(Follow this link to see the January 2022 Priory Newsletter where this was originally published.)

Kanzeon on a lotus petal. From Dogen’s vision while crossing the South China sea.

There is a principle of practice expressed by Dogen in a chapter called Bendoho or “How to Train In Buddhism:” “The correct ordering of our daily life is the heart of Buddhism.” And then: “The correct ordering of our daily life … is the first appearance of the koan (see note below).” Although this idea is from a chapter of his monastic rules (the Eihei-shingi) it is not just a principle for monastic practice.

In Bendoho, Dogen goes on from stating this principle to talk about the details of practice in a monastic setting, starting with the formal aspects of evening meditation; we can read such a thing and think, “I can’t do all of that.” I would agree, the heart of this principle is not about a particular form or schedule.

Before we get into forms and schedules, to understand this question, we have to clarify how we look at our life: do we look at our life from the worldly mind or do we look at our life from the mind of spiritual practice? The mind of spiritual practice is the mind that sees the value of practicing and giving rise to non-harm; the value of letting go of the delusive attachment to a separate self; the value of cultivating and giving expression to compassion, love and wisdom. The mind of spiritual practice is the mind that is willing to do the work to make these things a living reality in our actual life. I would call this mind “the mind concerned with the deeper matter,” or maybe just “the deeper matter.”

The worldly mind is the mind that is always angling for a way to get what we want and to have what we want on our own terms. It is the mind that is obsessed with its own self-justification and is often willing to fight and argue for what we want no matter the cost. The worldly mind often confuses what we need for what we want.

Now I should say, and I think it is very important to accept, that very few (maybe none?) of us are completely in one mind or the other; what I am saying in this article is in no way an indictment of any particular person, way of life or even the world at large. We all have a need to train, to practice spirituality, and, consequently, perhaps the most valuable decision, on a concrete, practical level, that a Buddhist can make to support the development and growth of our own spiritual mind, is the decision to meditate on a daily basis. Just five minutes a day, attended to diligently, can be a big help. This is a decision for all of us to make, seasoned veteran to new beginner.

The correct ordering of daily life, then, is the decision, freely and voluntarily made by us in our own hearts, to emphasize, to prioritize, the spiritual mind over the worldly mind; the correct ordering that is the heart of Buddhist practice is the choice, made in each moment, to look at our life from the practice point of view. Interestingly, when we try to make this decision, we will be, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, confronted with some challenge or argument for why we shouldn’t actually follow the spiritual mind; this confrontation is the first arising of the koan, the spiritual question as it manifests in our daily life.

Often when we start out to set up a sitting practice, all manner of obstacles to sitting can arise. To follow through on the determination to sit (or to do any aspect of practice), to find a way to make it work for ourselves in our actual life, is to chose the mind of practice. But maybe we are not in a position to develop a meditation practice? From the perspective of the spiritual mind, the mind of practice, this need not be an obstacle: we can still keep the precepts (be honest), practice patience and generosity and work on compassion.

As another example, we might think it would be good to practice generosity and we decide to do so. Maybe, when we go to do so, we see that our bank balance is lower than we expected and we have a feeling, like, “oh, I don’t have enough to give, I’ll give later.” We might have heard the teaching that even a gift of a single coin of money or a blade of grass can be helpful, but, afraid of not having enough, we dismiss the teaching as naive and silly because who will think that such a modest gift is enough? And we decide to give later when we have enough. But when will we feel like we have enough?

Or maybe we hear the teaching that giving is good and generates good results for us now and in the future; oh and, as an added bonus, it benefits others, too. So we give lots of gifts to others (and – why not? – ourselves too!) not paying attention to our bank balance, and we end up overdrawing our account and in debt. Both of these express the worldly mind around giving.

The deeper mind might approach giving as an opportunity both to help others and to let go of our selfishness, even while appreciating that when we are generous from a true place, without demanding some compensation, somehow our actual needs will be met. This deeper mind might seem naive and dangerous to the worldly mind, but maybe we could give it a try and see what happens? We might not get exactly what we want, but maybe we will get what we need with the added benefit of bringing a little bit of light into the world?

Whenever we take a step toward the deeper mind, the koan will arise in some way. To live from the deeper mind, the mind of spiritual practice is to accept this arising and to be willing to work with it on a moment by moment basis. The correct ordering of daily life, the willingness to make a priority of spiritual practice, becomes, in this way, not something that is done once, but is an ongoing practice.

Notes:

The Japanese word koan (in Chinese, gong-an) means a “public case” or “example” and usually relates an example of an experience or dialogue that helped a Zen trainee to let go of of some internal obstruction to seeing into the deepest part of themselves and existence. These koan stories have been handed down, especially in the Rinzai Zen tradition, as an aid to practitioners in their efforts to penetrate to the Enlightenment of the Buddha, the Great Matter.

Dogen takes the word in a new direction in his “Rules For Meditation” and his work “Genjo-Koan.” In “Rules…” Dogen says “the koan arises naturally in daily life.” This means that we have the means to penetrate the Great Matter right here in front of us in our regular life. More than that, we have within us the spiritual question that, should we choose to engage with it, will be our own gateway into the deeper truth. The koan, in this sense of the spiritual question within us, at first appears as a vexing and seemingly insoluble problem but as we train with it, we will eventually be able to go beyond it.