Zen for Christians: a beginner's guide

by Kim Boykin

  Since the complete cessation of suffering can sound like an awfully remote possibility, Sylvia Boorstein has added her own "Third-and-a-Half Noble Truth": "Suffering is manageable." On the way to complete liberation from suffering, our suffering gets more and more manageable. With practice, pain becomes less scary, difficulties can be borne more gracefully, and egoistic desires become less heavy and serious, lighter and more humorous.

  The Third Noble Truth says that liberation from suffering is possible and comes from realizing no-self-not from understanding or believing in no-self but from practicing and directly experiencing no-self. So, then, how do we realize no-self? How do we make it real? The Fourth Noble Truth tells us.

  The Fourth Noble Truth: The Path

  The Fourth Noble Truth specifies the path to the cessation of suffering, the Eightfold Path. The path is divided into three sections-wisdom, ethical conduct, and meditation-which are called the Three Trainings. Every stage of Buddhist practice includes training in all three, but the practice focuses first on ethical conduct, then on meditation, and finally on wisdom.

  The word translated as "right" in each step of the Eightfold Path has a connotation of "complete" or "whole." Each step contributes to completeness and wholeness rather than incompleteness or brokenness. I have also seen the translations "skillful" and "realistic." To follow the Eightfold Path is to live skillfully, to live in accord with reality instead of with our ego-centered delusions about reality.

  The Four Noble Truths

  1. The truth of duhkha (suffering or dissatisfaction): Life is permeated with pain and impermanence, and in the unenlightened life, this leads to suffering.

  2. The truth of the origin of duhkha: The origin of suffering is craving-or more specifically, attachment, aversion, and ignorance of no-self.

  3. The truth of the cessation of duhkha: Liberation from suffering is possible.

  4. The truth of the path to the cessation of duhkha:

  The Eightfold Path leads to liberation from suffering:

  Wisdom:

  1. Right view

  2. Right intention

  Ethical conduct:

  3. Right speech

  4. Right action

  5. Right livelihood

  Meditation:

  6. Right effort

  7. Right mindfulness

  8. Right concentration

  Ethical Conduct. The foundation of the Eightfold Path is ethical conduct, which includes the practices of right speech, right action, and right livelihood. That is, in what we say, what we do, and how we earn a living, we refrain from harmful and selfcentered conduct and cultivate helpful and selfless conduct. We try to minimize behavior that causes suffering for ourselves and others and maximize compassionate behavior.

  In the history of Buddhism, various monastic codes and sets of ethical precepts have been developed that prescribe more specifically what ethical conduct consists of. We'll take a look at the Sixteen Precepts of Zen in Chapter Four.

  Meditation. To do a thorough and lasting job of cultivating ethical conduct and to enable ethical conduct to flow naturally, we need to uproot the source of our unethical conduct. We need to see and uproot our attachments and aversions so that they won't keep growing new sprouts of suffering. So when we have a foundation of ethical conduct, the emphasis of the practice shifts to meditation, which includes right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Right effort is active, energetic engagement in overcoming unwholesome states of mind and cultivating wholesome states of mind. Right mindfulness is maintaining clear, open awareness of reality, observing the experiences of the present moment, both physical sensations and thoughts. And right concentration is collecting and focusing the mind, resting the attention in one place-on the breathing, for instance. Most of the practices in this book involve both mindfulness and concentration; the last practice, "just sitting," is a practice of pure mindfulness.

  As we practice meditation-as we put effort into cultivating mindfulness and concentration-we see the thoughts that preoccupy us, the egoistic attachments and aversions from which suffering arises, and we practice noticing them and letting them go, instead of allowing them to dictate our behavior. We begin to experience reality in a way that is clear instead of cloudy, selfless instead of self-centered.

  Wisdom. To do a thorough and lasting job of being free of the attachments and aversions that lead to harmful and self-centered conduct, we need to go one step further and uproot the source of those attachments and aversions. So the emphasis of the practice shifts to wisdom, which includes right view and right intention. Right view is understanding reality as it actually is. This unclouded view is based on understanding the Four Noble Truths and no-self. Right view is a selfless view, seeing the insubstantial nature of "self"-experiencing this directly, not just understanding it intellectually. Seeing through the illusion of "self" uproots the source of attachments and aversions, which are the source of suffering. Right intention is an intention in favor of selfless renunciation, nonaggression, and compassion. Meditation is an antidote to two of the Three Poisons, attachment and aversion, and wisdom is an antidote to the root poison, ignorance.

  But you may wonder, if wisdom is what frees us from the root cause of suffering, why not start there instead of focusing first on ethical conduct, then on meditation, and only then on wisdom? It simply doesn't work that way for most of us. Without having first tamed the worst of our harmful and selfcentered conduct, we will have little luck sitting still with our own minds in meditation; and without having first developed the practice of meditation, we will have little luck uncovering wisdom. The Eightfold Path has been observed over time to be an effective way of liberation from suffering.

  The Poisoned Arrow

  A student complained to the Buddha that he ignored such issues as whether the universe is eternal or not eternal, whether the universe is finite or infinite, whether the soul and the body are the same or different, whether the Buddha exists after death or doesn't exist after death, or both exists and doesn't exist, or both doesn't exist and doesn't not-exist. The student had decided that if the Buddha wouldn't either answer these questions or admit that he didn't know the answers, the student would leave the religious order.

  The Buddha replied with an analogy. Suppose a man is wounded by a poisoned arrow, and his friends rush him to a doctor. Suppose the man says to the doctor, "Wait! I will not let you remove the arrow until I know who shot me-what his name is, what caste he is from, whether he is tall or short or of medium height, what his skin color is, where he comes from. I will not let you remove the arrow until I know what kind of bow was used to shoot me, what kind of bowstring, what kind of feather is on the arrow, and what the arrowhead is made of." This man will die with these questions unanswered. What he needs is to have the arrow removed as quickly as possible.

  Likewise, the student of the Buddha who insists on knowing whether the universe is finite or infinite, and so forth, will die with these questions unanswered by the Buddha. We have been wounded by suffering, and we need immediate treatment. Trying to find the answers to all our metaphysical questions will only distract us from the urgent matter at hand. And whatever the answers are to these questions, we still face illness, old age, and death.

  The Buddha is a doctor whose first concern is to heal us, to remove the poisoned arrow. The First Noble Truth names the symptom from which we seek relief: suffering or dissatisfaction. The Second Noble Truth diagnoses the cause of this symptom: craving. The Third Noble Truth offers the encouraging prognosis that we can be cured of the disease of craving and thus be free of the suffering it causes. And the Fourth Noble Truth prescribes a course of treatment: the Eightfold Path.

  Zen and the Four Noble Truths

  The Four Noble Truths are part of all forms of Buddhism, but different Buddhist traditions appropriate these teachings in different ways.

  Although Zen does talk about the Eightfold Path, the image of spiritual practice as a path doesn't actually work so we
ll for Zen as it does for some other forms of Buddhism. If Zen is a path, it's a peculiar sort of path. On the Zen path, we eventually realize that we don't need to go anywhere and haven't gone anywhere. In Zen, enlightenment is not understood as a journey from samsara, the realm of delusion and suffering, to nirvana, the realm of enlightenment and liberation, but as a realization that samsara is nirvana. Liberation is found right here, right now, in the midst of this life of pain and impermanence. We practice the Eightfold Path of ethical conduct, meditation, and wisdom not as a way to get to buddhahood but simply because that's what buddhas do. We are expressing our innate buddha-nature. Zen is not a way to liberation but a way of liberation-a way that manifests our inherent liberation.

  I discovered another peculiarity of the Zen appropriation of the Four Noble Truths when I was preparing to teach an adult Sunday school class on Zen and Christianity. I pulled a bunch of Buddhist books off my shelves to see how different authors present the Four Noble Truths, and I found a variety of presentations in textbooks on Buddhism and in books by teachers in Buddhist traditions other than Zen, but I found not a single systematic presentation of the Four Noble Truths in my shelf-and-a-half of Zen books. This isn't actually surprising, given Zen's thoroughgoing and uncompromising focus on practice and experience as opposed to ideas. Zen teachers do regularly allude to the Four Noble Truths, apparently assuming that Zen students are familiar with them from their own reading, but in Zen, even the Buddhist teachings are seen as potential diversions from the removal of the poisoned arrow of suffering.

  The heart of the Zen way of liberation is not learning or understanding or believing but practice and experience.

  * * *

  Practice

  Noticing Thoughts

  Zen meditation is often misunderstood as a practice of stopping thoughts or having no thoughts, but it's actually a practice of noticing thoughts. Zen is not about eliminating thoughts but illuminating them.

  Thoughts Are Not Distractions

  If you try the practice of counting the breath for even five minutes, you'll probably notice something a little disconcerting: our minds are usually full of noise. It feels like someone left a TV on in there, with the volume way up. And the radio is on too, and the phone is ringing, and the dog next door is barking.

  It's easy to assume that all the busy little thoughts scampering about in our minds and capturing our attention are distractions from meditation. But they're not. In fact, distractions is precisely the wrong word. Distractions implies that all those ideas, emotions, images, plans, memories, fantasies, judgments, and so on, that arise during meditation practice are somehow other than practice, that they distract us from what we're "supposed" to be doing. But thoughts are not distractions from practice, interruptions to practice, a hindrance to practice, or an indication of poor practice.

  Thoughts are an intrinsic part of Zen practice. They're the fodder for practice. We bring compassionate awareness to the physical sensations of breathing or walking, and we bring compassionate awareness to the thoughts that carry our attention away from the breathing or walking. We notice our wandering thoughts and gently return our attention to the present moment, over and over and over.

  People sometimes think, "I can't meditate. My mind is too busy." But your mind isn't too busy. All those thoughts are just stuff to notice, and Zen practice is about noticing.

  There's no need to repress thoughts or ignore them. There's no need to judge them or scold them. Simply notice the thoughts. Be aware of them. And if you find yourself repressing, ignoring, judging, or scolding your thoughts, there's no need to repress, ignore, judge, or scold that. Simply notice it and return your attention to the breathing or the walking. Whatever arises, notice it and return your attention to the physical sensations of the present moment.

  Once while I was living at the Zen monastery, I had a dream that I had put a boom box on the floor in the middle of the empty meditation hall and was blasting Led Zeppelin. I realized that I had been repressing emotions in my Zen practice, and some part of me knew better. Emotions are fine. They are not distractions. Let them arise, notice them, and return to the present moment.

  Some thoughts are more insistent than others. Sometimes you notice a thought and let it go and it pops right up again and keeps popping up over and over. It may be that this thought needs some special attention after the meditation period is over. It may point to something you need to take care of. There was a long stretch when, in my zazen, I kept having thoughts about how much I hated my job. I finally realized that I didn't need to just keep noticing and letting go of these thoughts; I needed to get a new job!

  Sometimes in zazen, you may experience odd little hallucinations, known as makyo. They are often visual-for instance, the light seems to dim or images appear in the surface in front of you-but they can involve any of the senses. Makyo are just another type of thought and are treated like any other thought: notice it and return to the present moment.

  The thirteenth-century Japanese Zen master Dogen Zenji said:

  To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.

  To realize our inherent selflessness, we study the self. We carefully observe what our minds are up to. We notice our attachments and aversions, our possessiveness and aggressiveness. All those thoughts we get caught up in are not distractions from our Zen practice. They are the activity that we call "self." To observe this self is to be free from its domination and to be enlightened by "the ten thousand things," which means everything.

  Noticing Thoughts Compassionately

  But what exactly does it mean to "notice" a thought before you return to the breathing or walking?

  When I started Zen practice, I tended to stomp on my thoughts or whack them away like hockey pucks, or else I'd try to ignore them or pretend they were never there. But that's not what zazen is about. To notice a thought simply means to bring a moment of attention to it before you return your attention to the physical sensations of the present moment. Know what the thought was. Hear an echo of it. Take a flash picture of it. There may have been a five-minute-long sequence of thoughts that captured your attention, so just notice the last one, the one you were involved with when you realized you were thinking. Don't analyze the thought or elaborate on the thought or think about the thought. Just bring your awareness to it momentarily. Then let it go and gently return your attention to the breathing or walking.

  The noticing in Zen practice is precise but also gentle. You notice the thoughts and physical sensations with precision-seeing exactly what's happening with a kind of scientific attentiveness. But this precision is not harsh or critical. You notice the thoughts and physical sensations with gentleness also-with kindness, tenderness, compassion.

  Here's a helpful image I learned from a meditation instructor. You're at a train station. Your train is leaving in two minutes. You're weaving through all the people and you run into a friend you haven't seen in a long time. You stop and smile and say a few words and maybe give your friend a hug. Maybe you encourage your friend to give you a call soon. And then you run off to get your train. You don't ignore your friend. You don't run by as if you didn't notice your friend. But neither do you get into a long conversation and miss your train. You stop for just a moment to be with your friend in a warm and genuine way, and then you move on. You don't need to make your friend go away; you just let your friend be, while you run off to get your train.

  Treat the thoughts that arise in meditation like that friend at the train station. When you notice that a thought has carried you away from the physical sensations of the breathing or the walking, be with the thought for a brief moment. Don't ignore it or run by without making real contact, but don't get into a long conversation with it either. Stop for a moment to bring compassionate awareness to the thought, and then let it go. (It'll probably give you a call later.) You don't need to make the thought go away; just let it be,
and return your attention to the breathing or walking. Hug each thought goodbye and return to the present moment.

  Listing Thoughts

  The format of my Zen meditation groups for Christians is based on the format of the Christian contemplative prayer groups led by the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. Part of the Shalem format is written reflection following the prayer time, so I decided to try including written reflection in my Zen groups. Even though Zen is so deliberately nonverbal and nonconceptual, I thought it was worth experimenting with written reflection, and I've found it to be helpful, especially the exercise of listing thoughts. I invite the participants in my meditation groups to list all the thoughts they can remember that arose during the meditation time. This exercise helps reinforce the point that thoughts are an intrinsic part of the practice, and writing the thoughts down can help us see more clearly what we are preoccupied with, precisely what our own attachments and aversions are.

  You might want to try this now and then. Immediately after a meditation period, jot down as many thoughts as you can remember from the meditation period-every bit of mental activity. If it seems like it was one big blur of thoughts, just try to pull out a few vague shreds of ideas, emotions, images, or whatever.

  This list is for no one's eyes but yours, and you can discard the piece of paper or delete the computer file as soon as you've finished, so there's no need for censorship. Include the lustful thoughts, the angry thoughts, the frivolous thoughts, the bored thoughts, the anxious thoughts, the surreal thoughts, the thoughts about the practice-everything.