Mike,
Interesting!, as usual, and a bit of a challenge for me. Tnx.
In zen practice, we do not talk much about insight! Awakening is stressed, as
a point of attainment, not insight. Remember that the three pillars are:
Teaching; Practice; Awakening. With awakening, insight is in every perception,
and is behind every response. For us, insight is not a practice.
Yes, this is prajna, wisdom, acting.
Yet, in the zen practice of shikantaza as I practiced with Pat Hawk Roshi, or
in Silent Illumination as I was taught it by Sheng Yen, what we have after --
or at -- the stopping is supposed to be insight, or Illumination. Not for me,
Mike!: for me, it's stopping, stopping, stopping. ;-)
And, stopping.
But, back to awakening. Yes, after awakening, we have no choice but to share
or meet everyday life with prajna. Prajna is all that arises. But we say too
that compassion arises spontaneously with wisdom: karuna with prajna.
The entire point of zen practice is to open the Heart (Mind) of Compassion.
Insight is hardly mentioned, but of course it is instrumental, functional,
identifiable, and not un-noticed. ;-)
One learns how to re-initiate and re-employ discursive thinking, and finds that
one CAN find a way to do it, and finds, too, that it does not scare the empty
state away permanently. One can return.
Samadhi practice is still necessary, especially if you do a lot of discursive
thinking (say, your career is in Science, or something), otherwise the awakened
state will become covered up pretty soon. The strength of the awakened state
depends upon the strength of the sudden opening (the strength of the sudden
awakening), and this in turn depends originally on the state of our readiness
and preparation: purification, health, correctness of our use of the meditation
method, and on causes-and-conditions (as always).
It's a package deal, and only LOOKS simple. ;-)
Practice after awakening has to do with learning how to re-initiate discursive
thinking when needed, and with learning to continue to be established in
samadhi practice so that the empty state is not covered. I think eventually
one can use everything freely, but not at first; and, practice can never at any
time be abandoned: it would be un-natural to do so.
And so, we practice.
--Joe
> mike brown <uerusuboyo@...> wrote:
>
> >Joe wrote:
> >
> >But you only mention breathing, not attention. Attention, to me, seems to
> >be key.
>
> The key in vipassana is the insight wisdom you get from the
> attention/mindfulness you give to the object of meditation. Would you say
> that in Zen this insight only comes exclusively from intuition (prajna?)? If
> so, how is this insight incorporated into everyday life? Is there any room
> for discursive thinking at all?
>
> Mike
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