People have been asking me if I would record or publish the talks from this upcoming sesshin. I don’t know if I can do that — I’m really busy during sesshin. But I can and did do something: I’ve written up the sesshin introductory remarks and posted them here. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a talk on Thursday night; there will be, and it will be a little different from this one.
Be still in your beingness. Then even it will disappear and you will merge in Truth. All that needs to be done is to find out your real source and take up headquarters there.
I ended my last talk with a paraphrased-quote from Nisargadatta, "Make your headquarters in the absolute." I think that the above quote is better.
I think this is a great statement of the Zen life, but bringing this statement up has thrown me into questioning:
How to say this in a way that is accessible to ordinary westerners living ordinary lives?
How to say this in a way that is accessible as practice every moment, no matter what state your mind is in?
How to say this in a way that is not incomplete or misleading?
Alright, so here is the answer, at least for now.
Although the true home of Zen is not comprehensible to the ordinary thinking mind, its location is. The direction where this home lies, can be seen, all the time, from any state in the ordinary thinking mind:
From ordinary thinking mind, the true home of Zen is best described as "no-story mind".
There is another good term: "don’t-know mind". The ordinary thinking mind can sort-of see the direction of that. Next might be "emptiness", but it starts to go downhill rapidly from there. For example, "unborn mind" is already over the edge.
"No-story mind" is the best. It is the best, because ordinary thinking mind can grasp that ordinary thinking mind is "story mind", the great generator of stories. If it weren’t for your story mind, why would you ever go to the movies and spend 190 minutes staring at flickering light on a screen?
It is a little harder to grasp that this same story mind is active (very active) in our ordinary life, and that this is the home we have made for ourselves. We live our lives in this story mind. We live our lives in a great story of a world of things and people, of (often dramatic) events, of a past, present and future. And, at the center of my story, in the starring role, is me.
Abres los ojos.
Your true home is where there is no story.
Everything — your body, your job, your family, your mother, your father, your Zen practice, the world, the universe and you, past, present and future — lives in this story. Everything you like and don’t like lives in this story. Your problems live in this story.
Zen practice is all about turning away from this story.
You might ask: how can I live without this story?
There are two answers:
You can’t. That is a fundamental point of Zen practice: no self. But your life will go on.
Nisargadatta said (to paraphrase in my terms here): make your headquarters outside of the story. He didn’t say to go there and not come back. You still live in the story, as necessary; it is just not your headquarters.
For some time now, I’ve been thinking that sesshin (Zen retreats) are pretty-much required for Zen practice. Sitting still in silence, it becomes easier and easier to see this story, to get some distance from it, and to get some sense of what it is like to live with no story.
Some of the most wonderful moments I recall in sesshin are working in the kitchen, or on the dish crew, and watching this wonderful functioning. Can you live without the story? Yes! This is the proof, here in sesshin. You can live without the story, and it is wonderful. Have you experienced this too?
Living without the story is not natural for human beings. I believe you have to use such tools as sesshin over and over and over to get some traction in the place of no story.
The place of no story does not look appealing to the ordinary thinking mind. It may be conceived of as a void, or even as death, but that is because ordinary thinking mind is very limited. This limited point-of-view is not true. No-story mind is unbelievably rich and wonderful. As you get more and more exposure to it, you begin to develop a taste for it.
Sesshin is the precious precious opportunity to turn away and to begin to recognize this no-story mind. Take advantage of this opportunity to find your true home, and to learn to abide there. A life lived like this is wonderful. It really is.
Sam Gabriel, San Diego, CA
http://home.roadrunner.com/~clothespin
sam_gabriel@yahoo.com