Zen Buddhism is more
about doing what Buddha did, rather than what he said. Zen is about trying to
leap into the mind of Budda as he became enlightened. Which is clearly
impossible. But Zen folks are not put off by impossible: in fact one of the
most important ideas is that of the Four Vows, all four of which are
impossible. This kind of cosmic silliness comes in pretty damned handy when
life flips upside down, like what is happening now.
I did
Zen practice for some years, and I was a utter Zen geek. Then I sort of tried
to give it up. I never really stopped sitting on my black cushion and being
quiet,and that's the main thing in Zen: sitting quietly. I still did that, but
I didn't go to the friendly but small group of fellow sitters which had nurtured
my patchy Zen career. I thought I had enough to do with a baby daughter
arriving. Fast forward a few years and suddenly I'm all like "jeez I'm not sure
I would have survived that without Zen practice". Then my Dad gets ill and my
stepmum dies and I'm like "hell I couldn't have got through that without Zen
practice". And then coronovirus appears on the scene and I'm sitting everyday
and thinking "man I'm glad I know this, how do folks manage without some sort of
practice?"
So I'm trying to get
back to Zen. If you want a lift there, maybe I can help? And it would really
help me out with my vow of saving all beings (that's one of the four impossible vows mentioned above). Desperate times mean desperate
measures. Anyway there's only so much time a person should spend on Netflix in a
day (is it me or do they have an algorithm that ensures that the film you
actually want to watch will not be on there?).
I'm not an expert.
I'm not a very good Buddhist. But I've sat on a cushion a bit, I've been on
retreats; I've even walked a seven -hundred mile Buddhist pilgrimage in
Japan. So I know a bit.
What good will Zen
do?
Number one: Zen came
about through hundreds of years of folks living cheek by jowl in monasteries,
in a really intense way, and trying not to get
annoyed with one another. Seriously. A fair bit of Zen mindset is about
not annoying other folk. Is that a good skill for the family cooped up in a
lockdown style? Yes it surely is. And if we are alone in splendid isolation?
Well it'll help us in not annoying ourselves...
Number two: If you
don't know what to do in the face of COVID 19 then Zen is perfect: sitting in
Zen meditation (zazen) is the embodiment of I
don't know but I need to do something. Don't imagine for a second that
zazen is doing nothing. Sitting will show you that there is whole jungle of
activity going on in that silent world that maybe you've just never had time to
notice before.
Number three:
There's a lot of mortality and impermanence sloshing about. Zen practice is
totally geared up for that. The teachers of old didn't duck the matter of life
and death: in fact they knew it as The Great Matter. Facing squarely up to it
is a grisly task. But I think it's the right thing to do.
Listen, there's probably more to say. But I'm planning on being back here regularly, to shoot the Zen breeze. Writing this stuff down helps me to go back to that cushion everyday, even when I'm thinking "this is pointless, aren't there a million other things to do?". So you're helping me out by reading this.
Thanks and Buddhist bows in your direction, N.
photo copyright © C Gill 2008
