Suzuki Roshi's Zen 4. True Zazen

Zazen is the most important thing in our practice, and true zazen is our whole life. Suzuki-Roshi definitely emphasized zazen practice, physically taking our posture on the cushion, and all of his disciples who teach Dharma emphasize this point powerfully. In this he followed Dogen's lead. Dogen wrote in Zammai o Zammai: "Sitting in the meditation posture vivifies a forthright body, a forthright mind, a forthright body mind, a forthright buddha ancestor, a forthright practice enlightenment, a forthright top of the head, and a forthright life stream. When you sit in the meditation posture the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of a human being are made immediately vivid in the King of Samadhis. The World-Honored One always sat in this meditation posture, and all his disciples correctly transmitted it. The World-Honored One taught humans and devas how to sit in this meditation posture. It is the mind seal correctly transmitted by the Seven Original Buddhas." Shakyamuni Buddha sat in this meditation posture under the bodhi tree for fifty small eons, sixty great eons, or innumerable unclassifiable eons. Perhaps he sat for three weeks, or perhaps only for some hours. In any case the Buddha's sitting is the turning of the wondrous Wheel of Dharma; in it is contained his lifetime guidance. Nothing is lacking. The yellow scrolls, and red rolls of the sutras are all here. In this moment of sitting Buddha sees Buddha; all beings attain buddhahood. So our practice is very simple, embarrassingly simple. It is just to sit in this way, up straight, and breathing, and paying attention to our life. There is nothing more to it than that, and yet everything is contained in this one practice. In a way, this is a rather odd idea. We think of truth or religion or spirituality as something broad and mysterious, and certainly non physical, yet Suzuki Roshi taught us that truth is just to sit down in this way, in this particular way. So I find this teaching actually quite troublesome, because it can sound as if people who can't twist their legs up in pretzels and sit still can't practice Zen. And this is a strange idea, don't you think, to have a religion that a sick person or an old person or a disabled person cannot practice? Something about this does not sound right. Once Suzuki Roshi scolded someone who had a superior attitude because he woke up early every morning to do zazen while he wife remained in bed. He told him, "If you think that you are getting up to do zazen and your wife is sleeping and not doing zazen, then you do not really understand our zazen." True zazen is not limited to a particular posture or state of mind. True zazen is ultimate reality itself, and ultimate reality is the actual essence of every moment of our lives. To sit faithfully is to realize this point. So when we sit we know that all beings are sitting with us. And when we get up from the cushion we know that sitting continues. So Suzuki Roshi's simple idea of zazen, like Dogen's idea of zazen, is very hard for us to grasp --maybe it is ungraspable. We have to practice particularly, specifically, with this actual body, with our legs and arms and lungs and heart, our own body, not just our mind, with all its detail. and yet in doing that we have to appreciate that this specific body, in its detail, is not just our body. it is the whole universe. So we actually do have to sit zazen. I do not think there is much Zen practice if we do not do zazen. But we have to understand also that zazen is also not actually zazen. It is just life. Our practice is life.