Moon Reflected in the Water, the Kinetic Art of Zazen and the Fear of Annihilation

Last updated on: October 26, 2009 at 11:08 am by Dosho Port

Moon Reflected in the Water, the Kinetic Art of Zazen and the Fear of Annihilation 2009-10-26T11:08:00-06:00 Dosho Port

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

For my sweet 16th birthday, my oldest sister (I’ve got five) gave me Alan Watts’ Way of Zen. I devoured it and then immediately put it on my bookshelf for about five years and had a freaky kind of feeling whenever I’d see it there. The message I received was that Zen was about destroying the self and it scared the hell out of me.

Now in the 100 days practice session we’re investigating and practicing this part of the Genjokoan:

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.

In terms of the flow of the text, this metaphor follows Dogen’s presentation of firewood and ash (see earlier posts – click here). What’s the connection?

Firewood and ash, as one person said during the last webinar, is like the Halloween of Zen because it calls for such radical one-doing moment by moment. Die sitting, die standing.

As we dip our toes into the actual practice of firewood and ash, the push back often comes from a fear of annihilation that ranges from barely conscious to painfully obvious. I discussed this same fear, by the way, in Keep Me In Your Heart Awhile, “Bow is Like a Rock in Your Heart” as an underlying barrier that creates resistance to letting go of ourselves and completely bowing (and in the act of many of the forms of Soto Zen).

It also appears in zazen or what Katagiri Roshi calls “the kinetic art of zazen.”

Kinetic art? Merriam Webster has this for kinetic: “…of or relating to the motion of material bodies and the forces and energy associated therewith.” For more on kinetic art, click here.

Just-one-doing zazen (aka, nonthinking) is full participation, nothing left out. It’s like holding a sparkler and swinging your arm around as fast as you can. The individual sparkler isn’t destroyed when it participates in creating the optical illusion of the circle any more than the moment when it creates the optical illusion of just being one sparkler at rest.

Dogen seems to be offering some solace for fear of annihilation from fully participating in this one great life by encouraging us to clearly and accurately understand how the whole works. The moon doesn’t get wet. The water isn’t broken.

Enlightenment does not destroy the person as the moon does not shatter the water.

Significantly, Dogen also addresses this issue in Zazenshin (the needle point of zazen):

Bielefeldt renders the passage like this:

There is someone in “nonthinking”, and this someone maintains us. Although it is we who are sitting “fixedly”, [our sitting] is not merely “thinking”: it presents itself as sitting “fixedly”. Although sitting “fixedly” is sitting “fixedly”, how could it “think” of sitting “fixedly”?

And here’s the same passage in it’s Shasta Abbey version:

There is a someone involved in not deliberately trying to think about something, and that someone is maintaining and supporting an I. Even though being ever so still is synonymous with that I, meditation is not merely an I thinking about something; it is the I offering up its being as still and awesome as a mountain.2 Even though its being ever so still is being ever so still, how can its being ever so still possibly think about being ever so still?

This “someone” is quite a stinker, like the dewdrop illuminated by the moon, like the sparkler flowing like a circle. There’s really nothing to fear.

And here’s one Dosho Port’s encouragement for how to practice with this from Keep Me in Your Heart:

Reflecting on Dogen Zenji’s teaching can educate consciousness and be solace at those times that we fear the moon. Making fear itself the practice through thorough intimacy with the bodily sensations of fear is actualizing the moon in a dewdrop.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

October 24, 2009

Moon Reflected in the Water: 100 Days Webinar #6

Next Post

October 28, 2009 Only Through Uncertainty is There a Possibility of Understanding

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 November 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 December 2016 October 2016 June 2016 April 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 August 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "The love of money is the root of all evil"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Solomon Paul Job Jesus