Zen Cultivation

Zen Cultivation
Jan /28/ 2023 – Jan / 29/ 2023

After the previous 3 introduction of Zen history, I believe we had a better understanding of of Zen now, which is not rely on words or letters but a special transmission outside of the scriptures. It is amazing, but how to cultivate in Zen?

We actually got some ideal from couple weeks ago; we call it investigating a Zen topic. Take an example for it, when Bodhidharma had a meeting with emperor Wu, the emperor asked the Bodhidharma, “Who am I talking to?” Bodhidharma knew that the emperor Wu was still struggling about the phenomenon, so he answered him as “I do not know”. The answer “I do not know” here could be a classic Zen topic; however, the emperor was not wise enough to investigate.

“Investigating a Zen topic” is a simple way of Zen cultivation, most people feel is so mysterious and difficult to approach. The essential skill of investigating a Zen topic in one word is “Zen topics – the great doubts – inner investigations “.  What is the topic? It rises a question from your heart, such as “who is reciting the Buddha’s name?””Who am I before my birth?” Those topics are questions, so when we rise a doubt, or we call it the Zen topic question, never, never think it with the second thought, just feel the moment, keep feeling what the doubt brought to you. The feeling that has no way to answer is “great doubt.” If you can keep this great doubt, you will be eagerly expected to find the answer, and then with this doubt and desire, you have to gather the power of consciousness, to see the essence, it is consciousness without idle thoughts. With this consciousness, great doubts will push you to investigate the inner world of your heart, to search the answer, which we called “investigating”. So, the most brilliant part of investigating a Zen topic is enjoying nature push power from great doubts.

In the Zen history in China, investigating a Zen topic is widely used. There is a widespread story from monk Zhaozhou, who is a famous Zen master. One of his students asked him: “Does the dog have Buddha’s nature?” He said: “None.” We all know that Buddha said: “All living beings have Buddha’s nature”, therefore dogs, of course, have Buddha-nature. Why Zhaozhou noted that there is no Buddha’s in a dog? Is it against the teachings of the Buddha? But, when we are thinking about why, why Zhaozhou said that there is no Buddha’s in a dog? Our mind stays here and raises a significant doubt–why, why a dog doesn’t have Buddha’s nature? Keep your mind here, do not raise any idle thoughts, after that leave the “why” and focus on “none”, then you can even go the “none”, the only thing that should be keeping in your mind is great doubt. The process that keeps your doubt has been called “Zen investigation”. As long as the “none” thought rises, the other view will be clear and mind become empty, the great doubt about “none” stays there, gradually you will find just the great doubt remains there without any content, your body and mind are immersed in this considerable doubt.

“Investigating a Zen topic” is an easy cultivation method to get started with, it also effective for helping people achieve the enlightenment. Spend time with a Zen topic, rise the great doubt, investigate your inner world, gradually you will see your self-nature and become Buddha. Unfortunately, after those brilliant masters, the tradition of investigating a Zen topic hasn’t been inheriting properly. Most of the people were fascinated by the sharp conversation and interesting stories of Zen masters, which made their Zen study become “storytelling” Zen while some people tend to have stereotyped opinions about the different Zen schools and could not see the essence of “Investigating a Zen topic”.

Another Zen cultivation method is Zen meditation session for seven days which is special cultivation created by the master after the six Patriarch Huineng. The original thought of Zen meditation session was expected to show respect for the seven days sitting meditation under the Boddhi Tree before Buddha’s enlightenment. In ancient China. Zen temples were not very busy after the harvest season, especially in the winter, monks did not have much farm work to do, so they were focused on the cultivation. They took every seven days as a session, in this session, they did meditate harder than regular time, they calculated the cultivation time by burning incense, their daily meditation time was about burning 13-14 long incenses, the sleeping time was cut to 3-4 hours per day.

Why it is a Zen meditation session for seven days? Not for six days or eight days? Because this seven means practice in our seventh consciousness which named manas. Manas is the reason that we are trapped on Samsara, because the manas made us think my body and how I feel is myself, it made us feel comfortable with the prison cage of three realms and never think about to leave the cycle of reincarnation, so we have to do some practice on the manas to break it, to pursue the liberation of Samsara.

Due to the effect of Tang and Song cultures, Japanese monks have inherited the two cultivation method mentioned above and improved some details on the base of the Japanese culture. “Investigating a Zen topic” in Japan was called Kōan practice which is intended to cultivate the insightful power of the students. A kōan, literally “public case”, is a story or dialogue, describing an interaction between a Zen master and a student. These anecdotes give a demonstration of the master’s insight. Koans emphasize the non-conceptional insight that the Buddhist teachings are pointing to. Koans can be used to provoke the “great doubt”, and test a student’s progress in Zen practice.

The Zen student’s mastery of a given kōan is presented to the teacher in a private interview (referred to in Japanese as dokusan). While there is no unique answer to a kōan, practitioners are expected to demonstrate their understanding of the kōan and of Zen through their responses. The teacher may approve or disapprove of the answer and guide the student in the right directions.

The Japanese monks also have a similar cultivation method as “Zen meditation session for seven days”, they call it Sesshin in Japanese. While the daily routine may require monks to meditate for several hours each day, during the intensive period, they devote themselves almost exclusively to the practice of sitting meditation. The numerous 30–50 minute long meditation periods are interwoven with rest breaks, meals, and short periods of work that are performed with the same mindfulness; nightly sleep is kept to seven hours or less. In modern Buddhist practice in Japan and the West, lay students often attend these intensive practise sessions, which are typically 1, 3, 5, or 7 days in length. These are held at many Zen centres and temples. 

As long as the Zen spread and accepted by occidentals, the most likely emphasized part became a meditation. Due to the difference between Eastern and Western cultures, and the limitation of language expression, Zen masters do not emphasize Buddhist theory or ask students to Investigate a Zen topic. Instead of that, they ask the students to focus on breathing, remove the idle thought even teach people to control their minds by controlling their breathing. As for the final pursuing of Zen practice, the most Zen master will ask the students to seek their inner peace,

seeing the self-nature and enlightenment are rarely mentioned, which, is clearly far from the original intention of Zen.