Case 36 When You Meet a Man of the Way                 
 
Goso said, "When you meet a man of the Way on the path, do not meet him with words or in silence. Tell me, how will you meet him?"
 
Mumon's Comment
In such a case, if you can manage an intimate meeting with him it will certainly be gratifying.
But if you cannot, you must be watchful in every way.
 
Mumon's Verse 
             Meeting a man of the Way on the road,
             Meet him with neither words nor silence.
             A punch on the jaw:
             Understand, if you can directly understand.
 
          This is not a koan about deep zazen or clarifying understanding.  It is a question about freedom.  It is a tests of the student's freedom.  By now  the student is not just a student if he/she has gotten through the previous 35 koans.  There is a line in the Heart Sutra:

The Bodhisattvas depend on Prajna Paramita and their minds are no hindrance. Without any hindrance, no fears exist. Far apart from every deluded view they dwell in Nirvana. 

Almost all of us carry at least a little bit of fear with us.  It is called self consciousness.  We want to live up to some idea we have of ourselves, we want to fit in, we want to impress, and so on.  We carry around this self consciousness and it binds us and doesn't allow us to freely act and express our True Nature, our chi.
           We Buddhists are suppose to believe that all humans in our deeper selves are essentially good.  The Buddha upon his enlightenment is suppose to have said that all beings have this same clear bright mind and wisdom that I have just awoken to.  This is our faith.  Of course most of us don't seem to have a clear bright mind and are filled with confusion and selfish desire.  But then we practice and dispell some of that confusion and our deeper bright mind begins to shine.  When that bright mind shines we act with our natural goodness and become bodhisattvas not out of intention but naturally.  This bright mind is the mind of prajna (wisdom).  It is that quiet mind that I write so much about in this blog.  It is that mind which naturally is without duality.  It is the mind that naturally experiences the world with joy and intimacy.
          There is a classic Buddhist teaching that comes from The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva.  It goes like this.  We may have a deep desire to make the world a better place, but it seems like such a huge intractable problem.  Metaphorically we might want to cover the whole world in soft leather so that we are without pain in our journey through life though we know that this is impossible.  But there is something we can do, we can cover our own feet with soft leather.  It is not easy to figure out how to make shoes that fit and are comfortable and stay on but the Buddha and many other teachers have showed us how.  And then when we have finally put soft comfortable shoes on our feet we can show others how to make shoes.  This is what it is to be a Bodhisattva.  This is the way of Buddhism.  In other words Buddhism is about personal transformation.  Of course Buddhism asks us to do the right thing but more important then just doing the right thing is that personal transformation that exposes our goodness and allows to do the right thing naturally.
          All religions ask us to do the right thing but what one religion considers the right thing another religion may not.  This is because each religion sets up a moral system based upon a specific moral code and other beliefs some of which are unique to each religion.  Unlike Buddhism these religions are not based upon the inherent goodness of the individual.  Christianity is very specific in it's belief in the inherent sinfulness of the individual.  With this belief it becomes a personal battle to do good.  Buddhism is quite different because it is based on the Buddha's discovery (not a revelation from a divine source) of our natural goodness.  And while the idea of personal transformation may seem individualistic  and selfish it is not because doing the right thing is never individualistic and selfish.  In the larger sense of trying to create a better world Buddhism and the way of the Bodhisattva is about creating a culture of personal transformation.  This is the Mahayana the large raft which brings all humanity to liberation, but it doesn't matter whether you practice in the Mahayana or Theravada or other meditative tradition it is the culture of personal transformation uncovering our inherent goodness that is important.
          I have been reading a bunch on the psychology of morality and personality recently (Jonathan Haidt and others).  What strikes me is the wide variety of personalities and the tendency that these various personalities will develop certain moral structures.  This wide range of personalities include those who are ego driven and those who are selfless, those who are honest and those who are dishonest, those who are rational and those who are emotional, those who think of morality in terms of social order, hierarchy, loyalty, as well as harm and suffering.   The argument from these psychologists is that a large component of personality and morality is evolutionary and biologically determined.  A natural conclusion from reading these authors is that who we are in terms of personality  to a large extent is fixed.  And we can see how the range of human personality can cause conflict and suffering.
          Of course our ancient ancestors did not think in terms of evolution or biologic determinism.  They came up with such ideas as the soul and karma.  And they anthropomorphize the forces of nature and believed in gods and then the one God.  And they developed societies based on order and belief which to some extent put a check on conflict and suffering.
          But now how do we reconcile what is thought to be biologically and evolutionarily determined with the Buddhist faith in our inherent goodness?  My own experience,  through the power of meditation, is that personality is a lot less fixed then then one might think.  If we examine the issue we can see that personality is how we think feel and react to our environment.  It is a nexus of thought and emotion.  Our ancestors noticed that much of personality seemed to be in place even when the human is very young.  This was thought to be the result of karma acquired in our past lives.  Sometimes in the Zen world we call this Beginningless Karma which it truly is because it is the result of our whole evolutionary history going back to the beginning of life and by extension through cause and effect to the beginningless beginning of time.  And yet this nexus of thought and emotion is not who we are at the core.  I know this because through the practice of meditation I have learned to turn off the constant river of thought and emotion that runs through  each of our minds.  And what I have found is exactly what the Buddha found.  At the core if we strip away the pervasive clouds of thought and emotions we will experience the world with a loving intimacy and an intuitive understanding of our intrinsic oneness with the whole Universe.  So when you meet a man of the way or anyone for that matter can you meet him/her with this loving intimacy of your deepest mind?
           

Case 35 Seijõ's Soul Separated                

Goso said to his monks, "Seijõ's soul separated from her being. Which was the real Seijõ?"
 
Mumon's Comment

When you realize what the real is, you will see that we pass from one husk to another like travelers stopping for a night's lodging.
But if you do not realize it yet, I earnestly advise you not to rush about wildly.
When earth, water, fire, and air suddenly separate, you will be like a crab struggling in boiling water with its seven or eight arms and legs.
When that happens, don't say I didn't warn you!
 
Mumon's Verse 
     The moon above the clouds is ever the same;
     Valleys and mountains are separate from each other.
     All are blessed, all are blessed;
     Are they one or are they two?



          This case uses an ancient Chinese folk tale about Seijo.   The story is, she falls in love with a young man who their parents don't approve.  They run off together and get married.  In time she decides to make amends to her parents and they go back. Unknown to this Seijo when she left her parents some how she divided in two and another version of her stayed with her parents and never married.  When the married version of Seijo approaches her parents door simultaneously the other version of Seijo comes to the door and the two versions merge and become one again.
          I think in Chinese culture  this is a tale of the importance of filial devotion, how a person can never be truly happy if they go against the will of their parents.  But this is not the importance of the tale to a Zen practitioner.  For the Zen practitioner this koan allows us to clarify such issues as the soul, duality and non-duality, zen action, and even reincarnation.  
          I immediately think of the line out  of Hakuin Zenji's Song of Zazen, "Not two not three, straight ahead runs the Way."  The Way is the way of Zen practice.  Hakuin tells us not to be divided in our practice.  Practice with single mindedness.  When you sit zazen just sit zazen, when you clean the toilet just clean the toilet.  Do not let the mind wander imagining we are someplace else or doing something else.  This approach in fact is the essence of meditation mindfulness and concentration, even if one is not sitting.  Maybe this tale is telling us we should bring our emotions and intellect into harmony before we act.  We can call this Zen activity but to function this way is not easy and may only be the outcome of many years of Zen practice, but even so this is what we try to practice.  We can see the story from this perspective but this is only one perspective.
          There is also the perspective of the larger "not two", the perspective of cosmic non-duality.  Our practice, all our sitting, the practice of a active meditation we can think of it all from the perspective of the small self, finding happiness or enlightenment.  Or we can try to drop the small self and think of our practice as an end in itself and just accept without judgement what it gives and how it changes one.  But even if we take this second approach which we might call the practice enlightenment approach our practice is still the preparation for a deep change in our psyche and a whole new perspective.  I can tell you this is the perspective of no-self or non-duality but my passing some intellectualization of the experience will do little  to actually allow to you enter the perspective.  Even so I try.
          Maybe you are a diligent practitioner and have even had some deep experiences this does not mean you have fully clarified the perspective of non-duality.  Nor does it mean that you have the full flexibility of mind to penetrate this koan  What is Mumon talking about when he says?

When you realize what the real is, you will see that we pass from one husk to another like travelers stopping for a night's lodging.

Maybe he is talking about reincarnation but is this reincarnation as we normally think of it?  I don't think so.  We need flexibility of mind to understand this statement.  We also need to step out of the individual idea of the self.  This cannot be done with our normal way of thinking.  We need poetic liberation.  We need to stop seeing words as fixed concepts but rather as metaphor for a deeper reality.  And this deeper reality must be experienced again and again.  One of the classic yogic skills is psychic transference,  Zen teachers often say "Become One with ...." a tree or a bird or the sound of the running river or even another person.   What does this mean?  Or are we talking about moment to moment rebirth.  Again do you understand this?  Don't be caught in our normal way of seeing things.  Break free.
         Lastly  Mumon adds a warning.:  

When earth, water, fire, and air suddenly separate, you will be like a crab struggling in boiling water with its seven or eight arms and legs.
When that happens, don't say I didn't warn you!

Do not try to think out this koan with our normal dualistic thought, it will not work.  We must become intimate with this deeper reality and then it will all make sense.


 

Case 33 Baso's "No Mind, No Buddha"                         
 

A monk asked Baso, "What is the Buddha?"
Baso answered, "No mind, no Buddha."
 
Mumon's Comment
If you understand this, you have finished studying Zen.
 
Mumon's Verse
        Present a sword if you meet a swordsman;
        Don't offer a poem unless you meet a poet.
        When talking, tell one-third of it;
        Don't divulge the whole at once.

          Yesterday at a the quarterly weekend sesshin here at the Moonwater Dojo  a participant heading into the Zendo says to me, "Back to polishing the mind."  This idea of polishing the mind has gotten a bad reputation since Hui Neng wrote his poem.

There is not a Bodhi Tree
Nor is there a mirror bright
Originally there is not a single thing
Where can dust alight

Which seems to put down an other poem about polishing the mind. Students of Zen read this and then think Zen isn't about polishing any mirror and yet the idea of zazen as polishing the mind still persists.  This idea of polishing the mind is not incorrect as a metaphor for zazen, only that it comes from the non-enlightened perspective.  We certainly experience the clearing of the debree of our thought as we diligently practice zazen.  If we clean the mirror of the mind so that all thought stops for a time then the mirror becomes so clear that it disappears.  No Mind No Buddha!  This is the Absolute truth.
          We all want to fix the truth in concepts, something we can grab hold of and carry with us.  But the truth of Zen is not like that.  It is with out concept.  It is actually to experience the world without any intermediary concepts.  We try to explain this in words but only confuse.We use words like Buddha and Mind and discover that our students have developed concepts around these words which they mistakenly think is some deep Buddhist truth.  Stop words, let it all go. 
 

Case 31 Jõshû Investigates an Old Woman                   
 
A monk asked an old woman, "What is the way to Taisan?"
The old woman said, "Go straight on."
When the monk had proceeded a few steps, she said, "A good, respectable monk, but he too goes that way."
Afterward someone told Jõshû about this.
Jõshû said, "Wait a bit, I will go and investigate the old woman for you."
The next day he went and asked the same question, and the old woman gave the same answer.
On returning, Jõshû said to his disciples, "I have investigated the old woman of Taisan for you."
 
Mumon's Comment
The old woman only knew how to sit still in her tent and plan the campaign; she did not know when she was shadowed by a spy.
Though old Jõshû showed himself clever enough to take a camp and overwhelm a fortress, he displayed no trace of being a great commander.
If we look at them, they both have their faults.
But tell me, what did Jõshû see in the old woman?
 
Mumon's Verse 
    The question was like the others,
    The answer was the same.
    Sand in the rice,
    Thorns in the mud.

          Ancient Chinese, Japanese societies were sexist by today's standards, and yes our society is still sexist.  The Buddha was purported to have said upon his Enlightenment,  "How wonderful all people have this same clear bright mind that I have just awoken to."  I have been told that here in the USA the majority of teachers of Buddhism are woman.  Maybe to underscore the equality of men and woman in deep Buddhist understanding the wise old woman appears in this story.
          In his Song of Zazen Hakuin tells us "Not two, not three, straight ahead runs the Way."  It mirrors the statement by the woman in this story.  If you want to get to the place of practice which in this case is symbolized by Taisan which is the name of Joshu's Monastery but is in fact not a physical place but something inner. That inner attitude is to be straight ahead.  It is not to let yourself get diverted by competing interests and teachings, have faith in the Buddha Way.  It is to be straight ahead in your inner world, do not be self deceptive nor deceive others.  Most importantly,  not to let your mind fall into duality.  When practicing zazen practice zazen and try not to let your mind wander.  When chopping wood just chop wood.  Whatever you do fully engage mind and body in the task.  This is the practice, this is the road to Taisan.
          Some might object to judging one's zazen or having a goal in practice.  They might say that judging ones practice or having of a goal is a hinderance.  In the Soto School they say, "Practice is enlightenment."  There is a pitfall either way we look at this issue.  On the one hand if you don't acknowledge a goal then there is no reason and motivation to practice. If you think you are enlightened just because you are sitting in a zazen pose then your inner practice will be lazy.  On the other hand if you think about any goal during practice then you are falling into dualism and also not really practicing.  This is something we each have to work out but I have to say that for myself I know what real and good zazen is and when I am not really practicing.  I have no problem making this judgement and doing what I need to do to turn not so good zazen into good zazen(quiet and concentrated zazen).
         The goal of practice is to really practice.  To really practice is not so easy. To really practice can take many years of practice.  To really practice is to be straight ahead, it is not to fall into duality, it is to be fully engaged mind and body.  To really practice that is enlightenment.  As Hakuin says in the Song of Zazen,'  "Those who practice true zazen even once will see all karma erased."

Case 30 Baso's "This Very Mind Is the Buddha"                     
 
Daibai asked Baso, "What is the Buddha?"
Baso answered, "This very mind is the Buddha."
 
Mumon's Comment

If you directly grasp Baso's meaning, you wear the Buddha's clothes, eat the Buddha's food, speak the Buddha's words, do the Buddha's deeds—that is, you are a Buddha himself.

However, alas! Daibai misled not a few people into taking the mark on the balance for the weight itself.

How could he realize that even mentioning the word "Buddha" should make us rinse out our mouths for three days?

If a man of understanding hears anyone say, "This very mind is the Buddha," he will cover his ears and rush away.
 
Mumon's Verse 
     The blue sky and bright day,
     No more searching around!
     "What is the Buddha?" you ask:
     With loot in your pocket, you declare yourself innocent.
 

          Years ago (early 1980's) I did a series of sesshins with Joshu Sasaki Roshi.  He was a Rinzai master who taught with koans that he often made up.  He would often take traditional koans and put them in a language that was easier to grasp, and usually involved the word Buddha such as, "How do you experience Buddha through sound?"  He also would often ask a new student what his or her profession was and then if the student answered for example carpenter he would then give the student the koan, "How do you experience Buddha through Carpentry?" One might think these koans are easier then the traditional koans like those in this collection and yes maybe that is somewhat true because there is less obscurity in the language but I would argue that in essence they are just as difficult.  They are still asking the student to have the same experiences and understanding.  You can not pass one of Sasaki's koans without understanding the word Buddha and here we are at koan 30 in the Mumonkan and it is also asking you to understand that same word, Buddha.
           Twenty Five years after practicing with Sasaki Roshi I was doing sesshins with Shodo Harada Roshi.  Even though he is also a Rinzai teacher we did not do koans.  We were working on ways to deepen samadhi.  For quite a while I worked on a simple breathing technique called Sokusan which once mastered allows one to quickly enter deep samadhi.  Once I mastered that skill then he would just ask me at the beginning of each sesshin to do something like die with every breath or to become the Universe with every breath.  This went on for a number of sesshins. Then one Sesshin he asks me the question, "How big is your mind?"  Without hesitation I respond, "It fills the whole Universe."  The next interview I had with Harada he told me that I was done with my training.
          Some people think that you gain magical powers through years of intense meditation and that experience we call Enlightenment.  Some people are attracted to a magical view of life where some how they can control reality through their thinking.  And some people have misread the Mind Only philosophy of Buddhism or this koan as telling them that some how they can control the larger world with their mind.  This is just more confusion.
          Again if one really wants to understand this statement, "This very Mind is Buddha" then you must understand it from the perspective of deep meditative experience where the world is not seen through the lens of our normal conceptual thinking.  Words can take on whole different meanings through the perspective of this experience.  But be aware the public expression of such understanding can easily become  weeds.  Maybe I shouldn't but I will give a hint: Non-Duality.

 Case 29 The Sixth Patriarch's "Your Mind Moves"                
 
The wind was flapping a temple flag, and two monks started an argument.
One said the flag flapped, the other said the wind flapped;
they argued back and forth but could not reach a conclusion.
The Sixth Patriarch said, "It is not the wind that flaps, it is not the flag that flaps; it is your mind that flaps."
The two monks were awe-struck.
 
Mumon's Comment
It is not the wind that moves; it is not the flag that moves; it is not the mind that moves. How do you see the patriarch?
If you come to understand this matter deeply, you will see that the two monks got gold when buying iron.
The patriarch could not withhold his compassion and courted disgrace.
 
Mumon's Verse 
    Wind, flag, mind, moving,
     All equally to blame.
     Only knowing how to open his mouth,
     Unaware of his fault in talking.

          The story in this koan is from the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch.  If we read this sutra we learn that Hui Neng the Sixth Patriarch was not actually a recognized teacher at the time of this story.  He had been in seclusion practicing on his own for 10 years, deepening his realization as per the instructions of the Fifth Patriarch.  He comes into town to listen to a traveling teacher when he encounters these two monks.  What he said to these two monks seemed so astounding that the traveling teacher asks him if by chance he is the the fellow who is the lineage disciple of the Fifth Zen Patriarch.  When Hui Neng says yes, he is asked to give his first public talk and begins his teaching career.
​          On reading this koan one might think the Sixth Patriarch is simply admonishing the two monks for what seems a rather stupid argument but then what he said might not have struck anyone as so astounding.  During the time of Hui Neng (7th Century) Buddhism was a highly intellectual endeavor.  A large Buddhist cannon had been translated and was earnestly studied but only Zen, which was a small school, had a lineage of teachers which went all the way back to the Buddha.  And Zen was and is not an intellectual discipline but a meditative discipline.  These arguing monks were not of the Zen sect so maybe they were surprised to be admonished.  And then maybe this "mind flapping" thing was Hui Neng saying the movement of the flag/wind was all in our heads?  Was this a statement of the idea that everything is in our heads which is one understanding (not mine) of the Mind Only School of Buddhism?  Or maybe he was talking about the Universal Mind which contains all our minds.
          Our individual minds are capable of weaving a practically impenetrable jungle of thoughts.  Rarely do we see clearly but are instead filled with confusing thoughts.  The Buddha recognised this as a primary cause of our suffering.  We might respond that it is only some of our thoughts that cause suffering.  Yes, some of our thought make us happy but the Buddha and I would respond that for almost all of us we have woven with our thoughts an inherently incorrect understanding and can never be truly happy with this incorrect confused understanding of the world.  Now of course you want me to write what is true and real, something you can believe in.  But that is not the Zen way.  The Zen way is not to replace one set of ideas with another.  That may happen eventually.  But what is true and real in Zen is the practice. It is Zazen (sitting meditation), Kinhin (walking meditation), and fully engaging body and mind in whatever we do without any extra thought (daily life practice).  It is the Eightfold Way of the Buddha and the Six Perfections.  All of this stuff is to slowly disentangle the confusion of our thought so that we can see clearly.
          Be careful with the first step on the Eightfold Path of Right Understanding.  Please don't just substitute the theological edifice of some sect of Buddhism for what was your previous way of thinking.  The Buddha laid out only some simple truths which are hard to deny, the truth of our suffering, that everything is in constant change, that everything and everyone, is interconnected by and results from cause and effect (what the Buddha called "causes and conditions") The one really difficult idea laid out by the Buddha and is the non-atman or no-self doctrine. It is completely antithetical to the way most of us think.  My suggestion is that we ponder this idea but that again it's true understanding can only be revealed through deepening practice. 
          Back to the koan, contemplating this story and our "flapping mind" we are asked to disentangle any ideas we might have about our sensory and intellectual connection we have to the physical world.  We do this not as an intellectual endeavor but rather by experiencing this connection in it's raw form before any ideas are added to experience.  This is not easy and can take years of work in meditation.  We are like scientists who should if they are good scientists not take any theoretical idea as an absolute truth but rather test and retest in various conditions all theoretical ideas.  In the practice of meditation we are performing a repeatable experiment, that many thousands of people have already performed so that we can learn the truth ourselves of our relationship with the world we live in.
          



 

Case 28 Ryûtan Blows Out the Candle                          
 
Tokusan asked Ryûtan about Zen far into the night.
At last Ryûtan said, "The night is late.
Why don't you retire?"
Tokusan made his bows and lifted the blinds to withdraw, but he was met by darkness. Turning back to Ryûtan, he said, "It is dark outside."
Ryûtan lit a paper candle and handed it to him.
Tokusan was about to take it when Ryûtan blew it out.
At this, all of a sudden, Tokusan went through a deep experience and made bows.
Ryûtan said, "What sort of realization do you have?"
"From now on," said Tokusan, "I will not doubt the words of an old oshõ who is renowned everywhere under the sun."
The next day Ryûtan ascended the rostrum and said, "I see a fellow among you. His fangs are like the sword tree. His mouth is like a blood bowl.
Strike him with a stick, and he won't turn his head to look at you.
Someday or other, he will climb the highest of the peaks and establish our Way there."
Tokusan brought his notes on the Diamond Sutra to the front of the hall, pointed to them with a torch, and said, "Even though you have exhausted the abtruse doctrines, it is like placing a hair in a vast space. Even though you have learned all the secrets of the world, it is like a drop of water dripped on the great ocean."
And he burned all his notes.
Then, making bows, he took his leave of his teacher.
 

Mumon's Comment
Before Tokusan crossed the barrier from his native place, his mind burned and his mouth uttered bitterness. He went southward, intending to stamp out the doctrines of special transmission outside the sutras.
When he reached the road to Reishû, he asked an old woman to let him have lunch to "refresh the mind."
"Your worship, what sort of literature do you carry in your pack?" the old woman asked.
"Commentaries on the Diamond Sutra," replied Tokusan.
The woman replies,  In the Diamond Sutra it says,
 "'The past mind cannot be held, the present mind cannot be held, the future mind cannot be held.  What mind are you trying to refresh.?"
At this question Tokusan was dumbfounded.
However, he did not remain inert under her words but asked, "Do you know of any good teacher around here?"
The old woman said, "Five miles from here you will find Ryûtan Oshõ."
Coming to Ryûtan, Tokusan got the worst of it.
His former words were inconsistent with his later ones.
As for Ryûtan, he seemed to have lost all sense of shame in his compassion toward his son.
Finding a bit of live coal in the other, enough to start a fire, he hurriedly poured on muddy water to annihilate everything at once.
A little cool reflection tells us it was all a farce.

          Mumon's Verse

         Hearing the name cannot surpass seeing the face;
         Seeing the face cannot surpass hearing the name.
        He may have saved his nose,
         But alas! he lost his eyes.

          This is a very interesting and complex story for a Koan, and Mumon give us important background information in his comments.  We learn that Tokusan was an intellectual who studied the Diamond Sutra and was sure in an intellectual battle he could destroy any defender of the Zen sect.  But then he encounter a woman of obvious intellectual acuity and sophistication in Zen who very quickly destroys Tokusan.  He is helpless when the woman asks  "The past mind cannot be held, the present mind cannot be held, the future mind cannot be held. What mind do you need to refresh?"  This reminds me of the story of the Sixth Patriarch who might of heard this same section of the Diamond Sutra and had a spontaneous enlightenment experience.  We normal humans tend to think that our mind is this constant flow of internal thoughts, dialogue, images, sounds, memories emotions etc.  It is like a river that flows though our heads and we identify with that river and might even say that is who we are in our essence.  But the Diamond Sutra tells us again and again that all that stuff is empty.  It has no real substance, it is just fluff,  passing energy and yet we try to grab hold of it spin it in our heads which only increases the volume of the river.  This is how our thoughts become obsessive and delusive and filled with suffering.  We try to fix the idea of our selves in these thoughts but this is just delusion.  The river keeps on flowing, always changing, and everything around us is also continuously changing.  There is nothing fixed, not our thoughts and not the mountain across the valley.
          What is our mind?  Is it that stream of thought or something else?  Most of us would say it is various things, our awareness but certainly also that river of thought.  It is what goes on internally in our head.  But if you are a deeply experienced meditator you might think of it as something else.  I heard an interesting story the other day.  My teacher Harada Roshi went to see a member of the sangha who is quite sick and was suffering from severe delusions.  The Roshi simply told this fellow that what he was experiencing was not his mind.  Something happened, all that experience in meditation kicked in and this fellow was able to return to his clear rational mind.  I also had a similar experience many many years ago when I was experimenting a bit with LSD.  I wanted to see the effects of meditation on the LSD experience.  I could quickly turn off the hallucinatory effects of LSD through meditation but then when I stopped meditating about 5 min. later the hallucinations started up again.
          In the Diamond Sutra there is mention of the "non-abiding mind."  (Trust me though I am not going to look up any quotes this is probably from the same part of the Sutra that the woman of our story quotes.)  In one sense the non-abiding mind is what we are trying to cultivate as Buddhist practitioners.  It is the mind that is unattached, not attached to the past, not to the future, not even to the present.  We Buddhists practice non-attachment because we are told that attachment causes suffering. It is something we have to practice because our minds seem to be naturally sticky.  We try to be conscious of both our deep seated attachments and moment to moment attachments and consciously let them go.  This is an ongoing process that we never seem to completely conclude because on some level we are attached to non-attachment.  We are attached to the Buddhist teachings. We are attached to our practice. We are attached to our understanding.  We are attached in all sorts of ways that we are not conscious of or just don't think of as a problem.
         When we sit in meditation we get down to the nitty-gritty of non-attachment.  Many people are taught to practice meditation by cultivating an inner mindfulness and watch the river of thought pass by without becoming attached to any one thought as it passes by.  This is not very easy because quickly our thoughts become so dense there is no room for mindfulness and we quickly loose consciousness of our thinking.  Then in a moment we become conscious again but now those thoughts are just a memory.  By becoming conscious that we were just lost in thought we can chose to keep thinking about whatever we were thinking about or try to let the thoughts and the subject of the thoughts go.  Our practice tells us that we should let the thoughts go but sometimes the power of the attachment to the subject of the thoughts is just  too powerful and no matter what we try we still return to the same subject and loose consciousness in our thought.  This is attachment.  When I had lots of responsibilities at work for most of the first 1/2 hour of my morning practice I could not get thoughts of my responsibilities out of my head.  It is really difficult to just let these thoughts go, by just being conscious of  them so usually we have some thing to focus our attention on when we become conscious that our attention has strayed.  Commonly this focus is the breath.  Maybe even the breath is counted.  This is where concentration becomes important.  And the breath is not the only thing used for an object of concentration, sound, sight, the bodily sensations of our skin, and even posture.  The Tibetans really focus on concentration through the practice of complex visualization.
          Normally we think of attachment as being attached to the people we have feelings for or some object or idea for which we also have feelings. Attachment seems to be something emotional, and not rational.  In the complexity of the human mind generally all our thoughts are accompanied by some level of emotion.  In fact emotion is often invoked even before thought.  We can see that attachment and aversion sort of rule our lives and seems unavoidable, and aversion is a sort of attachment in reverse resulting from some attachment to how we want things to be.   It seems that emotion rules our attachments, and it is emotion that keeps us attached.  Breaking attachments often involves emotional pain.  We have a whole web of thoughts that are all based around an idea of a self that are held together by emotional attachment.  This is only the beginning of our understanding of attachment. 
          In meditation we can see the many ways we attach.  Sitting in meditation we can watch thoughts arise and see them as a string of attachments. We can also see that each thought is usually accompanied by some emotion.  Sometime this emotion is only a slight bodily feeling that might not be thought of as emotion but then as meditation deepens it is possible to experience a state of complete bodily equanimity in which there is no emotional attachment to thought and then we will understand emotional attachment. We will then see emotional attachment is the movement of body energy (chi) and see how body and our intellectual mind work together creating a larger intelligence.   In long periods of sitting deep unconscious emotions and thoughts with a long history arise.  Sometimes these deep attachments are stored in some way in our body and if we can let go of a deep attachment then it will actually transform how our body feels.
          When we sit in meditation we try to let go of any thoughts that arise.  In some sense each thought is an attachment  We do not dwell on thoughts that arise and attach more thoughts to the original thought but again and again return to whatever object of attention we have chosen.  At first, just a few moments later another string of thoughts will arise.  They might be on another subject or they might be on the same subject.  We can see that we have recurring themes to our thoughts.  Eventually as we continue our sitting practice we find more and more space between our thoughts.  We will experience deepening concentration.  We will uncover that there is a more subtle layer of thought that is not very energetic, like a whisper, but still functioning between our more energetic thoughts.  Eventually with lots of practice we can cut through even this layer and experience moments of complete silence.  This is where concentration is very important.  I understand attachment now as on the most subtle level as the attachment of thought to thought, thought to emotion, emotion to thought, thought to sensation and emotion to sensation, and all this attachment is just habit.  
          One time when I was sitting quite deeply but still just starting to break through into periods of real quiet I could see how the subtle noises in the space would turn into words in my head.  A sound would transform into a word seamlessly. And then that word could easily become a sentence and so on.  This was not the result of some deep emotional  attachment but a habit of attachment.  And because it is a habit and all attachment/thought is in some way a habit we can break the habit by finding a way to cut off thinking for longer and longer spans of time.  We do this by again and again cutting our thoughts with concentrated attention and not give our habit of thinking any energy.
          One might respond that this cutting off of our thoughts is also an attachment.  It is just our attachment to non-attachment.  This is true and it is the last attachment that must be let go of and this part to some extent happens spontaneously.  It often does not happen on the cushion because that is a place of effort but might happen if the teacher shouts at you or you bump your toe, in the case of this koan the teacher blows out a candle, in the case of the Sixth Patriarch he heard a portion of the Diamond Sutra.  And then we enter a place where there truly is no attachment.  We in Zen call this Original Mind. 
          From the place of this Original Mind everything is different.  Not that things look different, though they do look and sound and feel and taste and smell a little different.  The sensations are intensified/energized.  Colors are brighter sounds are clearer and there may be even an intense experience of beauty.  But more important than this intensification of experience is that there is an inherent understanding from the perspective of the Original Mind.  There is no ego in the Original Mind.  There is no division in the Original Mind, and because of this there is no separation between self and others. There is the recognition that the True Self is without boundaries. There is insight into non-duality.  From the perspective of the Original Mind the Original Mind is not an attribute of an individual being but because, it does not separate itself from it's content, which is what we hear and see and taste and feel and smell,  it is the whole Universe.
           This insight into non-duality changes everything. We practice hard, purify our thoughts, quiet our mind, so that we might have an experience and insight into non-duality, to only discover that it is not our experience or our insight but the experience and insight of the Non-Dual Universe.  And at the same time all our previous confusion and even suffering is also the confusion and suffering of the Universe.  But to call it confusion and suffering is to come from the individual perspective.  Once there has been a deep insight into the Non-Dual true Zen practice is not to leave this understanding on the cushion but to bring this understanding into our daily lives.  This is to see thinking as no-thinking, attachment as no-attachment, even life as no-life.  We do this by again and again returning to the Original Mind of no thinking.
          In the last commentary I wrote a lot about chi energy and how important it is in meditation so the question naturally arises how does the experience of chi relate to what I have just written?  The accumulation of chi is natural with the deepening of meditation and from my experience a strong chi experience invariably accompanies any experience of the deep quiet of the Original Mind.  Experience has shown me that it is not only passively accompanying breakthrough experiences but can be causative.  This is exactly why a hit with a stick or a shout may precipitate the sudden quieting of the mind or a deep insight.  Often during sesshin when my mind is noisy and I am unsuccessful in quieting it through my normal meditation techniques I ask for the kiosaku stick, and often with a hit from the stick I find the chi energy rises right to the top of the skull and I find myself (no-self) totally awake with a totally quiet mind.
          This is how we can understand the story in this koan but it is only a true understanding if we have this same experience.

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.
          





















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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.