NO THOUGHT, GONG-AN AND SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
No Thought
Question 4
(1) In Buddhism it is often written that the last thought of a person before dying is very important. In Zen the focus is no thought. Could you elaborate on this seemingly conflicting koan?
(2) In olden times, Zen masters would sometimes hit a student with a stick. One of the reasons for this was to unblock energy. However, sometimes this also caused an awakening. Is there a relation between the flow of energy, or maybe even a deep release of energy and the experience of satori, or even complete awakening.
(3) In our school we use Entering Zen, which I experience as a skill. It is transmitted, then we learn to induce it ourselves, and by practicing over time the experience deepens. Even “Merging with the Cosmos”, is a skill. A satori is described in ancient texts as a sudden awakening. What is the relation between these skills we learn, and the Satori that is described in the ancient texts.
Sifu Jeroen Maes
Answer
What will the future life of a dying person be? It is determined by three factors:
- His (or her) last thought.
- His stage of spiritual development.
- His karma.
Presuming all other things being equal, if a dying person is full of fear in his last thought, he is likely to be reborn as an animal, as fear is the characteristic of the animal world. If he is peaceful and satisfied with his life, he is likely to be reborn in heaven, as peace and joy are characteristics of the heavenly realm.
If a dying person is spiritually lost, he is likely to be a wandering ghost in his next life. If he has a sound understanding of spiritual cultivation and has cultivated himself spiritually, he is likely to be reborn at a higher station in his next life. A master may decide where he wishes to be reborn.
Good karma will cause a person to be reborn in a better life, and bad karma in a worse life. Karma is a function of thought, speech and action. If a person has good karma, which is a summation of all his thoughts, speeches and actions in his present and previous lives, even his last thought might not be favorable, and he might not be knowledgeable in spirituality, his good karma would still cause him to be reborn at a better station than previously.
The phenomenal world is the result of thought. Of the three factors causing karma, thought is the most important. Good thought will result in good karma, which will ensure a good life in the phenomenal world.
When there is perfectly no thought, the phenomenal world dissolves naturally and Cosmic Reality results. This meant by saying that nirvana is samsara, and samara is nirvana. Nirvana and samara, or transcendental reality and the phenomenal world, are not two different places. They are two aspects of the same reality. When there is thought, samara results. When there is no thought, nirvana results.
“Koan”, which is in Japanese, literally means “public case”. In Chinese it is called “gongan”. Figuratively, a gongan or koan is a public record of an Enlightenment experience or a spiritual awakening. It usually involves a logical question and an illogical answer.
An example is a public record of a monk asking a Zen master, “What is a Buddha?” The answer is “three pounds of flax.”
Another example is “Why did the First Patriarch came from the West?” and the answer is “Go and wash your face!”.
The aim is not to give an intellectual answer, which most monks would know. The one who asked “What is a Buddha?”, for example, knew that a Buddha is an Enlightened One, and the monk who asked “Why did the First Patriarch came from the West?” knew that Bodhidharma came to teach Zen.
The seemingly illogical answer was meant to shock the monks into non-thought so that they could attain Enlightenment or at least a spiritual awakening. The same questions and the same answers applied to other people would not have the same result. Similarly, but in a different context, when an instructor in our school asks students to close their eyes and let go, the students would enjoy a chi flow. But the same instruction on other people would not have the same result.
The explanation above that the last thought of a person before dying is important and that the focus in Zen is on non-thought so as to help cultivators attain Enlightenment or a spiritual awakening, is not a gongan. It is an intellectual explanation.
An intellectual explanation gives a philosophical understanding but may not produce a practical result. In other words, those who have read my answer here will know that the last thought of a dying person is important, and that it is different from the philosophy of non-thought which can bring about Enlightenment or a spiritual awakening, but they may not necessarily have the practical benefit of the last thought or non-thought.
As an analogy, saying that entering into a chi kung state of mind is a prerequisite to have a chi flow is an intellectual explanation, but it may not necessarily bring practical benefit. Those who have read the explanation (and believe in the philosophy) may not necessarily be able to enter into a chi kung state of mind, or to have a chi flow even when they have entered into a chi kung state of mind.
Indeed, this inability to differentiate between philosophical understanding and practical benefit is a main reason why many people do not get benefit form practicing chi kung, kungfu or any art even when they have the right techniques. It is also an important reason why some people think, wrongly, that they can learn chi kung or kungfu from books or videos.
This does not mean that a philosophical understanding is not important. In fact it is very important. In my list of steps to get the best result from your practice, to have a philosophical understanding is the first important step.
Many chi kung and kungfu practitioners have wasted a lot of time in their training, in a matter of years, because they lack a sound philosophical understanding of chi kung and kungfu. Many Zen practitioners have wasted a lot of time in their Zen training because they lack a philosophical understanding that the focus of Zen is non-thought. Thus, they study Zen, which requires much thought, instead of practicing Zen.
The reason for a Zen master in the past to hit a student with a stick was not to unblock the student’s energy, but to shock him into non-thought, which hopefully might bring about a spiritual awakening or even Enlightenment. (Here we leave out splitting hairs on whether having thought is a form of blocked energy.)
If a student did not attain a satori, or a spiritual awakening, despite being hit by a Zen master, it was not because the hitting failed to clear blocked energy, but because the student was not ready (regardless of whether he had or did not have blocked energy).
Yes, there is a relation between energy flow, including a deep release of energy, and a satori experience or even Enlightenment. When a student has harmonious energy flow, the chance of him attaining a satori is high. Many Shaolin Wahnam students in advanced courses had a satori experience after an harmonious energy flow.
On the other hand, when a student has much energy blockage, he is unlikely to have a satori. This was the reason why Bodhidharma taught the Eighteen Lohan Hands at the Shaolin Temple. The great Zen master found the Shaolin monks too weak to practice Zen meditation successfully to attain Enlightenment, and he taught the Eighteen Lohan Hands to strengthen them. Being weak was a sign of energy blockage, and clearing the blockage would strengthen them.
Yes, both entering Zen and merging with the Cosmos are skills, the first being the start and the latter being the completion of the training process. We start our training by entering Zen, and we attain the highest achievement by merging with the Cosmos. In our case, as we still want to live in our phenomenal world, we return to it after experiencing Cosmic Reality.
A satori, or spiritual awakening, is a glimpse of Cosmic Reality. Hence, the satori is somewhere between entering Zen and merging with the Cosmos. First we enter Zen, for without this skill we cannot progress to higher skills. After experiencing Cosmic Reality, like expanding our spirit beyond our physical body, or finding ourselves everywhere and nowhere, we return to our phenomenal world.
We are awaken to the fact via direct experience that our real being is our spirit, and our body is an illusion, though it is “real’ to us in our everyday consciousness. We have a “taste” of, or are introduced to being an integral part of Cosmic Reality. Figuratively we describe this taste or introduction as a glimpse.
Spiritual Awakening
The above is reproduced from the thread Zen Intensive in Hawaii Q&A in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum
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