One True Teacher

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“I have never said to my disciples that I am a true teacher. From the beginning I have said that the zazen each of us practices is the only true teacher.”  Kosho Uchiyama

 

But what about the Buddha himself? Was he not a true teacher in Uchiyama’s estimation? No doubt some would call it sacrilege to answer in the negative. There exists a story in which the Buddha’s entire sermon consists of him holding up a flower. One of his disciples, Mahakasyapa, is the only one who “gets it” – conveying his understanding with a smile. Many Buddhists believe that something passed from the Buddha to Mahakasyapa in that moment. But might it be that Mahakasyapa merely conveyed to the Buddha that his own zazen (seated meditation) had taught him what the Buddha had already realized? Perhaps the Buddha merely led Mahakasyapa to his own true teacher – his zazen – and Mahakasyapa proved to be a student worthy of its teaching.

 


Let’s get our heads out of the clouds for just a moment, though, and consider some very practical lessons that zazen can teach us:

 

  1. Zazen will tell you if you’re getting enough sleep. If you’re burning the candle at both ends, as soon as you stop long enough to practice zazen sleep will settle like a dark cloud upon your mind. Listen to it, and adjust your life accordingly.

  

  1. Zazen will tell you if your life is too busy. If so, you’ll likely be cutting short your practice periods, or skipping them altogether. You may even come to resent your zazen for infringing upon your “precious” time to get things done. Err on the side of trimming all traces of useless busyness from your life.

 

  1.  Zazen will teach you whether or not you’re giving it the attention it deserves. If your zazen results in nothing but a whirling mind from bell to bell, perhaps your meditations are too infrequent, or not quite long enough for you to settle in. Redouble your efforts so that you have time to settle into stillness.

 

But the teachings get deeper still:

 

  1. Your zazen can serve as your very own bullshit detector. Every Buddhist knows that we’re products of our conditioning – patterned ways of looking at ourselves and the world that are false, but perhaps comforting in the short term. If you get out of its way your zazen can show you how things really are. But beware! I first heard of zazen being a bullshit detector from a teacher who seemed to believe at least a little bit of his own!

 

  1. Speaking of seeing things as they really are: they never last for long. All that lives eventually dies. The enjoyable and insufferable alike all pass away. Impermanence is, in fact, one of the three marks of existence (along with it being unsatisfactory and devoid of inherent selfhood). Zazen has the potential to bring us face to face with our own impermanence in a way that we may have never experienced before. With a punch to the gut your zazen may well teach you that the life that you’re living isn’t worthy of the preciousness of your fleeting existence. Listen closely.

  

  1. When you come face to face with the precious and fleeting nature of your own existence, you’re only a breath away from realizing that the same is true for everyone and everything. Once we see this clearly, a wellspring of compassion opens up from deep inside of us. We’re in this together. What a miracle that we’re all here right now, creating this world of ours from moment to moment!

 

  1. And gratitude follows. As the walls tumble down between self and other, and we begin to really appreciate all that others do or have done for us, we can’t help but feel gratitude. And as we begin to really feel the struggles and painful experiences of others, we can’t help but feel gratitude for all that is good in our life.

  

  1. Every step we take along the Noble Eight-fold Path is seen more clearly, and actualized more authentically, because of our zazen. The path we walk informs our zazen, and zazen informs our path. Together they are purified. They are not separate.

 

So, as you settle into your zazen next time, please be open to the multitude of teachings that arise from moment to moment. There’s much to learn from your one true teacher -- many more than just the eight that I've pointed to today!

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References

 Uchiyama, K. (1993). Opening the hand of thought. (Tr. by Okumura, S. and Wright, T.) Published by the Penguin Group. 

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Stone in Stone by the author

 

Copyright 2020 by Mark Robert Frank

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