The Meditation Essence of Zen Chapter 2

There are some essential points in any discipline. It is desirable that everyone
should attain his/her purpose as quickly, surely and easily as possible. In order to be
conscious of “now” and emancipate yourself, you should return to the instant “now”
without thinking about scattered things. For this, you should only carry on your effort to
cut off all worldly thoughts and return home to the instant. You should avoid anything
that may hinder your effort, and make your effort as dense as you can. The essential
points of Zen discipline are as follows:

(1) Emancipation means the acquisition of Buddha’s spirit and the experience of
the Buddhist law. You should sincerely hope for purity and happiness, correct human
errors, and realize a great love. For this, you must give up any greed, swear to gods and
Buddha to achieve your great aspiration to follow the way to the truth. You must respect
and love the founders of Zen Buddhism and find the right teacher for you.

(2) Once you have found the right teacher, you should not criticize from a narrow
point of view, but devote yourself wholly to the Zen practice under the leadership of the
teacher. For you can reach the world of unitary absolute entity. If you should doubt your
teacher, you would fall a victim to disbelief and divert yourself from the right discipline.
Look at the teaching, not at trivial things about him.

(3) The way to emancipation is not a game of endurance. Giving first priority to
endurance and thinking light of the instant is a waste of time. If your legs and foot hurt.
you may try to prevent them from hurting. If you are too hungry to make any effort, you
may eat something. Even if you try not to fall asleep with a dim consciousness, you
cannot get rid of various worldly thoughts. You cannot rid yourself of your thinking habit
without concentrating clearly on the present instant and giving up scattered speculation.
If you are too sleepy to concentrate, you should sleep just long enough to give up worldly
thoughts and concentrate on “now.”

(4) Just return to the instant “now” by reasonably abandoning scattered speculation
and worldly thoughts. Try to keep yourself from feeling sleepy. Try not to be particular
about anything, and not to be too nervous. It is ideal to put your body and mind in a state
of flow.

(5) One of the methods of doing this is to twist your body right and left every time
you breathe. When you breathe, you are likely to divert from concentration and think
about worldly matters even for a moment. It will take time to learn this. Meanwhile, you
tend to be idle and think about various trivial things even if you are engaged in the
meditation on the surface. This is also a waste of time. By twisting your body
unconditionally, you can give up any worldly thought, keep yourself from feeling asleep,
and put your body in a good flow.

(6) Keep doing the above. Just concentrate on your present breathing.
Concentration should be complete enough to for get yourself. You will soon get rid of
scattered speculation and worldly thoughts. Then, there will be no major reason to twist
your body, but you had better keep doing this unconditionally, since it is most effective in
preventing idleness and concentrating on just one thing to twist your body. Basically
speaking, you can overcome the egoistic habit through concentration.

(7) Then, you will feel monotonous before long and grasp what you are doing. You
can simply walk and simply have a meal. You can see things as you see, without any
conceptualization. You can hear as you hear. You can distinguish sensitive stimulation
such as seeing, hearing, learning, and perceiving, from the world of idea, which is the
function of the mind. Then, you will reach a state of mind without any concept, without
any conscious thinking. A unitary world of peace and equality will appear before you.
The more concentrated you are on the present moment, the more peaceful, comfortable
and confident you feel. But this is not yet the world of emancipation, namely nirvana.

(8) Once you have reached here, all you have to do is continue to the last. The
genuine discipline is concerned simply with the present moment, the instant, and the
destiny. You already have nothing to think about. You can move, but there is no change.
Anything to be thought of will disappear. Nothing is there. There is not even the
discipline itself. Only emptiness (sunyata) remains. Still, you do not understand what the
emptiness really is and how you will be emancipated. You are still halfway to the great
emancipation.

(9) There will be a time when you will be mature enough to enter no-ego ( muga in
Japanese). Then you will be awaken by the destiny from the outside to learn that your
state of mind has been emptiness. Non-ego itself teaches us the world of non-ego. This is
the experience of emptiness. This is nirvana. This is the genuine “now” devoid of any
connection with the past and, therefore, with your persistence. Just because now is
“now,” everything slips out of it. This is Buddha’s world. He said, “Both sentient and
nonsentient beings can concurrently attain Buddhahood. Even mountains, rivers, grass
and trees can all enter nirvana.” Unless this great awareness comes to you, you are not
emancipated. The great awareness of the great reality is the evidence and power of
emancipation.

(10) Then, you are entering into a post-emancipation stage. The fact you are
emancipated then turns into a great confidence and power, which in turn will get in your
way. This is not an ignorance (maya) at all, but you are short of the genuine non-ego
since you still have a belief that you are absolutely right. The continuing non-ego means
the realization of “All is vanity and emptiness is everything.” There is no truth, and every
truth in the great truth of the universe. You can understand that there can be a truth of
ignorance, but you will really understand even the truth of errors only when you have
broken the framework and entered into the genuine great emancipation. The truth is in
genuine emptiness. Here, you will reach the same stage with the great founder of
Buddhism, Gautama, who realized that “Holy am I alone throughout heaven and earth.”
Then you will be engaged in the enlightenment and salvation of the world.