The reason we transmigrate through the Six Realms is because 
we are lost in the darkness of ignorance. 
Going further and further astray in the darkness, how can we ever be 
free from birth-and-death? 


           One of the foundational beliefs of Buddhism is that we suffer because of our ignorance.  In Zen we might say we suffer because of our ignorance of our true nature.  In Mahayana Buddhism in general we say that our ignorance is that we don't understand that all things, including ourselves, are empty.  Many people would say that we suffer because of our ego as though the ego is a real thing.  But in Buddhism the proper understanding is, that what we think if as the ego is just patterns of ignorant thoughts and resulting emotions, desires, and attachments.
          Of course we are ignorant.  We are born out of the darkness just trying to figure things as we go along.  We are trying to figure out this whole thing, life, death the nature of the Universe as individuals and we are trying to figure it out as a species.  Just look at how many answers we have come up with and how often these answers contradict each other.  Our ignorance is so profound that we historically have often looked to higher sources for revelation.  Though the various religions have supplied supposed revelation these varying revelations have been one of the greatest sources of conflict and suffering between people.
          There have also been many people  since ancient times who have been trying to figure this whole thing out through the use of their rational intelligence   Not so easy.  Even when we think we are being rational our intelligence is guided by emotion and assumption.    But I have to say that with the advent of the methodology of science we are starting to gain some traction in rationally answering some important questions.  But the most important answers, those that answer the deep spiritual questions, are not forthcoming from  today's science.  In Zen the deep spiritual questions all resolve to a single phrase, "the question of birth and death."  Resolving the question of birth and death is to answer our deepest spiritual questions, to understand our place as humans in this Universe.  We also say that resolving this question frees us from birth and death.
          Buddhism is a rational religion.  It is a religion because it has the structure of a religion.  It uses ceremony and practices that open us to spiritual emotions as well as to inculcate us with a certain faith.  It has temples, monasteries,  priests and monks.  It functions in society as a religion.  But it is also rational because it is based on experience and reason.  Buddhism started with an experience,  The Buddha's experience of deep zazen - sitting meditation- 2500 years ago.  His experience was not a revelation from any god but an experience of our deepest nature as humans.  This is an experience, with effort, any human can experience.  In the history of Buddhism, in the history of humanity, likely millions of people have had this experience.  Actually I believe that all humans have had this experience in some measure but for most it has not entered conscious awareness.  The Buddha then starting with that experience developed a rational analysis of the the human condition.  Through time other Buddhist  thinkers have expanded the Buddha's analysis untill today we have a highly developed doctrine and philosophy.  Because of its rationality many people are attracted to Buddhism.  But we Buddhist practitioners also discover that this rational analysis is not enough.  We must go back to that original experience.
          The pull of our individual bodies is so great that it forms the basis for how we think.  The pull of the body is so great that for many of us we find it difficult to think about anything other then how we feel in this body.  The pull of the body is so great that it is only natural that it forms the core underlying assumption of our thinking, our individuality.  This core assumption is the basis for our dualistic thinking.  Because of this assumption we divide experience into individual things forming a multitudinous world.  Then we put ourselves at the center of this world and on top of that many of us think we are something special with a special enduring quality called a soul.  This is our fundamental delusion and it creates thoughts and feelings of separation, aloneness, and fear, especially the fear of death.  Being deeply attached to our selves as individuals, thinking I am something special and then knowing that this I is going to die, and just disappear some day is the root of much despair.  This is the darkness of ignorance.
          Buddhist thinkers for thousands of years have analysed the fundamental delusion of the individual self and the whole dualistic world view it engenders.  They have talked and written about the fundamental nature of reality as ever changing deeply interconnected and non-dual.  Ideas such as emptiness, the dharma datu ( the interpenetration of all things), and interdependent origination have all been developed to weaken the bonds of our dualistic world view.   This is why Buddhism is rational.  Yet no matter how intellectually convincing these ideas are they are not quite enough to break our chains and return us to the light.  We must return to the Buddha's original enlightenment experience and verify it for ourselves.  We must return to the place before any assumptions, before any division,  like a baby but not like a baby and see the world through clear eyes, this is Zazen

           For the next few blogs I am going to give a commentary on Hakuin Zenji's Song of Zazen.  This is a popular text in Rinzi Zen and is chanted in Rinzi Temples throughout Japan.  In the two sitting groups that I lead we chant the Song of Zazen regularly.  The translation I will use is from the One Drop Sanga.

Hakuin Zenji’s Song of Zazen 
All sentient beings are essentially Buddhas.  As with water and ice, 
there is no ice without water; apart from sentient beings, there are no 
Buddhas.  Not knowing how close the truth is we seek it far away – what a pity! 
We are like one who in the midst of water cries out desperately in 
thirst. We are like the son of a rich man who wandered away among the 
poor. 
The reason we transmigrate through the Six Realms is because 
we are lost in the darkness of ignorance. 
Going further and further astray in the darkness, how can we ever be 
free from birth-and-death? 
As for the Mahayana practice of zazen, there are no words to praise it fully. The Six Paramitas, such as giving, maintaining the precepts, and various other good deeds like 
invoking the Buddha’s name, repentance, and spiritual training, 
all finally return to the practice of zazen. Even those who have sat zazen 
only once will see all karma erased. Nowhere will they find evil 
paths, and the Pure Land will not be far away. 
If we listen even once with open heart to this truth, then praise it 
and gladly embrace it, how much more so then, if on reflecting within 
ourselves we directly realize Self-nature, giving proof to the truth 
that Self-nature is no nature. We will have gone far beyond idle 
speculation. 
The gate of the oneness of cause and effect is thereby opened, and 
not-two, not-three, straight ahead runs the Way. 
Realizing the form of no-form as form, whether going or returning 
we cannot be any place else.
 Realizing the thought of no-thought as thought, whether 
singing or dancing, we are the voice of the Dharma. 
How vast and wide the unobstructed sky of samadhi! 
How bright and clear the perfect moonlight of the Four-fold Wisdom! 
At this moment what more need we seek? 
As the eternal tranquility of Truth reveals itself to us, this very place is 
the Land of Lotuses and this very body is the body of the Buddha. 



          I like the Song Of Zazen because it makes sense.  So much in Zen - Koans, the Heart Sutra, etc. - seem obscure to the beginner and even people who have been practicing for years.  But here is a text we can understand.  The language is clear and direct even if we are not exactly sure what he is talking about. 
          Right from the beginning we learn that we are essentially all Buddhas.  What is a Buddha?  This in itself is a very difficult question.  Most of us imagine what a Buddha is and our imagination is invariably wrong.  We might believe the propaganda and think that Buddhas are magical beings with magical powers and a magical wisdom.  What ever we think about being a Buddha is probably wrong until we actually experience being Buddha.  One of my early teachers, Sazaki Roshi asked a lot about Buddha.  As Koans he would ask questions like "How old is the Buddha?" and "How do you experience Buddha while cooking?"  The very first step in practicing with him was to clarify this word Buddha and learn how to experience our selves as Buddha and  then manifest our selves as Buddha in daily life.  Most Zen teachers don't use the word Buddha so much but instead may use other phrases such as "Original Nature" or "True Self which can be interchanged with the word Buddha in this context.
          True practice starts with a faith in being essentially a Buddha, that being a Buddha is our Original Nature, our True Self.  We may not know exactly what being a Buddha is accept that it is a worthy goal.  Keeping the openness of not knowing is important but also this faith in our potential is important
          In the Lotus Sutra Shakyamuni one after another predicts that each member of his audience will become a Buddha.  This goes on for many pages.  He even gives a specific name for the Buddha that each person will become.  Why?  Because the faith in our potential is deeply important.  It is why we practice.  Many of us think that we are fixed beings.  We identify our likes and dislikes, our personality our talents and where we lack talent and think, "This is who I am."  But that is not who you are.  That is just ignorant thinking.  Spiritual practice begins with the faith that we can be better.  In Buddhism we not only have a faith that we can be better but that we are each endowed with a deep potential to be better.  Hakuin says,  "We are like the son of a rich man who wandered away among the poor."  This is a reference again to a story in the Lotus Sutra.  It is not really about material wealth but spiritual wealth and that this spiritual wealth is our natural endowment  We Mahayana practitioners say that when the Buddha had his Enlightenment he said,  "All beings without exception have this same wisdom which I have just awoken to."

          This  blog is going to be on an energetic phenomena described by many names.  In India it is called Kundilini or Prana.  In China it is called Chi.  In Japan it is called Ki.  I have mentioned this "energy" in several of my blogs and essays and it's importance to developing deep meditation.  My understanding of this phenomena does not meet the rigors of modern science but rather is primarily based in my experience and some of what I have read and been told by teachers.  Through years of meditation I have had several deep experiences involving this phenomena and have developed a facility with the phenomena.  In this blog lets just call this phenomena Chi.
          Through recent mergings of Asian and European culture we in the West are becoming acquainted with the idea of Chi through meditation practices. exercise forms like Tai Chi, and Asian medicine.  But I don't think there is a clear idea of this phenomena that fits into our Western scientific thinking.  Usually Western devotees of the Asian traditions just adopt the traditional Asian way of thinking about Chi which just doesn't jive with any way a hard headed pragmatic Westerner, scientist or not, thinks about things.  So lets  drop all of the seeming magical attributes of Chi and I will try to present a way of thinking about Chi that fits with Western common sense and scientific thinking.  Of course the model for Chi which I am presenting is just a hypothesis which fits my experience.
          Think of Chi as just the energy which runs our nervous system.  This is a little different from the energy form that run our muscles though still connected.  The Nervous system is composed of cells which form a network pathways throughout the body which allows movement of electrical signals that run our senses and all the rest of our body functions.  We might think of the nervous system as out bodies wiring but electric wiring functions differently. Nerve cells transmit signals both through the movement of electric signals (potentials) which move along the surface of the cell down its long arms, and chemical transmitters which move the signals to the next cell.  We must also remember that these nervous system cells are also semi independent organisms with their own lives and and energy.  The nervous system is not like an electronic circuit with a single source of energy but little independent electronic units with their own energy.
          The brain is also part of this system.  It is the seat of both our consciousness and our thoughts.  The relationship between consciousness, thoughts, and nervous system energy in the rest of our body is also important in understanding Chi.  We use consciousness and thoughts to direct nervous system energy to activate muscles.  We can also direct conscious attention to the various parts of the body to activate and energize the nerves in the various parts of the body.  This will enhance sensation in that part of the body where attention is directed.  It can also be demonstrated to warm that part of the body if the attention is directed with enough concentration.  Experienced meditators notice both these effects
          We must also recognize that our whole body takes part in our thought process.  Most thoughts cary emotional content and emotions are felt in our body.  These bodily feelings also sway our thoughts.  Emotional feelings take place primarily through a series of centers running up the central axis of the body starting at he coccyx where sexual feelings reside, then stomach, chest, throat, and head.  These emotional centers are called Chakras and are important in many meditation systems.  I assume that there are nerve bundles at each of the Chakra points which create the intensity of feelings associated with our emotions.  I recently read that scientists have identified a nerve bundle associated with the stomach Chakra.
          I hope that this has not been to dry but maybe this next part will be more interesting.
Assume that Chi is nervous system energy.  We are generally not conscious of nervous system energy because we are use to a certain level that is with us most of the time.  It is just simply how our body feels.  We certainly notice it when we are low on energy but generally our nervous system energy exists in a narrow range which is created by a balance between energy coming in through food and breathing and maybe also in other ways, and our expenditure of nervous system energy through thought and physical activity and just being alive.  Now lets say we cut down our expenditure of chi through stopping or just slowing down thinking and immobilizing our body.  Now we can accumulate chi to previously un-experienced levels and experience the effects of this unusually high level of chi..  This is what can happen during meditation especially if we can stop thinking.
          I am not sure what is the physical nature of this increase in chi.  Maybe it is an increase in electrical potential and/or neurotransmitters in the nerves.  What I do know about as an experienced meditator is how to accumulate Chi,  something about the effects of unusually high levels of chi. and now after years of practice some conscious control of these effects.  To begin, high levels of chi can have various effects, some blissful and some very uncomfortable.  A fellow Zen student told me this story.  He was at a retreat in British Colombia when after several days of meditation a participant complained of his head getting hot.  Then in the middle of meditation he got up and said his head was on fire.  He ran to a sink and put his head under water.  When that didn't work he ran down the street in a panic and jumped off a dock into the Straits of Georgia.  I have not experienced any so uncomfortable a chi effect but I have experienced heart palpitations and at other times profuse sweating from high levels of chi.  High levels of chi have also given me deep experiences of bliss, joy, love, compassion, and insight.
          Accumulating chi is not easy.  It takes deep concentration and an ability to calm  thinking.  It is also necessary to control thinking and emotions for extended periods of time so that the accumulated chi is not spent on thoughts and emotions.  The practices of mindfulness and non-attachment which are the basis of Buddhist practice and meditation is a formula for the accumulation of chi.  There are several meditation practices which utilize Chi in various ways.  In the Indian meditation system called Kundilini Yoga as well as in various form of Tantric practices the practitioner attempts to  move the vital energy up the spine until it activates all the Chakras from the coxxys to the Crown Chakra at the top of the head.  Practitioners of  Vipassina meditation use the Chakra between the eye brows as a focus of meditation.  
          In Zen we rarely even talk about Chi but if you practice in the lineage of Hakuin Zenji then maybe there is considerable discussion of Chi.  Hakuin's story is very instructive.  Hakuin was a prodigy meditator.  The depth of his experience as a beginning Zen Monk was unusual.  He would often have strong experiences of Chi rising through his body.  He would often rise and do a little jig during meditation, these experiences were so joyous.  He thought of these experiences as kensho and considered himself enlightened but his teacher still saw much ego in him and would not give him transmission as a teacher.  After several years as a monk Hakuin developed a lung disease.  Though it was probably Tuberculosis the disease was diagnosed as a burning of the lungs from all his Chi experiences.  The result of this diagnosis is that he went to a Taoist Hermit who was reputed to know quite a lot about Chi.  This Taoist taught Hakuin how to control the Chi by the simple practice of moving the focus of meditation from the the upper chakras to the chakra just below the belly button called the Tanden.  We think of the tanden as the stomach chakra but if we are sitting deeply and we fully breath out all the air in our lungs then with that last little squeeze to get the last bit of air out we will feel the tanden.  Amazingly this practice seems to have cured Hakuin of his lung disease.
          Used as a focus in meditation the Tanden becomes a storehouse for Chi.  A stomach filled with Chi calms one's mind and deepens one's meditation.  It is from the stomach that  Chi rises and activates the chakras going up the central axis of the body.  Once my meditation deepened to a certain point I started having lots of Chi experiences.  Sometimes it would spontaneously rise into the chest (heart chakra) and I would be filled with love and joy.  Other times it would go right to the head and I would be filled with wonderful insights.   Eventually I developed a certain control of this phenomena and could use certain thoughts to lift Chi into the higher chakras.  It was wonderful but also temporary.  When the experience was over I would find that I had used up much of my stored Chi, my mind would become highly active again and the quality of my meditation was greatly reduced.  Then again I would go to work deepening meditation and building up Chi. This cycle would be repeated several times during retreat.  At some point the thought occurred that to truly deepen meditation I should not let Chi be drained and instead hold my focus in meditation and keep the Chi down in the stomach as Hakuin was taught.  Now I experience instead of the quick rising of Chi the slow filling of the whole body.
          In some systems of meditation the focus is all on the head, feeling the breath in the nose, attending to the chakra between the eyes, trying ti get the Chi to rise to the crown chakra  We Occidentals seem to always want intellectual insight.  We tend to think that Enlightenment is just some sort of magical insight.  If I may be so bold, insight is only a small portion of Enlightenment.  More important then any one insight is the state of mind which opens to us in truly deep meditation.  This state of mind is quiet and serene, not at all intellectual though from this state of mind a certain understanding is natural.  Attempts to "figure it out" are counter productive as are attempts to force the rising of Chi before one's meditation has sufficiently deepened.  This is why in the Zen school we put our focus on the tanden and let the Chi naturally rise.
          Letting Chi slowly fill the whole body over a period of several days several subtle changes happen.  As Chi fills the stomach breathing slows and becomes much deeper.  The mind quiets, and the breathing becomes so relaxed that I feel like I don't have to breath in at the end of an out breath.  It may be several seconds before I breath in.  As chi fills the upper body i start to notice a certain feeling of pressure, which is very hard to describe.  I feel it in the whole body.  It is not uncomfortable.  It is accompanied by deepening concentration in meditation.  And in the act of concentration I have a strong feeling of energy.  This feeling of energy deepens as I collect more chi.  Concentration becomes so deep that I disappear in the act of concentration.  I can also go in the other direction and drop concentration on any one focus and just take everything in all at once.  Now I feel Chi rise to my eyes and ears and feel deeply awake.  The chi seems to naturally lift me up and straighten my spine.  It is like I just become a single sense organ.
           I feel the Chi as not only pressure but also as a vibration throughout my whole body.  The vibration even has a perceptable frequency.  The strength of the vibration increases and the frequency seems to slow down as the level of Chi increases. Eventually I feel like I am filled with Chi when the Crown Chakra, the top at of the head, tingles.  It is though I can feel my hair grow and when I close my eyes the inner vision is sparkerlers shooting out of the top on my head.  When I am  filled with Chi right to the limit the feeling of energy in meditation becomes extreemly  intense and when I can no longer hold all that energy,some of the energy seems to naturally drain out of the to of the head.  Such a stange phenomena.  And then when the energy drains a bit I settle into a deep serene meditation filling up with Chi again.  When filled with Chi if I close my eyes there in an inner brightness which noticably darkens after Chi drains.
          I imagine that when filled with Chi all the nerve cells throughout the body become extreemly energised.  Sensations become enhanced.   Colors become more brilliant. Subtle sounds that might go unnoticed in a normal state of mind become intensely beautiful.  Even bland food might seem unusually tasty. Everything seems filled with energy, even the space between things seems filled with energy.  The whole Universe comes alive, and we realize that this is our life.      
           It is difficult to over state the role of Chi in deep meditation.  It may take years of practice before one begins to deeply experience Chi but once expereinced,  with some understanding, it can become  an  invaluable tool in continuing to deepen one's practice.
          Maybe we shouldn't think of Chi dualistically.  It may seem to be a unique phenomena, this special energy that we can put into a conceptual box.  Our life's energy comes to us not only from the food we digest and the air we breath but also the light we see and the sounds we hear and the things we touch.  All interaction is the eb and flow of Chi.  We are embedded in a sea of energy.  We are porous, we are more then just porous. There are no sharp boundries. We might think of ourselves as individual and seperate but we are just temporary energetic phenomena.  All things are just temporary energetic phenomena.   
           Sitting in meditation feeling this energy move in and out of our bodies, energize our thoughts and emotions, giving us vitality, connecting us to the world around us, our sense of a personal boundry begins to dissolve.  Our understanding of our deep conection with the rest of what is grows.  This is spiritual growth.  Zen is about breaking down this personal boundry and clearly seeing what we are in relation to the rest of what is, this unbounded Universe.