Hi All,
The three fundamental Buddhist practices is "Discipline, Meditation,
Wisdom". In Pali, they are "sila, samadhi, panna", or translated into
"morality, stillness, wisdom." Word wise, jhana and samadhi and
stillness are the same. Morality and discipline are the same. Some of
you may disagree about this "same". They are the "same" in practice.
They are different only in our heads.
As you know, Chan is not taught through words. Chan is about practice.
Let me explain.
My Teacher calls the first practice "purification". When our body and
mind become pure, we automatically disciplined and moral. I call the
first practice "detox". Detox from all our habits - habitual concepts,
habitual actions, habitual food, habitual life style. It is like a reboot.
When we reach this clean state of being, then we reach samadhi, jhana,
stillness or just Ding, as we call it in our school. It is a state of
stillness, yet spacious, expansive, clear, thoughtless......
Maintaining in this state, enables us to be in sync with the energy and
wisdom of the universe.
Kensho is when our heart outshines our mind. It is also a description
of state. Usually it means a state of clear mind or stillness before we
reach samadhi.
Shigantaza however is the same practice (from the discipline, through
sitting to clear mind to kensho).
In short, if we can detach ourselves from the descriptions from these
states and simply Just Sit without thoughts and cultivate our chi. We
can reach all these states.
In our school, we have a fourth state, our Teacher calls it,
liberation. It means liberation of our heart after we quiet or clear
our mind.
There is really no need to comprehend, just practice. The Sixth
Patriarch did not even read or write.
:-)
Be Enlightened In This Life - We ALL Can
http://chanjmjm.blogspot.com
http://www.heartchan.org
On 11/22/2010 6:47 AM, billsm...@hhs1963.org wrote:
ED,
My formal teaching has been in Japanese Zen Buddhism so most of the
terms of which I am familiar are Japanese.
These are my understanding of some of the terms we've been using:
Kensho: A brief and temporary glimpse of Buddha Nature.
Satori: Essentially the same as kensho but a much more long-lasting
and persistent awareness of Buddha Nature.
Shikantaza: 'Clear Mind', pure awareness. I call this state 'Just
THIS!'. Clear Mind with Awareness = Buddha Mind/Buddha Nature.
Wikipedia defines shikantaza as: .. (只管打坐?) ... a Japanese term
for zazen introduced by Rujing and associated most with the Soto
school of Zen Buddhism, but which also is "the base of all Zen
disciplines." According to Dōgen Zenji, shikantaza i.e. resting in a
state of brightly alert attention that is free of thoughts, directed
to no object, and attached to no particular content—is the highest or
purest form of zazen, zazen as it was practiced by all the buddhas of
the past.
Samadhi: I am familiar with this term only from reading. It always
seemed to me to be the same as shikantaza. Wikipedia defines samadhi
as: "...a non-dualistic state of consciousness in which the
consciousness of the experiencing subject becomes one with the
experienced object, and in which the mind becomes still, one-pointed
or concentrated though the person remains conscious. In Buddhism, it
can also refer to an abiding in which mind becomes very still but does
not merge with the object of attention, and is thus able to observe
and gain insight into the changing flow of experience."
The Thai's use the term 'samadhi' to refer to Theravada Buddhist
meditation. They have a different word 'glai-glia' to refer to other
types of mediation.
>From my experience Clear Mind/shikantaza (samadhi?) and kensho/satori
are virtually the same. The only difference is that kensho/satori
denotes the point that you become AWARE of Clear Mind (samadhi?). So
if you have to put them in some kind of time sequence, first there is
Clear Mind without awareness, then Kensho/Satori which is the
realization/awareness of Clear Mind, and then Clear Mind continues
with awareness.
Koans, in my experience, are used as a tool to stop the rational,
discriminating mind's activities. It is only in this state than
kensho/satori can occur. There are other ways to stop the
discriminating mind such as just sitting (zazen). Eventually you will
reach the state of shikantaza (samadhi?) in which a pure awareness can
arise. This I call Buddha Mind/Buddha Nature.
All of the above occurs IN THE ABSENCE of
thinking/rationality/cognition. Part of zen practice AFTER kensho is
to re-integrate thinking/rationality/cognition WITHOUT forming
attachments to the concepts generated by thinking.
Having said all this I have to add the following caveat which is a
paraphrase of Genjo's caveat on the 5 subdivisions of koans: 'any
number of subdivisions and terms describing zen practice and awareness
states could be devised, and all are ultimately meaningless. Zen is
everyday life. Zen is nothing special. Zen is "Only Don't Know!". Zen
is Just THIS!'
This is my experience.
...Bill!
