(Shibumi, ki, and the way of natural being)
I originally taught: Settle everything today. Drop all stress. Live out your life in bliss. But now I teach: Settle everything in one breath. See through the vanity of all stress. Live this now in naked bliss.
Shibumi is the unmodified, unforced elegance of being. Ki is the original energy used by all beings. Do is the Way. The Way in which all beings realize their potential.
The natural state is original enlightenment. To regain it in a flash you must drop thinking and attain no mind. Then stabilize yourself in this wonderful openness.
Shibumi is considered a recondite & difficult concept, almost impossible to explain, but it can be understood in a straightforward way from experience as an unforced, unmodified & highly satisfying natural elegance.
(Qi cultivation and the settling into natural openness)
To guide the qi, allow it to enter deeply and collect it. As it collects, it will expand. Once expanded, it will sink down. When it sinks down, it comes to rest. After it has come to rest, it becomes stable. When the qi is stable, it begins to sprout. From sprouting, it begins to grow. As it grows, it can be pulled back upwards. When it is pulled upwards, it reaches the crown of the head. It then touches above at the crown of the head and below at the base of the spine. Who practices like this will attain long life. -4th century B.C. practice instructions for Qi training, found on a jade cane knob.
Your senses will attain brightness, your movements will be subtle and slow or quick as the moment demands. You will gain new energies & new skills. “Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?” -Lao-Tzu
(Non-meditation as the shared apex across traditions)
Busuku, translated as “not doing,” is the ultimate in Dzogchen & Mahamudra, just as Daigo-Tettei is in Zen or Sahaja in Advaita or Wei Wu Wei in Taosim. They are all the same. Busuku is non-meditation, just simple presence in full and relaxed awareness.
discovered it in the simple, unfinished, unmodified elegance of just sitting on the Persian rug on the floor by my bookcase without holding any special posture or any special intention to make my consciousness do anything or not, to be any certain way or not. This experience of simple blazing presence emanated a charm that made me smile with quiet bliss — like the musty smell of old tatami mats or the cold iron touch of a tea kettle filled with sloshing water before it gets put on the flame.
(Purification, the mirror mind, and the cessation of fixing)
Purification means that before doing the exercises you should forget about all ill-feelings & throw away any grudges you might be holding. One easy way to do this is to visualize the person who you feel has harmed you the most in life & sincerely wish that person great happiness & freedom from all problems.
“The empty mind is a mysterious mirror. It is a state when knowledge is closed in and perception obstructed. Only then can one be aware of the darkest mystery. Therefore, when the deep dark mirror develops from knowledge, it is non-knowledge. When spirit applies itself fully to en- countering and corresponding, it is utterly free from thoughts. Only spirit free from thoughts can be aloft, beyond the world. Only knowledge which is non-knowledge can mysteriously reflect what is beyond things.”
As Master Yuanwu said: When you don’t direct the mind anywhere the mind vanishes. In this mindlessness you are miraculously enlightened instantly.
It certainly did not break at the frontier of the body but took both inside & outside to a boundless space in which, mysteriously protected, there remained only a single zone of purest, deepest consciousness. At that time he shut his eyes in order not to be distracted from such a magnanimous experience by the outline of his body, and the infinity went so intently into him from all sides that he could believe he was feeling in his breast the slight revolt of the dawning stars. (My poor translation.) Likewise, in the great Surangama Sutra, the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara describes to Buddha’s assembly how he attained complete penetration samadhi (sudden enlightenment, followed instantly by liberation) just by concentrating on sounds in such a way as to drop off all deluded thinking and awaken to the hearing-nature itself, ultimately realizing the non-duality of sound and hearing-nature or bare, intrinsic awareness. The method is to be attentive to how deep and how far the sound of the bell, the rain, or the birdsongs penetrates or drops into you. Is there any obstacle to total absorption, to a glistening clarity and freshness? If so, Where is that obstacle? What is that obstacle? Is it the contours of your body? What happens to those contours if you shut your eyes, like Rilke did?
(Merging with space and taking the outside inside)
At the instant your mind stops fixing on or being drawn into any isolated part of the mural you will experience the ease & bliss of nonmeditation. In the instant of fixating on specific appearances, awareness pours into it like water into sand & gets lost. This method restores your bare awareness. Take Outside Inside Take the outside inside. Look around you, feel around you, & take everything — the whole vast universe extending in all directions — deeply & suddenly inside you, experience it clearly as your whole & real self. Wow!
Merge Your Mind with Space Merge your mind with space. Extend your mind into space in all directions, so it merges completely with space, like fire thrown into fire, water poured into water. Very powerful.
Standing if you are standing rest your mind not on the thought I am standing but on the standing itself — inconceivable bliss
(Dropping thought: the antidote to panic and samsara)
Strong panic attacks are an overload of bodily energy, usually rushing upward into your head, but what turns them into “anxiety” is that you begin to think about them and to dread “what might happen.” Nothing is going to happen! Go out for a walk, raise a sweat, focus on sounds (or sights) but without any thinking. At the instant you cut off thinking you will feel a sense of relief & ease! It is not a matter of keeping up “mindfulness.” There is really nothing to keep up, no such thing as a mind to be mindful. Drop it all! You are thinking too much. When you say that you worry that Zen training is too much for your system and might bring permanent damage or upset to your life, that is just thinking, not feeling. (Also, what exactly is your life? It’s your self-arising vital energy, is it not? How can what purifies, refines, & strengthens your vital energy also damage it?)
Become straight become light become pure by dropping away all mental images & all ideas & all thinking.
Dropping Mind into the Hara (or the Earth) All this can be reached very simply by dropping all mental energy into the Seika Tanden or even into the earth below your feet. Practice this every day and sample the delights of freedom & bliss in Great Space.
(Masters speak: thought as the only obstacle)
“Thought is samsara. Being free of thought is liberation. When we are free of thinking, we are free of thought.” -Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
“The only real demon is conceptual thought.” -Dudjom Lingpa
“One should guide sentient beings to calm their mind by abiding in the diamond-base of undistracted awareness, with no arising of thoughts.”-Vajrasamadhi Sutra “Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.” -Bodhidharma
“Our fundamental substance is the self-mind; how can it be sought in books? Now just cognize the self-mind and stop your thinking process, and troubles will come to an end.” -Pai-Chang “When nothing whatsoever is conceptualized, /How could you possibly go astray?/ Annihilate your conceptions. And rest.” -Machik Labdrön
“Always keep your mind as bright and clear as the vast sky, the great ocean, and the highest peak, empty of all thoughts.” O-Sensei Pick up this broom, sweep all the dust from empty space! After the rooster’s frantic cackling, a beautiful clear blue sky.