By: Sotan Tatsugami
Dogen Zenji asks: "How do you think the unthinkable?" Answering himself, Dogen says: "non-thinking". "Non" is not merely a negation. In this case "non" means beyond, transcendent, or emancipated. Non-thinking is the state of one's mind beyond the thinkable, yet including it. Non-thinking is to transcend "no thinking" and to become free. The function of thinking exists, of course, but you are able to transcend it and free yourself. You cannot attain freedom, however, when you cling to something, when you cannot abandon everything. Your view of things becomes very one-sided then. In Japanese there is a very interesting word: tam-pan-kan. This means a person who carries a board on his shoulder. He can see just one side of the board, not the other. Therefore, tam-pan-kan denotes an inflexible and unadaptable person. You should not be a tam-pan-kan. I would like to recommend that you practice zazen. By doing so you will get a taste of what non-thinking means. It is difficult to understand what non-thinking means by listening to a lecture. Please practice zazen. The experience of non-thinking is not only very important, but essential in the practice of zazen. It enables you to realize how valuable zazen is.
Note: This quote is taken from a series of lectures given by Sotan Tatsugami at Tassajara Monastery in 1969-70, translated by then Katagairi Sensei, later Katagiri Roshi (founder of the Minnesota Zen Center and one of the early Japanese Zen pioneers in America). Sotan Tatsugami served for 12 years as the head of training at Eiheiji Monastery in Japan, which was founded by Dogen.
If you are interested, there is an interesting piece on David Chadwick’s Crooked Cucumber website on the relationships and differences in practice and viewpoints between Tatsugami, Katagiri and Suzuki when they were practicing together at Tassajara that can be found here: