[AUDIO AND TEXT]
Here’s a seminal verse that’s attributed to Bodhidharma, the Indian sage who is said to have brought the dhyana (zazen) meditation that became Ch’an to China and then to points East, with other names:
A special transmission outside the scriptures,
Not depending on words and letters;
Directly pointing to the mind
Seeing into one’s true nature and attaining Buddhahood.
Pay attention to the middle lines: “Not depending on words and letters; Directly pointing to the mind…”
And then look at what we have now: Teachers giving Dharma talks. Books upon books upon books. Journals and magazines. Observance of sutras and precepts. Words, words, words. So, what are we, as students of Zen, to make of this seeming contradiction between instruction and actual practice?
We all read, don’t we? We listen to talks, either online or in person. We talk among ourselves. We may even talk to ourselves (out of earshot, most likely, to avoid being carted away by the little folks in the clean white coats). I know I do. And my guess is that part of us is looking for information, for answers. But my bigger guess is that we’re seeking recognition of something that is swirling about within us. We want to know what it is that’s getting us all hot and bothered, or at least what it is that’s enervating us. We’re seeking A-440 – that tuning fork resonance that lets us know that we’ve heard and been heard. Something, somewhere hears us, if we want to think of it in those terms. We’re looking for true north.
Okay, enough with the similes! The point is this: When we encounter words and letters, as Bodhidharma advised we’re not looking for a basis for belief. We’re probably not even looking for information or hard facts (unless, of course, we’re working with a textbook or trying to learn some subject). We’re looking for resonance. We’re looking for that one sentence, that one phrase, that one word – the one that rings our bell, that sounds our A-440, that jerks us onto our path true north.
It’s like when you find your teacher, your lover, your best friend, your God, even. You just know you’ve found It, in one way or another. So, when you’re ensconced in your favorite place with your book or your tablet or your phone or your PC, when you’re watching that YouTube teisho somebody’s told you about, when you’re sitting still on a silent retreat, when you hear that birdcall or surf sound or stone hit the bamboo pole, you’re hearing with your heart-mind and maybe, just maybe, It catches you.
As we keep our heart-minds open and welcoming, not expecting anything in particular to happen, that may be when it does in fact happen. And you can laugh or cry or leap for joy in that one moment of beauty, of clarity, of unmistakable truth. This is it!
And then the moment passes, and you go back to just hearing and being. And practicing, wherever you are. And that’s the name of that tune! Just this. Ring-a-ding ding.
Thank you.
EMPTY CLOUD ZEN 