Sutras Won't Save You (Dok Sahn's Dilemma)

There was this famous sutra master in China named Dok Sahn who used to get off on traveling from temple to temple so he could test the resident monks in their knowledge of various Buddhist texts, particularly the Diamond Sutra.

Eventually he learned of a Zen temple in the southern region where the monks did nothing all day but just sleep, eat, work and sit facing a wall in meditation for hours at a time.  They did no formal sutra study but rumor had it that many if not most of these monks attained enlightenment doing nothing but this.

Dok Sahn thought this was poppycock because if they didn’t understand the Buddha’s teaching, how could they possibly awaken? So he decided to travel to this temple and really wake these monks up by teaching them everything he knew about Buddhism and the Diamond Sutra in particular.

On the way there he stopped at a small teahouse for some food and drink and was immediately greeted by the owner - an elderly Buddhist laywoman who practiced with great effort and great sincerity each and every day.

“It’s an honor to meet you great Sutra Master Dok Sahn! Where are you going?”

“I’m going to the local temple to teach those monks a thing or two about the Diamond Sutra so they can truly awaken! I hear that all they do all day is sleep, eat, and sit facing a wall and they will never truly wake up unless they hear the the teachings I am about to offer them!”

“That’s wonderful,” she said, “ you really are quite the expert and you do understand the Buddha’s teachings very well...so let me ask you a question. Oh, and if you answer this question correctly I will give you your lunch for free!”

“How dare you try to test the greatest Sutra Master around!,” Dok Sahn replied, “Go ahead, ask me anything and I’m sure I will be able to answer you!”

“In the Diamond Sutra it says, 'it is impossible to keep past mind, impossible to hold onto present mind, and impossible to grasp future mind.' So, Dak Sahn, with what mind will you eat lunch?”

Dok Sahn was uncharacteristically silent for a moment because he could not think of a good answer. His mind raced around, frantically searching for the right answer to the old woman’s simple question. He could think of no chapter of the Diamond Sutra that could answer the woman’s perplexing question. Embarrassed, he covered his face with his hands and and turned away.

The old woman looked at him and said, “You claim to know the Diamond Sutra inside out yet you can’t answer my simple, real-world question! If you can’t answer me, how on earth do you think you’ll be able to teach anything to the monks in that temple?”

“How,” Dok Sahn asked, “did you acquire such a profound understanding of this sutra?”

The woman replied, “I didn’t acquire anything from anyone. Everyone already has this profound understanding within them, if only they just look." 

What this Means

1. All people and experiences are constantly teaching us, if only we just notice and keep an open mind.

2. A smart brain is useless if your heart is foolish.

3. Knowing techniques, steps, theories and philosophies will not help anyone. Being able to incorporate these teachings into our everyday lives is what this practice is all about. 

We all have to find a way to allow the dharma to fully and seamlessly incorporate itself into our daily experience and not view it as a stale set of teachings we can cling to and quote whenever we feel like we’re floundering.  Otherwise Buddhism nothing but a good idea. 

The Trouble with Liking and Disliking

From the Sakkapanha Sutta:

2.2 Sakka asked, ‘What gives rise to jealousy and avarice? What is their origin, how are they born, how do they arise? Owing to the presence of what do they arose, owing to the absence of what do they arise?’

The Buddha replied, ‘Jealousy and avarice take rise from like and dislike. This is their origin, this is how they are born, how they arose. When these are present, they arise; when these are absent, they do not arise.’

It feels like we never have enough and we’re always just a hair’s breath away from being truly happy. If we had a better job or more money or more love or more friends or less weight or a better apartment, we could finally be content. 

Yet even when we get what we so desperately want, ultimately it never proves to be satisfying because contentment is not something that comes from the outside in. So we end up spending our lives in a constant state of grabbing onto what we find pleasurable and pushing away what we consider undesirable. 

What arises out of our predisposition to desire and attach to things is a tendency to judge every aspect of our experience as good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. This process of constantly assessing whatever is in front of us obscures the very nature of this life we are living. This “like/dislike mind” we bring to everything leaves us with a facsimile of a life rather than a genuine one. 

Meditation practice is a wonderful training ground that can help us transcend the judging mind that we bring to everything. When we sit, we notice a vast array of thoughts and physical sensations that come and go like the wind. The simple process of being still and following our breath gives us an up close look at the very nature of life itself--a dynamic situation that’s constantly changing, changing, changing. What we may deem as “good” may eventually turn to “bad.” What seems on the surface to be undesirable can end up being the best thing that ever happened to us.

By understanding that nothing is inherently good or bad, desirable or undesirable, pleasant or unpleasant, we can free ourselves from the habit of labeling every moment as positive or negative. The labels we assign to every experience are merely the product of our inner conditioning and biases based on habitual thinking and rigid concepts.

When we allow ourselves to see things as they truly are without being attached to whether we consider them to be pleasing or displeasing to us, we can get off the samsaric roller coaster ride  of temporary pains and pleasures and settle into our lives with clarity and ease.

Three Essential Components of Zen Practice

When we sit in meditation, having a firm tripod of support enables us to be upright and practice for longer periods of time. The posture inspires us to sit firmly on our seat with our buttocks planted firmly on the chair or cushion, and our knees or feet planted solidly on the floor before us. Doing this keeps us upright and enables us to balance ourselves and this has a balancing effect on the rest of our lives.

In much the same way, there are three essential aspects of practice that was taught rather brilliantly by Ven. Thich Thien-An in his book Zen Philosophy, Zen Practice. Ven. Thich Thien-An was a Vietnamese Zen monk and scholar and the founder of the Buddhist Studies Institute of Los Angeles which was recently taken over by the Five Mountain Zen Order, the order in which I ordained.

The Three Essentials of Zen Practice are:

1. Great Faith. Given the fact that Buddhism emphasizes direct experience over lofty sounding words like “faith”, this one might sound a bit dubious. But even a small degree of faith really is necessary when we first embark upon this path. What we need to have faith in from the start is that we all possess a clear, compassionate, awakened, and essentially good nature. We all have the latent capacity to be fully awake yet we don’t it because we are so easily fooled by outer appearances and limiting concepts about who and what we are. All beings have a true nature they can rely on to give space to anything and everything that comes their way in life. 

2. Great Doubt. Unlike some other spiritual traditions, Buddhism is scientific in the sense that practitioners are asked to bring a healthy dose of skepticism to the dharma before diving in completely. If everyone has this Buddha Nature or True Nature, then where and what the hell is it... really? Any good teacher will tell you not to take her word for it, but to investigate this for yourself and over time discover whether or not it rings true. Having a great, strong questioning mind is the perfect springboard for great, strong enlightenment and peace of mind. 

3. Great Determination. Once we’ve moved from having faith in our True Nature and then seeking to verify it’s existence, we need to commit to a path that helps ensure we get closer and closer to who we really are, and in so doing we can be better equipped to help others. This kind of determination requires that we not be stuck on instant results and that we make a practice out of our whole lives, whether we are formally meditating or not. What fuels this determination most effectively is having a deep and sincere motivation of love without regard for ourselves and what we might gain from practice. When our motivation is to be of service to others, right action comes naturally and spontaneously.