The tenth Field of Zen is Connecting with the Ineffable. Zen is not based on a belief in God in a theistic sense. However, at its core there is a strong emphasis on a much more profound, inspiring, significant, and hopeful Reality than the bleak, mundane, and discouraging one people sometimes experience in their ordinary daily lives. Call this “greater reality” anything you like – God, the Divine, That Which is Greater, Other Power, the Ineffable, the Great Mystery, the Great Matter of Life and Death – but you have tasted it at peak moments of your life. Zen encourages you to explore and deepen your relationship with the Great Matter.
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This episode is the tenth – and final! – chapter of my book-in-progress, The Ten Fields of Zen: A Primer for Practitioners.
Quicklinks to Article Content:
Is Zen Just a Glorified Self-Help Program?
Longing for a “More”
Zen Teachings on the Ineffable
Killing the Ineffable by Sticking It in a Box
Connecting with the Ineffable in Zen
How Can You Know the Ineffable?
Is Zen Just a Glorified Self-Help Program?
Many years into my practice, I had profound faith in the Dharma as path of practice. I knew I could rely on it to relieve my Dukkha, open my heart, and help me perceive things in a way that resulted in great freedom. Still, I wondered whether the virtue of Buddhism was limited to practicing Buddhists – whether it was just a masterful system of improving your experience of life. I was deeply troubled by three questions:
- Zen is about working on your own mind and heart so you can live wholeheartedly and cause less suffering for self and others. Is practice, then, just a matter of making ourselves feel okay in the midst of a life that is so fragile and ephemeral it blows the mind even to think about it, and in the midst of a world that contains unimaginable suffering, injustice, greed, ignorance, and destruction?
- I knew how to access a state of mind (at least in meditation retreats) where everything – even the suffering and ignorance – appears as the bright, lively dance of Being itself. Things appear neither good nor evil but are somehow infinitely precious just as they are. So what? What does this state of mind have to do with anything?
- Zen is freedom from views, even positive ones about how good will eventually win out over evil. If that’s the case, if there’s no fundamentally hopeful or optimistic truth to rely on, what do we have to offer people? Just a radical acceptance of a deeply flawed world?
It took many more years of diligent practice before I resolved these questions for myself. It wasn’t comfortable exploring this Great Doubt; sometimes I wished I could simply stop caring so much about the deeper meaning of this life. When I tearfully confessed my doubts to my teacher, she smiled gently and told me to stay with my questions, saying, “Doubt is what we’re good at.” At least with her reassurance I felt it was okay to be where I was, and I felt renewed faith that there was something deeper to wake up to.
Longing for a “More”
You may have deep faith in some greater reality that gives your life meaning. Perhaps you believe in a benevolent, loving God who has a plan for you. Maybe your faith is more formless, relying on an intuitive sense of the Divine as revealed in nature, art, or love.
On the other hand, you may have more doubt than faith when it comes to a sense of “That Which Is Greater.” You may even share with many modern people what Huston Smith calls the “scientific worldview” in his book Why Religion Matters.[i] In this worldview, humans represent the pinnacle of evolution, and nothing in the universe (that we know of) is more intelligent than we are; all individual lives, along with the universe as a whole, will eventually come to an unglamorous ending; any meaning we find is subjectively projected, and human beings live by exploiting nature and using up her resources.
Contrast this scientific worldview with what Smith calls a “traditional worldview,” where humans are the “less” who have been derived from the “more;” where there is a happy ending after the death of an individual or at the end of an age; where life, including all beings and things, are pervaded with meaning, and where humans belong to their world and play an important role in it. When you hear this description of a traditional worldview, do you feel any nostalgia or longing to be able to see the world this way?
Of course, you can’t simply adopt a traditional worldview if you don’t already have one, even if you want to. If you don’t already believe, you probably can’t convince yourself God has a benevolent long-term plan, or that a blissful afterlife awaits us. Despite the many benefits of modern science, education, and social reform, Huston Smith describes many of us as being stuck in “modernity’s tunnel.” Where a traditional worldview was expansive, the modern view is limiting. We suffer in many ways as a consequence. Smith says:
…the finitude of mundane existence cannot satisfy the human heart completely. Built into the human makeup is a longing for a “more” that the world of everyday experience cannot requite. This outreach strongly suggests the existence of the something that life reaches for in the way that the wings of birds point to the reality of air.[ii]
Zen Teachings on the Ineffable
Does Zen include a sense of a “‘more’ that the world of everyday experience cannot requite”? Fortunately, gloriously, yes. However, in Zen we are very careful about teaching and talking about That Which Is Greater. Any words used to describe Reality-with-a-Capital-R tempt us to form an intellectual understanding of It instead of pursuing a direct, personal experience of It. An intellectual understanding is not inherently bad and may be a source of strength and inspiration, but the spiritual solace you truly long for is experiential and not based on holding a particular view – even a positive one. Words and concepts can also tempt you to imagine some state, experience, or reality separate from you and currently beyond you. Such imagination is counterproductive, because Realization is about what you already are.
Still, words can be compassionate pointers that get you going in the right direction. Zen master Dogen wrote an essay called Inmo, usually translated as “Suchness” or “Thusness.” I like to translate word inmo as “the Ineffable,” meaning “too great to be expressed in words,”[iii] encouraging us refrain from attachment to some idea about Suchness. Although the Ineffable can’t be explained or adequately described, Dogen offers a teaching. In the following passage [a translation by Nishijima and Cross], the first “it” is italicized and is a translation of Inmo:
How do we know that it [the Ineffable] exists? We know it is so because the body and the mind both appear in the Universe, yet neither is ourself. The body, already, is not ‘I.’ Its life moves on through days and months, and we cannot stop it even for an instant… The sincere mind, too, does not stop, but goes and comes moment by moment. Although the state of sincerity does exist, it is not something that lingers in the vicinity of the personal self. Even so, there is something which, in the limitlessness, establishes the [bodhi-]mind. Once this mind is established, abandoning our former playthings we hope to hear what we have not heard before and we seek to experience what we have not experienced before: this is not solely of our own doing.[iv]
Dogen points first to the Emptiness or boundarylessness of self. You recognize, if you really pay attention, that everything you can identify as self or belonging to self – including your body, mind, even your will, or “state of sincerity” – is constantly changing and ultimately ungraspable. Everything around you is likewise, so what is there to rely on? Yet, despite Emptiness, “there is something which, in the limitlessness, establishes the [bodhi-]mind.” Bodhi-mind is Bodhicitta, our Way-Seeking Mind. Where does it come from? Who wants to awaken? Who awakens? Bodhicitta arises, but Dogen says, “This is not solely of your own doing.” Who or what is contributing to – or participating in – your life? What larger Reality are you part of?
Chan master Hongzhi also offered words on the Ineffable:
The place of silent and serene illumination is the heavenly dome in clear autumn, shining brightly without strain, gleaming through both light and shadow. At this juncture the whole is supreme and genuinely arrives. The clear source is enacted with spirit, the axis is wide and the energy lively, everything apparent in the original brightness. The center is manifest and is celebrated…[v]
The incredible mystery of this life is that, when you Realize Reality-with-a-Capital R, you do not find yourself in a nihilistic void. You don’t find yourself in a spiritual tunnel. You don’t find yourself inhabiting a body and mind with a sense that no one is home.
Instead, you recognize that you are an intimate and essential part of a vast, seamless whole that is shining with aliveness throughout. There is a sense that everything is exactly as it should be – that everything is aligned. Your individuality is powerfully affirmed even though it is free from any inherent essence that needs to fear death. In fact, Dogen writes, “We ourselves are tools which [Inmo] possesses within this Universe in ten directions.” You are not part of the Ineffable in spite of being your personal self, or in addition to being your personal self. There is no Ineffable apart from the myriad manifestations of the universe, including your personal self. Just as the Ineffable shines through a beautiful piece of music, it shines through you.
Killing the Ineffable by Sticking It in a Box
When you have a direct experience of the Ineffable, or even just an intuition of it, it’s wonderful. It can give you spiritual strength and can meet that longing you have for the “more.” Much of the time, though, you probably do not feel so in touch with It. It’s natural, then, to reach back to past insights and experiences, or to create an intellectual understanding you can carry with you. You may find yourself clinging to ideas like, “We are all part of a luminous, seamless whole,” “All Being is Buddha-Nature,” or “the Ineffable is universal compassion.” After a while, your memories or concepts cease to evoke wonder and gratitude. It’s like you’ve tried to capture the Ineffable in a box and it has subsequently died.
Of course, you don’t actually kill the Ineffable even when you stick it in an intellectual box; you, the box, and your longing are never separate from it. But, like a breeze or a living thing, It can’t be contained in a box for long. More accurately, you might say that the Ineffable quickly escapes from any box you make for it.
Our tendency to conceptualize or reify (make concrete) that which is beyond words is why Zen is largely an apophatic spiritual tradition. A cataphatic spiritual tradition celebrates and affirms the divine explicitly, while an apophatic tradition points to That Which Is Greater by emphasizing what it is not. The teachings challenge whatever concepts you may be hanging on to, pushing you toward a direct experience of your own Being. Fortunately, because you are It, you can experience It, even if It can’t be adequately described or conveyed in words.
Zen may seem negative at times because of its use of negation to guide you, but if you stick with the practice long enough, you’ll realize the teachings circumscribe a negative space – an entry gate through which you are encouraged to walk. That experience transcends positive and negative, but it is wondrous beyond description. Rather than enticing you to practice with the promise of spiritual reward, though, Zen relies on your own Bodhicitta to propel you forward toward the mystery.
Connecting with the Ineffable in Zen
An apophatic approach discourages you from putting the Ineffable in a box, but it can sometimes seem a little negative and unrewarding. With all Zen’s emphasis on Emptiness, it may seem at first like it teaches nihilism – that everything is an illusion, and when you wake up to that fact you are relieved of fear but left with nothing but the experience of unfolding illusions. If there is no thing which can be defined or grasped, what is the “more” from which you were derived? How could death not be the end if there is no thing which continues on after your life? If everything is Empty, where does meaning come from? If you are part of the seamless whole of the Ineffable, why does your individuality matter? What important role could you be playing in this infinitely vast universe?
When you awaken to Reality-with-a-Capital-R, these questions get resolved – but not in the way you think. When Emptiness teachings seem to contradict the Ineffable, it’s because you’re trying to grasp them with the discriminating mind, which is inherently dualistic. With discriminating mind, you can only imagine Emptiness means non-existence and lack of meaning, or oneness nullifies individuality, or vastness diminishes that which is small. In Reality, there is no contradiction.
So how do you connect with the Ineffable in Zen? You lean into your existential questions and your longing for a “more” that “the world of everyday experience cannot requite.” Usually, society discourages such inquiry. It says either that there is something wrong with you if the world of everyday experience doesn’t satisfy you entirely, or that no answers to your existential questions can be found so you are wasting your time if you explore them. You may need to overcome internal skepticism or resistance in order to seek out and investigate your existential questions and longing.
You may also be worried that seeking a greater connection to the Ineffable will open you up to overwhelm, depression, or despair when you squarely face the ephemeral nature of this life and sincerely ask whether it has greater meaning or not. It can be disconcerting when you set aside all your pre-conceived notions and ask questions like, “Who am I, really?” This is where the support of Zen teachers and Sangha can be so important. You can get guidance and encouragement from those who are further along the path of practice than you are. Other practitioners can listen to you describe your experiences, sometimes affirming that they have tread similar ground and discovered rewarding territory beyond.
Dharma teachings are the primary means in Zen for nudging you toward a place of profound inquiry. It should not be hard for you to find something in the traditional teachings which simultaneously defies your intellectual understanding and sets up a resonance within your heart. As you read it, it speaks to your longing for a “more,” but without explanation. Almost always, teachings that point to the Ineffable – or to the negative space you need to pass through to perceive it – are couched in poetic or metaphorical language. As Joan Sutherland writes in Through Forests of Every Color:
The wisdom of the [Chan/Zen] tradition is for the most part encoded in brief, highly portable stories, images, and quotations, rather than in philosophical or doctrinal texts. You can say that the nature of all things is fundamentally empty, or you can invoke a white heron invisible in the mist. You can say that everything interpermeates everything else, or you can say, “Clouds gather on North Mountain, rain falls on South Mountain.”[vi]
When you read Hongzhi’s words, “The clear source is enacted with spirit,” you might ask yourself, “What is the clear source?” Any intellectual answer you come up with will fail to satisfy for long. Once you have exhausted your imagination, you can sit silently and listen for the answer. When Dogen quotes Shakyamuni Buddha as saying, “Living beings all are buddha nature. The Tathagata is continuously abiding and not subject to change,”[vii] you might ask yourself, “It is a fundamental Dharmic law that everything changes; what does it mean that something isn’t subject to change?” Trying to find an intellectual answer to that kind of question will just give you a headache and result in something that’s very unsatisfying. To open to the truth in these words, you have to let go of all your assumptions.
Another way to explore your connection to the Ineffable is to start appreciating your experiences of nonduality wherever and whenever they happen. Your sense of separateness may spontaneously dissolve as you watch the steam rise from your teacup. In a moment of stillness on a hike, you may have a moment of understanding how you are part of something vast beyond imagining. As you chop a carrot during a silent retreat, you may suddenly perceive everything as profoundly meaningful, causing you to weep with gratitude and whisper thanks to the carrot as you slice it as gently as possible.
When you experience the nondual, it’s important to understand the significance of it. You have glimpsed what is more true than the everyday world of appearances. You should let what you have perceived change and guide you.
At the same time, it’s not helpful to get attached to insights. You get attached when you try to sustain the memory of the experience past the point where it naturally starts to fade. It’s understandable to want to hang on to something beautiful or liberating, but as I mentioned before, the Ineffable will escape from any box you try to put It in. If you keep practicing diligently, you can have faith that your connection to the Ineffable will deepen over time. You can also get attached when you use your experiences of the nondual – or lack thereof – to evaluate your progress in practice. This is just telling stories about your practice and reducing profound experiences to attainments of the self.
You can passionately seek greater intimacy with the Ineffable while grounding yourself in patience and gratitude. You can’t force intimacy, you can only open yourself up to it – learning to be quiet and receptive, and giving it time. This is what you are doing in Zazen.
How Can You Know the Ineffable?
At the beginning of the chapter, I described some doubts I had about Zen midway through my practice. Essentially, I wondered whether it was simply a method for you to alter your subjective experience of the world so you can be happier. In other words, even if you manage to have a profound nondual vision of everything as the bright, lively dance of Being itself, couldn’t that just be an arbitrary – albeit lovely – state of mind? Couldn’t that just be a carefully manufactured Zen perspective that benefits you but essentially goes no further than that?
Alternatively, if the teachings state that your nondual experiences are glimpses of Reality-with-a-Capital-R, or what is most true, how can you know that? How can you know the Ineffable is real if it can’t be pinned down? How can you trust your own perceptions when you’re stuck in a limited human body and mind? How can you know for sure there really is a “more?” Is Zen’s resistance to putting the Ineffable into words really just a way to obscure that fact that you can never know it? Is a phrase like “even so, there is something which, in the limitlessness, establishes the [bodhi-]mind” just wishful thinking?
The koan of what it means to know something is central to the process of deepening your connection to the Ineffable. You will probably try and then reject many typical ways of knowing before you reach a point of desperation and simply whisper the question without any hope of answering it on your own. If your request is sincere and your mind is quiet, the universe will respond.
In this passage from Dogen’s Inmo, all the uses of “it” are translations of inmo:
Remember, it happens like this because we are people who are it. How do we know that we are people who are it? We know that we are people who are it just from the fact that we want to attain the matter which is it.[viii]
You can know the Ineffable because you are not separate from It. Indeed, if that weren’t so, you wouldn’t long to know It. Before you feel confidence, it is necessary to rely on faith in the teachings, but this faith can be grounded in your own direct experience of nondual moments. As your confidence grows, you can be a source of strength for other beings. This doesn’t mean you go around telling beings who are suffering that they should be at peace because, actually, everything is fine. That would be pitting the Independent Dimension against the Dependent Dimension. But if you can maintain some grounding and peace of mind because of the Ineffable, you will be of much greater benefit in the world.
In a sense, “the Ineffable” is just another way to refer to Reality-with-a-Capital-R, but the term points to way Reality ends up being a common ground for all Being, a place where you belong, a boundless perspective that imbues everything with meaning and value, and something greater than the world of appearances in every sense of the word. In Reality your “self” is boundaryless and interdependent with all things, so it can’t die, it just changes.
So no, Zen isn’t just a glorified self-help program. Like all major religions, it points toward the fundamental truths of human existence and being itself. In the end, you don’t rely on Zen, you rely on what is true – whether you call that truth the Dharma, Reality-with-a-Capital-R, the Ineffable, or nothing at all. Even before you have consciously perceived it for yourself, you can place your practice within the context of the Ineffable based on faith, hope, and intuition. Seeking to become intimate with It ensures your practice never stagnates or becomes self-centered. How wondrous to align your life with what is most true!
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Endnotes
[i] Smith, Huston. Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2001.
[ii] Ibid
[iii] An interpretation suggested by Nishijima and Cross in their translation of “Inmo.” In their translation they use the term “it,” but in the intro to the chapter explain that this “it” assumes you know it is the ineffable that is being discussed. Similarly, in his translation Hubert Nearman translate inmo as “That Which Is,” capitalizing all three of those words: Nearman, Rev. Hubert. Shobogenzo: The Treasure House of the Eye of the True Teaching. Mount Shasta, CA: Shasta Abbey Press, 2007. Available as a pdf on the Shasta Abbey website: https://shastaabbey.org/publications/
[iv] Nishijima, Gudo, and Chodo Cross. Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo, Book 2. London: Windbell Publications, 1996.
[v] Leighton, Taigen Dan. Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi. Boston, MA: Tuttle Publishing, 2000.
[vi] Sutherland, Joan. Through Forests of Every Color: Awakening with Koans. Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 2022.
[vii] Tanahashi, Kazuaki. Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo (p. 406). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.
[viii] Nishijima, Gudo, and Chodo Cross. Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo, Book 2. London: Windbell Publications, 1996.
