This essay is about the pervasive ignorance about them. It's very, very sad that such a huge part of our practice is, at best unexamined and underutilized. This post is about how the Forms are commonly understood, what the Forms could be, and how the AT can inform the practicing of the Forms. I love the Zen Forms. It is heart breaking to see how poorly understood - how abused - they are.
The Forms are a vast heterogeneous group of suggestions describing everything from daily schedules to the knots uses in our robes. From how to hold your eating bowls to how to walk during breaks. How loud to speak to how to cut vegetables. They can be ancient like what kind of knots to make in ones robe or more modern like silencing your cell phone during sitting. Some are for monastic settings and some are for community centers. Some have real impact of the quality of practice, like how to hold the hands during zazen and some seem quite arbitrary like what foot to use crossing a threshold. They are an odd collection.
You can use the Forms to do quite a bit. For example:
It can make you feel like a good Zen student once you think you have mastered them.
It can make you feel like a crummy student if you fail, repeatedly.
It can make you feel like one of the cool people in the Sangha, as opposed to those who are clueless, inconsiderate, and lacking in commitment as demonstrated by their non adherence to the Form.
Success in the Forms can elevate you the Repository of the Treasured Heart of The Practice (OK, I made that up).
It can be your job. Or your role in the world.
We can be use Forms to communication our shortcoming: the gap between our intention (following the Forms) and what we are actually doing revels quite a bit about ourselves to our teachers and fellow students.
They help us be less self concerned: 'Get up with the wakeup bell' helps us be less concerned with what we want or don't want.
They make us feel part of a group: we are supporting the group by employing the Forms and the group is supporting us.
You and your community can embody beauty through the practice of the Forms. 'Beauty' is a perceived quality that resonate with your fundamental perfection.
Zen forms are what you want them to be. So, what do you want out of your Sangha, your practice and the Forms? Is Zen your job and practicing the Forms your occupation? Is it an identity for you? A way to define "we" and "them"? A litmus test to tell who is part of your sangha and who is not? Are they something to get better at, something step by step to master? Is it an opportunity for you to teach those who are ignorant? Do you want the Forms to bring some order to your chaotic personal life? An anchor of meaning in an uncaring universe? Do you want them to be a convenience so that we don't have to think about how to do something? Are the Forms something that need cherishing and protecting? A religious icon? Are they here to help create a religious institution? In a monastic community, are they a way to communicate with each other: A way to let everyone know, "I'm doing well today" or "Today I'm a bit off, I'm not doing well". Whew, have I just scratch the surface?
Is there a fundamental use of the forms? Some people think that forms are here to extend our awareness. But I think this is a superficial understanding. Sure if we spend long hours trying to count our breaths we will need some antidote to this navel gazing. But I reject the notion that some antidote is needed to the practice of shikantaza. Do we really need to be 'aware' 10 times a day or 10,000 times a day. Is that really what Zen practice is about? Hey! The world is full of suffering!!! Maybe I'm too practical or maybe I'm stupid, or maybe I'm both, but I do not think that Zen practice is about being more 'aware'.
I beg you to consider Zen using the Forms as something else.
In you heart of hearts, what do you want out of your Zen practice? It's worth considering, because once you know what you want then you can use the Forms to further your goal.
And out of respect for our founders, what did the Ancestors want out us? In their heart of hearts, in one word, what do they that want for you and me?
Oh no. I seems I've written myself into a dark personal corner, and I'm sure none of you want to be here with me...
Ok, lets start over and try to be more practical. As long as I'm alive, I'll be doing stuff. Once I'm dead I won't be doing anything. This insight is from the Zen teacher Norman Fisher. Pretty basic, but I think it's important. And the stuff I do involves moving. Living things are alway moving, even while appearing nearly still. Dead thing are still. Living things can look pretty still, but actually they are always moving and doing something. But lets look at how I do this something. For me, the next thing I do might be done out of habit, not at all considered, done while half awake and preoccupied with what I want or where I want to be. But it does not have to be this way. I do not want it to be this way for me or for you either.
Thank goodness we actually have a choice in what to do in the next moment. But to have an alternative to this habitual, preoccupied, half awake way of acting we must have some commitment to act in a different way. We have to care about how we do this thing. Zen Forms are commitments, nothing more or less. Because there are lots and lots of 'doing' in our life, we need lots and lots of commitments or Forms. But it's OK to start out with one or two.
Might Zen Forms have any features?
One feature is Zen is that there are no limits. None of the many aspects of Zen have limits. Is our sitting limited to standing or lying down? Or take the vows: is the vow to save all beings just limited to your friends? Or just to those you think deserved to be saved? Or just humans? Or just those living now? Or all beings in the 10 directions? What about you toothbrush? Can you save your toothbrush?
How about the precepts? Where are the limits? Take "Do Not Kill". 'Not killing' is not limited to Not Killing you neighbor, or animals, or plants. It's not even limited to not killing thoughts or desires or aversions.
So what is special about the forms? Why should we assume there are limits to the forms? If we save a little old lady from getting run over, or if we manage to not killer the mo fo who cut us off in traffic, can we says that we have mastered 'saving' and 'not killing'?
Are we ever done with them? Do we graduate? Do we get a sabbatical from 'not killing'. Is there annual leave, spare time, retire at 65? Of course not.
So why should there be any limits to "Walk quietly"? What is your commitment to "walking quietly". Does it mean "quiet enough so that when I walk in the zendo I don't wake up my betters?" Or is it limited to throwing our whole self into each moment of walking so as not disturb one molecule of air? Is walking quietly limited to walking or does "walking quietly" mean not disturbing even one molecule of air even with not waking? Once you can do that, can you go beyond walking quietly and not walking quietly? Have you ever seen an old Zen student wildly abandon a form? It is a bizarre shocking event. Is that freedom?
Another feature of Zen is that its practice is not a step by step process. It's to be done fully, by each of us,, without reserve in this present moment. Sure, when you just start out with "walking quietly" your walking will sound different than one who has devoted most of her life to "walking quietly". But that does not mean her practice is better than yours. In fact, she might be day dreaming while walking. You can train a monkey to walk quietly. Does the monkey have good practice? Of course not, he's a monkey! If you want to improve "walking quietly" you improve by clarifying your intention and practicing persistently. Getting better at "walking quietly" has nothing at all to do with walking quietly! Zen forms is not a commitment to do anything! There are no mistakes in the practice of the Forms!
Finally, I want to propose that the reason we make the commitment is to be free. Have you made a commitment to 'walk quietly' to walk quietly? Well, what do you want out of your practice? For me, the Forms is a commitment to find some space. Once space is created we then have the possibility to act in a way we choose.
So the Forms are about a commitment. And the Forms are without limits like everything else in Zen. A limitless commitment. A limitless commitment that we fully and continually throw ourselves into without concern for improvement in order to create some space were we can act according to our deepest intention.
Lets take it apart into it's pieces. First I adopt the Form "walking quietly" as my intention. What I notice very quickly is how oblivious I am regrading how much sound I make when I walk. I am unconscious when I walk: I use myself out of habit. Over time I start to notice the stimulus to walk. Then, sometimes, I can stop my self from acting on the stimulus. I stop. I remind myself about my commitment to walk quietly. I can then then proceed with my commitment to walk quietly, or do something else, like nap. But it does not stop there. One must be on continual lookout for the stimulus to walk. At any moment our universe might send us sensations that prompt a stimulus or desire to walk. It's trick like that.
The Zen student have the benefit of a whole lot to individual forms they can adopt. And they have shikantaza to loosen our grasp of habitual responses and nurture a framework for continuos limitless commitment. It's sad, however, that they have few tools to maintain a continuous commitment.
This is where the AT comes in. It can give the Zen student concrete tools to help maintain their commitment moment after moment. The AT can help stop the neurotic preoccupation with getting getting ahead of ourself. It is sad that the AT has only one form and have no community for support.
Zen Forms are prompts to inhibit and direct. If we practice the Forms then we can begin to stop and see the moment for what it actually is, and then act based on our fundamental intention instead of out of habit. Our Zen ancestors did not know about the Alexander technique. But they gave us the gift of the Zen Forms which shows they did have some understanding of the power of inhibition and direction.
I'm writing this to urge you, as a Zen student, to study both the real meaning of the Forms, and to consider studying the Alexander Technique.
I welcome your criticism, thank you very much.
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