1 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: On learning the way - Dogen's Gakudoyojinshu and Fukanzazengi
The challenge being that the thoughts "I'm trying to reverse light to return illumination" or "I'm trying to shed body and mind", etc., are obstacles to doing so. "It's purposeless" is an expedient means.
Comment by chintokkong at 22/01/2025 at 02:28 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The challenge being that the thoughts "I'm trying to reverse light to return illumination" or "I'm trying to shed body and mind", etc., are obstacles to doing so.
Yup, this happens because the practitioner isn’t focusing on what’s to be done/executed, instead allowing thoughts to drift on and on to such content. This is typical scatteredness.
The standard counter in meditation for this is concentration/collectedness. With concentrative power, the way can be done/executed. This is perhaps why Dogen in his Fukanzazengi said:
Dogen also said:
Therefore the instruction in Fukanzazengi after regulating bodily characteristics is:
What’s to be done is “to deliberate that which does not deliberate” – a huatou of Yaoshan’s koan. The practitioner is to concentrate on doing that.
.
There’s another style of meditation, sometimes known as *meditation without object*. There is no directed concentration/collectedness on a specific object, but rather the concentration is on all arising objects and their passing away, usually with certain themes of contemplation. Such meditation is not to be confused as purposeless.
There is purpose to such meditation and there are instructions on what's to be done.
Conceptually rationalising buddhist meditation as purposeless may provide short-term relief from stress for some people, but this temporary relief is not enlightenment. It’s basically an effect of maladaptive coping which would usually cause problems in the long run.