Zen Practice

I have been practicing Zen for a year now. The only Zen Center in India, Bodhi Zendo, is located near Kodaikanal. I have been there a couple of times to attend Sesshins (an intensive Zazen retreat). Recently I spent ten days at the Zendo in October.

The Master

Bodhi Zendo is run by Zen Master AMA Samy. He is the only Zen master in India. He studied with Master Yamada Ko'un in Japan. There are two major schools of Zen. In Soto Zen, Zazen is practiced and in Rinzai Zen, Koans are the primary practice. Master Harada belonged to the Soto school, but he also taught Koans to his students including Yasutani. When Yasutani got recognized as a master, he broke away from the Soto school and formed his own, Sanbo Kyodan (Three Tresures) school. This branch of Zen is also called Harada-Yasutani lineage and Master Samy belongs to this lineage.

Full Circle

Bodhidharma traveled from Kanchipuram in south India to China by sea. He became the first patriarch of Zen. In China Zen was known as Chan, which is a variation of the Indian word "dhyan". The subsequent Chinese masters further developed and perfected Chan. When it reached Japan it was called Zen. I feel that Chan/Zen must be a more modern/refined form of Buddhism. Vipassana is Indian Buddhism, Zazen is Chinese Chan. Koan was invented by Chinese Chan masters. Japanese brought a martial rigor to Zen practice.

Tibetan Buddhism developed from Indian Buddhism. They seem to be between Indian & Chinese Buddhism.

As Zen moved east, Buddhism faded in India. AMA Samy, who is from Tirunelveli in south India brought Zen from Japan to India. It is like a circle has been completed.

Cleansing

When I got into the Zendo for the first meditation sitting it started to rain. I was reminded of my first visit to Osho commune in Pune. It was my first ever visit to the commune and I participated in the Kundalini meditation in the Gautam Buddha auditorium and the first rain of the season started falling. It started with thunder and strong winds. The roof of the auditorium was shaking violently. (The huge dome of the Gautam Buddha auditorium was made of tarpaulin like material)

The first meditation in the commune had a thrilling and some what scary atmosphere. Today's first meditation was more mellow.

Whats with this rain and meditation practice? Is it natures way of saying that the inner journey is a process of cleansing the body, mind and soul? May be!

The Process Begins

On the third or fourth night I was not able to sleep. My mind was buzzing with thoughts. Some forgotten incompleteness with an old friend cropped up. I was not thinking. Thoughts took over. I could not stop all kinds of memory and feeling playing out on the minds screen. Just when that started to ease, my mind threw up the pain experienced with another person.

At home when I have trouble going to sleep, I usually distract my mind by watching TV for some time. At the Zendo there was no TV. The night was so cold that I did not feel like getting out of the bed either. So I just lay there and let my mind go at it without interfering.

Let-go

The turmoil lasted for a while. I must have drifted off to sleep very late. When the morning bell rang, I woke up fresh. After the intense experience of the night I was at peace. I realized that initially I was getting carried away by the strong line of thought and was trying to make it go away. My resistance was causing the turmoil. Later on I had managed to stay detached from the thoughts and feelings. It felt like all the bitterness had overflown and emptied itself. I felt lighter and enjoyed the activities through out the day.

Finding the Inner Space

An extract from AMA Samy's book, The Zen Way:

"Some people can be completely entrapped in body sensations or external stimuli as an escape from inner turmoil or, they do not have any inner space for fantasy and imagination. They are unable to be with themselves, and so, unable to be with others."

Coming Home

While attending a week long Zazen Sesshin at Bodhi Zendo, on the second night, I had this strange dream.

I am in a boat that is moving at high speed. A ship appears on the left and it seems that it will cross our path ahead. To avoid a collision our boat turns left and veers right after crossing the ship. A huge log of wood that is being dragged by the ship is in front of us. Our boat veers left to avoid the log and turns right again. Another log appears in front of us. Our boat turns left again and this time it keeps going straight.

I am wondering why we are going in a different direction. A small island can be seen on the right. Couple of BEST bus like boats is speeding towards us. They pass our boat from the left side. I assure a co-passenger that it is rush hour traffic and there is nothing to worry about.

We seem to hit grade 4 rapids when I realize that there is no boat. I am riding the waves which are getting bigger and bigger. I notice a friend getting on to a rock. I want to ask him to get back in the water and stay close. But by now I have drifted far away and he is out of sight now.

I look in the direction in which I am going and see a couple of colleagues tackle a wave ahead of me. One of them is adept at the "rat race." I wonder what he is doing here and think that as long as he is enjoying the ride it is fine.

I go over a particularly big wave and while sliding down the other side I see another big wave ahead.

I am afraid that I might swallow water on hitting the trough of the wave, so I take a deep breath. I continue sliding down and feel that I can't hold the breath much longer. So I breathe out and quickly take another deep breath. I continue falling so I stop holding my breath.

Suddenly there is no water and I am sliding down on land. I reach the valley at high speed and go hurtling up the next mountain.

On reaching the peak, I get hurtled in to the air and I am flying over a market place. After bouncing off the floor couple of times, I see a small temple - the kind you see on street corners. I bounce off the roof of the temple, take a somersault and land on my bum.

I see more people bouncing off near by. A young priest is going about his routine without taking much notice of me. I am thinking of asking him if this is normal, i.e. people falling off the sky. Before I could say anything I find myself few feet away from where I was. I could see a man sitting in front of a temple. We appear to be on an island and the ocean can be seen further away on the right.

I see a bald monk in maroon robe besides me and realize that I am a monk too.

I walk up to the sitting man and ask him if he has lost his way. He turns to look at me and says yes. I tell him that I will show him the way and lead him to a monastery.

On reaching the monastery the man decides to stay. I tell him that his family may be worried about him and ask him to go meet them and say good bye before returning. The man promises to come back soon and leaves.

The other monk, watching the man walk away, asks me, "Do you think he will come back?"

"He may not come back immediately," I say, "but he has heard the call. He will come home one day."