A non-Buddhist translator comments on Zen Master Dogen's "Rules of Sitting-Zen for All"... and thus gropes ineffectually towards non-preaching of the backward step of turning light and shining.
posted by Mike Cross at 7:30 AM
From 1982 to 1997 I worked on the translation of Master Dogen's Shobogenzo, and understood the primary importance in the Buddha's teaching of full lotus sitting. Until 1994 my attitude to this sitting practice could be summed up in the words: "Don't think. Just do it!" Then in 1994 I returned from Japan to England to train to be a teacher of the FM Alexander Technique, and experiences with Alexander work woke me up to the opposite standpoint of "Don't just do. Think it!" Far from smoothing my path, however, Alexander insights (or reactions to them) caused a lot of trouble between me and my aging teacher in Japan. Then in 2008, seeking clearer water further upstream, I found a new lease of life in the extant Sanskrit works of the 12th ancestor in Dogen's lineage -- the great Indian teacher Ashvaghosha.
2 Comments:
Yes, did you get that mirror in Ikea?
Its very nice.
Does it conform to the famous mirror principle?
Regards,
Harry.
Hello Harry,
When I see and criticize in another a tendency which I don’t wish to see in myself, at the root of my behaviour is the fear of being wrong in myself, which is invariably associated with trying to be right. Top of the list of things I see and criticize in the mirror of others’ behaviour is.... you guessed it: unconscious striving for ends, irrespective of whether the means are wholesome or not -- for short, “end-gaining.”
One of several relevant teachings in Fukan-zazengi might be ZEN AKU OMOWAZU, ZEHI KANSURU KOTO NAKARE “Don’t think good, bad. Don’t care right, wrong.” I will post up photos of these original characters in the next few days.
Marjory Barlow thought that it was a good practice to look at oneself in a mirror -- just to observe, without passing judgement, not accommodating the desire for one’s face or body to be more symmetrical or otherwise different from how they are, refusing to make fiddly postural adjustments, not going down the false path of self-arrangment. It is the same kind of practice as just knowing that a long breath is long, and just knowing that a short breath is short. It is a very simple non-endgaining practice, but one that is not at all easy. The difficulty lies with the insidious nature of end-gaining.
The mirror in the photo is not from Ikea; it cost about £20 from a discount shop in Aylesbury town centre.
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