CHRIS MARANO | Zen Wisdom

It’s okay to sit back on trains, planes and buses. However, please don’t meditate while you are driving.

SHIH-FU:
I teach how to do standing and sitting-on-chair methods. It’s better not to sit with your back supported by something, but if you can’t help it, then do the best you can. It’s okay to sit back on trains, planes and buses. However, please don’t meditate while you are driving.

STUDENT:
When you are traveling long distances, sometimes your body is tired and your mind, tense. What can you do to relax both body and mind?

SHIH-FU:
Right at the beginning you should consciously tell yourself to relax. During the times when you’re uncomfortably tense, massage your head and do some head exercises.

STUDENT:
Some people fall asleep whenever they meditate. They can be really energetic, but as soon as they sit down they start getting drowsy and ten minutes later they are fighting off sleep. Pain at least keeps you awake, but sleepiness sneaks up on you and drags you down. It can be discouraging. Could this be considered a karmic obstruction? Can something be done about it?

SHIH-FU:
If you want to talk about karmic obstructions it becomes too wide a field. But we can help these conditions using concrete methods. You can relax your body doing exercises beforehand ─ head and body exercises. And when you sit, make sure your back is straight and your chin tucked in. It’s fine if your back is slightly bent, but only if you aren’t sleepy. As soon as you feel sleep coming on, straighten your back. Do some deep breathing. If deep breathing alone does not work, you can couple it with hunching your shoulders and then relaxing them. You can also stare in front of you with wide-opened eyes, until they well with tears. All these techniques help to clear a drowsy mind. If you are always sleepy, then sit for ten minutes and then get up and exercise. Even ten minutes of sitting is useful. After exercising, you can try to sit again.

STUDENT:
You have told us not to sit at noon and midnight. What if it is the only time you can sit? Also, in The Three Pillars of Zen, Kapleau Roshi says noon and midnight are good times and one should avoid dawn and dusk. Time of day is time of day, so why are there differences? Is it individual preference, or is there a greater importance?

SHIH-FU:
Meditating occasionally at noon and midnight shouldn’t be a problem, but it’s best not to make it a regular habit. Ten to thirty minutes into those periods is still okay.

What Kapleau Roshi says might be true for him. I don’t know if it is his personal preference or if it is something more. Normally, though, at midnight you should be asleep or at least tired and resting, especially if you have been working all day. Avoiding noon and midnight comes from the philosophy of Chinese medicine. It is not my personal opinion.

Chinese medicine holds that a person’s body is connected with the sun, moon, planets, magnetic fields, and the rest of the universe. There are certain rhythms that affect all of us. If you regularly sit at noon and midnight, you may become out of balance with the natural rhythms of the universe, and it could lead to sickness. But if it is an occasional thing, then there won’t be any problems. Also, if the practitioner is experienced, there also won’t be any problems.

Regarding when to sit, you shouldn’t make yourself sit when you don’t want to. If you force it, you’ll come to hate it. If after ten minutes you realize it was definitely the wrong time to sit ─ not just a few scattered thoughts telling you so ─ then get up. Do some exercises and then try again. Don’t force it. Make sure that you allocate some time to sit and tell yourself you will enjoy doing it. If you feel bad about it during this time, get up and do some exercises and then try again when you feel better. Once your time is up, you can stop. I usually tell beginners to sit for twenty-five to thirty minute periods.

STUDENT:
What you said earlier about just sitting and letting thoughts go sounds more like Soto Zen or Ts’ao-tung Ch’an. Usually you teach methods that seem more structured. Here it sounds like what I’ve read in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.

SHIH-FU:
The method in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind is hard to do in the beginning stages of practice. In the beginning you still need to have a method like counting breaths to focus the mind. That book says to just put down your mind. That’s not what I am saying. Some people might have difficulty counting breaths when they meditate, so I’ll have them do shikantaza (just sitting) practice instead.

Some people can’t use either method. They have too many scattered thoughts for shikantaza and they control or force their breathing. I usually advise these people to repeat the Buddha’s name or recite a mantra. These two methods allow the practitioner to stabilize the mind.

STUDENT:
What kind of mantra would be good?

SHIH-FU:
Anything can be a mantra. Some mantras have a kind of power in and of themselves, especially if many people repeat them aloud and together, over and over. The more people use them, the more power they can accumulate. If you use your own personal mantra, then probably it won’t gain much power. But some mantras are very powerful, like the Great Compassionate Dhyana mantra. Each phrase in this mantra is the name of a bodhisattva and, since the mantra is recited by many people, it is extremely powerful. However, the Ch’an sect is not concerned with personal power, so any mantra or phrase will do. As a Ch’an method, a mantra should be simple, and its purpose is just to focus the mind.

STUDENT:
Most of us have hectic lives and schedules. When we try to meditate we are extremely scattered in the beginning. You say we should tell ourselves to feel happy and relaxed about what we are going to do, but thoughts and feelings are two different things. You can tell yourself to settle down, but that doesn’t mean you are going to. What you are saying may be too subtle to grasp. So would it be better to start with counting breaths until settled and then shift to the just sitting method?

SHIH-FU:
It’s okay to do that. Use the normal method and then go to the other. But you should still approach sitting with the attitude I explained. It is a precious and happy time. This helps you shift more quickly into a calm mind, and you are already relaxing before you are on the cushion. This attitude won’t happen overnight. You have to cultivate it. I am talking about your mental and emotional state. If you just had a fight you probably would not feel calm enough to sit. But if you could cultivate the attitude I have described, you will be able to say, “Let’s just sit.”

STUDENT:
Just sitting and watching thoughts without following them is difficult for beginners. I thought counting breaths was more concrete, easier to hold on to.

SHIH-FU:
For beginners or for someone who has had a hectic day, just sitting can be used at the start. Just sit, and when the mind settles down, you can switch to your usual method. If you feel it is comfortable and useful to continue the method you started with, that is fine, too.

STUDENT:
There is shikantaza and counting the breaths. You usually tell us not to switch methods. Sometimes, those first few minutes can be very scattered. If you have something firm to hang on to, like counting breaths, it could help you to settle down. Would it be okay to start with this and then when the mind is clearer, switch to shikantaza?

SHIH-FU:
If you keep switching you won’t find out which method is suitable for you. Switching back and forth, you will never penetrate a method. It’s best to work on one method, and if your mind is clear enough, it should be easy to do so. When you get to a higher level, I teach other methods. The situation you are speaking of is different. In this case, it is like a stepping stone. What I discourage is random or frequent switching. If you start counting breaths and then switch to shikantaza with good results, then by all means do it.

STUDENT:
Sometimes you say that counting breaths is the most basic method and later on you introduce other methods. Other times you say any method can take you all the way to the “other shore.” It seems to me that counting breaths is a basic method that you eventually have to give up in favor of a better method. I’ve been using it for a long time. If it is a method to leave behind, I must be a pretty poor meditator.

SHIH-FU:
Here is an analogy, even if it is not fully appropriate. Counting breaths is basic. It’s like walking. Almost everyone can walk, but people can also ride a bike, sail a ship, drive a car, fly a plane. There are many ways to get from one place to another. Walking is one of them. And though walking seems to be the slowest way, sometimes that is not the case. You know the story of the tortoise and the hare. Walking is slow but steady.

Counting the breaths is a good method. The Agamas say it can be used to attain arhatship. Using it can also generate wisdom and the four preliminary levels of dhyana. If you use this method for a while and then want to switch, that is okay. For instance, you can contemplate the mind or switch to the ocean seal samadhi method. It’s like walking and then hopping a train. If you just walk, you’ll get there. If you switch to a vehicle, you’ll also get there.

Counting the breath is a basic method. In using this method you should be able to examine yourself better to see if you are working hard or not. It is an excellent method. If it weren’t, I wouldn’t teach it.

STUDENT:
Sitting for however long you like and getting up whenever you like bothers me. There’s no discipline. Many thoughts go through the mind. The purpose of sitting is to watch your thoughts. If you answer every thought that goes through the mind, you wouldn’t sit for very long. Five minutes in you might think that you are hungry. After ten minutes you might think meditation is useless. But after sitting for a while I have come to realize that fifteen minutes into it there might be a thought that says sitting is wonderful. Really, the whole purpose of sitting is precisely to watch these thoughts come and go, to see that thoughts do rise and fall. You would never realize it if you didn’t sit through it. If you got up, you would never know this. Isn’t it better to ride it out?

SHIH-FU:
You don’t get up when just any thought runs through your mind. I meant it only when you have an overwhelmingly uncomfortable feeling, either physically or mentally. In this case, the feeling probably is not going to go away, and sitting through it would just make matters worse, so it is best to get up. When you have the rambling feelings of hecticness and tiredness, you try to sit through it. But if it gets worse and worse, it might be better to get up.

STUDENT:
You said we should sit when we want to sit. If poets or writers only wrote when the muse moved them, they might only write one poem or story a year. Sometimes you have good days and sometimes you have bad days, but good results can come from either one. You just sit down and write and something might happen. Shouldn’t it be the same with sitting? To say to sit whenever you feel like it must be explained better. There needs to be structure in one’s practice. People might misinterpret what you say and think about practice in a very lackadaisical, la-de-da way. As you say, it is not an easy habit to cultivate. It takes a lot of effort and repetition.

SHIH-FU:
Again, we are talking about attitude. I am presupposing that you want and like to meditate. If you find on a particular day that you don’t have the time to sit, or your mind is too preoccupied with something else that is important, then it’s okay not to sit. But if you are lacking determination, and come up with an excuse every other day, then it is not okay. For example, if you have work that you must get done for the next day, then that is a good reason to forego sitting. But if you put off sitting in order to finish a crossword puzzle, that’s not a good reason. Remember, you are only fooling yourself. You know inside when it is a good reason and when it isn’t, so be honest with yourself, and be your own disciplinarian. You can’t have a teacher watchinq over your shoulder everyday. It’s up to you.

STUDENT:
You say we should approach sitting as a happy or precious time, and then just sit. Relax the body, keep good posture. Just watch your thoughts but do not follow them. If you get tired do deep breathing, and if you feel very tired, get up and do exercises, then sit again. If you really don’t feel like sitting, then get up and do something else. You say these things and it is getting me more and more confused, because I remember you teaching me a different way. To whom are you directing this talk? Are you directing it to anyone who practices Ch’an, or is it strictly for beginners, or is it for those who have practiced a while and have been on retreats and know what to expect?

SHIH-FU:
The approach I described is for daily practice, not retreats. During retreat, the schedule is fixed. You sit when it’s time to sit. On retreat there is a level of commitment and discipline that does not usually occur in daily practice. If you can carry that energy over into your daily life, that’s very good. But I want people, especially beginners, to feel that daily practice is easy, comfortable, not difficult. If people use this approach, they won’t put it off or give up. They will try and keep on trying. Gradually they will be able to practice steadily. Also, people during their daily routine can become tense, hectic, confused and nervous. If they want to practice, it is difficult to settle down right away. This is a good approach for those times. After they exercise or do slow walking meditation for a little while, they are more relaxed and it is easier to sit.

STUDENT:
You said we should think of sitting as a pleasurable and wonderful time. Well, that depends on my mind.

Sometimes I see it that way, other times I don’t. It’s what you think and feel deep down. I can intellectually say sitting is a wonderful thing. I know it, but sometimes I feel differently, and it’s hard to make the feeling and the thought come together. This is true for many things, not just meditation. I feel like I’m two different people.

SHIH-FU:
As I said, you have to cultivate this skill. To use an analogy, if you are learning to play tennis, initially you may feel frustrated and discouraged because you are missing the ball or hitting it poorly. But with practice you will improve. With persistence, at some point it becomes natural and enjoyable, and you look forward with enthusiasm to playing. The health benefits of tennis then becomes a free bonus.

You have to turn sitting practice into a habit. Give yourself a hint subconsciously. Tell yourself sitting is a pleasure, a good time. Create this attitude, this atmosphere, even though you know you will not really feel this way all the time. If you do it over and over, you will train yourself. Tell yourself this kind of enjoyment is better than other kinds of enjoyment. It is a precious, spiritual time. Train yourself. At first it will be difficult. You might fail in the beginning. But keep trying. This, too, is practice.

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