Zazen Is Like Observing Gorillas In The Wild
By Arthur Wells (Zen Teacher in the Diamond Sangha Zen Tradition)
Gorillas in the Mist was the name of the 1988 film about Dian Fossey who befriended a tribe of gorillas in central Africa. Previous generations of biologists had assumed these animals were extremely dangerous, so they always carried large, powerful rifles. A few older gorillas may have witnessed these big sticks that made a terrifying bang and killed gorillas and other animals, and kept well away from gun-carrying scientists! Fossey and her mentor George Schaller went into gorilla territory without weapons. The gorillas quickly noticed their friendly and curious attitude, and probably the absence of ‘big-bang-kill-sticks’. Over time they allowed Fossey to come very close and observe them as they went about their lives. Sitting still, watching hour after hour, receptive, respectful, without judging whatever she saw happening, Fossey eventually understood what she was seeing and wrote her revolutionary account of gorilla society and behaviour.
Zazen is exactly this kind of patient, non-aggressive attention to what we do not know or understand. As in Fossey’s experience, nothing happens quickly in zazen – we hope when we first sit down that we’ll quite soon experience peacefulness, but instead we find an endless stream of memories, judgments, schemes and regrets, along with a hot-mix of negative feelings such as irritation, boredom, resentment and shame. Very often people beginning zazen find that calmness seems further away than in busy activity --it’s easier to distract ourselves by doing something. Trying to follow our breath just increases our restlessness and irritation at the crazy clutter of our minds.
In the end people who start zazen does one of two things -- either they give up zazen, or accept it on its own terms as hard, frustrating work which depends entirely on the same spirit of kindness and respect that Fossey showed her gorilla friends, until we can allow ourselves to be as we are.
In Zen each moment is new and unique. This includes observing our old reactions! Zazen requires determination and effort, yet it can’t be forced either. Careless drifting cannot perceive the fresh moment, whatever it is. Zazen is the resolute practice of returning over and over again, every time we notice we are lost, to full attention to this moment of experience. Coming back repeatedly gradually builds strength and confidence.
Great things take time. Zazen cultivates a very special, inward aspect of our intelligence that enables us to discover for ourselves the nature of freedom. It would be great if there was an easier way – it’s hard to get up and sit in the morning, but there is no real substitute for meditation. Yoga is good, walking is good, reading is good, creativity of all kinds is wonderful, but only zazen generates the spiritual vitality that our liberation requires. No other practice is passionately investigative enough, posturally strong enough or mentally focussed enough to untie the complex knots of suffering that bind us.
© Arthur Wells, July 2013
Gorillas in the Mist was the name of the 1988 film about Dian Fossey who befriended a tribe of gorillas in central Africa. Previous generations of biologists had assumed these animals were extremely dangerous, so they always carried large, powerful rifles. A few older gorillas may have witnessed these big sticks that made a terrifying bang and killed gorillas and other animals, and kept well away from gun-carrying scientists! Fossey and her mentor George Schaller went into gorilla territory without weapons. The gorillas quickly noticed their friendly and curious attitude, and probably the absence of ‘big-bang-kill-sticks’. Over time they allowed Fossey to come very close and observe them as they went about their lives. Sitting still, watching hour after hour, receptive, respectful, without judging whatever she saw happening, Fossey eventually understood what she was seeing and wrote her revolutionary account of gorilla society and behaviour.
Zazen is exactly this kind of patient, non-aggressive attention to what we do not know or understand. As in Fossey’s experience, nothing happens quickly in zazen – we hope when we first sit down that we’ll quite soon experience peacefulness, but instead we find an endless stream of memories, judgments, schemes and regrets, along with a hot-mix of negative feelings such as irritation, boredom, resentment and shame. Very often people beginning zazen find that calmness seems further away than in busy activity --it’s easier to distract ourselves by doing something. Trying to follow our breath just increases our restlessness and irritation at the crazy clutter of our minds.
In the end people who start zazen does one of two things -- either they give up zazen, or accept it on its own terms as hard, frustrating work which depends entirely on the same spirit of kindness and respect that Fossey showed her gorilla friends, until we can allow ourselves to be as we are.
In Zen each moment is new and unique. This includes observing our old reactions! Zazen requires determination and effort, yet it can’t be forced either. Careless drifting cannot perceive the fresh moment, whatever it is. Zazen is the resolute practice of returning over and over again, every time we notice we are lost, to full attention to this moment of experience. Coming back repeatedly gradually builds strength and confidence.
Great things take time. Zazen cultivates a very special, inward aspect of our intelligence that enables us to discover for ourselves the nature of freedom. It would be great if there was an easier way – it’s hard to get up and sit in the morning, but there is no real substitute for meditation. Yoga is good, walking is good, reading is good, creativity of all kinds is wonderful, but only zazen generates the spiritual vitality that our liberation requires. No other practice is passionately investigative enough, posturally strong enough or mentally focussed enough to untie the complex knots of suffering that bind us.
© Arthur Wells, July 2013