Nonthinking: John Daido Loori

By: John Daido Loori

When you’re doing shikantaza you don’t try to focus on anything specifically, or to make thoughts go away. You simply allow everything to be just the way it is. Thoughts come, thoughts go, and you simply watch them; you keep your awareness on them. It takes a lot of energy and persistence to sit shikantaza, to not get caught up in daydreaming. But little by little, thoughts begin to slow down, and finally they cease to arise. When the thought disappears, the thinker disappears. This is the samadhi of falling away of body and mind.

Note: John Daido Loori (1931-2009) was the founder of Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, New York and was a dharma heir of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. This quote is taken from an article in Lion’s Roar which can be found here.

Nonthinking: Brad Warner

By: Brad Warner

If you start really paying attention to your own thought process—I’m talking here about the process itself and not just the contents of the individual thoughts that make it up—you’ll notice that thoughts don’t just go on and on continuously. There are little spaces between them. Most of us tend to habitually try and fill these spaces up with more thoughts as fast as we possibly can. But even the best of us can’t fill them all, so there are always little gaps. See, you might say that there are two basic kinds of thought. There are thoughts that pop up unannounced and uninvited in our brains for no reason we’re able to discern. These are just the results of previous thoughts and experiences that have left their traces in the neural pathways of our brains. You can’t do much to stop these, nor should you try. The other kind of thought is when we grab on to one of these streams of energy and start playing with it the way your mom always told you not to do with your wee-wee in front of the neighbors. We dig deep into these thoughts and roll around in them like a pig rolling in its own doo-doo, feeling all that delicious coolness and drinking deep of their lovely stink.

To practice “thinking not thinking,” all you need to do is ignore the first kind of thoughts and learn how not to instigate the second. This is easier said than done, of course. But get into the habit, and it begins to come naturally.

…Now try to look at the natural spaces between thoughts. Learn what it feels like to just stop generating more and more stuff for your brain to chew on. Now see if you can do that for longer and longer periods. A couple of seconds is fine. Voilà! Thinking not thinking!

Note: Brad Warner is a Soto Zen teacher, writer and former punk rock bass guitarist. His books include Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, and the Truth About Reality, and Don't Be a Jerk: And Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan's Greatest Zen Master. This quote is from an article by Warner titled “Think Not Thinking” in Tricycle Magazine, which can be found here.

Nonthinking: Sotan Tatsugami Roshi

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:

Nonthinking: Barry Magid

By: Barry Magid

"Think nonthinking" is a phrase by Dogen that people stumble over and find confusing. People in Dogen's time, and even now, misunderstand it to mean "don't think." A better translation of "Non Thinking" is "just think." Like, "just sit," this is not a simple phrase. Our thinking is not something contaminating our mind, something we're trying to get rid of. We let it be there empty of intention. Let thought just be thought, not something we have to do anything about whatsoever.

Note: Barry Magid is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and Zen teacher. He is the founder of the Ordinary Mind Zendo in New York City and is a dharma heir of Charlotte Joko Beck. The above quote is from a dharma talk by him that can be found here.

Nonthinking: Issho Fujita

By: Issho Fujita

When we refer to the qualities of…beyond thinking…we mean that sitting posture is (itself) beyond thinking and has no thought…not that we ourselves are. We will never be beyond thinking…as long as we live. What we can do is sit with the faith that zazen posture itself is Buddha, that zazen posture itself is beyond thinking.

We tend to think that we are sitting zazen. This is not the case. The entire universe is sitting zazen.

Note: Issho Fujita is a Soto Zen teacher who was the Abbott of Valley Zendo in western Massachusetts and the Director of Soto Zen International Center in Japan. This quote is taken from a talk given by Josho Pat Phelan.

Nonthinking: Norman Fischer

By Norman Fischer

In zazen we’re not trying to think something in particular or to orient the mind in a particular direction. Nor is it necessary for us to somehow shut off thinking, which, though difficult, is actually not impossible when the mind is concentrating. Instead, he says think not-thinking, which is called nonthinking—a sort of thinking. It is very, very similar to the way we usually think, but there’s a little, tiny difference. And that little, tiny difference makes a categorical difference, even though we could miss it. The difference is so small that it is hard to see, but once you see it, it makes all the difference.

In usual thinking, and most of the time we are not at all conscious of this, what drives the thinking is some hook, some catch to thinking. That hook and that catch is “I” or “me.” “I’m thinking.” The thinking has to do with me. This fact inspires and conditions the thinking at all points, and that’s all we know in our life. So Descartes, who never dreamed of anything like zazen, was right when he said, “I think therefore I am.” That’s exactly right: “I think therefore I am.” And he could have added, “And therefore I suffer, and I screw up right and left, and I ultimately make everybody miserable.

So that’s what characterizes ordinary thinking—that hook, that catch of “I”, which is the most natural thing in the world. When we think of not-thinking or non-thinking, the “I,” that little catch, is naturally set aside, because instead of putting our energy into it, which we normally and automatically do, we are putting our energy into our breathing posture. We’re trusting that and developing that, and we’re doing a little kind of brain surgery. We’re gently removing “me” and “I”, and we’re replacing it with breathing and posture. Therefore the thinking has a completely different force and energy. It might not even be the same thoughts! The content could be almost the same, at least at first. But the sense of what the thinking is and its meaning and the energy behind it are utterly and completely different. Thoughts can arise and pass away without that hook or that catch. Each thought is free—it doesn’t have to be in service or me or I. It doesn’t have to be my thought. It just comes and goes.

At first non-thinking might not feel so different from thinking, but it is totally different, because fundamentally there is no suffering in it. Even if the thoughts that come and go are very negative—nasty, smelly, awful thoughts—if you just let them come and go without that hook, without that catch, there’s really no suffering in the thoughts. Eventually, if you continue to practice non-thinking, there will be serenity and peace, and the kinds of thoughts that arise will be different. Thoughts will just float up into the mind and float away, with no more trouble or anguish than a cloud floating by in the sky. Practicing in that way, the backward step occurs.

Note: Norman Fischer is the founder and Spiritual Director of the Everyday Zen Foundation and is a Soto Zen teacher in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi. The above passage is from a talk that he gave on Fukanzazengi, which can be found on the Everyday Zen website here.

Nonthinking: Shohaku Okumura

By: Shohaku Okumura

When we are sitting, we do not follow our thoughts, nor do we stop them.  We just let them come and go freely.  We cannot call it thinking because the thoughts are not grasped.  If we simply peruse our thoughts, it is just thinking; it is not zazen.  We cannot call zazen not-thinking either, because thoughts are coming and going like clouds floating in the sky. When we are sitting, our brain does not stop functioning, just as our stomach is always digesting.  Sometimes our minds are busy; sometimes our minds are calm.  Just sitting, without being concerned with the conditions of our mind, is the most important point in zazen.  When we sit in this way, we are one with Reality, which is beyond thinking.  To say it another way, Reality manifests itself through our body and mind.’ (notes on Fukanzazengi)

Nonthinking: Charlotte Selver

By: Charlotte Selver

...Many people have learned to say to themselves, ‘Stop thinking,’ and then they control their thoughts and try to stop their thinking. Like somebody who is being choked, thoughts are being choked off. [But] we are sometimes very desirous to come to quiet....this state of quiet is something wonderful. Quiet is not dullness. .... Quiet is also not forbidding thoughts. Quiet is a different state into which we gradually ... come. You cannot stop thinking from one moment to the other without violating your thinking, but you can – when you feel you would like to rest — gradually allow the giving up of thoughts...let me call it allowing peace inside."\

... it’s not a command with the expectation that right away something will happen. It may be a long way which we have to go until we can gradually allow – altogether – more quiet..."

Note: Charlotte Selver was a transformational teacher of a practice which she called Sensory Awareness. She frequently taught Zen students at the San Francisco Zen Center. Sensory Awareness has a wonderful affinity with Zen practice, and there are a number of quotes by Selver on this Readings page of our website. The quote above is from her book Waking Up. There are several links on the Resources page of our website to Sensory Awareness practice.

Nonthinking: Suzuki Roshi

By: Suzuki Roshi

If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means your are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will be come calmer and calmer.... That everything is included within your mind is the essence of mind.

On the Dangers of Trying to Become Enlightened

By: Ajahn Chah

Ajahn Chah responded to the following plea from one of his students—“I’m trying very hard in my practice but don’t seem to be getting anywhere”—with a warning about becoming identified with the idea of becoming enlightened. He replied, “This is very important. Don’t try to get anywhere in the practice. The very desire to be free or to be enlightened will be the desire that prevents your freedom. You can try as hard as you wish, practice ardently night and day, but if it is still with the desire to achieve in mind, you will never find peace. The energy from this desire will be a cause for doubt and restlessness. No matter how long or how hard you practice, wisdom will not arise from desire. So, simply let go. Watch the mind and body mindfully but don’t try to achieve anything. Don’t cling even to the practice of enlightenment.” 

Note: Ajahn Chah (1918-1992) was one of the preeminent teachers in 20th Century Thailand, in the Theravadan Thai Forest School.

Strict Adherence to Form is Not True Zazen or True Dharma

By: Sekkei Harada Roshi

But it isn’t necessary to stick to this form [prescribed by Dogen in the Fukanzazengi]. It is fine to switch over and put the right foot on the left thight. It is also all right to sit the way women do in Japan, with their feet tucked under them. Or to use various kinds of seats or benches. In any case don’t worry too much about the outer form. I would simply like you to find a position so you can sit comfortably for a long time, without feeling too much pain in your legs.

In some of the bigger monasteries in Japan, if a monk could not sit zazen in the full-lotus position, he was not allowed to stay. In recent years, though, there has been a realization that this was an error, and slowly things have changed. I think this is good.

Why is it that only the outer form has become emphasized in this way? The reason is that the essential Dharma has been lost, and in order to at least pass down something, a lot of emphasis has come to be placed on form.

We hear of people who think that Buddhist practice involves faithfully following the rules that Dogen prescribed. This is a great misinterpretation. This is to practice in a very narrow, militaristic sort of way. There may be some people here who think that practice means strictly adhering to the form, with no deviation allowed whatsoever. They may like to do it this way and thing it cannot be done in any other manner. I would like you to understand, however, that it is clearly taking place in a context where true zazen and true Dharma have disappeared. For that reason, only the form is emphasized and rigidly followed.

Note: Sekkei Harada Roshi (1926-2020) was the abbott of Hoshin-ji, a Soto Zen training monastery in Fukui Prefecture, near the coast of central Japan. The above quote is taken from his book, The Essence of Zen: The Teachings of Sekkei Harada.

The Great Way is Not Difficult

By: Tseng Tsan (7th Century CE)

“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for or against anything. To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.”

From Hsin Shin Ming (Trust in Mind)

Dharma Filling One's Body and Mind

By: Eihei Dogen

If the dharma has not yet fully come into one’s body and mind, one thinks it is already sufficient. On the other hand, if the dharma fills one’s body and mind, there is a sense of insufficiency. It is like going out in a boat in the middle of the ocean with no mountains. Looking in the four directions one only sees a circle; no distinguishing forms are seen. Nevertheless, this great ocean is neither a circle nor has directions. The wondrous features of this ocean that remain beyond our vision are inexhaustible. It is like a palace; it is like a jeweled necklace. It is just that, as far as my vision reaches for the time being, it appears to be a circle. The myriad dharmas are also just like that. Though they include all forms within and beyond the dusty world, clear seeing and understanding only reach as far as our penetrating insight.

From Dogen’s Genjokoan, in Flowers Fall: A Commentary on Zen Master Dogen’s Genjokoan, Hakuun Yasutani

Why Meditation is "Good for Nothing"

By: Shohaku Okumura

We usually think this meditation practice is to attain some kind of enlightenment or awakening, but Dogen said we should just sit without any expectation, even enlightenment, because we practice in order to get enlightenment and that is desire, our egocentric desire is still working there in search of truth.  So from the very very beginning, we, in Dogen’s expression, “throw ourselves into the Way without expecting any reward.” 

[My] teacher, Sawaki Kodo Roshi, said Zazen, this sitting meditation, is “good for nothing.”  That is what I [also] recommend to people.  Zazen without expectation or without a gaining mind or “Zazen is good for nothing” is a kind of a Koan.  Even I, when I started to practice, had some expectation; …without expectation or goal, we cannot start to practice.  Here is a kind of conflict; we usually call this a “way seeking mind.”  Without this way seeking mind (or in Buddhist terms bodhicitta) we cannot start to practice.  But the teaching is you should not even expect the answer.  So here is a conflict; as we continue, this becomes a really serious question.

Sometimes we have to face a dead end.  Deep in my heart I think to practice “good for nothing Zazen” is the most authentic practice in [the] Buddhist tradition. That’s why I’m OK, that’s why my life is meaningful.  One day I found myself sitting alone.  … I sat by myself and I found deep peace.  That means, I don’t need to be a good boy.  I can be just sitting.  And I found that is really “Zazen that is good for nothing.”  Before that I intellectually understood it, that it is good for nothing as a Buddhist philosophy.  But because of what I felt [that day sitting alone] my life is OK and meaningful.  When I couldn’t continue in that way, I felt my life is not valuable. But I [have] found that that is [our] ground: we need to practice without a desire to be a good boy, not only in the secular, mundane way, but even as a Buddhist.  I became free from my desire to be a good Buddhist.  Finally, I think I found [the] real meaning of “zazen is good for nothing” or “practice without expectation or gaining mind.”  So just be there with this body and mind.

When we sit, we don’t really listen to anything, we don’t pay any attention.  Even if the birds are singing, and we are sitting, if I listen to their singing, and think these are the birds, then it’s not Zazen any more.  Even when I do this, there is a separation between a person sitting and the sound.  There is an interesting koan story in Zen, (and Dogen liked this [koan],) a teacher asked a student, showing, pointing to the wind bell, and the teacher asked does the wind make the sound, or does the bell make the sound?  Then the student said my mind makes the sound without wind or bell.  That means when the wind blows, the wind bell makes a vibration.  When that vibration of the air reaches my ear, then it becomes sound. So before the vibrations reaches my ear, there is no sound.  Sound is only inside of our mind.  But Dogen said that is not true.  Even if my mind is working, if the wind doesn’t blow, and the wind bell doesn’t shake, and the air doesn’t vibrate, then there is no sound.  So all of them are making the sound, that means the entire universe is making the sound.  So there is no subject who listens or sound that is heard, that is what Dogen called Total Function.  We are part of it, so there is no such person who is listening, no sound that comes to me, but this entire world is making that sound through this person, and this person is only a tiny part of it.

This is from the dharma talk, “Zen Master Shohaku Okumura Explains Why Meditation is Good for Nothing,” which can be found at: https://www.upworthy.com/zen-master-explains-why-meditation-good-for-nothing?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2

Atonement

By Seido Martin:

We recall specifics and have sincere regret. Everything from petty gossip to the taking of life is seen clearly for what it is. While atonement does not erase responsibility for the consequences of our actions, it cleanses the heart and allows us to return to the land of the living, unburdened and humbly willing to transform habitual patterns based in greed, hate and delusion to generosity, love and clarity.

But something interesting happens as we deepen our awareness of the complete interdependence of self and other. No longer is it so easy to harbor resentment for the injuries done to us and be “at one” with what we have also done to others. If we heal our own wounded parts with compassion, we realize the uselessness of harboring resentment towards those who have harmed us. We are the victims of our own resentment. This frees us up to see that they, like us, also suffer from this human “beginningless” greed, hate and delusion. If we look deeply enough, we are really looking in a mirror at the one who injured us. We are not two. This doesn’t “excuse” any behavior or prohibit response to injustice, but instead reestablishes the capacity to love and act rather than remain blind and stuck. We accept the reality of all that has occurred.

Atonement’s broadest function comes when the separate self drops away and we take responsibility “for it all” — the pollution in the river, the school shooting in the next county, the corruption in the government — you, me, and all suffering beings contained in the entire ungraspable arising of causes and conditions arising as Now. There is no past but what is contained in this moment. From this place, atonement points to the perfection that transcends the limited self. It is complete, whole and leaves nothing out. While this proposition may seem overwhelming at first, it is actually one of the most profoundly freeing actions we can take. To be “at one” with this world as it is readies the heart to care and respond to the suffering before us. While the rational mind cannot grasp the extent of its power, we can taste its liberation right from the start the first time we atone together.

Seido Martin is the Guiding Teacher at Zen West - Empty Field in Eugene, Oregon. She is a dharma friend of Ava Stanton. Check out their website at https://www.emptyfieldzendo.org/ , which is a great resource.

A Relationship With the Infinite

By: Carl Jung

Are we related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of [one’s] life…If we understand and feel that here in this life we already have a link with the infinite, desires and attitudes change.

The P'ang Family on Practice/Realization/Vow

From the Sayings of Layman P’ang:

The Layman was sitting in his thatched cottage one day studying the sūtras. "Difficult, difficult," he said; "like trying to scatter ten measures of sesame seed all over a tree." "Easy, easy," Mrs. P’ang said; "like touching your feet to the ground when you get out of bed." "Neither difficult nor easy," Ling Zhao (their daughter) said; "on the hundred grass tips, the great Masters’ meaning."

Note: Layman P’ang (740-808) was a celebrated lay Buddhist in the Chinese Chan (Zen) tradition. He was a successful merchant with a wife, son, and daughter. The family's wealth allowed them to devote their time to study of the Buddhist sutras, in which they all became well-versed. P’ang's daughter Ling Zhao was particularly adept, and sometimes, as in this case, seems more advanced and wise than her parents. After P’ang retired from his profession, he worried about the spiritual dangers of his wealth, so he placed all of his possessions in a boat which he then sunk in a river. The family then led an itinerant lifestyle, wandering about and visiting Buddhist masters and supporting themselves by making and selling bamboo utensils. P’ang studied under, among other masters, Shitou, the author of Harmony of Difference and Equality.

Vowing to Create a Practice Dojo

By: Eihei Dogen

“Even if we don’t have lofty temple buildings, if we practice, the place can be called a dojo of ancient buddhas.” 

“We hear that ancient people practiced on the ground or under a tree.  Such places are sacred forever.  A single person’s continuous practice creates a dojo for many buddhas.”

Commentary by Shohaku Okumura: “We don’t need a formal zazen hall. When we vow to establish a dojo or sangha we should not forget this.”