The heart of the matter -Does It Work?

The question we are often asking ourselves, but one that is rarely spoken aloud, is addressed simply and directly here by Sensei Janet Jiryu Abel in this excerpt from a talk. In the Soto school of Zen, which is the predominant sect in Japan, the practice consists almost entirely of Shikintaza or “just sitting”. Shikintaza is literally to take the posture of Zazen and just sit there with no goals, no aspirations, no good, no bad, just sit. There are no cookies or trophies. You don’t necessarily get up from sitting feeling great that you did it. You may rise from your noble posture only to ask yourself why the hell would anybody just sit there like a dumbass.

Li Tung and I

I am wading through The Roaring Stream, a dense (for me) book that traces and describes the basic lineage of Chan or Zen starting with Bodhidharma. In skimming through the book before starting it, I ran across this little poem that pretty much describes me if you replace “rice” with ramen noodles, bundles of sticks with ‘half a tank of propane” and thatched hut with “trailer”, and so on. I feel all cuddly and validated.

For the Monk San-tsang on His Return to the Western Regions< – by the ninth-century Chinese poet Li Tung.

All my life too lazy to try to get ahead,
I leave everything to the truth of Heaven.
In my sack three measures of rice,
by the stove one bundle of sticks–
why ask who’s got satori, who hasn’t?
What would I know about that dust, fame and gain?
Rainy nights here in my thatched hut
I stick out my two legs any old way I please.