When Zen students are unable to see the moon of bodhi to which the word-fingers are pointing, it is important to keep their minds occupied. So these students must learn and practice zazen which is not so much about sitting as it is keeping what they’ve learned in zazen during standing, walking and lying down. Students who practice zazen then stop when they get up off their cushion are not really practicing zazen. This problem is somewhat like those Christians who go to church on Sunday; who act pious and holy. Then when Monday rolls around they are no longer Christians.
Although they can’t see what’s happening, Zen students who do zazen, since their attention is no longer directed outwards, are looking inwards more than during standing, walking (including running) and lying down. When we look at the Chinese characters for zazen the first character “za” 坐 represents two people sitting on the earth facing each other. We can also view 坐 as meaning self-introspection which in the context of advanced Zen is the pure subject seeing the pure object from the basis of ultimate reality such that subject and object disappear (become illusory) so that there is only ultimate reality. Za, in other words, doesn’t means just “sit.”
The overall goal of zazen for the fledgeling Zen student is getting them used to self-introspection which is the truth of Zen or dhyana. It is about turning the light (the animative principle) back to its universal source. This helps explain what Zen master Ejo meant when he said: “So we should know that this light is the universal illumination of matchless, peerless great light completely filled with infinite meaning.”
The universal source or sublime light is the truth of Buddhahood. The student begins the challenge of meeting this light with the practice of zazen. Hopefully, one day, they will connect with this light. They will see it in the time of a finger snap. Their body will become engulfed in its luminosity—a kind of Buddhist baptism. From that moment onwards, every word by the Buddhas and the Patriarchs will be seen as pointing to this.
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