The Stupid Way

Most of us have questions about death at some time or other. This is a video of Buddhist priest Gudo Nishijima answering questions about death.

I got an email recently from a journalist who's writing an article about Zazen. He asked me to answer a few questions about practicing Zazen and people's attitude to Zazen in modern Japan. I'm not used to getting emails from journalists but I tried to answer as best I could. Here are the questions and my answers:

1. Is there a difference between choosing to sit in the full-lotus posture, half-lotus posture, burmese style posture or Seiza posture?

A well-known 13^th century Japanese monk named Dogen wrote a piece called Fukanzazengi which has instructions on how to practice Zazen. Fukanzazengi means "Universal Guide to Practicing Zazen". In Fukanzazengi Dogen recommends practicing Zazen in the half-lotus or full-lotus posture. So those two postures are generally regarded as the traditional styles for Zazen. When someone first starts to do Zazen it’s easier to sit in half-lotus. After sitting in half-lotus for a few months or years the leg muscles will become looser and we can try sitting in full-lotus, even for just a few minutes. The main difference between the half-lotus and full-lotus postures is that both knees firmly touch the ground in full-lotus, which makes the posture more stable. Full-lotus is also the traditional posture that was practiced by Gautama Buddha. 

I haven’t much experience with the Burmese style posture, but it may be a good posture for anyone who finds the half-lotus or full-lotus posture difficult. After getting used to the Burmese style, it might be good to try half-lotus or full-lotus. 

 
I’ve never sat Seiza during Zazen. The only experience I have of sitting in Seiza for a long time was when I went to a Japanese tea ceremony. I had to sit in the traditional Seiza style without a cushion for about 30 or 40 minutes. It cut off the blood circulation to my legs and I could hardly stand afterwards. Using a zafu or some kind of bench with Seiza might solve that problem.

When I first started doing Zazen my legs used to be really stiff and it was hard for me to sit in any kind of posture. All I could manage was to sit cross-legged with my knees way up off the floor. After a while I started to sit in a kind of “quarter-lotus” with one foot on the calf of the other. After doing that for a while I managed to sit in half-lotus. A few years later I started doing full-lotus for a few minutes at a time and my legs eventually got used to it. 

 
2. What is enjoyable about practicing Zazen?
 
If you get into the habit of practicing regularly, it can be a nice and interesting thing to do. One enjoyable thing abut practicing Zazen is that life becomes more interesting. Zazen is a way to experience reality like it really is. If you practice Zazen you can notice that reality is sometimes different to the way we think it is. It’s not such a big deal, but after doing it for a while it kind of grows on you. It also feels nice just to sit Zazen sometimes.

 
3. Why has it lost some of its popularity in modern-day Japan?

I think many people in modern-day Japan associate Zazen with physical pain or endurance. It’s often portrayed as a kind of ascetic practice that people do to reach some kind of higher state. Most Japanese people seem to consider Zen temples as places where there's lots of hard discipline and discomfort and the monks might get hit with a stick or something. But I feel that image is changing nowadays. It seems like young Japanese people are becoming more interested in finding out about Buddhism.
 

4. Anything you would like to add?

I usually recommend people to try doing Zazen at home for a while first before they do it at a temple or with a group. That way people can experience Zazen for themselves. It’s actually a nice thing to do.

Those were the four questions.
 

Here are some illustrated instructions for anyone interested in giving Zazen a try at home. They're from the appendix to the third edition of a book called "To Meet the Real Dragon" by Gudo Nishijima and Jeffrey Bailey.

Hannya_shingyo (heart sutra)

The Heart Sutra

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva,

when deeply practicing prajna-paramita,

clearly saw that the five skandas are all empty,

and was saved from all suffering and distress.

Sariputra,

form is no different to emptiness,

emptiness no different to form.

That which is form is emptiness,

that which is emptiness, form.

Sensations, perceptions, impressions, and consciousness

are also like this.

Sariputra,

all things and phenomena are marked by emptiness;

they are neither appearing nor disappearing,

neither impure nor pure,

neither increasing nor decreasing.

Therefore, in emptiness,

no forms, no sensations, perceptions, impressions, or consciousness;

no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind;

no sights, sounds, odors, tastes, objects of touch, objects of mind;

no realm of sight up to no realm of consciousness;

no ignorance and no end of ignorance,

up to no aging and death,

and no end of aging and death;

no suffering, accumulation, cessation, or path;

no wisdom and no attainment.

With nothing to attain,

bodhisattvas

rely on prajna-paramita,

and their minds are without hindrance.

They are without hindrance,

and thus without fear.

Far apart from all confused dreams,

they dwell in nirvana.

All buddhas of the past, present and future

rely on prajna-paramita,

and attain anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.

Therefore, know that prajna-paramita

is the great transcendent mantra,

the great bright mantra,

the supreme mantra,

the unequalled balanced mantra,

that can eliminate all suffering,

and is real, not false.

So proclaim the prajna-paramita mantra,

proclaim the mantra that says:

gate, gate,

paragate,

parasamgate,

bodhi, svaha!

people at precepts ceremony

I was asked to do a ceremony tomorrow for someone who wants to receive the Buddhist precepts. The precepts are kind of rules or guidelines for Buddhists. I grew up as a Catholic, and learned the ten commandments off by heart in school. When I first read the precepts I noticed they were similar. Things like "don't destroy life", "don't steal", "don't lie". The Buddhist precepts also include three "universal" precepts, "to observe the rules of society", "to observe the moral rule of the Universe", and "to work for the salvation of all living beings". But the precepts are a bit different from the ten commandments because no-one is expected to observe the precepts all the time and it's not a sin if you don't. You just try to keep them as best you can. The idea behind the precepts is that they're good guidelines to live by. I've met people who try to follow the precepts even though they don't want to do any kind of ceremony.

I used to have a lot of trouble figuring out the value of the precepts. But after a while I realized that keeping the precepts as best I can is a good way to eliminate a lot of hassle and problems from my life. The precept "don't lie" is a good example of this for me. It's normal for people to lie sometimes, and in some cases it's unavoidable. But I've often found out the hard way that telling lies can eventually catch up on me and cause a lot more trouble than if I'd just told the truth in the first place. I often see examples in the news and daily life of people who told lies and are found out later. It always reminds me of the "don't lie" precept.  However, the hard thing for me is still not to actually tell a lie.

One reason Zen Buddhists practice zazen is that by practicing regularly we gradually reach a point where we naturally follow the precepts. The urge to steal something or lie about something goes away all by itself. If you practice zazen for a while you probably won't feel quite right if you tell a lie or steal something. You might also notice that there's no real reason to steal something or lie about something anyway. What's the point.

But it's not always like that. Even people who practice zazen break the precepts for one reason or another. Because at the end of the day everyone is human, and we all make mistakes. But even if we do make a mistake or do wrong behavior, we can still do zazen again and try to learn from what happened. Gradually we might decide that we just don't want to bring that kind of trouble on ourselves or other people anymore.

There’s a small booklet on the Dogen Sangha website that describes the 16 precepts used in Zen Buddhism. It also has some info on how the precepts started and some Q&A about the precepts and the ceremony itself. You can download the precepts booklet here.

Do you have a sixth sense?  How do you experience it?

Everybody has a sixth sense, except they don't notice most of the time. In Japan there's a saying "i-shin-den-shin" which means something like "heart-to-heart communication". Without saying anything you can sometimes pick up a vibe from someone else. It's like if you stop off at the bakery on the way home from work and see a nice apple strudel and decide to buy it. But when you get home your partner has bought the exact same thing!

If we all worked on this we wouldn't need mobile phones anymore.

Or maybe it's just a coincidence...