Tesshin Roshi opened his talk this week by asking a question – How can you attain a thing without pursuing it. This is an important question in our Zen practice. Why do we show up for Zazen, period after period. What are we looking to accomplish? Is it enlightenment? Roshi would say if you seek enlightenment, you will never find it. However, if we are not seeking anything, then why even show up? Perhaps the concept of “Attainment” is what is distracting us!
Roshi next provided the group with some concrete examples of how this “no pursuit no attainment” works. He mentioned a recent movie titled “13 Lives” about 12 Thai children and their soccer coach trapped in a flooded cave tunnel during 2018. The location where the children were trapped was so remote it took seven hours of highly dangerous cave scuba diving just to reach them. After a week of planning, the first divers set off to locate the children. Basically, this was a mission to recover bodies as everyone assumed the children were already dead. When the divers finally arrived in the completely dark cavern, they miraculously found everyone alive and calm. How could this be? Here Roshi paused and noted that all of the children were brought up with a strong mediation practice. The children were able to remain calm, conserve energy and oxygen and most importantly, not panic. This last part is really most important. Roshi asked us to think about our own situation. How many times do we take a bad situation and make it so much worse by adding more and more negative thoughts. How many times, in the pursuit of some attainment, we clutter the mind with recollections of all of our shortcomings and why we will never get anywhere. Roshi asked us to consider the possibility of letting all those negative thoughts go and simply live the situation moment by moment. We saw the children practicing this, can we?
Roshi provide another example by reading an email he received from a student who practiced with him in Japan in the 1990’s. This student contracted a serous case of Covid-19 early in the pandemic. He described a 96-hour period where if his blood oxygen dipped below a certain level, he would be sure to die. What do you do in this situation? Many people would panic, which doctors tell us, is the worst thing to do. This student was able to rely on his meditation training to slow down and give his body a chance to heal. Simply clear out all the worries and allow the breath to do its thing. The student wanted to live, of course, but he stopped thinking of every possible bad outcome and simply existed moment to moment.
Tesshin Roshi wrapped up by noting that Zen never promotes itself. Zen does not strive to gain converts or adherents because we understand that everything is Zen already. Students on the path make a vow to help everyone because we are all the same ‘thing.’ However, we do this not by desiring or striving – we do this by understanding reality and manifesting that understanding in all directions. Roshi challenged us to leave desires and attainments behind and realize them for the attachments they are. This does not mean do nothing, it just means getting out of our own way and simply get on with what must be done.