Case 27 Nansen's "Not Mind, Not Buddha, Not Things"
A monk asked Nansen, "Is there any Dharma that has not been preached to the people?"
Nansen answered, "There is."
"What is the truth that has not been taught?" asked the monk.
Nansen said, "It is not mind; it is not Buddha; it is not things."
Mumon's Comment
At this question, Nansen used up all his treasure and was not a little confused.
Mumon's Verse
Talking too much spoils your virtue;
Silence is truly unequaled.
Let the mountains become the sea;
I'll give you no comment.
This lays it out. Not any more to be said. But then why do I write this blog. I do it so that I can give all you practitioners out there a little help to get to this, it is not things, this silence.
So I will tell you a story about a student who came to me the other day. We have a small sangha here in Port Townsend with practitioners who often go to retreats with other sanghas. This student is one of them. She came to me with a profound and scary experience that she had at one of these retreats. To begin, I have been working with her on deepening her meditation. I have been talking with her about exhaling all the way out and focussing attention deep into the lower stomach, below the naval. This spot which you will feel as that last bit of breath is pushed out is the Tanden ( also called the Hara). It is a place where the body energy called chi (ki, kundalini) accumulates. With each out breath if you breath all the way out and then hold it for a few seconds, thought will stop and a bit of chi will be deposited in the tanden. You can only fully exhale if you are fully relaxed and already not thinking much. You cannot force it. This student has been working on this technique for about a year. She went to this retreat last week and after about a day and half she has the classic experience of the chi rising creating a strong inner light and making her head very warm. She was a bit scared and tries to hold the chi down so that it doesn't fully rush into her head. On top of this she has other physical symptoms that scared her and she left the retreat early and came home. Then she contacted me and tells me what happened to ask my advice. This is more or less what I told her.
To begin I told her that this experience was a good sign that her meditation is deep and she is practicing the technique correctly. I also told her that there is nothing to be scared of even as the chi rushes to the head. I have written a lot about chi in the blog but that is because I find it very important in my meditation practice. Normally we don't talk about it much in Zen though that is not true in the One Drop Sangha. But still, strong chi experiences, though not experienced by everybody, are not rare. And when they are experienced it is a very personal experience. And for those who experience it often and strongly it can be a very powerful tool but also has to be learned to be controlled as much as possible. This chi energy is nothing more then the bodies natural life energy but it accumulates in abundance when through long periods of time one cuts off ones thoughts and hones concentration. Some schools of Zen and Buddhism here in the United States don't seem to emphasize concentration but rather emphasize mindfulness practice in meditation. Meditation stands on two legs, mindfulness and concentration. Mindfulness is not a very sharp tool without concentration and a lot of people sit for a very long time practicing mindfulness without the mind appreciably slowing. They just sit and watch themselves think. Sometimes they are told that effort into not thinking doesn't work and is like trying to dam a river that will just break through. There is some truth to that but one needs to be creative. By practicing concentration, and it does not have to be directly on stopping thought, we will find that our thought will stop any way as concentration deepens. A simple practice like focused group chanting cuts thoughts and promotes concentration. I think of skiing which is difficult enough and dangerous enough that it forces our concentration and doesn't let us think. If we think we crash. But if we don't crash and we really get into the zone we find great joy, samadhi. Sitting meditation is different and not so different if we really work on concentration we can also eventually find that same zone but now that concentration which is deeply energized with chi cuts our thought and deepens the meditation. And if we enter the zone which we meditators call deep samadhi the mind is absolutely quiet with out effort. It is from here that the deep understanding of Zen and Buddhism is apparent. In other words building concentration and building up chi are not different. If our concentration is strong it is because we are filled with chi. If we are filled with chi then our concentration will naturally be strong. If our chi is weak then we will find ourselves filled with extraneous thoughts.
There is a danger in chi. It is important that we learn to have some control over it. I think if chi as the energy that activates the whole mind body system. And if we have it in excessive abundance then the different functions of our mind body system can function in excess. If it activates our emotions we will have a deep emotional experience. If it activates our thinking mind we can have an experience of powerful but maybe also disturbing thoughts. One of the unpleasant experiences I have had is in a social situation when I was slightly nervous and the chi went right to my head and made me profusely sweat. So we need to learn to control these unusually high levels of chi accumulated in meditation. We do this by intention. If we keep our focus then the chi becomes the sharp edge of concentration cutting thoughts. If we keep our focus on our senses then we can have a deep experience of awareness. And if we don't let our thoughts drift from the intention of understanding the deep questions of Buddhism then we will have a deep experience of insight. Chi is not to be feared. It is part of this strange esoteric practice we call meditation. And an experience of chi like my student had is an important sign that their meditation is deepening.
It takes a bit of time to get use to a higher then normal amount of chi, for both your body and mind. Besides the experience of sweating profusely for a while I had the experience of my heart spontaneously start to beat rapidly while I was sitting in meditation and sometimes when I was not sitting meditation. I learned that I could control this if I breathed deeply and focused on my lower abdomin and literally pushed the chi down to my tanden/hara. I also learned that I could drain some chi by generating some emotion perhaps thinking about some loved one. And then working on some intellectual problem will also drain one of chi. But do not let yourself get caught thinking some painful obsessive thoughts because they will only be experienced more intensely. So again keep your focus on your tanden and use the chi to cut obsessive and random thoughts.
I know for many of my readers this will seem like a strange essay. I know many people who have been sitting for years without experiencing anything like what I am writing about but for those of you who have or will have a powerful experience of chi maybe what you have read here will be useful.
Case 27 Nansen's "Not Mind, Not Buddha, Not Things" 二十七 不是心佛
南泉和尚、因僧問云、還有不與人説底法麼。
A monk asked Nansen, "Is there any Dharma that has not been preached to the people?"
泉云、有。
Nansen answered, "There is."
僧云、如何是不與人説底法。
"What is the truth that has not been taught?" asked the monk.
泉云、不是心、不是佛、不是物。
Nansen said, "It is not mind; it is not Buddha; it is not things."
Mumon's Comment
無門曰、南泉被者一問、直得揣盡家私、郎當不少。
At this question, Nansen used up all his treasure and was not a little confused.
Mumon's Verse 頌曰
叮嚀損君徳 Talking too much spoils your virtue;
無言眞有功 Silence is truly unequaled.
任從滄海變 Let the mountains become the sea;
終不爲君通 I'll give you no comment.
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