One: For Contemplation: Some Verses on the Faith-mind by Sengstan
The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.
If you wish to know the Truth, then hold no opinions for or against anything. To set in position what you like against what you dislike is the dis-ease of the mind.
When the deep meaning of things is not understood, the mind’s essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
The Great Way is perfect — like vast space, where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess. Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things.
Live neither in the entanglements of outer things, nor in inner feelings of emptiness: be serene in the oneness of things and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.
When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity your very effort fills you with activity.
As long as you remain in one extreme or the other, you will never know Oneness.
Those who do not live in the single Way, fail in both activity and passivity.
To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality; to assert the emptiness of things is to miss their reality. The more you talk and think about it, the further astray you wander from the Truth.
Stop talking and thinking and there is nothing you will not be able to know.
To return to the root is to find the meaning, but to pursue appearances is to miss the source. At the moment of inner clarity there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness.
The changes that appear to occur in this always-changing world we call real only because of our ignorance.
Do not search for the Truth; only cease to cherish opinions.
For meditation:
This is only a small part of Sengstan’s Faith-mind verses — (more to follow in the weeks to come). First off, you must see these verses in terms of meditation itself. Some people tend to resist these ideas immediately because they don’t recognize the expedient means that Sengstan is employing here; but mostly, people reject these ideas because they love their personal, ego-based opinions and would feel lost without them.
And we are also sentimental about love. So when Sengstan says: When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised, people get upset, thinking, “What’s a world without love?” But if you understand that, during the physical act of seated meditation, you must put it all down, then you have some idea of what Sengstan is getting at. Conditional love and hate are both about the ego! Opinions are about the ego. Likes and dislikes are about the ego. Accepting and rejecting is about the ego. In all of these cases we’re looking at the world in terms of subjective, self-created dualism. Meditation is when we just sit, breathe and be, and put all this ego business aside. As Sengstan says: As long as you remain in one extreme or the other you will never know Oneness.
In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says, “The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, but people do not see it.” And why is that? It is because of the relentless fictions created by the subjective ego. We are, essentially, in our own way. We cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven because we ourselves are blocking the entrance. This is what is meant by: putting it all down.
People fail in meditation because the ego, developed and nurtured over a lifetime, is so strong. We habitually judge everything around us as good or bad or somewhere in-between because it makes our egos feel stronger and more powerful, and somewhat in control; likewise, if meditation doesn’t live up to our expectations, then it’s no good. We don’t see that the real fault lies not in meditation, but in our attachment to ourselves and to our subjective opinions. This is why Sengstan says: The more you talk and think about it, the further astray you wander from the Truth. Stop talking and thinking and there is nothing you will not be able to know.
If, during the time that you are engaged in the physical act of meditating, you can follow Sengstan’s instructions, your practice of meditation will deepen. If, over time, you can manifest your meditative mind throughout the course of a day, everything you do will be a form of meditation. This is True Love. True Love is selfless. True Love is always in the zone — doing “non-doing” — what Taoists call wei wu wei. Nothing lacking; nothing extra: everything is just as it should be.
From the beginning, I’ve said to you: Just sit; don’t have any preconceived ideas or expectations about meditation. Let your meditation be the teacher. Most of all, don’t judge. Just sit. Over time, the burdensome practice of weighing everything and judging it will begin to dissipate and you will experience a lightness of being in all of your regular, ordinary activities.
Two: For Contemplation: (excerpts from) Sengstan’s Verses on the Faith Mind
(Continued from last week’s handout).
Do not remain in the dualistic state; avoid such pursuits carefully, if there is even a trace of this and that, of right and wrong, the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion. Although all dualities come from the One, do not be attached even to this One.
When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way, nothing in the world can offend, and when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to exist in the old way.
When no discriminating thoughts arise, the old mind ceases to exist. When thought objects vanish, the thinking subject vanishes, as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish. Things are objects because of the subjective mind, the subjective mind is such because of objects — understand the relativity of these two and their basic reality: the unity of emptiness. In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable and each contains in itself the whole world. If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine you will not be tempted to prejudices and subjective opinions.
To live in the Great Way is neither easy nor difficult, but those with limited views are fearful and irresolute: the faster they hurry, the slower they go, and clinging to attachments cannot be limited. Even to be attached to the idea of Enlightenment is to go astray. Just let things be in their own way, an there will be neither coming nor going.
Obey the nature of things, your own nature, and you will walk freely and undisturbed. When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden, for everything is murky and unclear, and the burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness. What benefits can be derived from distinctions and judgments?
If you wish to move in the Great Way, do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas. Indeed, to accept them fully is identical with true Enlightenment. The wise person strives to no goals; but the foolish person weighs himself down with shackles. There is one True Path, not many; distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant, opinionated self. To seek Mind (True Nature) with the discriminating (subjective) mind is the greatest of all mistakes.
Rest and unrest derive from illusion; with Enlightenment there is no liking and disliking. All dualities come from ignorant inference — they are like dreams or flowers floating in the air: foolish to try and grasp them. Gain and loss, right and wrong, such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.
(To be continued)
For meditation:
It has been said that intelligent, well-educated people are the most difficult to teach, and that’s because they are usually those who have made tremendous investments in the accomplishments of their egos. They believe they already have all (or at least a great many) of the answers. And that may be true: they have all the answers in their given field of study, which is a good thing if they’re a car mechanic or a doctor. But even car mechanics and doctors have to continue to be perpetual students. I would not want a 19th century physician treating my illness in the 21st century. So even so-called experts must always have a beginner’s mind. What this tells us is that everything is always in flux — there is no final, permanent position to take.
All religions and their spiritual practices, (some of which are very bizarre indeed), aspire to transcendence of one kind or another, whether that involves the heaven of the Abrahamic traditions — the Promised Land, Paradise, the Celestial City, the Vault of Heaven — or Nirvana, Elysium, Arcadia or even Valhalla, there is some “other-worldly” dimension that human beings aspire to; which is another way of saying that things, just as they are, are not good enough. Why? What is the root, the source of our dissatisfaction?
One of the primary points in Sengstan’s Verses on the Faith Mind deals with our habit of relentlessly judging things subjectively — making endless distinctions between this and that, good and bad, right and wrong, and so on. He refers to this as the dis-ease of the mind. Meditation means putting it all down. When we focus our attention on just breathing and being 100% present as we sit, allowing our panoramic awareness to take in all things without being trapped by them, and allowing ourselves to let them all go without being dragged away by them, we can begin to catch the first glimpses of life without the burdensome practice of judging which brings nothing but annoyance and weariness.
If, as you sit in meditation, you can perceive the activity of your thinking minds as nothing more or less than clouds passing through the sky — some days are clear, some are filled with clouds, some have just a few clouds, and some are totally overcast — you can begin being the serene observer of this activity without getting trapped by it with your subjective, judging mind. Faith, in this case, means letting it all go without fear of annihilation. Faith recognizes that we are so much more than just our subjective, judgmental thoughts.
And yet, some people dread the idea of losing their thinking, subjective egos! They fail to realize that all their problems arise right there! They fail to realize the impermanent nature of their narrative concoctions and mistakenly will do most anything to preserve their grip on the contrived ego. This is why some people fail when trying to meditate — they mistakenly believe that meditation will make their egos happier, more relaxed and lighter. It doesn’t. Meditation is about letting go of the ego, not about pleasing it. This is why Sengstan says, to seek Mind with the subjective, discriminating mind, is the biggest of all mistakes…. Gain and loss, right and wrong, such thoughts must be abolished at once.
Meditation is easy! Just sit: breathe and be, and let the clouds of thought come and go naturally.
Three: For Contemplation: (excerpts from) Sengstan’s Verses on the Faith Mind
(Continued from last week’s handout).
If the eye never sleeps, all dreams will naturally cease. If the mind makes no discriminations, the ten thousand things are as they are: of single essence. To understand the mystery of this One-essence is to be released from all entanglements. When all things are seen equally, the timeless Self-essence is reached. No comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless, relation-less state.
Consider movement stationary and the stationary in motion; both movement and rest disappear. When such dualities cease to exist, Oneness itself cannot exist. To this ultimate finality no law or description applies.
For the unified mind in accord with the Way, all self-centered striving ceases. Doubts and irresolutions vanish and life in true faith is possible. With a single stroke we are freed from bondage: nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing. All is empty, clear, self-illuminating, with no exertion of the mind’s power. Here, thought, feeling, knowledge and imagination are of no value. In this world of Suchness, there is neither self nor other than self.
To come directly into harmony with this reality just simply say when thoughts arise, Not two! In this “not two” nothing is separate, nothing is excluded. No matter when or where, transcendent understanding means entering this truth. And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space; in it a single thought is ten thousand years.
Emptiness here, emptiness there, but the infinite universe stands always before our eyes, infinitely large and infinitely small: no difference; for definitions have vanished and no boundaries are seen; so too with Being and non-Being. Don’t waste time in doubts and arguments since they have absolutely nothing to do with this.
One thing, all things: move among and intermingle, without distinction. To live in this realization is to be without anxiety about non-perfection. To live in this faith is the road to non-duality because the non-dual is one with the trusting Mind.
WORDS!!! The Great Way is beyond all language!
for in it, there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today.
For meditation:
In these “verses,” Sengstan is attempting to do the impossible. It is what all Zen teachers must face sooner or later: How do you explain, how do you teach, the inexplicable? In this instance I am speaking specifically of Zen Masters. In most of my talks/letters I have tried to teach an expansive type of secular meditation. Most of what I have talked about is consistent with popular meditation ideas that can be found pretty much anywhere online or in books. As a Zen monk, I will say this: once you understand correct posture and correct breathing, you’re on your own! And that’s the beauty of Zen practice.
I studied with a great Zen Master for over four decades — no one can give you insight, you must arrive at this on your own. A teacher can point. A teacher can instruct. A teacher can inspire and encourage, but no teacher can give you Enlightenment. No matter how many books you read, no matter how many essays and articles you read and study about the blessings and benefits of meditation, they are all meaningless unless you put in the time and come to an understanding on your own.
I’ve mentioned the expression: Do not mistake the finger for the moon. Just because you have an intellectual understanding of the teaching — just because you see the finger pointing — unless you see what the finger is pointing to, you’re still trapped by the ruminating, thinking mind that assess and judges and holds on to this and that, right and wrong, good and bad — all the things that Sengstan is talking about in his verses. He says, point blank: Stop talking and thinking and there is nothing you won’t be able to know. He warns us repeatedly about remaining in the dualistic state; it leads only to more confusion. And yet, people seem to thrive on this confusion, especially when they think that they have it all figured out.
This has long been a criticism by many Zen teachers whose students pore over all the teachings and saying of the great spiritual ancestors and Zen Patriarchs — What juice do you expect to extract from those dried up old bones? And yet… what is faith, finally? How do you become ONE with the trusting Mind? How do you proceed from the top of the hundred-foot pole?
Zen Meditation is the practice of dying while you’re still alive. How do you completely let go of all your comfortable attachments to I-my-me-mine? Sengstan says: To come directly into harmony with this reality just simply say Not Two. In this “not two” nothing is separate, nothing is excluded. Can you see all things with equanimity? Can you drop every trace of I-am-self and hear the birds for the first time? Can you then pick up the I-am self and get on with your daily affairs? Putting it all don, picking it all up: Not two.
There are many kinds of “feel good” meditations promoted these days. They are neither bad nor good. It’s not surprising that even meditation can become a saleable commodity: meditation tapes, meditation apps, meditation music, meditation books, meditation work-books with checklists even — you name it, and you can probably find it on Amazon. If it helps you in the moment, and gets you through another day: great. Go for it. Whatever works for you.
Or you can save yourself a lot of money and trouble and just sit! Breathe and be. And have faith in just sitting. Let the practice of meditation teach you. All you have to do is trust yourself and show up, over and over again and just breathe and be!
(Additional talks) — For Contemplation: Wow and Whoa
When I was teaching Classical Greek and Roman literature — Homer, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Plato, Virgil, etc. — I used to ask my students to imagine a world without electricity, without indoor plumbing, without science in general as we know it today. No dentists, no doctors, hardly any sense of what sanitation was — imagine a world where people rarely if ever bathed because they were afraid it would weaken the body’s immune system and natural strength. No soap, no deodorant, no toothpaste, no shampoo. It sounds almost comical now, and so removed from our reality that it’s almost ridiculous to even try to imagine such a world.
But try to imagine this: you’re walking on a sunny beach on some Greek Island and it’s a beautiful day and people are out in their boats fishing when suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, a massive tsunami strikes! There’s no weather station, no radar tracking the storms, no warning whatsoever and then — just like that: an entire village is gone, washed away, everyone killed. How do you explain that, the wrath of the gods? The gods, they believed, were mysterious indeed.
The life expectancy in the ancient world was about 13. If you made it into your late teens you were an adult. If you made it to your 50s or 60s you were an elder. If you were female, chances are you were married before you were 15 and had children by the time you were 16. If you were male you were either made a soldier, a laborer, a farmer or a craftsman — someone whose purpose was to be useful to others.
What those in the ancient world possessed that most people nowadays do not possess is awe: reverential respect mixed with either fear or wonder. People in the ancient world lived almost perpetually in a state of awe because the world around them was such a mystery. This awe inspired reverence for the unknown, and part of that reverence for things unknown included a strong sense of humility.
Humility is the opposite of arrogance. Arrogance is full of ego, full of attachment to the limited, personal self. To be humble is to intimately know that you don’t know all the answers, and, perhaps, not even a few of the answers. But all too often, people today think they know so much about everything. And whatever they don’t know, they can always GOOGLE. So we often have the illusion of knowledge without necessarily having the substance of knowledge. And still we can be so arrogant.
One of the most underappreciated words we have is the word Wow! Think, for a moment, of occasions when you said Wow with all your heart. Recently, around 3 o’clock in the morning, I caught a glimpse of the full moon: WOW! was the only appropriate response during that brief, awestruck moment. Another expression, similar to Wow is Whoa! This tends to express less of the surprise of Wow and more of the quiet awe of Whoa. We might say for example, Whoa, what a beautiful sunset. But whether we say Wow! or Whoa, what matters most is that we allow ourselves to experience surprise, awe and reverence for the unknown. This means to live in a state of openness, free from the burdensome judgments of the personal self. In short, it means taking a break from the ever-assertive ego. The ego, for the most part, is a pain in the neck. Practically everything we do well, everything we do worth doing, and everything we do with total absorption, we do without the interference of the ego. Step back and see.
For Meditation:
When you sit to meditate you experience physical stillness and the movement of the breath slowly passing in and out over and over again, ever so slowly. Because we heave a heart that beats and pumps blood throughout our bodies, and because we have lungs that move in and out, we are in a sense, perpetual motion machines. The “stillness” that we experience in meditation, is not the stillness of a large stone, it is a vibrant stillness. The awareness that we experience in meditation is not so much a “pin-pointed” awareness, (though that’s there also), but a panoramic awareness.
As long as the small self — the ego — is not engaged in an ongoing, relentless commentary on itself and the world around it, we can say that it is manifesting the condition of the Absolute self. The Absolute self is free from I-my-me-mine. During meditation, we loosen the fierce grip that the small self uses to try to control the world and make sense of it. In each our own subjective way, our personal, thinking or karmic self, creates the world around us in our own image. The world is as we choose to see it, based on our individual responses to an infinite number of causes and effects. No matter what, it’s still in the realm of fiction if our way of seeing and knowing the world relies solely on words and language to create meaning.
Our two words — wow and whoa are really more utterances, more like expressions of onomatopoetic sound, than they are words. One might even say that they are both words for when words are inadequate or simply don’t apply. This is awe.
When you can bring your meditative mind off the chair or cushion and into your everyday life so that you’re free to experience life without pre-judging everything in advance, then you can experience the fruits of your meditation practice. And in this way, your life, in general, will naturally be more awesome and you’ll be more inclined to say Wow! and Whoa more often. Remember, there is no need to keep trying harder and harder to put all your life experience into a big fireproof box with a tight lid on it and a lock that only you can undo. Such practice is burdensome and unnecessary. Meditation means, putting it all down.
If the eye never sleeps, all dreams will naturally cease. If the thinking mind makes no discriminations, the ten-thousand-things are as they are: of single essence. To understand the mystery of this Single-essence is to be released from all entanglements. When all things are seen with equanimity the timeless Self-essence is reached. No comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless relation-less state.
Sengstan, from: “Verses on the Faith Mind”
For contemplation:
Because human beings are “meaning making creatures” doesn’t mean that our ideas for making sense of things are always right. Take the following examples — many people in different parts of the world believe the following things to be absolutely true:
You should never place two mirrors opposite of one another otherwise the devil may leap in between the two. Never kiss or shake hands across a threshold or that person will become your mortal enemy. Never allow a broom to touch the feet of a loved one otherwise one of your parents will die. Don’t ever go home after a funeral otherwise bad spirits may go home with you. Whistling indoors will summon demons. Never propose a toast with a glass of water unless you hope the person croaks. An itchy palm can tell your financial future: right hand, good; left hand, bad. Never place bread upside down. Don’t leave your keys on the table; otherwise people will think you want to have sex with them. Sitting at a table corner is bad luck — it means you’ll never get married. Don’t have 7 children; otherwise the 7th will be a werewolf. Wear lots of bells on your wedding day to ward off evil spirits. Never sing at the dinner table because the devil will think you’re praising him for the food. Don’t open umbrellas indoors or bad luck will rain on you. A bird pooping on you brings good luck. Yo-yos cause droughts. Don’t wear red in a storm: it attracts lightning. Black cats are bad luck. Don’t just sneeze once — it’s bad luck. Never call a newborn baby cute; otherwise, it will turn ugly. Never sit thirteen at a dinner table — it brings bad luck. (This is just a small sampling of strange beliefs).
The point is, while it’s easy to laugh at much of the above list of odd beliefs about the world around us, we are just as capable of making up equally odd things about ourselves and our lives. At some point in your life you might have known someone about whom you said, “Well, he’s just kidding himself.” Or, “She has to lie to herself to keep from getting angry.” Try as we may, we are unreliable narrators who make up stories — about ourselves and about the world around us — in order to make it through the day. If our “narratives” are validated by others: great; but if they are challenged by others, problems arise. Our whole sense of identity and self is at stake.
So, how do we know our True Self? Which so-called “self” is the real you? Think back to your various selves: there was your worker self, your parenting self, your acquaintance self, your “best friend” self, your team-player self, your angry self, your sad self, your joyful self, your flexible self, your rigid self and so on. We move freely between these various selves depending upon conditions and circumstances. And while you might simply say, “It’s all the same me, just in different moods,” is it? Is there always consistency in your behavior? Nothing ever seems out of character? You are never surprised by your actions, ever? You’ve never said about anyone: Gee, that’s not like her to do that.”
Buddhism teaches that your True Self has no self. Another way of saying this is that your True nature is not limited to the fluctuating, impermanent self that changes with shifting causes and conditions. You are much more than that. A Zen Master named Linji once referred to this as the True person without fixed position; that is, the one who moves freely and is never stuck. Previously I spoke of the Absolute self and the personal self. The Absolute self is the True person without fixed position and the personal self is the one subject to causes and effects. In the monastery where I trained, the precepts were as follows: I vow to manifest Absolute self without attachment to personal self; I vow to manifest personal self without attachment to Absolute self; I vow to manifest the interplay of Absolute self and personal self as the Great Way.
To understand the impermanence of the personal self is important. To recognize its many discrepancies and inconsistencies is also important. To know thyself means to recognize our flaws and limitations and our many contradictions. By gaining insight into our own nature, we learn to see with more empathy, compassion, kindness and generosity the personal self of others. Step back and see.
For meditation: as you persevere in your regular periods of meditation over time, gradually your mind will become more spacious and clear — kind of like cleaning out an old basement or attic. To step back and see means to allow for breathing room, literally and figuratively. Loosening the vice-grip on the personal, impermanent self is a major step in letting go of your attachment to the unreliable narrator who attempts to make sense of the world and who frequently must revise the narrative depending on the changing circumstances that inform it.
Meditation means putting it all down. All of it: no guilt, no shame, no sorrow, no blame. Yes, but also no praise, no fame, no gain, no prize. As long as you remain primarily in the world of expectations and judgments you will remain stuck in the subjective world of your own labyrinth of personal myths — all of which you have made up — fictionalized — on your own.
Therefore, it’s necessary to understand the interplay of Absolute self and personal self. To understand this interplay means, as one Zen Master put it, Using the 24 hours of the day, and not being used by them; or using the personal self, but not being used by it.
Think of all the times you’ve let go of ignorance and moved on. Think of all the times you thought you knew it all, but discovered that you didn’t. Think of all the times you thought things would last forever and then they didn’t. Think of all the things that people once believed were true, and then science proved they were not. People used to believe that being cold, gave you a cold: wrong. We get things wrong all the time; that applies to ourselves as well.
Put it all down — breathe and be.
Seido — Hokoku-An Zendo
