Unconstrained By Rev. Gene Bush

Soon we will be returning to more formal zazen and service, remembering the expectations of behavior in the temple setting, experiencing practice life beyond the zoom screen. We may feel awkward at first remembering the sequence of bells and bows, feeling the presence of others in a room, yet comforted by seeing the images and familiar furnishings.

In the zendo itself, we have this way of the externalizing idealized characteristics in the figures on the altar – the willingness to cut through delusion in the image of Manjushri, the intention to express supportive kindness to all beings in the image of Avalokiteshvara, the perfectly balanced meditative poise of the Buddha figure, remembering our teachers through their photos.

By seeing these figures with their own forms and characteristics, it is somehow easy to feel encouraged to aspire to the ideal. Ultimately we know, as Eva Jansen writes in The Book of Buddhas, “…all these images are actually mirrors, aspects and faculties inherent in everyone, which have been made manifest. By giving them their own existence and form, it is easier to recognize and understand these aspects.”

So, we return to formal in-person practice in the zendo gradually, offering ourselves and each other the opportunity to ‘turn the light of awareness around’ in the trusting companionship of Sangha. Unlike seeking awakened mind elsewhere, in the temple practices we are expressing the very ideal we strive for.

From Taigen Dan Leighton in Zen Ritual: “… Buddhist meditation has commonly been considered an instrumental technique aimed at obtaining a heightened mental or spiritual state, or even as a method for inducing some dramatic ‘enlightenment’ experience. But in Dogen’s Zen, zazen has been seen not as a means to attaining some result, but as a ritual enactment and expression of awakened awareness. …. A ritual expression whose transformative quality is not based on stages of attainment or meditative prowess.”

Cultivating meditative awareness in everyday activities, we are bringing awake-mind to know the appropriate response to the present circumstances. What would it be like to enter every activity of every day with this much conscious attention?

It may seem somehow indulgent to practice meditation when there is so much that needs to be done to heal the wounds of social injustice and environmental degradation. And yet, clearly our capacity to act with commitment for the benefit of all beings depends upon our capacity to return to a stable, compassionate, non-deluded presence. What would it be like to attend to our lives in the same way we attend to the details of movement and sound in the zendo, co-creating our experience? Fortified by our contact with one another, having a sense of place, a sense of belonging, we can easily return to the harsher reality of a non-zendo space. Busy testing out the skills we have just practiced, we begin to recognize that it doesn’t matter if we are in the zendo or the grocery store – the behavior, demeanor, responsiveness to the moment all the same.

As expressed by Stephanie Kaza in The Attentive Heart, Conversations with Trees, “ … this is the tension – to find a considered way of acting not based on reaction. Building a different kind of sanity requires a stable base for careful action…. This nonverbal form of ethical deliberation depends on the careful work of paying attention to the whole thing… Meditating, walking slowly, calming the mind by centering on the breath – these painstaking, deliberate practices increase the odds for acting intelligently in the midst of crisis. … I find some comfort in our communal clumsiness. We each stumble along the uncharted path. … We walk together sharing the silence, giving each other support as we investigate our lives… By learning in community, we practice breathing in a circle of friends and companions…The choice to practice awareness, over and over in each moment, is the cultivation of intention, a quiet, fierce kind of passion that supports the capacity to act with restraint…”

How is it that practice is a training for upright behavior? – what you expect to see is what you see, at least at first. Engaged Buddhism is the practice of taking a second, third, fourth look, beyond the conditioning of the mind. Upright behavior, ethical behavior, is directly related to being unconstrained by a narrow view. Is there a social injustice or environmental issue to address? Figure out where your efforts are going to have the greatest impact and work there.

Can I ring these bells coinciding with the movement of the doshi and the assembly? Can I time my bows to coincide with others in the room? Can I live my life with the benefit of all beings foremost in my mind and heart?