Sanzen Instructions - Fukan Zazengi (Part 5)

Samzen Instructions - Fukan Zazengi (Part 5) - Kanshin Allison Tait - May 24th 2026 - Suggested Donation $5

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey, I believe we are recording. Good morning. Welcome to Seattle Soto Zen. Is the sound okay for everyone? Yep. Great. So thank you all for joining us here. Uh special thank you to those joining us for the Zazankai, the one-day retreat. Um, I know you had lots of other things you could be doing on Memorial Day weekend. So uh I feel very honored that you chose to spend it with us. So my name is Kanchen. I'm the resident teacher here at Seattle Soto Zen. And uh we've been discussing uh a famous text called the Fukenza Zengi of Ehe Dogen, which is in your champ book on page 20, I believe. And uh Ehe Dogen was our founder in Japan. He studied in China uh as a young man in his 20s and then returned to Japan and founded his own school, which we now know as Soto Zen. Uh it it exists in in other places as well, but uh it's called their own translation of the word Soto. Uh so uh Fukan Za Zengi of Ehe Dogin was uh written shortly after his return from China, and it is Dogen's uh instruction manual for meditation. So we've uh covered a couple of paragraphs already, and uh the section we're looking at now is sorry, in the sort of bottom third of the first page. Dogan says, for Sanzen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately, cast aside all involvements and cease all affairs. Do not think good or bad, do not administer pros and cons. Cease all the movements of the conscious mind, the gauging of all thought and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. Sanzen has nothing whatever to do with sitting or lying down. For a long time I actually thought the word San was uh Zazen spelt wrong, but it's not. It's actually uh two different characters which together mean uh something like to to practice zen or to engage in zen. Uh some some uh organizations use the same word with the same two kanji, the same two characters, to mean uh as a synonym for dokusan, a one-on-one conversation between teacher and student. Uh, that's not how uh Dogen means it here. He means, you know, to engage in the practice of Zen, um by which he he means in this case sitting meditation, a quiet room is suitable.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Eat and drink moderately.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

So if you've ever sat zazen with a very full bladder, you understand the wisdom of this instruction. But you know, when uh I was practicing at home by myself, um I use these kinds of meditation instructions as sort of excuses, right? To be like, oh yeah, I would sit zazen, but I just ate a big meal, so it's not a good time. Um I'm I'm sleepy or I'm kind of anxious or whatever. Um and then I moved to a Zen monastery, and it was quite an education to you know sit Zazen because the bell was ringing with whatever state of body and mind I had when the bell started ringing. Still, it's it's a good idea to try to find a quiet space. Um, if you can, you know, I I know uh real estate is difficult to come by in this part of the country, but uh if possible, you know, try to set up a little corner that's you know, a Zazen corner that is, you know, a place that's conducive to practice. But it's sort of you know quiet and reflective. Uh a good way for it to be quiet and reflective is to keep screens out of it. Again, if you can. Um maybe even keep cats out of it if you can. I can't. I have a yeah, I don't have any doors in my apartment except the bathroom. Uh so but uh, you know, it's uh again, if possible, it it really makes a difference to have you know a space set aside that's a practice space or at least a quiet space. Cast aside all involvements and cease all affairs and gain, you know. Turn your screens around to shine their light without and uh and try to, you know, set aside uh a space that is for practicing Zen, you know, and uh cast aside all involvements and cease all affairs. Um Abbott Myogen Steve Stuckey at the San Francisco Zen Center. He uh he could play the guitar very well and he sang very well. He had this beautiful resonant deep voice. Um, I can't do either, and I uh care too much about you to try to sing, but Abbott Steve had this uh song that he would share with us at least once each session. Uh it was actually uh by Led Belly, uh, and it's about um automotive safety of all things. I think uh Lad Belly was born at the uh the turn of the 20th century. He was born in the late 1800s and died in uh 1940s, I believe. And uh, you know, it's it's sort of like how um military tactics don't catch up with military technology until uh a few very horrible battles with old tactics show us that you know we need to change. Uh I think in Love Belly's lifetime that was happening with you know the automobile, that there were way more cars on the road and they were going a lot faster than people were used to. And uh they they really didn't know how to cope with it until um after smashing their cars at high speed quite a bit. So Lad Belly was uh very anxious about that and wrote a song about automotive safety. The song is called Relax Your Mind. And the chorus, Relax Your Mind, relax Your Mind makes you live a great long time.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Sometimes you have got to relax your mind. So this is how we prepare for Zazan.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

We relax our minds. And you know, uh we had a a monk from a Heiji uh who practiced at San Francisco Zen Center with me for about three years. Um, and uh he gave a uh a student talk, a Ways Seeking Mind talk, and uh he talked about you know the traditional cross-legged posture. He said, you know, when we sit like this, we're quite helpless, right? We put ourselves in in sort of in a very vulnerable position. But I also think you know the traditional cross-legged posture, you know, with our hands in our laps in the cosmic mudra. Um I think if it kind of like how when we're uh how our our brain sort of paralyzes our muscles when we're entering REM sleep, right? Uh our brain kind of paralyzes us so that we can't hurt ourselves by trying to act out our dreams. So when I take the posture with my legs crossed, facing the wall, not speaking, uh created circumstances where I can relax my mind pretty safely, right? It's sitting with my legs crossed, hands in my lap, mouth closed, looking at the wall, kind of hard for me to cause a lot of interpersonal drama in that situation. So, you know, it's like, okay, this is it's it's it's actually safe to relax my mind because what's the worst that could happen, right? I've had a few people ask, but but what if the urge to move or to speak becomes absolutely overwhelming and irresistible? And uh easy answer. If it is truly overwhelming and irresistible, go ahead, go outside and run around the block a couple of times. And when you've gotten that out of your system, you can come back in and take your seat. Or, you know, go down a couple of blocks and go ahead and scream as loud as you can. It's Capitol Hill. People will be used to it. Scream it out, and you can come back. You know, it's okay. You know, So Jin Mel Weitzman, who was uh Myogen Steve Stuki's teacher and also my teacher's teacher, he told us a story about uh when he sat his first Razankai, a one-day retreat like many of us are doing today. And uh he said uh he really wasn't prepared for it. His knees hurt, his back hurt, his brain hurt, and uh so he he left after lunch. He slunk away and went for a walk by the waterside. And after walking around for a bit, he sat down on a bench. As he was sitting on the bench, he sort of accidentally slipped back into Zazen on a park bench on the waterside. So he got up again, started walking around some more, and then as he was walking, he sort of slipped into Zazen's mind, walking slowly along the beach, right? And he finally said, Well, this isn't working, doesn't matter where I go, I'm still sitting this one-day sit. So he slunk back to the Zendo, took his seat, and resentfully practiced Zazen for the rest of the one-day retreat. It's really tough to sit saz and resentfully because nobody really notices. I don't think people even notice that he left after lunch and came back late. So cast aside all involvements and cease all affairs. And then the next line, do not think good or bad, do not administer pros and cons. For for a long time I I believe that most of my problems were caused by my thoughts and feelings. And I have, you know, difficult feelings and difficult thoughts, and I can't control my mind, and that's what causes all of this anguish. And it's not completely untrue, but uh I've come to believe that for the most part, I don't really get into trouble until I start entertaining thoughts and feelings about my thoughts and feelings. Thoughts and feelings themselves, you know, they can be, as they say, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, right? And uh unpleasant thoughts and feelings can be very unpleasant, but you know, like any other unpleasant stimulus, you know, even if I don't do something to change my situation, sometimes I have to, but even if I don't for the most part it's self-limiting, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Like sneezing.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

And uh where where I get into trouble, so I have some problems with anxiety uh and and depression, and uh a big problem with depression that they they call ruminating. Um it's actually comes from uh animals with multi-chambered stomachs, they'll digest in one stomach and then sort of work it back up, chew it a bit more, and swallow it to progress to their next stomach. Um, which, you know, is a good strategy if you're a cow. But uh if you're prone to depression, thoughts and feelings about thoughts and feelings can really get you into trouble. So what happens is uh I'll I'll have a thought that's you know kind of mean or embarrassing, right? And then I will follow that up by thinking, what does that mean about me that I just had this embarrassing or cruel thought or feeling? And then I'll decide, well, obviously, the only reason for having a cruel or embarrassing thought is that I am a very bad person, and that's why everyone hates me. Of course they hate me. It's only natural to hate someone who would have such cruel and embarrassing thoughts, right? Sometimes I imagine uh Zazen relaxing my mind in Zazen as uh as being a bit like sending children outside to play or into the basement to play, maybe. Uh, you know, you should you should probably keep an eye on them, but you don't have to really get that engaged. I remember when when I was little, my mom would send us out to play, and uh if one of us came to her uh to mediate some dispute or fix some problem or another, she would respond with, is anybody bleeding? And if we said no, then she would say, Figure it out yourself, and she'd go back to reading her book. So, you know, if there is a real crisis internally or externally, obviously I can do something about it. I can even, you know, get up, leave the Zendo, run around the block a couple of times, and then come back. That's fine. But for the most part, if I leave my thoughts and feelings alone, they might be unruly, but the, you know, while I'm sitting Za Zend, my legs are crossed, my mouth is shut, I'm facing the wall. There isn't really that much that they can do when I'm not engaging in them. When I'm not having the thoughts and feelings about my thoughts and feelings and deciding I'm a terrible person and everyone hates me, right? They're just, you know, kids screaming and fighting in the yard. And for the most part, you know, they can work things out on their own for a little while. It's such a relief to know I I don't actually have to be, you know, uh a warden or a sheriff policing every thought and feeling, and you know, wondering what does it mean that I had this sodder feeling, you know. I also uh have a lot of friends who are writers. Um, my teachers are writers, so a lot of his students are writers. And uh they they all say it's terrible. I get my best ideas while I'm sitting session, and I'm not supposed to write. And maybe that's even harder to let go of. To, you know, when we say don't think good or bad, don't administer pros and cons, to even allow these wonderful ideas, these great insights, this, you know, suddenly I know what I should say to my mom that will clear up all the feelings we've had about each other for 40 years. And I should leave this endo in collar right now. Sometimes it's even harder to let go of those than it is to let go of you know these uh really self-critical thoughts, you know, to just allow them to rise and fall like other phenomena rise and fall, you know, like uh snatches of conversation you hear from people walking down the street. Right? You can just it would look kind of strange if we got up and followed them to hear how the conversation ended. But it's different when it's inside my own mind, right? There's uh in a lecture on uh a Zam poem called The Harmony of Difference and Equality, Suzuki Roshi, uh one of our founders in America, said, for instance, if you said Zazan, you are not thinking anything, and you are not watching anything. Your focus is four or five feet ahead, but you do not watch anything. Even though many ideas come, we do not think about them. They come in and go out. That is all. We do not entertain our various ideas. We don't sit them down and serve them food or anything. If they come in, okay. If they go out, okay. That is all. That is a zen. When we have this kind of mind, our mind includes everything. Even though you do not try to include everything, actually everything is in your mind. And then Dogen's next instructions says, Cease all the movements of the conscious mind, the gauging of all thought and views. So I mentioned in the first talk on Fukushima Zengi that uh sections of this text came uh pretty much word for word from a 12th century um Zen meditation manual uh that uh was very popular in China while Dogen was studying there. Um and uh Dogen did say. Some he was critical about it. So he didn't just rewrite it, he he improved upon it. But uh this section um in the original text, the uh the the earlier meditation manual from China it says, do not think of any good or evil whatsoever. Whenever a thought occurs, be aware of it. As soon as you are aware of it, it will vanish. If you remain for a long period of time forgetful of objects, you will naturally become unified. Do not think of any good or evil whatsoever. Whenever a thought occurs, be aware of it. As soon as you are aware of it, it will vanish.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

I would say probably more like it loosens its hold on your mind. Right?

SPEAKER_00 23:04

When you're aware of it, you don't have to necessarily believe it. If you remain for a long period forgetful of objects, you will naturally become unified.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Right? Do not entertain various ideas.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

They come in, that's okay. If they go out, that's okay. And this is this is uh Carl Bielfeldt's Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation. Bielfeld says, Dogen follows Sung Tzu's lead here, but goes on to develop the psychological sense of renunciation even further. Cast aside all involvements and discontinue all affairs. Do not think of good or evil, do not deal with right or wrong, halt the revolutions of mind, intellect, and consciousness, stop the calculations of thoughts, ideas, and perceptions. And Bielefeld's commentary, he says, whatever the exact sense of Dogen's recommendation here to stop thinking, we should probably not understand this passage as teaching a technique of meditation in which the mind is brought to a halt. We are here dealing with the preparation for Zazen. Giving its context, this passage should probably be viewed as a Zen comment on the true meaning of suspending worldly affairs. That is, worldliness is within, and what must be relinquished is not merely the external ties to the secular worlds, but those internal mechanisms that lead one to experience and believe in such a world. At the same time, the passage serves as a reward a warning that the practice is not to be approached to the under to intellectual understanding, but begins with a suspension of our ordinary ways of singing, of thinking, sorry. In any event, we have here come well beyond Qi's original suggestion that the meditator avoid involvement in the secular world. We have come to the very gates of the Zen world of no thought and sudden awakening. Indeed, our Frukan Zazengi passage is strongly reminiscent, both in contact and language of a classical teaching on sudden awakening attributed to Po Chang Hua Huei. A monk asked, What is a sudden awakening teaching of the Mahayana? Po Cheng replied, You should first stop all involvements and discontinue all affairs. Do not bear anything in mind. Do not think of any phenomenon, whether good or bad, mundane or transmundane.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

Cast aside body and mind and set them free. So again, we're not trying to stop thinking.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

We're not trying to stop feeling.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

We're just relaxing our mind and setting our mind and body free.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

And then Dogen wraps up this passage by saying, Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. San Zhen has nothing whatsoever to do with sitting or lying down. So this is uh reference to uh a Zen story that uh Dogan discusses uh in detail in his essay Um Zazen Chin, the the acupuncture needle of Zazen, sometimes translated as the point of Zazen. And uh it's uh an encounter story between uh a Zen student and their teacher. So this is Matsu and Nanue. Matsu is the student and Nanue the teacher. Matsu stayed in Chuan Fan Temple, where he lived in a hut in seclusion and practiced meditation day and night. He didn't pay attention to people who came to speak to him. One day Nanue came to see him, but Matsu paid him no attention at all. Nanue then picked up a broken roof tile from the ground and sat down in Matsu's doorway. And then he pulled out a handkerchief, and Nanue started rubbing the roof tile with his handkerchief. And Matsu just sat there trying very hard to meditate and not pay any attention to Nanue doing this weird thing with the roof tile. And Nanyue just kept standing there, yeah, rubbing his handkerchief on the tile. And he would stop and examine the tile, and he started rubbing it again. And Matsu finally couldn't stand it anymore. He said, What are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 28:38

And Nanyue said, Oh, I'm polishing this tile to make a mirror. Matsu said, How can you make a mirror by polishing a broken roof tile? And the master said, Well, if I can't make a mirror by polishing a roof tile, how can you become a Buddha by sitting meditation all the time?

SPEAKER_00 29:16

Matsu was very upset because he really wanted to become a Buddha and he thought this is the way to do it. So he got up and he paced around. It was a very small hut, so he didn't have very far to pace. And then he said to his teacher Nanue, Okay, well, assuming meditation isn't the way, what should I do? And Nanue responded with a question, as all good Zen masters do.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

He said, If you're driving a cart pulled by an ox, and the cart stops moving, do you prod the cart or the ox? Nanue didn't ha uh Matsu didn't have any response to that.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

And Nanue went on to say, Do you want to sit meditation or do you want to be a sitting Buddha? If you want to sit in meditation, you should know meditation has nothing whatsoever to do with sitting or lying down. And if you want to be a sitting Buddha, you should understand that Buddha is not stillness.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Also, activity should neither be embraced nor rejected.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

If you try to if you sit to try to become a Buddha, you kill the Buddha. If you keep sitting meditation in this way, oh you will never realize the true Dharma. Dogan's commentary on this encounter uh in Zazenshin. It's uh it's very confusing if you don't understand um uh uh Dogan's particular spin on many of these encounter stories. So he had uh an unusual and and somewhat charming uh interpretation of most of these stories, which was Dogin viewed these koans and Zen stories as um conversations between people who both equally understood the Buddha Dharma and completely understood each other. So where most of us kind of understand this as you know, Matsu was wrong about something, and Nanyue corrected him or taught him, Dogen sees it more as um Matsu gave uh a brilliant explanation of the purpose of Zazen, and Nanyue, even though he understood Matsu's uh statement as correct and complete, he built upon it with a further statement. So Dogen's position is yeah, of course you can create a mirror by polishing a tile. Says, Who does not see this as polishing a tile? So Matsu asks, What are you doing? Whether in this world or in another world, polishing a tile has never ceased. Thus you should not regard your view as the only view. In any activity there is always this question. Those who see Buddha without knowing and understanding Buddha see water without understanding water, and see mountains without knowing mountains. To hastily conclude what is happening in front of you is it is a dead end, is not the study of Buddha. Nanyue said, I am polishing this tile to make a mirror. Clarify these words. Polishing a tile to make a mirror has a deep meaning. It is actualizing the fundamental point. Although a tile is a tile and a mirror is a mirror, there are many ways to investigate the meaning of polishing a tile. The eternal ancient bright mirror of mind comes from polishing a tile. Without knowing that all mirrors are born of polishing tiles, you will not understand the words, mouth, or breath of Buddhas and ancestors. Indeed, an iron-willed practitioner by polishing a tile and doing nothing else does not make a mirror. Even if making a mirror is not polishing a tile, a mirror is immediately there. Clear as mud, right? And then Dogen says, in regard to Nanyue's word, do you prod the cart or the ox? Sometimes you hit the cart, and sometimes you hit the ox. Is hitting the cart the same or not the same as hitting the ox? In the secular world, there is no custom of hitting a cart. Now, though there is no custom of common people hitting the cart in the Buddha way, there is the practice of hitting a cart. And it is not the same as hitting the ox. You should study this thoroughly. So yeah, just just in case you think you understand one of these stories, Togan will explain it to you in a way that g leaves you much more confused than you ever were to begin with. I think, you know, in in my uh practice, especially at the monastery, uh, there were quite a few people who um very much like young Matsu, they sat Zazen because they really wanted to become a Buddha. And you know, whether or not this is possible, uh I have always kind of admired them because I've never really been that ambitious. Um my only motivation for sitting Zazad was I didn't want to suffer quite as much as I was. Um I I don't think I I ever, you know, really considered enlightenment as you know a possible goal. So, you know, there's something kind of exciting and admirable in people who have you know such great aspirations. However, you know, it's it's it's so hard to explain because you know, we're we're not trying to become anything except what we already always were, right? But somehow we have to make a great effort to become what we already are. I uh we have uh beginners orientation zaz and instruction here the first Sunday of each month. Uh and at the monastery we had it every day. Um a uh senior student would volunteer or be volunteered uh to give Zazan instruction to visitors and guests. And uh remember I went through you know the whole meditation instruction, which is basically, you know, sit straight, breathe, cross your legs, face the wall, keep your mouth shut. Uh so whatever, it took about 20 minutes, and somebody in the group said an MWA and I said, No, that's that's it. That's the meditation instruction. He said, Okay, for beginners, but what about for you? What do you do? And I said, No, it's this is the same meditation instruction. He said, How long have you been practicing for? And I said, uh I don't know, ten or twelve years? It's like ten or twelve years, and you still just sit with your back straight and breathe and face the wall. I'm like, yeah, that's that's really it. I said, I'm how long has this been going on? Like, where did this originate? I said, Well, our our uh founder in Japan was you know thirteenth century, but it's based on earlier teachings from he just got up and left. Like, no, there has to be something more, and you know, because all we're doing is learning to express what we already truly are. Really, we don't need any any extra frills, and we don't need any, you know, great aspirations besides expressing what we already are. So have no designs on becoming a Buddha. San Zen has nothing whatsoever to do with sitting or lying down. It's a problem, right? We we get into problems when we have thoughts and feelings about our thoughts and feelings, but we also get into trouble when we start to think we know what we're doing, right? Because then we think we know what Zazen is, and we start to tell ourselves and other people what Zazen is.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

So for San Zhen, a quiet room is suitable.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

Eat and drink moderately, cast aside all involvements and cease all affairs. Do not think good or bad, do not administer pros and cons. Cease all the movements of the conscious mind, the gauging of all thought and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. Sanzhen has nothing whatsoever to do with sitting or lying down. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Our regular Sunday program ends here. I think we have a few. Oh, no, we have our after Dharma Top chant first, which is also on page two and in the chat box. And then we have announcements afterwards. So let me stop recording.