by Tom
Recently I had a conversation with a friend who has great reserves of will power that he exercises in his everyday and spiritual lives. He mentioned that even after years of his own regular and wilful practices he still is feeling spiritually unfulfilled and is sleep problems sleeping that he thinks may be related. His story reminded me of the paradox of exerting right effort while sitting with no goal in mind (and body), in particular the Sōtō practice of ‘just sitting’ (shikan taiza) associated with Dōgen.
Dōgen is known for his very dense writing, which is full of paradoxes that are aimed at breaking down our very human tendency towards dualistic thinking. But he also has written very straightforward instructions about mundane activities like washing (including after going to the loo), cooking, bathing, and cutting your nails and hair. [1] After all, all these are not separate from practice and enlightenment. About zazen, he writes,
Stop searching for phrases and chasing after words. Take the backward step and turn the light inward. Your body and mind of themselves will drop away and your original face will appear. If you want to attain just this, immediately practise just this… Do not think good or bad. Do not judge right or wrong. Stop conscious endeavour and analytic introspection. Do not try to become a buddha… Sit straight up without leaning to the right or left and without bending forward or backward. The ears should be in line with the shoulders and the nose in line with the navel… Now sit steadfastly and think not thinking. How do you think not thinking? Non-thinking. This is the essential art of zazen. [2]
Barry Magid offers the following commentary, ‘The moment we sit down to do zazen, we are useless; what we are doing has no point outside of itself, outside of the moment itself.’ [3] And Lewis Richmond points out,
‘…Dōgen doesn’t say, “Don’t think.” He says, “Think”; he uses a verb. We’re being asked to think something, to make some kind of effort. But think what? How do we think not-thinking? … [Research on the brains of meditators] may help us understand “think not-thinking” as a state where the higher brain functions are all operative and alert, but not purposefully active. We don’t shut down ordinary consciousness, as we would in states of deep concentration or trance. But we don’t apply our mind to anything in particular, either. Instead, we just rest in awareness itself, consciousness itself. [4]
But what about the ‘right effort’, one of the markers of the Eightfold Path? Aren’t we making an effort to follow a pathway towards the reduction or elimination of suffering in self and others?
So here we are on the familiar ground of an apparent Zen paradox: letting go and at the same time exerting some type of effort. Insofar as words can help us as we sit on our cushions thinking non-thinking, maybe Norman Fischer’s advice may be helpful: ‘The whole essence of practicing zazen is forcing nothing.’ Effortless effort?
[1] E.g. ‘On Washing Yourself Clean,’ Shōbōgenzō ch 7
[2] ‘Recommending the Practice of Zazen to All People’, OMZM book of readings
[3] https://tricycle.org/magazine/uselessness/
[4] https://www.lionsroar.com/zazen-just-sitting-going-nowhere/