To Our Dear Sangha

Sometimes people look to books, online searches, or YouTube for answers to their questions about Zen or zazen. This has been one way people have found us, so for that we are incredibly grateful!

But what if these questions interrupt your sitting? Should you confirm the answer in a book or website before sitting more, to make sure you are sitting correctly? Or just sit through it?

We hope this month’s newsletter will help resolve this question and enable you to sit as you inherently are 🙂 We hope to see you at zazenkai too!

Announcements

Upcoming Online Zazenkai Schedule (Japan time):

Zazenkai with Matsumoto-san:
Nov 10 (Mon) 8:00-12:00
Nov 16 (Sun) 18:00-22:00
Dec 15 (Mon) 8:00-12:00
Dec 21 (Sun) 18:00-22:00

**Sunday times are generally more convenient for Europe, Africa, and Asia. Monday times are generally more convenient for N/S America and Oceania.

Thursday Zazenkai with Madoka:
Every Thursday at 9:00pm-10:00pm Japan time.  Anyone is welcome!
(Only in the 1st week of November, it will be held on Wednesday, Nov 6th)

Zazenkai reservations can be made here:  
https://www.zen-online.info/reservations

Very Useful Time Converter to calculate zazenkai in your local time
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

(Translated by Madoka)

What to do if Zen-related questions arise during zazen

Zen tells us about the way humans inherently are. The way we inherently are is:

• The way it is forward when facing forward

• “Good morning” when someone says “good morning”

• The taste of tea when sipping tea

• The sensation of your palm on your cheek when your palm is touching your cheek

• “What should I do tomorrow?” when thinking “What should I do tomorrow?”

In this way, the way it is now is only the way the five senses and mental faculties (thoughts and emotions) are now. To confirm this for yourself is very important for zazen. The reason is that zazen is sitting the way humans inherently are.

If you confirm for yourself, then you can see for yourself the way it actually is, and then you can also know how to sit in zazen. If you don’t confirm for yourself, however, when you have questions about zazen, you will continue to rely on the words of others to try to understand.

So let’s pause your reading for a moment and confirm the way it actually is now.

• Actually look in a direction and see how it is. 

• Listen to a sound and confirm the way it is.

• Touch something and confirm the way it is.

• Drink something and confirm the way it is.

• Smell something and confirm the way it is.

• Think something and confirm the way it is.

If you actually confirm the above, you will know what to do if questions about zazen arise while sitting, such as “Am I sitting right?”

When there is, “Am I sitting right?”, the way it is is “Am I sitting right?” 
So you know it’s ok to sit just like that.

One day when the Buddha was talking to a group of disciples, he held up a flower. In this case too, if you have actually confirmed the way it is, then you will come to know what the Buddha was showing and what he wanted to convey.

If you have not yet confirmed the way that humans inherently are, please take the time to do so.

Gassho.

Satori is not an understanding

“Satori is not an understanding.” This is something I heard from multiple Zen masters when I first started zazen. At the time, I thought I understood what that meant.

I understood it to mean that knowing Truth was not a conceptual or intellectual understanding, but a visceral knowledge that came from experience. Similar to knowing how coffee tastes because you actually took a sip. I was even proud of myself that I could tell people that no amount of thinking would reveal to them how a cup of coffee tastes.

And yet I still pursued understanding without even realizing it. I didn’t notice how I was contradicting myself by striving to understand more in order to somehow get closer to a taste of Truth. I was assuming I had never tasted what I wanted to know, not realizing that any taste itself could have been my satori. I was so engrossed in intellectual understanding and the analogy that I forgot what was actually here now.

So every time I went to zazenkai, I asked lots of questions. I also believed that any inaccurate understanding could get in the way of becoming clear on Truth, so I wanted Matsumoto-san to dispel each and every one of my wrong notions. He told me that the purpose of answering these questions was not for deepening understanding. The purpose was to enable people to quit engaging in unnecessary contemplation so their zazen would truly be zazen.

One question-filled dokusan went something like this:

Matsumoto-san: (waving)

Me: I just want to confirm…when you wave, I get it that you’re showing me what is real. But do you mean your hand itself is real? That it’s things themselves that are real? Or do you mean the content of my field of vision? The “view,” so to speak, which includes you waving. Is that what Gien Roshi meant by “content of the 6 sense faculties”?

Matsumoto-san:  They aren’t separate things. It’s all of this (waving both arms).

Me: So, when I turn to the right, there’s the way it is on the right. And when I turn to the left, there’s the way it is on the left. And when I turn left, I can’t see the door on the right, so the door isn’t real anymore because I can’t see it and it’s gone?

Matsumoto-san: Don’t get caught up with what is “gone.” Focusing on what’s “gone” will make you think and imagine more. Maybe it is better to say that looking left, you can never know the truth of how it is on the right in actual fact. You can only imagine it, and that’s not what is actually real itself. That’s imagination.

Me: So is this correct? That when Buddhism talks about impermanence, it isn’t referring to how objects change, but to how even if our eyes move a tiny bit, the view changes? The view doesn’t last…

With a somewhat puzzled expression, Matsumoto-san said, “You really want to understand, don’t you.”

I thought maybe Matsumoto-san was impressed at how carefully I was thinking things through and how diligent I was. But his bemused expression confused me. All I could say was, “Of course!”

A few months later, it suddenly dawned on me that Matsumoto-san had probably been more at a loss for words than impressed. He had been showing and telling me over and over again that Truth is the way we already are. The way the content of the 6 sense faculties are.

Regardless of whether our understanding is correct or not, when there’s meow, the way it is is meow.  

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Love and Gassho _/\_