The first week of September I attended a seven day silent retreat at Springwater Retreat Center in Springwater, Ny. The center was started by Toni Packer who had been a teacher at the Rochester Zen Center. Toni had abandoned the rituals and most of the practices of Zen Buddhism and eventually dropped the name Buddhism and finally the name Zen from the name of the center. Like most people I have wondering thoughts about many things and Springwater was no different. I had often thought about the teachings of Hui-neng, the sixth Patriarch of Chan who taught that we all have perfect Buddhanature and it is only through our attachments to the external world via the senses (Skandhas) that we are unable to realize our true nature. So why do we need a teacher? Other Chan masters had taught that as long as we go looking for enlightenment outside of ourselves we will never find it. So I often questioned the teaching of linage and transmission as just a way of keeping followers along with their donations to the monasteries or centers. Of course this is just a way of dualistic thinking which we should drop as true Chan Buddhists. Haha. Whenever we start using words and logic we see how impossible it is to explain the experience of reality. Lucky for us we know that they are just fingers pointing at the Truth.
Anyway the first few days at Springwater I questioned how they expected those attending to know what was going on. Sandra Gonzalez gave talks everyday. She talked about the pure meditative awareness that Toni taught. And most importantly she’s a lovely person who you cannot help but like. But I kept thinking would I understand this if I hadn’t spent my life studying and meditating. There is a mystical element to awareness, enlightenment or whatever you want to call it. At least in my mind. And it seems to me that without reading about the many mystics who have had this experience I would never be able to understand my own experience which began when I was a teenager sitting by the Conewago Creek in rural Pennsylvania. But there is no doubt there is an experience that takes us beyond the suffering in this life and takes us beyond the fear of death.
Well my wondering thoughts continued and I thought about how most retreats at Zen Centers are geared toward teaching beginners how to still their minds and learn the basics of meditation. Sometimes there are teachings about the basics of Buddhism such as the five skandhas, the eight consciouses, dependent origination, the doors of liberation, etc. Just realizing that I don’t often see teaching on the very basic four noble truths including the eightfold path. One can learn more about these in the Theravada tradition. So finally I thought about the Buddha’s teaching that Buddhism is like a raft and we abandon it when it has served it’s purpose. This led me to thinking of Springwater as a wonderful graduate school where people have reached the other shore and abandoned the raft. Some perhaps have been able to experience Hui-neng’s sudden enlightenment and have somehow reached the other shore without ever needing the raft. Jesus walked on water and Master Sheng Yen who founded Dharmadrum center, in one of his books says that some people are enlightened without knowing it. Anyway I had a wonderful experience and look forward to returning.
zenandsewing 