I'm a thought-loving fool
"If you wish to know the essential points of my teaching, you should free yourself from all thoughts, good ones as well as bad; then your mind will be in a state of purity, calm and serene all the time, and its usefulness as manifold as the grains of sand in the Ganges."
This section from The Sutra of Hui-neng rankles me just a bit. While I understand that moving beyond thought may bring insight into the nature of mind and emptiness, is this not implicitly stating an aversion to thought? If I "free [myself] from all thoughts, then [my] mind will be in a state of purity?" Does that translate to: Thinking, by its very nature, is impure? Hmm.
I like my thoughts. My head is (FINALLY!) a fun place to be. I am relishing that now. I have no desire to free myself of my thoughts. There are moments when I am free of thoughts; I think it's quite important to be able to rest in not thinking. But to strive for remaining free of thoughts reeks of aversion to me. Perhaps one day I will be content to be largely free of thought unless engaged with an other. Perhaps that will happen without striving. For now, I am attached to thinking. And I like it that way.
Update: I kept reading the sutra, and, so like Zen, I found the mirror:
"The dharma is nondual, and so is the mind. The path is pure and above all forms. I warn you not to use those exercises for meditation on quietude or for keeping the mind a blank. The mind is pure by nature, so there is nothing for us to crave for or give up. Do your best, each of you, and go wherever circumstances lead."
That's better; in a nondual sense, of course. 8P
This section from The Sutra of Hui-neng rankles me just a bit. While I understand that moving beyond thought may bring insight into the nature of mind and emptiness, is this not implicitly stating an aversion to thought? If I "free [myself] from all thoughts, then [my] mind will be in a state of purity?" Does that translate to: Thinking, by its very nature, is impure? Hmm.
I like my thoughts. My head is (FINALLY!) a fun place to be. I am relishing that now. I have no desire to free myself of my thoughts. There are moments when I am free of thoughts; I think it's quite important to be able to rest in not thinking. But to strive for remaining free of thoughts reeks of aversion to me. Perhaps one day I will be content to be largely free of thought unless engaged with an other. Perhaps that will happen without striving. For now, I am attached to thinking. And I like it that way.
Update: I kept reading the sutra, and, so like Zen, I found the mirror:
"The dharma is nondual, and so is the mind. The path is pure and above all forms. I warn you not to use those exercises for meditation on quietude or for keeping the mind a blank. The mind is pure by nature, so there is nothing for us to crave for or give up. Do your best, each of you, and go wherever circumstances lead."
That's better; in a nondual sense, of course. 8P
I have this quote highlighted in my copy of Aitken's "Taking the Path of Zen":
"As Yasutani Roshi used to point out, there are people who have done zazen for several years who think that their object is to quiet all thoughts. It is possible to achieve this condition, but hardly desirable. Our creativity would also be quieted, and where would realization come from? We would become zombies, which is certainly not our object. Our object is to become "one," to become "two," and so on through our breath counting sequence."
Brad Warner happened to say something similar to this in his interview at Buddhist Geeks this week.
I find the whole matter kind of confusing, myself, since meditating does seem to quiet the mind, and since meditation seems to be kind of practice for being more mindful all the time. So is mindfulness thoughful, or thoughtless? Maybe it's possible to think more mindfully?
I don't have any answer -- I'm just writing to say I've been pondering the same thing.
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Hey Chris,
Yep, this Zen lens keeps flipping from convex to concave; I think that's part of the point, though. I just posted an update to this entry before I saw your comment. I haven't listened to the BG podcast with Brad yet, but now I'm putting it on my agenda.
My thoughts: Meditation, or zazen, really, seems to be mostly about witnessing whatever arises in consciousness, whether it's a thought, an emotion, a sensation or a perception. It's about noticing everything, instead of just "mindlessly" stumbling through our lives, not looking at that which arises and, perhaps, questioning the basis of it. This awareness starts on the cushion but hopefully moves into every aspect of our lives. Conscious awareness is the name of the Buddhist game. Then there's moving beyond that; I don't have much to say on that at this point because I'm still relatively new at dedicated practice.
Thanks for your comment.
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