This is something that has puzzled me for some time. For the past few years, the meaning of that phrase, 'non-thinking,' has eluded me, but recently I think I am coming to know it's meaning. I didn't come to this understanding alone however, Rev. Issho Fujita, among others, has been of great help in revealing what this 'non-thinking' is to me.
What I've come to find is that this 'non-thinking' has a twofold meaning. The first meaning of 'non-thinking' needs a rewording of the phrase, it needs to be changed to 'not-a-matter-of-thinking.' This rewording of the term should make it clear what is the first meaning of 'non-thinking.' Zazen is 'not-a-matter-of-thinking,' it really has nothing to do with thought at all. Zazen doesn't require anything from the intellect. In Zazen is Not the Same as Meditation, Rev. Issho Fujita said,
"In most meditative traditions, practitioners start a certain method of meditation (such as counting breaths, visualizing sacred images, concentrating the mind on a certain thought or sensation, etc.) after getting comfortable sitting in full-lotus position. In other words, it is kekka-fuza plus meditation. Kekka-fuza in such usage becomes a means for optimally conditioning the body and mind for mental exercises called “meditation,” but is not an objective in itself. The practice is structured dualistically, with a sitting body as a container and a meditating mind as the contents. And the emphasis is always on meditation as mental exercise. In such a dualistic structure, the body sits while the mind does something else.
For Dogen, on the other hand, the objective of zazen is just to sit in kekka-fuza[lotus posture] correctly—there is absolutely nothing to add to it. It is kekka-fuza plus zero. Kodo Sawaki Roshi, the great Zen master of early 20th century Japan, said, “Just sit zazen, and that’s the end of it.” In this understanding, zazen goes beyond mind/body dualism; both the body and the mind are simultaneously and completely used up just by the act of sitting in kekka-fuza. In the Samadhi King chapter of Shobogenzo, Dogen says, “Sit in kekka-fuza with body, sit in kekka-fuza with mind, sit in kekka-fuza of body-mind falling off.”
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This I believe why Dogen wrote in Universal Recommendation of Zazen, "This zazen I speak of is not learning meditation but is the dharma gate of ease and bliss." Zazen in Dogen's tradition is radically different from meditation in that it is not oriented around mental activity. This 'kekka-fuza plus zero' that Fujita mentions is another way of saying shikantaza. Shikantaza means something like 'nothing but precisely sitting,' it describes an action to dorather than a mental state to be achieved. Fujita also wrote, "For Dogen, zazen is first and foremost an holistic body posture, not a state of mind," and, "In zazen we do not intentionally think about anything, " in this way, 'non-thinking' is 'not-a-matter-of-thinking.'
The second meaning of 'non-thinking' can also be reworded. I will call it 'beyond thinking' or be'going-beyond-thinking.' The second paragraph quoted above from Fujita's talk embodies this second meaning, 'going-beyond-thinking.' This second meaning is the dropping away of the mind-body dualism. Body and mind do kekka-fuza together and mind and body are dropped away in this kekka-fuza. Dogen calls this state Shinjin datsuraku, Shinjin datsuraku means 'body-mind dropping off.' This state could also be considered samadhi or undistributed concentration. This second meaning has really captured the interest of Soto Zen practitioners, to the almost total exclusion of the first. Yet I would say that the second meaning can not be understood without the being illumined by the first. Fujita said,
"I often find that people think of zazen as a solution to personal sufferings and problems or the cultivation of an individual. But a different perspective on zazen is provided by Kodo Sawaki Roshi’s words, “Zazen is to tune into the universe.” The posture of zazen is connecting us to the whole universe. As Shigeo Michi, a well-known anatomist of the last century, puts it, “Since zazen is the posture in which a human being does nothing for the sake of a human being, the human being is freed from being a human being and becomes a Buddha.” (Songs of Life—Paeans to Zazen by Daiji Kobayashi).
Michi also asks us to make a distinction between the “Head” and the “Heart,” saying how in zazen our internal “heart functions” reveal themselves quite vividly. The Head that I have been talking about may correspond to the technical Buddhist term “bonpu” which means ordinary human being. A bonpu is a non-Buddha, a person who is not yet enlightened and who is caught up in all sorts of ignorance, foolishness and suffering. When we engage in zazen wholeheartedly, instead of keeping it as an idea, we should never fail to understand that zazen practice is, in a sense, negation or giving up our bonpu-ness. In other words, in zazen we move from the Head to the Heart and into our Buddha-nature. If we fail to take this point seriously, we ruin ourselves by pandering to our own bonpu-ness; we get slack, adjust zazen to fit our bonpu-ness, and ruin zazen itself."
What is expressed in this passage I find is the trouble with an ardent focus on the second meaning. When Zazen is about exploring the mind or Head in shinjin datsuraku, it panders to our bonpu-ness. Zazen is an endeavor of the Heart, the whole body-mind, to express Buddha-nature. I think that if practitioners of Soto Zen or 'Dogen Zen' wish to be faithful to 'non-thinking,'there needs to be a balanced investigation into both of the meanings drawn out here. And if we don't, I think that practice in the Soto Zen school won't amount to anything more than mindfulness psychotherapy. Fujita does bring up a good point that people often think of zazen as a solution to their personal suffering. Which in ways, it is, but there is much more to our zazen than just solving personal suffering. Zazen can also be seen as a solution for interpersonal suffering, which is the way the engaged movement uses zazen. Fujita mentions a saying from Kodo Sawaki about zazen being our tuning into the universe. I think this is a really great way of putting it, I wouldn't expect anything less from such a great teacher like Sawaki. Zazen is not merely psychotherapy, but brings the human being back in tune with the whole universe. This is something that should be kept in mind in examination of zazen.
All in all, I think Fujita sums the meaning of non-thinking quite nicely in the conclusion to his talk, he said,
All the foregoing explanations—of renunciation, of sealing up, of deluded human nature—are just words. These explanations are based on a particular, limited point of view, looking at zazen from outside. Certainly it is true that zazen offers us the opportunities I have been describing. However, when we practice zazen we should be sure not to concern ourselves with “deluded human nature,” “renunciation,” or any such idea. All that is important for us is to practice zazen, here and now, as pure, uncontaminated zazen.
Non-thinking means to put away your intellect and simply practice just sitting. Be careful not to get caught in the grasses and the weeds of your mind!
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