Suchness of Grasping and Letting Go
Dharma Talk July 8, 2006
Jikoji Zen Retreat Center

Suzuki Roshi said, "the moment you enter the zendo you should forget everything and be ready to start a new life."

By doing so, this sets forth our intention for our practice during the sesshin. As seasoned practitioners sometimes we forget what is it that we are supposed to be doing during zazen.

Shozan: The Suchness of Grasping and Letting Go

1. Informal Meeting at the End of the Summer Practice Period
   Both ancients and moderns clarify and engage that and this as they manifest. If you do not know it is, how could you accomplish such a thing? If you do know it is, how could you accomplish such a thing? Although it is like this, if you only see by grasping and do not see by letting go, your eyebrows will mislead you and your eye will be caught in attachments. Essentially, if we practice in accord with the order [of the Buddha way], all people on the great earth will drink tea.

Ancients and moderns clarify distinctions (between that and this). The next 2 sentences paraphase a comment that Dongshan Liangjie made about his teacher Yunyan Tansheng. Before leaving Yunyan, Dongshan asked him how to express his teaching. After a pause, Yunyan said, "Just this is it." Later, a monk asked Dongshan whether Yunyan truly knew "it is" or not. Dongshan replied, "If he did not know it is, how could he be able to say such a thing? If he did know it is, how could he be willing to say such a thing?"

Dogen metaphorically speaks of grasping as "eyebrows that will mislead you". That is, your conditioning will mislead you and your "Dharma" eye of wisdom, the eye that sees the emptiness of phenomena and self will be caught in attachments. The title of this Shosan speaks to the Suchness of both grasping and letting go. It is important for us to realize that both are empty of inherent self-existence and flow out of Suchness. Emptiness has no distinctions around good or evil, grasping or letting go.

Grasping is one of the 12 links of dependent origination, a mind state on the wheel of life that can show up in any realm (hungry ghost realm as being insatiable, the hell realm as fear, anxiety, incompetence, insecurity, the animal realm of primal desires, reactions instead of responses, the heavenly realm as blissful tranquility of no thought, to realm of the titans, warring internal factions of the ego is spurred on by jealously and suspicion, to the human realm of confusion. If not mindful the "grasping cause and effect is played out in speech and action through greed, hate and delusion. This is our conditioning. Our mind habits, preferences, ideas, values, beliefs, our karma. Fundamentally, grasping is rooted in ignorance in the way humans see phenomena and self as separate from everything else. Whenever we create the idea that something is us or ours, that is when we suffer.

So if we are going to begin a new life we must know the process. Consider first casting off attachments to things external to your body, like clothing, food, shelter; go further, and let go of power, and status. To let go of these things does not mean literally to throw them away. Attachment is the mind. Anyway, these precious holdings are only temporarily yours. They don't actually belong to you.

After you have put down these attachments, move on: cast off your body, your mind and the world.

Of the 3 the focus of our practice is our mind. As thoughts rise during zazen, be they in response to the squawk of the blue jay, a cough or sneeze, a fly on the face, or from internal mind noise, thoughts of yesterday's conversation or memories of pleasant or unpleasant experiences...or something more significant to you, like an irritated feeling, a repetitive mindstream of self-criticism or outer directed hostility, fear...

Sheng-yen says, "In the course of practice, the more negative things you discover about yourself, the clearer you will be as to which road you should walk." So whatever shows up, is the dharma door, the gate to liberation. Recognize it...Transformation begins with letting go of each and every thought as it arises.

If you think about how attachment is formed...the gradual seduction of the object via one or combined senses using the sense organs and the mind's innate qualities to appropriate and develop the attachment...all within a short period of time... that undoing this process for obvious personal attachments is real work. During zazen we can practice this process on whatever arises, on any and all wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral thoughts. In effect, by doing so, we develop our ability and capacity to "let go". We see the arising and gain familiarity with the mental sensation of "letting go". We can see the stickiness of our thoughts...If the thoughts are not developed we can toss them away like pulling off post-it notes off the pad...not too sticky.

Another way is to not pay attention to whether wandering thoughts arise or don't. It's a kind of mental "shaking off". Let the mind be loosely held in spaciousness.

If attachment is strong the experience is more like ants to honey or mosquitoes to blood. Chasing them away is of no use as they will return. This kind of attachment might be more of an obstruction, an obstacle of some type that gets in the way of liberation.

"Whenever the mind starts grasping at things and making a big deal out of them, you have to stop it. It will argue with you, but you have to put your foot down. Stay in the middle as the mind comes and goes. Put sensual indulgence away to one side. Put self-to rmeant away to the other side. Same with love and hate, happiness and suffering. Remain in the middle without letting the mind go in either direction."

It's at this place where we attain stability that we leap beyond thinking to 'non-thinking'.

At this time I would like to offer you an instruction from Zen Master Hongzhi, titled, 'Face Everything, Let Go, and Attain Stability.’

"Vast and far-reaching without boundary, secluded and pure, manifesting light, this spirit is without obstruction. Its brightness does not shine out but can be called empty and inherently radiant. Its brightness, inherently purifying, transcends causal conditions beyond subject and object. Subtle but preserved, illumined and vast, also it cannot be spoken of as being or nonbeing, or discussed with images or calculations. Right in here the central pivot turns, the gateway opens. You accord and respond without laboring and accomplish without hindrance. Everywhere turn around freely, not following conditions, not falling into classifications. Facing everything, let go and attain stability. Stay with that just as that. Stay with this just as this. That and this are mixed together with no discriminations as to their places. So it is said that the earth lifts up the mountain without knowing the mountains’ stark steepness; a rock contains jade without knowing the jade’s flawlessness. This is how truly to leave home, how home-leaving must be embodied.

" Let us all practice within the accord of the Buddha Way so that all people on the great earth will drink tea."