NOTHING SIMPLER
In many mind retreats, I often said “Nothing is as simple as meditation.” That made the participants laughed; some might think it was just a joke. There was not enough time for its further explanation in class. Now I want to confirm once again “In life, nothing is as easy as meditation practice.” This sentence expands the meaning broadly. In sentence 1, it means meditation is the simplest when compared to other paths of mind training. In sentence 2, no business in life is easier than Zen practice.
Everyday business in life requires many conditions. For instance, to get a high school diploma, it takes everyone at least 12 years of schooling from the elementary to senior high levels. For a bachelor, minimum 3 more years. For higher education, some more years. It is a long time, isn’t? But every year, you have to strive to study hard, stay up late for homework, take notes and memorize them for tests and exams. Academic studying is the most vital for youth. Is it easy? What if you fail an exam? Your parents are surely disappointed, and your friends might laugh at you. Ater graduation, it is not simple to get a job. Even with a job, it is exhausting to respond to all your responsibilities. How to get rapport with your co-workers without any mistake can make you stressful. When getting married, you carry the other burdens in finance, relations and emotion with your immediate family, the in-laws and the extended families of both sides. At this point, you are grown-up and really enter life. When the weight of two sides of parents, relatives, siblings, descendants, friends press on your shoulders, contradictions and misjudgments are inevitable.
“How could we please everyone?
Generous, they mock; stingy, they rebuke
Tall, criticized towering; short, criticized dwarf,
Fat, criticized fatty stout.
Skinny, criticized a walking skeleton.”
Calmly living is not easy.
Now let’s refer to small things like games or entertainment that also require lots of time, money or training. For instance, learning how to ride a bike at childhood. Didn’t you rely on your dad or older brother to hold the bike for you to sit on it, then started riding? Didn’t you fall down many times? Didn’t you sweat many times? Didn’t you direct the bike straight forward to your dad? You could not ride it after falling down many times. Another example, if you want to know how to sing or play a music instrument, you need a teacher. Sometimes, plucking the guitar strings can make your fingers slightly bleeding.
Those are common things in life. Everything needs strenuous efforts, times and even money. Let’s talk about the approaches in Buddhist practice.
When applying the approach of mantra recitation, you must learn by heart the mantras, some are very lenghty. Many of them you might not understand their meanings, so you have to memorize them. When your mind loses its focus, you can forget or wrongly recite them. If you chant the sutras or the Buddhas’ names, it also demands your memorization in a melody of various tones and pitches. You are aslo required to learn how to beat the wooden drums, strike the gong and bell. Those who have weak breath are tired after hours of chanting and reciting. About prostrating hundreds of times, could seniors handle that?
And how about Zen?
Easiest in the world! You guys usually say “As easy as eating rice and ribs; as easy as 1, 2, 3”
How come so easy?
Have we clearly known that the Buddha and the Patriarchs said, “All sentient beings do have the Buddhahood”? Then we own the Buddhahood, the awakening nature. We do possess the innate ability for enlightenment.
We also know Zen Master Ma-Tsu said, “the Mind, the Buddha” With that, the enlightenment nature is right in our mind, not in our bodies, not in others’ mind, not in the Buddhas’ mind either. And we do not need to look for it in any scriptures or books.
But what is enlightenment? It is the transparent and entire Knowing without affected by worries, subjectiveness or clinging to anything. That Knowing is as-is, brilliant and objective.
With further explanation on it, it would be similar as the previous lectures. So, there is no repetition here. One important info to remember is that the mind is inborn. Or the Knowing is innate. That is the simplest in meditation.
What is “inborn”? It is a part of one's inner essential nature. It is present, equal and the same in every person from his birth to his death. It is with us throughout the cycle of reincarnation. It is inbred. So, it is not necessary for us to study it or we can waste our time, efforts and hardship as we do for the worldly diplomas or achievements
The Knowing is innate; so, it is never lost. No one could steal it from us though it is our treasure. What we need is to see it, recognize it, make use of it in your routine. That’s it. Folks, what’s so hard about that?
But where is it?
Ah! That question can raise some confusion right here. The canons often use the vague metaphors to describe it, a gem in the hair bun, a pearl concealed in the hem of your top, a jewel hidden in the stone buried among the wastelands. Those have made people keep running back and forth to search and dig it in someone’s rice field or to hunt for the lions’ roaring in the scriptures. Ironically, it is not like that! The Knowing, or the Mind is colorless and shapeless. It has no sound or taste. Then, how could we recognize it?
It seems like we are standing in front of a house and see nothing inside. How can we find out what is in there? We go to the windows and look through them. Similarly, we have our six senses to connect to the world outside. Via those six windows, we catch it on the spot. That is the first flashing Knowing when our six senses contact their objects. With those, how could we cultivate our mind?
In our routine, we should stay awake and recognize the first instant when reaching the objects. Using our eyes to practice is the easiest. Just because their objects are concrete. Just because they often open to look at everything. The other objects are more abstract, sounds, smelling, tastes, touching and phenomena. The moment our eyes meet the object; we realize it immediately without enough time to name or describe it. This realization is the crystal, objective and as-is Knowing of the object. The primary techniques to detect the first flashing instants have been instructed in the Basic Zen retreats. Following are some examples
- Close your eyes, then open them. In that first moment of opening them we see and know it immediately without time enough to talk. Our mind is completely still and empty.
- Glance around: move our eyes swiftly from one thing to another. The perception is general without any inner murmuring.
- Look between you and the object: See the gap space. The mind remains empty.
- Look into the distance: The perception is general, silent and empty.
All those practices lead us to the primary steps to realize the mind of tranquility and emptiness. Knowing it clearly without the inner whispering. That very instant is called the Nature of Knowing via seeing or the Nature of Vision. With regular training, the Knowing turns into familiar and stabler in longer time. We can sneak into it anywhere at any time. There is no longer need for any selected theme. We do not need to practice the tools of breathing or “No Inner Talk” either. The reason is both of them aim at reaching the non-speech Knowing as exactly as the above listed methods. Moreover, sometimes they both can be more complicated.
The complication can be explained as follows.
The purity nature of the mind excludes the inner speech or anything inside it, even the elective themes. It does not focus on the in-out breathing or initiate the phrase “No InnerTalk”. They both, eventually, must be dropped at some stage to stay in the original wordless Knowing
According to Zen Master Asvaghosa, that is why the wordless Knowing is considered the Mindfullness of the Utmost Truth. The theme of the Utmost Truth will be covered in the Prajnaparamita retreat later. For now, just understant that the Mindfullness of the Utmost Truth is the Knowing of Thusness. Period.
In conclusion, the primary stage of Zen is to realize and practice the tranquil, objective and wordless Knowing. It is also the last step to immerse into the Utmost Truth when the Knowing becomes deep and stable. This path of Zen does not require sitting meditation for hours, neither memorizing and chanting the sutras nor prostrating and praying. So, you guys now agree “nothing simpler than meditation?”
Bhikkhuni Thích Nữ Triệt Như
Sunyata Monastery, July 02, 2021
English version by Ngọc Huyền
Link to Vietnamese article: https://tanhkhong.org/a2569/triet-nhu-snhp016-khong-gi-don-gian-bang
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