hits the Goal!
Let me get on my soapbox and make some things clear, set em straight:
It is -not- the case that there is "nothing to find" in, through and as this practice of "not seeking". "No place to go and nothing to attain" does -not- mean that there is no place to "get", no treasure to snare at the end of the rainbow. If that were so, then why pursue this path?
Nor does "nothing to achieve" mean that there is not "enlightenment to achieve" thereby. It would not be Buddhism in that case.
Just because we are "not seeking" does not mean we are "not seeking" ... nor that there aren't wondrous marvels thus to find!
To the marrow sitting free of seeking ... is a dandy way thus to find that which can only be found by sitting radically free of seeking. Realizing that there is no where to "get to", and no place you can get or need get ... is finally getting somewhere that will revolutionize life, and put your "you" out of a job. One gets very far, one finally arrives ... by sitting still.[claps]
"Shikantaza" Zen practice is a radical, to the marrow, dropping of the self's demands that something needs to be attained to make this world "right", that something must be added or removed from our lives to make life complete, that something is defective and needs to be changed., that we need to get some place to find our "True Home".
HOWEVER, radically dropping, to the marrow all need to attain, add, remove, or change in order to make life right and complete --IS-- A WONDROUS ATTAINMENT, ADDITION and CHANGE TO LIFE! Dropping all need to "get somewhere" is truly finally GETTING SOMEWHERE! Through "nothing to do, nothing to change," one simultaneously becomes free of the excess desire, frustration and divisive thinking that is fed by seeking. The True Home is here and everywhere! Abandoning all need in life's race to cross some finish line over a distant hill, is simply arriving at the finish line which is our every step!
By being "goalless" we hit the goal ... a goal which is hit by being thoroughly goalless in each step by step forward.
Gassho, Jundo
