Zen Training and Mindfulness

Zen training: Mindfulness is not enoughDharma practiceSeptember 29, 2013As a practice, Zen is very simple. You sit upright, in silence and stillness. But Zen is notjust a practice, it is a way of training. Usually, when we are in some kind of training, wehave a goal in mind. What are we training for in Zen? We are training for our whole life,to be fully awake so that our thoughts, words, and deeds are in alignment with ourdeepest aspiration: for wisdom, for compassion, for connection and belonging, for joyand creativity, for care.We train so that we can make our full contribution to the liberation and well-being of thewhole world. Such training is not like preparing for a tennis tournament or a newsoftware program. Zen training does not have a finish line or an “outcome.” We aretraining in the way Yo Yo Ma trains with the cello, because it is the fullest expression ofwho we are, and because we are deeply satisfied by what we learn and experience onthis path. It is the path that celebrates our becoming more fully who we really are,rather than some performance or achievement.This training permeates our whole life. You may be blown open by seeing a blueberry,or you may be driving on I-35 when you actually realize some deep truth aboutimpermanence. You may struggle with a difficult situation: a political battle at work, arough neighbor, a dying parent. Maybe you feel unequal to the life you have beenthrown into, or the gift of your privilege and comfort when so many others suffer. Ourongoing question is how to make the best use of this being, this body-mind-heart. Wetypically run around dabbling at this or that, volunteering here, sending some moneythere, trying to fix the things we can fix, and filled with anxiety about those we can’t.And then there are all of our technologies, both helpful and troubling, demanding ourattention and care as well. There’s so much we have to tune out just to go about ourordinary day.So how, exactly, can training in Zen help with all that? We begin with mindfulness,training first of all the capacity we have most control over: our attention. In commonliving, our attention wanders or is jerked all over with little sense of intention. Recentlythere is a boom in study and writing about mindfulness and its benefits. Butmindfulness alone is not enough, and it is frequently misunderstood or misapplied. Wecan develop exquisite awareness of our inner experience, the world, and states ofconsciousness without fully expressing the bodhisattva vow.---2Reading Germer’s Introduction to Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy I wastroubled by the common definition of mindfulness as attention to present momentexperience, without judgment. But I couldn’t quite figure out why this definition wasbeginning to bother me. The authors go on to talk about deep acceptance, especially inpsychotherapy, deep acceptance of all that is arising in us. And Tara Brach’s bookRadical Acceptance, also takes this tack. I began to feel uneasy about it. Why should Ifeel uneasy about this direction of “radical acceptance?” Mindfulness is necessary, butit is not complete. Why not?I think there can be a hidden, sentimental ideal in it, or a form of resignation oravoidance. It seems to suggest allowing everything to just be. Of course, we mustmeet reality as it is, and we must accept that reality, whether we like it or not. Wesurrender our useless battle with it. But what I am worried about is a possibility thatmindfulness might be taken as a rather passive response to reality, and to our ownpainful habits and conditioning, and an abandonment of discernment and action in reliefof suffering.Are there not aspects of our own conditioning and the world that should not be simplyaccepted? Certainly there are grave situations, injustices, cruelty, destructive behaviorthat we should not merely “accept” and even if we are “nonjudgmental” we must still bediscerning, responsive, and caring.The Buddha, Gandhi, MLK, did not simply accept things as they were. They weremassive change agents.Obviously, simple resistance to what we don’t like or approve of isn’t the answer either.The fight to suppress, fix, or get rid of what is unwanted only exacerbates the sufferingin the situation.In the Mahayana tradition, the path is ultimately a path not of acceptance but oftransformation. We work with our conditioning, liberating all parts of ourselves, but notsimply to express themselves. Our rage, our grief, our self-loathing are not just to beaccepted. They are also not to be resisted by suppression, distraction or other forms ofdismissal. We can accept the painful or destructive patterns of conditioning only as afirst step toward liberation from the underlying painful beliefs, and awakening to thedeep wisdom and compassion of that within us which is selfless, boundless, and vast.---3The Limits of AcceptanceOne of the Buddha’s radical moves was to interrupt the traditional acceptance in Indianculture that resulted in a kind of fatalism. Such a worldview abandons personal andsocial responsibility for the relief of suffering. And there is a danger in some of the Zenteachings that naive students may believe there is nothing to do. The Buddha taughtpersonal responsibility through the practices of perfection (paramitas), the eightfoldpath, the precepts, and the principles of dependent origination. In the Mahayanatradition, the Bodhisattva Vow exemplifies and expands the notion of personalresponsibility to include our responsibility for all living beings. The teachings ofBuddhism have for over 2,000 years resulted not just in acceptance of all that is, but indeep transformations in individuals, families, towns, and whole societies.There is a larger transformation of consciousness and civilization that we areunavoidably immersed in today. As the Buddha demonstrated, Mara (the purveyor ofsuffering in all of its many guises) is not to be fought, nor to be accepted. Theencounter with Mara, upright, awake, clear and present, fuels transformation. That isthe Buddha’s project.So as we cultivate basic mindfulness, most often what we encounter is our resistance.Or rather, our resistances, since they are continuously arising in new guises. Ourfantasies and projections, our knee pain, our doubts and our struggles with distraction,our to-do list, are all forms of resistance. We can hear the inner complaints, hilariousas they are: this is too hard! Why aren’t I making any progress? Why is everyone elseso much better at this? And on and on it goes, the endless voiceover narration. We gettangled in our stories, beliefs, and distractions until we wonder what good our practicecan possibly be doing. Still, we train, day after day, and learn that we can be calm andunmoved in the face of whatever our conditioning can dream up. This is the differencebetween training and practice as entertainment or self-help.Even so, resistance is useful, and particularly as a complement to mindfulness in Zentraining. Why do I say that? In training we work with acceptance and resistance in theservice of transformation, for ourselves and for the world.We must accept the incontrovertible reality before us, resist the impulse to constructmeanings and stories about it, and transform our participation and understanding inresponse to it.---4Our Zen training helps us not only see what is, but what is to be done about it, for thebenefit of all beings. The Zen expression for this great activity is “chop wood, carrywater.” This is full enlightenment. Through this very simple practice of sitting upright inzazen, we open to the deep wisdom and compassion and clarity that enable us to trulythink, speak, and act for liberation and healing. We do give up, in this practice, but whatwe give up, effortlessly and naturally, are all the things we think, say, and do thatinterfere or hinder us in this bodhisattva vow, the vow to awaken fully and free allbeings from the suffering caused by greed, hatred, and delusion. We can do this. Wecan train in this way together, supporting each other in the realization of the bodhisattvavow, not in a land long ago and far away, not in a monastery in Japan or Nepal. Righthere is the training ground, right now is the practice field, and you are the most valuableplayer in the game.Mindfulness is the beginning, not the outcome, of Zen training.