Zen Practice
Zen takes an interesting approach when it comes to practice. Many other Buddhist traditions take a more gradual approach to it. They say that realization is the product of practice over a substantial period of time. They emphasize techniques that enhance skills to help you awaken. Zen is much more direct. It focuses on now. It’s not interested in developing skills. It says the way is directly before you in every moment. Yet, it does not entirely dismiss the gradual aspects of practice; it just says that practice is not about gradually building up skills.
It is hard to deny that waking up has nothing to do with building skills over time. There is a reason why most Zen teachers practice for many years before becoming teachers. It begs the question, then, why these same teachers say that Zen doesn’t have to do with learning or gaining something. Even if the way is right in front of you in every moment, it is not something that can be realized without at least some practice, at least not in a consistent way. What, then, is practice doing?
There is a concept in Zen known as way-seeking mind. Way-seeking mind is the mind that yearns to wake up. Way-seeking mind is the sincere aspiration to wake up to the truth of reality and to be free from it. Without way-seeking mind, we’d never wake up; it is an essential part of Zen; this is why we practice. It’s by practicing and cultivating this mind that we wake up. Nurturing this mind is the purpose of practice.
Way-seeking mind
Way-seeking mind is the vehicle that enables us to awaken. To wake up, we must first start with an aspiration. Way-seeking mind is this aspiration. This aspiration isn’t simply the thought: “I want to wake up.” This aspiration goes beyond merely thinking about it; it is not an immature desire for self-improvement. It is seeing that what you are looking for is right here and that there is no need to chase after it.
Thought still plays a crucial role in this process. You must aspire to practice if you want to awaken. How? There is this concept in Buddhism known as bodhichitta. The term bodhi means awakening, and chitta refers to the thinking mind. In other words, the mind thinks and aims to awaken. Dogen says that this mind is necessary to wake up. You can’t wake up without first committing to the practice, but he points out that the thinking mind differs from the awakened mind. We must start from the thinking mind and go beyond it into true practice. This means that while thought and aspiration are necessary, they are not the end goal. The end goal is to go beyond the thinking mind into true practice.
While the thinking mind is a necessary part of practice, the practice must go beyond that thought. You must go beyond the thinking mind and the mind that tries to wake up. You must first commit to practicing, then do the practice. In doing the practice, we can see that there is more to life than just what we think and perceive, and we can see how our thoughts and perceptions shape how we live and how they affect our moment-to-moment experience.
The trouble is that you can’t come to this understanding by desiring it. You can only reach it through sincere practice. Way-seeking mind is the mind that brings you to this sincere practice. It goes beyond simple desires and allows you to seek freedom directly. According to Dogen, this way-seeking mind takes time to ripen, and we must guard it against desires that take us away from it. Regular practice is how we guard our way-seeking mind.
Cultivating way-seeking mind
To cultivate way-seeking mind, you must first commit to the practice. You must commit to going all in and not settle for anything other than the complete realization of your true nature. Special states will come up when you practice, and you will gain wisdom through it. While these states and wisdom are part of Buddhist practice, they are not the goal. These things are usually considered “good,” so it’s easy to hold on to them and try to reinforce them. This is not true practice. True practice is just to practice. If something exceptional happens, you continue just to practice. There is no need to do something with it. True practice is not about achieving certain states or gaining wisdom but about the commitment to the practice itself.
The practice of trying to cultivate particular states, like clarity and compassion, and gain wisdom comes from notions of good and bad practice. We typically view those things as good and things that take us away from them as bad, but we should refrain from getting caught in notions of good and bad practice. Ultimately, there is no difference between things that are good and things that are bad. Simply arouse the aspiration for sincere practice. If that aspiration wavers in one moment, re-commit to sincere practice in the next.
When you practice this way, your aspiration to wake up reinforces your practice, and your practice reinforces your aspiration to wake up. In this way, there is no distinction between practice and aspiration. When there is no distinction, that is way-seeking mind. If you find yourself with one but not the other, that is not a sincere practice or aspiration. This aspiration isn’t something you want to do in the future. It is something you are committing to doing right now. Simply desiring to awaken without doing anything with that aspiration wastes time.
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