Is zazen really meditation?

I sometimes wonder about the Soto Zennists who believe that Dogen’s insistence on zazen is really beneficial.  How can sitting one’s carnal body on a stuffed pillow aid one in achieving Buddhahood or even offer a glimpse into pure Mind?  First, what is the body that the Soto Zennist sits on a stuffed pillow?  According to the Mahaparinirvana Sutra we should,

“Think that this body is like a plantain, a mirage in the hot season, watery foam, a phantom, a transformed body, the castle of a gandharva, an unfired brick, lightning, a picture drawn on water, a prisoner facing death, ripe fruit, a piece of meat, the warp on a loom which is about to end, and the ups and downs of a mortar. You should think that all created things are like poisonous food and that anything made is possessed of all worries.”

As regards this body, it doesn’t matter what kind of posture we put it in, it is not an adequate vehicle to enlightenment—it cannot save us no matter how we treat it.  In fact, it belongs to Mara the Evil One; moreover, it is thoroughly empty of a self-nature.  It is also the non-self (anattâ) of the Pali canon which is suffering.

The body (including its mental life) is like a thick veil.  It prevents us from recognizing our true nature.  Granted, that we  implicitly have the nature of a Buddha (buddhadhatu), however, we don’t recognize it when we observe our body and the world the body inhabits.  Sitting on a cushion is not going to make our body less of an encumbrance so we can actualized our true nature.

Real meditation or dhyâna, that led to  Siddhartha’s awakening as the Buddha, is a subtle exercise that involves a search for absolute substance which is thoroughly immaculate, so much so, the careless adept is inclined to believe there is nothing, fundamentally, to search for.  But the payoff is directly meeting with this substance, which is realized to be luminous.  It is dynamic yet, in itself, it is empty of all adventitiousness—although, it is not spiritually separate from phenomena.  This is also known as the luminous or clear light Mind.  

Soto Zen’s zazen cannot accomplish this since it is directed at sitting, relying on the physical as if the physical body could somehow, like a brick or a clay tile, be polished into a mirror (i.e., luminous Mind). 

Comments

[Misha]

Dogen's admonition was to drop off body and mind. The body is seen as a mere skinbag. The mind, an illusion. With zazen, one realizes through just sitting in panoramic awareness of emptiness, this luminous mind, on the path to bodhi citta.

[Jure]

I am of the Zen sect. My special mission is to train students of Buddhism by the Zen method. Nowadays, there are many types of Zen teachers. One type, for example, teaches Zen through philosophical discourse; another through so-called meditation; and still another directly from soul to soul. My way of teaching is the direct transmission of Zen from soul to soul.

(Sokei-an; Original Nature: Zen comments on the Sixth Patriarch's Platform Sutra )