This is based on a talk I gave to the StoneWater Online Zendo on Saturday 21st June. I didn't record the talk, but I've tried to capture what I can from my notes… though trying to be less wordy and verbose than I am when I talk!
Book of Equanimity
Case 20: Jizo's "Not knowing is most intimate"
Attention!
Master Jizo asked Hogen, "Where have you come from?"
"I pilgrimage aimlessly," replied Hogen.
"What is the matter of your pilgrimage?" asked Jizo.
"I don't know," replied Hogen.
"Not knowing is the most intimate," remarked Jizo. At that, Hogen experienced great enlightenment.
[From Gerry Shishin Wick (2005), The Book of Equanimity: Illuminating Classic Zen Koans. Wisdom Publications. p.63]
This morning's talk isn't really on this koan, it's more just that it was inspired by this koan, so I'm not going to talk around this in the usual way, but maybe return to it for inspiration a time or two.
As a university lecturer, I've seen clearly over the past 20 years that the attention of my students has been eroded, in and out of class. The scientific evidence on this is mixed… and we can't fall prey to a nostalgic yearning to a 'simpler time' when students were all amazing and could focus for hours on anything universities asked them to do. I was an undergraduate in the early 90s, and I was a terrible student! But there is some evidence to show that young people are less able to sustain attention, and have learned to switch between tasks quickly all the time - Insta, listen to lecturer, TikTok, textbook, doodling, chat with friend, attention back to the lecturer… This is known as "continuous partial attention" and is bad news for learning in both the short and long term.
But I also see it in myself and my contemporaries. I moaned to a friend the other day at work that I'd put on YouTube recently and starting watching short videos and the next thing I knew, an hour had gone. He laughed, and told me to come back to him when it was a week, not an hour. I do hope he was exaggerating! But none of this is news to anyone alive today who's got a phone in their pocket or eyes in their head.
But look: fears about distractions have always been around. Famously Socrates railed against writing because it would "create forgetfulness in learners' souls, because they will not use their memories." Fortunately, Plato wrote that down so that we still remember it! So has anything changed? I believe it has, and it's the expertise of those seeking to distract us. It's become part science, part game, and those who seek to divert our attention to whatever they (or their clients) want us to look at next on our phones, TVs and so on… well, they're very, very good at their jobs.
This competition for our attention has been unfairly weighted against us: "They" know very well how to distract us.
By distraction, I mean: the loss of control of our own attention, removing the focus of our attention from what we had been focusing on, to a new, shiny thing (blog, tweet, insta reel, video). So, why do we get distracted? I'm not asking how, I'm trying quite hard not to sound too much like a psychology lecturer (and I think I'm failing!), but: why? And it's because of the nature of our individual minds, our seeking, searching minds, which are always looking out for something new, something changed. There are very good evolutionary reasons for this: the early hominids and humans who didn't spot that the bush looked less lion-y last time they glimpsed it… well, they didn't survive to pass on their genes, and their more cautious friends did: our ancestors. Such continual awareness, scanning the environment for threats and things that cause surprise, is still baked deep into our minds, so we keep on scanning, flipping from one thing to the next.
So as we go on to discuss attention and distraction, let me reassure you: you're safe. Right now, in the room where you're listening to this, you're not about to be predated upon! Be easy. Stop seeking, and like Hogen in the koan, dwell in not knowing.
Attention is the heart of Zen practice. There's a famous story of Master Ikkyu, who when asked to capture 'Zen' in calligraphy, simply wrote the character for "Attention". When pressed for some more subtle, secret teaching, he wrote, "Attention. Attention. Attention." Our decision to practice Zen is a decision to pay attention to this moment, and this one, and to our lives as they unfold.
So, let's look at this "Attention." I have a series of observations on this: pay attention to each one. Agree or disagree, resonate or be left unmoved: fine! But consider each one.
[During the talk, there was a long pause after each of these points, so that we could pay attention to each one for a while.]
Who is being distracted?
From what are you being distracted?Distraction does not arise outside awareness, it is a movement within awareness.
We do not pay attention to something:
We are attention.Attention requires a heartfelt effort… and then to let go of that effort.
Embody your attention.
It's not all about the head.
Breath.
Posture.
Sensations.When we try to pay attention, we're grasping at attention with our attention.
Put down the grasping.When the mind wanders… where is it now?
It is still mind, it is still here.
Step up to it.Are distraction and attention really two?
Dogen wrote that each moment fully expresses itself.When are we distracted? Is it just a case of labelling a certain mental state as 'distracted'?
When do we experience clarity? Is it just a case of labelling a certain mental state as 'clarity'?
What about distraction in koan practice? What seems to be a distraction can be an opening to insight.
When clarity arises: who is it that recognises that?
Nansen said: "Ordinary mind is the Way," and, "If you try to direct yourself, you go away from it."
So, there are some things to consider. Let me go back to something I said earlier: when distraction occurs, that's fine. Remember that you're OK, you're safe. This is how awareness works.
When distraction arises, perhaps ask: "Who is noticing that?" And then… keep paying attention. Again, again and again. It's OK. You're safe.
And finally, coming back to our koan… Can we see our lives like Hogen's pilgrimage? Can we live in a less grasping way, allowing our lives to play out more freely? Paying attention but not being grasped. Can we… not know?
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| Pilgrimage (AI-generated) |
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