Drop Away, Drop Away

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



It is a cool morning with water in the air. A beautiful dark sky. Awake!



Student Kate told me she had practiced "Dropping Away Zen" at Tassajara during a summer retreat. She wondered about instruction regarding attention to the breath.
which she has heard from me.



We Westerners are not oriented correctly for Zen practice. We are pragmatists. We seek outcomes, think linearly, use the scientific method and so on. We want results. Zen practice is both means and end together. There is no "end" that already is not present. Very challenging to those who want, as being is seemingly just not enough.



When I give instruction for practice, it is stepwise. It is like the liturgy in Judaism. There are opening practices which orient oneself, then there is the practice itself, i.e., union with the Infinite.. Attention to breath, breath counting, are means of orientation. Orientation is my aim.



Thus, my aim is how I am oriented, my goal, on the other hand, is to what I am seeking. There is a vast difference. A goal is outside of reality. It is a thought even if it is about something concrete, and sets an expectation. An aim is an internal orientation in the goal's direction. To have an excellent aim is to already be the goal. This is shikantaza.



We cannot sit and think drop away self. We sit and the self drops away of its own accord in its own time, once body, mind, and environment are in accord, that is, oriented.



Attention to breath is a warm-up, counting is a warm-up. Once warmed-up, once oriented, relax the count, open the grip of thought, and be without being.



Be well.