Fukan-zazengi | Part Four
When you rise from sitting, move your body slowly and stand up calmly. Do not move abruptly. You should see that to transcend both ordinary people and sages and to die sitting or standing, depends upon the power of zazen. Moreover, your discriminating mind cannot understand how buddhas and patriarchs taught their students with a finger, a pole, a needle, or a mallet, or how they transmitted the Way with a hossu, a fist, a staff, or by shouting. Needless to say, these actions cannot be understood by practicing to attain superhuman powers. These actions come from the practice which is prior to discriminating mind.
Sitting meditation for us is not a different practice from walking or having a meeting - although we often think it is. There is a tendency to see the cushion as our place of training that we go to renew ourselves after the turmoil of life takes its toll - but all is practice-enlightenment. To truly see this, we have to open to our original nature. This is not something we can 'figure out' rationally or cultivate as a skill on our cushions. It is always present but requires us to soften our gaze and release our grip on our abode of discriminating thoughts to witness it. Although never far from us, the realization of our essential nature is an awakening so profound that we can finally understand why the masters of old employed so many draconian techniques to encourage us to drop the story.
Therefore, do not consider whether you are clever or stupid, and do not think of whether you are superior or inferior. When you practice wholeheartedly, it is truly the practice of the Way. Practice – enlightenment cannot be defiled. Making the effort to obtain the Way, is itself, the manifestation of the Way in your daily life. The Buddhas and sages, both in this world and other worlds, in India and China, preserved the buddha-seal in the same way and expressed the Way freely. They just practiced sitting and were protected by zazen. Although their characters were diverse, each of them practiced the Way of zazen wholeheartedly.
When you realize your true nature, it puts all of the trappings of your small self in stark relief. So much of our attention and intention is dedicated to propping up the story that life passes by and opportunity is lost. When we let go of this story, we merge with the practice-enlightenment of the Way. The very intention to awaken is the Great Intention. The action of the Awakened Way is zazen - we see it reflected in the many forms of our True Nature presented in the Sangha.
