The Appetizer: If you can't explain it to a child, its either not worth explaining or you are making it too difficult. I'm not sure how that works with subjects like quantum physics, but it seems very apropris to zen practice. We make life difficult, keep it simple stupid.
Scene One: the tent by the lake. Enter the Regional Teacher (RT) and Kanko Jitsu.(KJ)
RT: I haven't seen you in a long time. Tell me how your practice has been.
KJ: Mumbo Jumbo, etc etc. More exchange of conversational pleasantries.
RT: What is the sound of one hand clapping?
KJ: No answer. KJ thinks: Here we are having a nice conversation, taking in all the sounds and sites, and he wants to go back into concepts and artificial mental constructs. He knows, I know and the world knows there is no answer to this question. So instead of following my breath, feeling all expansive--hearing the birds on the lake, the hum of the air conditioning and all this cool art on the wall, he is asking me to enter into this artificial riddle that has no basis in reality. I see his hands move like compressing my experience of reality into a little box from which there is no escape.
Scene Two: Back on the Mat.
Enter KJ, legs crossed, butt on a cushion
Counting breaths, feeling heart beats. More thoughts:
Another Koan: “The National Teacher's Stone Lion.” The national teacher and the emperor of China were entering the palace grounds when the national teacher pointed to a stone lion and said, “Your majesty, would you please say a word of Zen, something profound, about this lion?” And the emperor said, “I can't say anything. Would you please say something?” And the national teacher said, “It’s my fault.”
The Koan's prologue says:
"Confined in a cage up against the wall, pressed against the barriers, if you linger in thought holding back your potential, you will remain mired in fear and frozen in inaction. If, on the other hand, you advance fearlessly and without hesitation, you manifest your power as a competent adept of the way, passing through entanglements and barriers without hindrance to time and season. A great peace is attained. How do you advance fearlessly and without hesitation?
So we enter the Koan. Noticing the sensation of tightness in the abdomen at the suggestion of the koan by the teacher. Where is that coming from? Feel it.
Day 3: Dharma Talk
The RT discusses his teacher's description of practice. Seeing habits and illusions.
Enter KJ, legs crossed butt on a cushion.
Endless steaming of habits and illusions. A narrative that continues to this day. A narrative that feels like a gap between me and these floors.
The Soundtrack: Rapture (Blondie); Cemetery Walk II (Umphrey's McGee)
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