A Talk to My AT Training School

This is a talk that I just gave at my AT Training Course.

I want to talk about what the AT teacher can offer Zen students.

As a preface I want to be clear: I am not a Zen teacher, nor am I particularly well read.  All I have is about 30 yrs of tepid experience in Zen practice.  I have opinions instead of credentials.

Here are some reasons for the AT teacher to know something about Zen:
1.  To help understand the Zen students questions: They may use words or concepts that are technical or foreign.
2.  To help you market AT practice to Zen students.
3.  To help the Zen students learn more about Zen practice.
4.  To learn some concepts that can be used to teach the the AT.
5.  To learn a bit about the beliefs that a Zen student might have.
I also want to suggest that Zen is something that the AT teachers can recommend to their students

First, background:
Buddha is said to have lived about 500BC.  Zen is a sect of Buddhism.  There are many other sects of Buddhism. .  Buddhism started in India, but when it migrated to China where Zen was developed.     From there, Zen spread throughout Asia and took on the flavors of each country.  Most Zen today is here by way of Japan.

I can not give you even a brief introduction to Buddhism, I just want to mention three things: the four noble truths, the reliance on experience, and the fundamental nature of enlightenment.
 I think of Buddha more as a doctor than a spiritual figure.
 
-4 Noble truths: 1.  Life is suffering: but this is a poor translation.  A better translation is that there is a gnawing sense of dissatisfaction with life.  2. There is a reason for this: attachment to transient things, inc the attachment to the notion of an abiding, separate self.  3.  there is relief from suffering: that is the forsaking of cravings and aversions.  It is perfectly reasonable to substitute forsaking ‘end-gaining’.  Now this is not ending likes and dislikes;as long as we're human we will have desires and aversion - it’s the obsessiveness or attachment that is the problem)  4.  There is a path to the cessation of suffering which in Zen is based on mindfulness.

-Next, Buddha was quite clear that we should not rely on what is written, what is tradition, what the wise tell us.  We should rely instead on our direct experience with reality.

-Buddha's first teaching is that he along with everyone else is enlightened.  Fundamentally there is nothing that needs to be added or changed.   We do not realize this perfection because it is covered with conditioning. Hence, enlightenment, or the cessation of suffering, is not something extra to be gained.  Zen is the most direct expression of this realization.

Zen is about setting aside cravings and aversions.  Zen emphasizes meditation.
 
There are two forms of meditation in Zen.  The first is Koan studies: continuously and intensively studying incomprehensible questions, such as  “what is the sound of one hand clapping?”.  This is not the dominant form of zen meditation so I won’t go into it.

Most of your Zen student on the west coast will be doing a practice called Shikantaza or ‘just sitting’.  Strictly speaking it is not meditation.  Meditation is fixing the mind's attention on some object.  But in Shikantaza, trying to fix the mind on something is extra.   This is the purest, simplest form of Buddhist practice: if you are enlightened already you just need to sit without adding anything extra.
Just sitting results in a blend of concentration and expansive awareness.  It is taught: not flabby or tense.
 ‘Just sitting’ is not learning meditation - there is no improvement.  How could you get better at just sitting?   Shikantaza is appreciating the mind just as it is.  Just sitting.  Bare attention.  It has been called “beginners mind”.  

Going back to my original definition of Buddhism:  This ‘just sitting’ is experienced based: direct experience of sitting.  It is the forsaking of conditioning moment after moment.  It is allowing the desires and aversions to fall away again and again.  If you want to get better at it you will want to get better at creatively resolving desires and aversions.   It is not about what you gain, it is about what you give up.  Finally, if we are all enlightened just as we are there is no reason to actually “do” anything.  So sitting is not based on doing, it is intention based.  The intention is to just sit.

In ‘just sitting’ there is also a great emphasis on being upright, eyes open, preferably cross legged with the hands held in a very particular way.  In Yoga it is known as the Full Lotus Posture.  Parenthetically, the aim of yoga, I am told, is to be able to sit comfortably like this for long periods.

What does the AT teacher have to offer Zen students?:

1.  help with sitting:
-You can help the student sit with less pain
-You can help the zen student develop a dialogue with the body: a new tool to creatively resolve cravings and aversions.
-Help understand the concept of non-doing.
-Help the students learn about the unreliability of sensory information.
2.  help with bringing their  Zen practice into everyday life

You can help the Zen student sit with less pain.  As I said earlier, there is great emphasis placed on posture.  And yes, Zen students do call it ‘posture’ and they emphasize “not moving” during sitting.   Woefully, little attention is given to teaching how to physically sit.  Initial instructions are given, and very infrequently teachers with do brief postural adjustments during periods of zazen.  But basically how-to-sit is left up to each individual.  
Instructions for shikantaza is based on the teachings of a 16th century zen master,  Dogen, in his writing called the Shobogenzo.   This brief writing is highly regarded and frequently used as a talking point in lectures.  Students often recite it.  It is very interesting that he talks quite a lot about posture in this writing, yet the portion regarding the posture is NEVER discussed in talks.
So there is minimal instructions on how to sit, yet the students are expected to take a cross legged position - which is distinctly foreign to chair accustomed Americans - and not move for 30 minutes or longer.  That hurts.    So sit in pain is common.

The AT teacher can help the Zen Student sit more comfortably in the same way musicians and surgeons are helped.   All three hold static, non neutral postures which produce pain and disability as the result of inefficient patterns of use.

As I mentioned, Zen takes the flavor of its host country.   Japanese zen is extremely physical and seems to us brutal.  American Zen students - perhaps because they are generally white, middle class, and colored with feminist sensibilities - relate to sitting as a mental or emotional practice.  
 Although efforts were made to import the Japanese physical approach to sitting it was abandoned as Zen became more feminized and inclusive.  Now, in American Zen we are left with the occasional admonition to:  “Sit upright!”  “Correct your posture!”  “Tuck in your chin!”  Unfortunately, this inevitably creates even more tension, bad habits and no improvement in use.    There is now a great void in American Zen: how do we physically sit zazen?
  Zen Student has three spheres to in which to investigate sitting:
-Mind approach: using some amount of effort to bring the attention back
-Emotional approach: which might include fully experiencing the emotions surrounding the distraction.
-Physical approach: AT is the path to correct sitting.  AT is the Yoga of Zen.  The AT is How to Physically Sit.    Now, along with creatively engaging the mind and emotional spheres the zen student now has a whole new arena to play in. The AT is a tool to creatively resolve clinging and aversions. The AT is a huge addition to the East's premier contribution to humanity.

NON DOING:  I mentioned earlier the Buddha said that we are all already enlightened and that we just have to set aside the cravings and aversions to see it.  Hence, if we stop doing the wrong thing then the right thing will do itself: the enlightened mind will come forward and express itself.  There are very few activities that are explicitly based on non-doing, Zen and the AT are the only two I know of.  It takes some maturity for the Zen student to understand sitting as non-doing.  Americans DO things and non-doing is a foreign concept.  And pain while sitting is a big stimulus to do something.  Unfortunately, in my opinion, Zen teacher coddle their students:  Often students are given ‘training wheels’.  Instead of supporting the practice of just sitting, teacher suggest the students bring your attention back to their breathing 0r even suggest counting the exhalations.  But the AT teacher can teach them about non-doing and show them the benefits: Alexander used the terms ‘wishing’ and ‘letting’ and the Zen students should be very interested in these terms.  You can teach them both AT and Zen at the same time.

Unreliable sensory appreciation.  When sitting for long hours Zen students encounter much sensory input and we interpret it and create meaning based on these sensations.  If we do not questioning our interpretations and instead act on these interpretations we can develop bad habits quite quickly.   This is actually what brought me to the AT.  I would guess Zen student would be more open to hearing about unreliable sensory information than most people.
As I said, being upright is highly valued.  But if Zen students can not base attempts to sit upright on sensory information, what can guide us to sit upright?  Personally I found this really scary to face.  You can save them by teaching the students about ‘direction’.  The Zen student knows all about inhibition.  In fact, sitting is nothing but pure inhibition of end-gaining.  But they have have not heard of the use direction.  It is very sad, but you can help.  

Bringing Zen practice to everyday life.

I’ve talked about Zen as if it is all about sitting.  However Buddhism changes at if enters every country.  The US is changing zen is several ways. I want to talk about the movement called “engaged buddhism”.

The East's great contribution is personal or spiritual liberation.  The East has shown how the individual can find relief from suffering.  But the East lacks a concept that social and political structures can be changed.  The West, on the other hand, since ancient Greek time, is characterized by change to social and political structures.  However, because we are not good at personal transformation, our new leaders and structures are just as mired in greed, hate, and delusion as the old ones.  So it is the wish of engaged Buddhists to combine their efforts to change social and political structures, with their enlightened awareness and compassion that naturally springs forth from their practice.

As opposed to many Buddhists, Zen Buddhist have a unique perspective.  There is an immediacy to Zen practice.  It is a simple direct focus on what one is doing in this present moment.  The Zen student is interested in what she is doing right now to make the world a better place.    Most older Zen students know that a strong sitting practice is ultimately not important if one continues to react in habitual ways:  small minded, self centered, selfish, impulsive, prejudicial, habitual, shortened, contracted, egotistical.    When practitioners leave their supportive community and retreats they are often struck by how their responses to stimuli are not in accord with their fundamental intention.

The tools Zen students have to act on their fundamental intention outside the meditation hall are quite limited.   Students might be told to  “Think of the one who is not busy”.  Or they will adopt a slow deliberate pace of activity.  Or they might try to adopt a simpler lifestyle to avoid derailing stimuli.   Or do even more meditation.

However, the lack of tools that are given to Zen Students is really a great shortcoming in Zen, especially given the emphasis that American Zen has placed on social activism.  In essence, they have limited tools to interrupt the manifestation of “small mind”.
 
 Preempting the startle reflex by persistently allowing the neck be free prevents the distraction that are the bane of the zen students daily life.  The tools you can give them, inhibition and direction, are a priceless jewel for the Zen student who hopes to bring their practice to their daily life.

The AT teacher also open up another front on inhibition.   Zen student are very in-tune with the quality of their mind.   Once a Zen student is done with meditation she is left with a quieter, more attentive mind.  When she becomes distracted she will note the discordance between how a quiet expansive mind feels and her increasing contracted agitated mind,  and that discord will prompt her to return to mindfulness.  

In contrast, after a lesson an AT student will have have an overall body perception of length, width, and poise.  Later, she will be sensitive to the physical discordance between how she feels after a lesson and how she feels going into a stressful situation.  So she will stop, inhibit end gaining, and employ direction as she goes forward.  If we separate the self into physical and mental, the Zen student approaches a practice with her mind and the AT student approaches practice with her body.   They are complementary.
Because they are complementary techniques, I think that the AT teacher can recommend Zen practice to some students.

In conclusion, the AT teacher can offer quite a bit to the zen student.  The AT teacher:
- can show them how to sit with less physical pain.
- can give the zen student a new tool to creatively resolve cravings and aversions
- can help the Zen student understand the nature and power of non-doing.
- and can help her come to a realization of unreliable sensory appreciation.
AND in addition to help with sitting, the AT teacher can show the zen student how to inhibit the manifestation of a contracted, habit driven mind.  The AT can help them develop a kinesthetic sense when they are beginning to stray from their fundamental intention and the tools to help them remain anchored in an appreciation of the present moment.

Thank you for listening to me.