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A singular, very impactful intellectual shift that comes through meditation is the heightened sensitivity to initial conditions. This is the corollary to valorizing kindness over rightness. In the absence of a Creator God, universal chaos reigns. But even chaos responds to conditions. It is known that wholesome initial conditions are more likely to result in wholesome fruitions. This begs questions about what are the best 'initial' conditions or what are initial conditions, anyway? The meditation culture we call Zen teaches that 鈥渮ero鈥� is the compassionate starting point.
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Zen meditation is an embodiment of the awareness that the chaos of existence is best encountered without form, without wishes and without seeking signs. It is the best form of meditation because Zen meditation is preparation for both living and dying. Many kinds of meditation, philosophies and religions prepare us quite well for living but do so at the expense of dying. Through the form of cultivating the signless and the wishless, even the ultimate chaos of the moment of death does not obscure the path of zeroness. The adept can thus encounter ultimate chaos with fearless calm; a state embraced and claimed by all religious traditions.听 But obviously any path that denies chaos by cleaving to some certainty can provide no containment for the great doubt.
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Zen meditation prepares us for living by cultivating the tools of conviviality; listening, patience and skillful means. Human happiness in life comes down to our helpfulness to others. Cynics might object, pointing out that there are rewards that flow from greed and hatred. These rewards, though, are fleeting and meagre compared to simple happiness. It takes some experience to learn how to be helpful without engendering all sorts of unintended, adverse effects. In our meditation we locate ourselves as close to zero as we can get, not because this is a superior state but so that when we step off zero we can move in a wholesome direction.
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We can do it; we can simply suspend all our attitudes and opinions. It is not even that hard to do, requiring only a willingness. Even our strongest habitual thought patterns will dissipate if we place our attention upon our breath. We can, literally and quite easily, for a moment experience a mode of being which resembles the descriptions of good mindsets left to us by previous generations. It is a mode of being which locates in the present and is open to many possibilities. This is the Beginner's Mind, the 鈥渞eceptive samadhi鈥� of which the Japanese ancestor Dogen speaks. This is a mind marked by boundlessness, open to the advance of 鈥渢he 10,000 things鈥�, sometimes also known as the 鈥渘atural order of mind鈥�.
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Bringing into being this natural order of mind for more than a moment is the impact of Zen meditation.听 With practice we get comfortable with this moment by moment awareness.听 From this perspective each moment is an initial condition.听 We are constantly stepping off of and returning to this mode of being which the Zen meditative tradition calls 'zero'.
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Wayne Codling is a former Zen monastic and a lineage holder in the Soto Zen tradition. He teaches Zen style meditation in various venues around Victoria. Wayne鈥檚 talks and some writings can be found on his blog
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