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Is there anything in Zen?

 
 
 
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Philos

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Folks,

A Zen Buddhist master takes a brush and slowly paints a circle in black paint on a large white sheet of paper. A black circle around a white space. He calls this: 'great white space'.

But what is it? I'm no expert on Buddhism (or much else) but would hazard the guess that, for the Zen Buddhist, it is everything. It is also nothing of course, which is the art and maybe the truth of Zen.

A Zen master tells us this, “There is Buddha for those who don't know what he is really; there is no Buddha for those who know what he is really.”

So, we go back to the picture. There is nothing in the picture to fear or want, nothing to run from or towards, except maybe the circularity and enclosure.

A Zen master tells us this,

'Before Zen, a bowl is a bowl and tea is tea.

Studying Zen, a bowl is no longer a bowl and tea is no longer tea.

After Zen, a bowl is again a bowl and tea is again tea.'

So, we go back to the picture. Maybe it doesn't represent anything, just as the bowl and tea don't represent anything. It just is. Maybe there is no circularity or enclosure, just my own fear of those feelings?

There I'm stuck; a feeling of being stuck.

Alex.
 
Zen is an attempt to remove distractions from life.
In zen martial arts, you program the body to fight, so the eye sees a knife and the body knows how to react to the knife. There's no affect on your fighting from being afraid of the knife or angry about the attempt on your life or annoyance at being approached at an ATM when you would have given the guy money if he asked. It just boils down the essentials. Two plus two is boot to the head, move on to the next assailant.


If you're not into zen, then a bowl is a bowl because you never think about it. You do not appreciate the bowl for it's beauty, or it's usefulness, or the care that went into the design, you just need something to put popcorn in during the game.
During the study of zen, you realize just how much your preconceptions interfere with your ability to see the world for what it really is. You realize the bowl has qualities beyond simple utility and convenience. You think about the beauty of the bowl and what makes beauty, you think about the efforts to design the bowl and how all bowls are the same, yet each bowl is unique.

If you master zen, it's just a bowl, but now it's a bowl you can truly SEE, and appreciate AS the bowl it is, not merely one example of open-topped containers capable of getting liquids or dry bulk from the microwave to the easy chair.

What the zen master tells you about the painting is not going to be what you see, or even can see, until you, too, master zen.

Only you can choose to unstuck yourself from the painting, either by years of study, or choosing to think, instead, upon the next Superbowl commercial to go viral. "Did they really mean you could buy sex with a sufficiently large Snickers bar?"
 
Philos said:
So, we go back to the picture. Maybe it doesn't represent anything, just as the bowl and tea don't represent anything. It just is. Maybe there is no circularity or enclosure, just my own fear of those feelings?

There I'm stuck; a feeling of being stuck.
Click to expand...
Your interior and exterior imagination are one.
 
Folks,

There have been a lot of 'yous' in this thread. Maybe I am getting the hang of the Zen thing. :)

Alex.
 
No, but there is something in Christ. :)
 
After analyzing zen for some time and being a seasoned meditator, what I can tell you is: sit.

Let me explain.
The one thing in zen is zazen, the meditation. The hardest thing about meditation is just sitting and doing nothing about anything except being mindful about breathing. When people start meditating, and even after some time doing it, people whine and whine about not being able to do it, "I'm being distracted", "I daydream and forget to mind my breathing", and so on. The only thing to do is consider it normal and when you realize you're off track you just get back on track.

Then there is the hindrance of analyzing your experience. That's when the zen master tells you something like "What is the sound of one hand clapping?". Before you go on to say, "That's stupid! These assholes are pretending to be wise saying something deep and meaningful like that.

You got it wrong. It's the sensei's way of saying "Oh, sod off!", something that you really deserved for being a whiny dick who doesn't get it.

So basically zen is all about zazen. So, that's why I and every zen master in the world, all we have to say to you is: sit.

(By the way, that's what the "za" in zazen means: sit/seat. For example, the cushion you sit on is called a zafu.)
 
Philos said:
Folks,

A Zen Buddhist master takes a brush and slowly paints a circle in black paint on a large white sheet of paper. A black circle around a white space. He calls this: 'great white space'.

But what is it? I'm no expert on Buddhism (or much else) but would hazard the guess that, for the Zen Buddhist, it is everything. It is also nothing of course, which is the art and maybe the truth of Zen.

A Zen master tells us this, “There is Buddha for those who don't know what he is really; there is no Buddha for those who know what he is really.”

So, we go back to the picture. There is nothing in the picture to fear or want, nothing to run from or towards, except maybe the circularity and enclosure.

A Zen master tells us this,

'Before Zen, a bowl is a bowl and tea is tea.

Studying Zen, a bowl is no longer a bowl and tea is no longer tea.

After Zen, a bowl is again a bowl and tea is again tea.'

So, we go back to the picture. Maybe it doesn't represent anything, just as the bowl and tea don't represent anything. It just is. Maybe there is no circularity or enclosure, just my own fear of those feelings?

There I'm stuck; a feeling of being stuck.

Alex.
Click to expand...

Alex, maybe instead of asking "what is it?" ask "when is it?"...Anything other than "NOW" is not IT...

When Perspicuo is saying "Sit", he means "let the process of "sitting in meditation"( za zen) unstuck you"...

How? Because in the NOW, the question disappears...
 
NobleSavage said:
I tried to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance once. Less than half way through I though it sucked and quit reading.
Click to expand...

Noble,

That sounds very Zen. :)

Folks,

I have posted my puzzle on a few websites and had one reply that particularly appealed.

"Just explore the feeling of stuckness." Others have got close, but that one hit the spot. This exploration be done in meditation (as I find from experience), although more often than not our ability to be in the moment can happen at any time. I found it useful whilst in hospital.

Alex.
 
Philos said:
There have been a lot of 'yous' in this thread.
Click to expand...
What? I tend to use 2nd person because third-person-indifferent sounds like a pompous lecturer. "The zen student will begin to question his ability to question...."
Feh.
 
NobleSavage said:
GenesisNemesis said:
No, but there is something in Christ. :)
Click to expand...

Are you a Christian or just joking?

I tried to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance once. Less than half way through I though it sucked and quit reading.
Click to expand...

I haven't read it, but knowledgeable Buddhists keep saying that book has nothing to do with actual Zen.

If you want to know about Zen, there's nothing at all you can do except: go in that local Zen Meditation Center, get the initial workshop, keep going for some 4 weeks and then you'll get the idea. Don't worry, they won't suck your soul or make you believe in acupuncture or trademark blessed oil from the Holy Land or something. If you dislike bowing to honor Siddhartha Gautama, well, just bow and that's it, it's like going to Buckingham palace and bowing to the Queen, it doesn't mean you're betraying your republican convictions, it's just politeness, as you would with your Karate sensei. You also gassho (bowing) towards your zafu pillow, which shows it isn't worship, just reverence (gratitude).

And if your conclusion is that Zen is boring, yes, grasshoppa, it is, or at least you're starting to get it. It's like swimming: If your idea was that you would become Aquaman or Mark Spitz, and now you think it's just dumb ol' moving in the water... then you're starting to get it.
Then if you stick to it --oh horror-- you'll start liking it. Zen is just doing it. Zen is a practice. Plus everything done in Zen style is fcking beautiful, the architecture, the decor, even mindful cleaning up (yes, that's part of the package) is beautiful and energizing. As long as (and once you realize) you don't think it's something ooowow special or you become the Last Airbender.
 
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Philos said:
Folks,

I have posted my puzzle on a few websites and had one reply that particularly appealed.

"Just explore the feeling of stuckness." Others have got close, but that one hit the spot. This exploration be done in meditation (as I find from experience), although more often than not our ability to be in the moment can happen at any time. I found it useful whilst in hospital.

Alex.
Click to expand...

Alex,
In the type of meditation I practice (T.M.), (I think Perspicuo too) we don't "explore" thoughts. Thoughts just come and go and they are irrelevant. To concentrate in any way defeats the purpose because it keeps the mind "stuck" in a superficial level of activity...
 
Perspicuo said:
So basically zen is all about zazen. So, that's why I and every zen master in the world, all we have to say to you is: sit.
Click to expand...
This is not the way I learned the teachings of zen. It was determined that sitting would be more of a distraction for me learning Zen as I came to it after studying among Tibetan Buddhist monks. The previous training was too ingrained by that point. Therefore, I was instructed using Kinhin (walking meditation) only. The methodology was also loose. I was not required to do formal walks, but ones in nature like those practiced by Thích Nhất Hạnh with Westerners new to Zen.

During these walks, the focus was to still the mind and return to the present moment by using external stimuli around me. As I walk, I am aware of walking. Aware of the leaves, the rain, the sky, all of it - as it is without definition or limitation. With training I learned to tune out all internal noise simply by looking at a single drop of dew, for example.

It is more effective than any other method I've tried for attaining absolute stillness within using little effort.
 
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