Don’t Move, Stand Up
Sit down, shut, up, don’t move. What is the distraction?
What is the addiction? Just let go and breath.
- Junpo Roshi
For most of my decade of practice with Hollow Bones Zen, I fought with these instructions. “Don’t move!” yells the Jiki, as I finally move my foot that has fallen asleep. After five minutes of mental negotiation with my tingling feet, I finally just adjust, notice the shutter in my nervous system, as my self critical voice repeats, “did it again, Ekai.” Jun Po used to dig his fingers in my back in the kinhin lines. “Wake Up Ekai!” He’s say. I often drift off throughout the day. In this case, moving is nodding up and down like a drinking bird! What’s the point!
Indeed, working with sensation and how the mind responses to these sensations is a practice, and in Rinzai Zen, this is a powerful practice. Sitting still supports the mind’s stillness. The impulse to move, does not need to be responded to with action. Learning to observe the sensation to move arise and fall away is a profound practice and worth the effort.
And, this is not the only way to practice. It is a primary practice of zazen - Zen meditation. Recently, I have opened up my training to include more then just Zen practices, bringing in Anapanasati - a Theravada practice taught by Culadasa, Somatic Buddhism of Reggie Ray, and Mahamudra - a Tibetan form taught by John Churchill. These practice center in mind, the body and the heart respectively. Rather then don’t move, when pain, or lethargy/sleepiness, stand up and continue the meditation practice. Continuity and relaxation are emphasized. After a few minutes, when the mind clears and the body settles, sit back down. This is how we practiced recently during the Gently Sitting Like the Stone retreat at All Nation’s Gathering Center in South Dakota.
With the stand up instruction, the ability for the mind and the body to settle, and to stay calm increases significantly, and the self reproach and mental debate of the don’t move falls away.
To be clear, do not move, is a powerful instruction. “While resisting the demands of impulse to fidget, squirm or shift around on your meditation cushion, explore your experience,” offers Reggie Ray in his powerful instructions The Practice of Pure Awareness. “Take great interest in the play of your mind when you want to move but do not give in to the impulse and remain unmoving.”
Guatama Buddha taught the middle way. Our path is to learn through both don’t move and stand up. There is value in learning a variety of techniques. “One reason for having many different meditation exercises is that prolonged engagement with one reflective facet of the crystal can grow stale. The meditative mind can be refreshed by moving the dial to another facet.” offers Mingyur Rinpoche in In Love With the World. Zen offers simplicity. The Tibetan Buddhism of Mingyur RInpoche as one of many practices includes a meditation in which one invites in whatever is unwanted and unwelcome. “If we normally associate practicing breathing meditation in a peaceful and rural landscape, then we try the same meditation in a low-class car of an Indian train, or at a rock concert. If full-bloom roses are pleasing objects of form meditation, then we might try excrement.” From this perspective, don’t move does offer plenty of opportunity to invite in unwanted body sensations.
For many new to the path as well as those continuing to effort through the rabbit like distracting mind, allowing for relaxation into the practice guidelines offers the opportunity to lesson the rigorous challenges of RInzai and train in through body relaxation on Ray’s Somatic Buddhism, Churchill’s heart centered approach or Culadasa’s focus on stablizing the mind through breath and concentration. As Buddhism continues to grow more roots into the west, we are privileged to have access to many forms of practice that serve our own awakening as we seek to support the benefit of all beings.