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. 


          Something has changed when we go through the gate of the Great Death.  A whole new way of experiencing the world opens up.  There is an intellectual component to this change but just as important there is a definite shift in consciousness.   It is difficult to describe. this shift.  Many people would say we should not even try, it can only be understood from experience, but here is a description from the great Hakuin.  This shift is to become quiet in our heads, without our usual babel and enter the realm of no-thought.  And what we discover is that of course there is thought without internal dialogue, this is the root of all our thoughts.  This is the thought which guides the athlete when there is no time for thought.  This is the thought which allows us to just know what to do in a given situation or just see the answer to a problem.  And this is the thought which clearly understands that the individual self is a fiction perpetuated by our internal dialogue.  This is the thought which clearly understands that our whole dualistic way of seeing the world is perpetuated by our dualistic internal dialogue.  This is the thought that clearly understands the oneness of cause and effect and the form of no-form as form.  When we realize there is no individual self then the dichotomy of self and other breaks down and our whole dualistic way of seeing the world breaks down.  Even the dualism of cause and effect breaks down.  There is an over arching understanding of Oneness, not-two, not-three, straight ahead runs the Way.
This shift in consciousness is the fusion of samadhi and understanding.  This is clear awake bright zazen.
          Maybe more difficult then bringing zazen and understanding together is to add the third component of Zen practice, action.  I find this the most difficult.  I live the life of a layman, I am married with children and have a regular job.  When I fight with my wife or get stressed about work I realize my practice is never complete.  I think each practitioner finds this part of the practice difficult in different ways.  Sometimes monks find it difficult to come out of the monastery and function.  They become attached to samadhi and their understanding of Emptiness.  For me this has not been the problem.  The problem has always been the habits of ego based thought even though I don't believe in the individual self.
          One time Harada Roshi said to me, to paraphrase, the practice is not really about not thinking.  All sorts of thoughts arise in life,  just don't be attached to them.  Don't think this statement is permission to think away during meditation.  During meditation we drop our thoughts by not being attached to them.   But during the rest of life, out there working raising a family we become not attached to our thoughts through our underlying understanding of non-duality.  This understanding of non-duality is necessarily incomplete, it comes with an understanding of our essential ignorance, that even the smallest events result from forces that span the Universe, the one body that is the True Self.  Our attempts to understand and control events through dualisttic discrimination are necessarily incomplete.  The acceptance of our ignorance is how we become non attached to our thoughts.
         This practice of Zazen seems to open up our hearts.  It takes the restraints off of our emotions and allows us to feel unbounded love and compassion.  This love and compassion becomes the motivator for activity in life.  How could it not when we drop discrimination and see the other as our self.  This is non-duality in everyday life.  This is the Bodhisattva's practice.  But our practice asks us to detach ourselves from even these emotions, and we do it with our deep understanding of non-duality, our understanding that there is no individual or individuals who are in control of events.  All we can do is partake in life.
          The other day I heard on the radio a story on emergent intelligence.  The example was the ant who has close to zero intelligence as an individual but as a group seems to act with much greater intelligence.  Maybe we are also part of a much greater emergent intelligence.  Facing the political and environmental issues of the day we certainly don't seem to act with great individual or collective intelligence, but we are looking at this from our limited human perspective.  Maybe Life, the one Life, has a different agenda.  Can we see with the eyes of non-duality?  My Zen intuition tells me that the direction of life is toward it's own self awareness.

           

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.


          Hakuin is famous for setting the modern Rinzi Zen training curriculum which consists of a series of Koans that the monk in training must pass.  This was in the 18th Century, not so long ago.  Before this time koans were inconsistently used even in the Rinzi schools. 
           Koans on first glance seem to stress cognitive understanding over quietistic meditation.  Many people seem to think that any issue that they struggle with is a koan, and koans  can become an excuse for lots of thinking.   
          A koan is very specifically a question  ( Koans are not usually presented as questions but as stories, but the question  in this case is always how do you understand the story.)
which is designed to open one to Zen experience and or Zen insight.  Koans cannot be answered through thought alone but can be answered from experience in zazen.  Here Hakuin is pointing to one and maybe the most important insight to be gained from Zen experience, and this insight is the subject of many Koans, 
          Though I might seem to be contradicting what I wrote earlier in this commentary there is one insight that seems to be the demarcation between one who is good at zazen and one who is enlightened.   In Zen terms this is the difference between samadhi and kensho.  But is there really a difference?  The Sixth Patriarch thought there was no difference, they work together as the natural out growth of each other.  But practically speaking sometimes someone needs a kick in the pants for insight to arise from zazen and this is the function of koans. This insight which is so important is the insight into our true self nature.  There are many koans which point to our self nature.  One of the most famous is, "Thinking neither good nor bad what is your true nature?" Even the Koan "MU!" points to our true nature.   Most people think they are what they think and feel but what are you when you stop thought and emotion?  What are you when you are in truly deep zazen?  You might be asking, How can I have any insight if I have stopped thought?  Well, actually thought does not begin with our inner or outer verbal dialogue nor our emotions.  How could it?  Any psychologist will tell you that there is a subconscious element to thought,  and experience in zazen will tell you this.  Some people call it intuition but if zazen is truly deep and clear then it is just seeing clearly with that inner sense of understanding.  It is seeing clearly that the person in front of you is suffering or happy.  It is seeing clearly that someone needs or doesn't need help.  And if one is playing tennis it is knowing that a down the line shot is better or worse then a cross court shot.  There is no need to verbalize.  Now, clearly see who you are.
          The Buddha, 2500 years ago, after his enlightenment talked mostly about happiness, why we are unhappy and how we can become happy, but somewhere in there he verbalized the Non-Atman Doctrine.  Usually non-atman is translated as no soul, and so the Non Atman Doctrine states that we as individuals have no permanent or indestructible essence like a soul, that we are in effect an ever changing and temporary like everything else in the Universe.  Wow, this is unusual to come out of the mouth of a religious leader.  It makes perfect sense but our attachment to our own specialness also makes it difficult to believe.  Only a deep experience like the experience of deep zazen can, like Hakuin states, "giving proof to the truth that Self-nature is no nature." 
          I had been practicing meditation for ten or eleven days in retreat.  Early in the morning I was sitting practicing listening, hearing the morning sounds with an unusual intensity.  My mind was quiet and as sounds arose in my internal soundscape I would hear them appear and disappear like flashes of light adding no extra thoughts to the experience such as identifying the sources of the sounds.  Then with one very large explosion of sound I disappeared.  Even that small bit of self-awareness that functioned in the meditation was gone.  This only lasted a few moments but when awareness returned I clearly understood  that if through the practice of meditation all the aspects of self definition, the inner voice, emotions and consciousness could be turned off then there was nothing left which could be called "I".  With this simple insight an understanding of Buddhism and Zen opened.  The reverberations of this insight have completely changed my way of thinking and my relationship with the rest of the world.  
          Many people who practice Zen and other forms of Buddhism think that there is no real need to stop verbal thought and emotions, that the insight we call enlightenment will just appear after many years of practice.  But there is a logic to this insight.  It will not just appear with out, as the Shakyamuni Buddha would say, the proper causes and conditions.  To truly give proof to this understanding the personal experience must be deep, and this can only happen if everything that attaches us to our normal way of thinking is turned off.  This is sometimes called the Great Death.  It need only last a few seconds and it needs to be reflected upon shortly after the experience for it's transformative power to be truly great.
This is why we have koans.

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. 


           Zazen is the root practice of all Buddhism not just the Mahayana.  We might think that there are all these different ways to practice meditation, some practice with their eyes closed, some practice with their eyes open, some follow their breath and some visualize elaborate mandalas.  Yes on the surface there are many ways to practice meditation yet at the root they are all the same.  If you are able to follow any true meditation technique deeply enough then you will find yourself at that same place that the Buddha journeyed to 2500 years ago sitting under the Bodhi Tree.
          I  have a friend who studied Tibetan Buddhism for many years.  He was given a very complex visualization practice.  After many years when my friend was beginning to master his practice the teacher started stripping the practice down until he was practicing in a way very similar to traditional zen techniques.
          I am also reminded of Tenzin Palmo an English woman who meditated in a cave in the Himalayas for twelve years.  In her biography  Cave in the Snow she tells that she was very attracted to Tibetan Buddhism but not so much to Zen but after many years in the cave she realized that the practices had the same results, a clear quiet mind.
          The Six Paramitas, the Eight Fold Path, Buddhism is filled with numbered lists.  I guess this helps us memorize and keep in our mind important  teachings and concepts.   I am not one for this type of memorization.  I am not sure that Hakuin was one for memorization  either, because he has not correctly listed the Paramitas but instead has given their intention, being that we should involve our whole life in our practice if it is to be successful.  This is what the Bodhisattva Path is about.  How can we quiet our mind when we are filled with guilt or selfish scheming.  How can we expect to be concentrated and mindful in meditation if we allow our mind to go every which way during the rest of the day?
          Also our practice goes the other way.  Through meditation we find ourselves less selfish less I centered.  Through meditation we become calm and satisfied.  No need to be selfish. Through meditation we loose our sense of isolation and feel connected to not only other humans but everything.  We always have been connected.  We are connected through our five senses.  We are connected through space.  We are connected through cause and effect.  We are connected by a natural moral intelligence that manifests in the feelings of love and compassion. Through meditation our deep connection to everything manifests clearly   Moral behavior arises naturally out of meditation because through practice we break down our habits of selfish thoughts and behavior.
          Hakuin seems to be setting a very high standard for zazen when he says  "Even those who have sat zazen only once will see all karma erased."  Yes this is a very high standard, and it would seem that most of our meditation does not meet this standard of zazen.  What then is zazen?  The Sixth Patriarch, Hui Neng defined zazen as not being attached to things outside of ourselves and not being moved by our internal thoughts and feelings.  More simply put, we are practicing zazen when we have let go of all our thoughts and feelings.  Zazen is that place where we have dropped all our assumptions and can see with the eyes of a baby, but not a baby and can clearly see the world for what it is.  In this state of mind our past history and its effects on our thoughts and actions are dropped, we are fully in the present.  This is the dropping of all karma.  Karma is simply the effects of our past thoughts and actions on our present thoughts and actions.  We carry around karma as the  unconscious factors that cause our thoughts and actions.  In the sense that in deep true zazen we are neither thinking nor moving and yet not asleep, our karma is erased.
          Actually karma is a bit more complex and difficult a concept then just the effects of our past thoughts and actions in this individual life on our present and future thoughts and actions in this individual life.  Babies quickly develope a strong personality. Where did this come from?  In traditional Buddhist and Hindu thought we would say karma from past lives.  In Christian thought we might say that this root personality we are born with is the soul as God fashioned and placed in our bodies.  And then the modern scientist will say that it is our genetics with maybe a little influence from very early environmental influences which forms the early personality.
          There is still one more way that we can view our karma.  So far the views I have expressed for karma result from dualistic thinking.  The deep enlightened view is non-dualistic.  What is this non-dual view?  One way to express it is to say that the whole Universe, past present and future, has come together to manifest each of our individual personalities.  In this perspective there is no individual view of past lives.  Past lives becomes past life, singular.  There is also no individual view of present life and future life.  Any concept of karma no longer makes sense.  As we enter this perspective karma is not just erased it never really existed.  Even so cause and effect is observed.
          So what is Hakuin talking about?  Is he equating Zazen with full blown enlightenment?  In the next line he says, Nowhere will they find evil paths, and the Pure Land will not be far away.  Again, is he saying that in true Zazen we have temporarily dropped the discrimination of good and evil, or is he saying that the duality of good and evil is permanently dropped in the complete change of perspective that is enlightenment?  
          During a sesshin with Harada Roshi he says to us, "If you can just stop thinking for 30 seconds then your whole life will be changed."  Latter, maybe out of a bit of frustration he says, "If you can only stop thinking for 15 seconds your life will be changed."  In Soto Zen a concept that is thrown around is,  Practice Enlightenment.  The idea is that maybe we shouldn't discriminate between correct practice and enlightenment.  If we can drop attachment and discrimination, that is enlightenment.  This is something that needs to be experienced.  To stop thought and yet be fully awake for a period of time after a lifetime with barely a moment between thoughts, how could it not be transformative?  For some people this transformation, is a complete revolution going to the marrow of their beings.  For others  the transformation might not be so great but is is real and ongoing with each returning to that place of true zazen.  That place of true zazen is the place of true enlightenment.