Zazen and Enlightenment | Zen Meditation

The records of the Ch’an sect, including the Transmission of the Lamp and the koan collections, do not refer to zazen practice very often. It was commonly understood that by the time practitioners began to “investigate Ch’an,” they already had a good foundation in zazen. Beginners without much zazen experience may get some use out of the constant (silent) repetition of a koan or hua-t’ou, but this will only be like reciting a mantra. Without the ability to bring the mind to a deep quiescent state, it is virtually impossible to experience Self-nature through work on a koan. Thus Ta-hui Tsung-kao (l089-ll63), one of the greatest advocates of koan practice, consistently maintained that zazen was necessary to settle the wandering mind.

If a student’s mind has become stable through zazen, the application of the koan may generate the Great Doubt. This doubt is not the ordinary doubt that questions the truth of an assertion. It refers to the practitioner’s deeply questioning state of mind which results from investigating the koan. In fact, the resolution of the koan hinges on the nurturing of the Great Doubt. Because the meditator cannot answer his question by logic, he must continually return to the question itself, and this process clears the mind of everything except the Great Doubt The “doubt mass” that accumulates can disappear in one of two ways. Due to lack of concentr ation or energy, the meditator may not be able to sustain the doubt, and it will dissipate. But if he persists until his doubt is like a “hot ball of iron stuck in his throat,” the doubt mass will burst apart in an explosion.

If that explosion has enough energy, it is possible that the student will become enlightened. A master is needed to confirm the experience since the student, with rare exceptions, cannot do that himself. Even as great a figure as Ta-hui did not penetrate sufficiently on his first experience. His master Yuan-wu K’o-ch’in (1063-1135) told him, “You have died, but you haven’t come back to life.” Ta-hui was confirmed on his second enlightenment experience. Without the guidance of a genuine master such as Yuan-wu, Ta-hui may have settled unwittingly for a partial realization.
In the early twelfth century, Ch’ang-lu Tsung-tse wrote the Manual of Zazen (Tso-ch’an i). He insisted that a person who has experienced Buddha-nature should continue to practice zazen. Then one can become like a dragon who gains the water, or a tiger who enters the mountains. A dragon gaining the water returns to his ancestral home, free to dive as deep as he wishes. A tiger entering the mountains has no opposition; he may ascend the heights and roam at will. Thus Zen teaches that zazen after enlightenment enhances and deepens one’s realization.

Yueh-shan Wei-yen (745-828), an enlightened monk, was doing zazen. His master Shih-t’ou asked him, “What are you doing zazen for?” Yueh-shan answered, “Not for anything.” “That means you are sitting idly,” said Shih-t’ou. Yueh-shan countered, “If this is idle sitting, then that would be for something.” The master then said, “What is it that is not for anything!” The monk answered, “A thousand sages won’t know.” On the one hand, we say that persons who have had realization should continue to do zazen to enhance their enlightenment. On the other hand, we say the enlightened person sits without purpose. For the practitioner whose enlightenment is not deep, further zazen is necessary to deepen it; for one who is deeply enlightened, zazen is just part of daily life. Here we recall Hui-neng’s conception of true zazen: it is not limited to sitting, and the mind does not abide in anything. The ultimate zazen is no zazen.

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