Practise without waiting for a result

Notice when you sit, study or work in order to arrive somewhere, and let the activity itself be the practice you are doing now.

Por qué funciona

Ishii’s essay says Dōgen takes the Nangaku–Eno dialogue, in which practice and realization “cannot be defiled,” to mean practice without anticipating realization. Once the present activity is a means to a later state, it is judged by whether it has yet produced that state, and attention spends itself on that check instead of on what is in front of you. Dōgen’s line, as Ishii quotes it, is that practice in realization happens in the moment of practice. The mechanism described here is an interpretation of the doctrine, and the attention claim is plausible rather than tested.

Cómo hacerlo

1. Before anything else, feel both feet on the floor and look slowly around the room.
2. At the start of a sit or a task, name in one word what you are hoping it will give you.
3. Set that word aside for the length of the activity, without arguing with it.
4. When you notice you are checking for a result, return to the posture, the sound, or the task in front of you.
5. Afterwards, note whether the activity felt different from how it felt when you were waiting for something from it.

Evidencia

The doctrine is from Dōgen’s Bendōwa and related writings as the Sōtōshū’s key-terms essay presents them. The practice of setting aside results is a reading of that doctrine. The attention-check mechanism is not tested in a study of this practice, and is only consistent with general work on attention in meditation. (anecdotal)

Lutz and colleagues review attention regulation in meditation generally, not this instruction. The doctrine itself is the tradition’s claim.

Fuentes

• Ishii, S. Shusho Itto (Oneness and equality of practice and realization). Basic Key Terms of Soto Zen Teaching. Sōtōshū, SOTOZEN.COM (PDF).
• Lutz, A., Slagter, H. A., Dunne, J. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(4).

Error común

Replacing the wish for a result with a new goal: “I must not want anything.” Dōgen’s point is not to suppress wanting, but to stop treating the present practice as a tool for something else.