In this introductory chapter to my book, The Ten Fields of Zen Practice: A Primer for Practitioners, I discuss the nature of practice and “progress” on the path of practice. I then introduce the Ten Fields, and the rest of the book will consist of a chapter on each of the Fields.
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Why Do We Call It “Zen Practice?”
How Ambitious Do You Have to Be?
Progress on the Path of Practice
The Ten Fields of Zen Practice
Writing a Book on the Podcast
On Feb 14th 2024, I will have been doing this podcast for seven years. It’s starting to happen more and more often that I come up with a great idea for a new episode – just to discover I’ve already done one on that topic!
There are plenty of Zen and Buddhist topics I can still cover, including the completion of my “One Reality, Many Descriptions” series, and countless fascinating Zen and Buddhist texts. In addition to this, I thought it would be challenging, fun, and useful to start writing a book and take you on the adventure as I do it, sharing with you one chapter at a time. The thing is, it takes a lot of time and energy to write a book, and I don’t have time to do it unless it simultaneously becomes part of the podcast. So… this will be like the old days of serials in magazines. I won’t do all my episodes as chapters of this book, though, I’ll mix it up.
The book I want to write is for my students at Bright Way Zen, and for all my loyal podcast listeners. At least at this point I’m calling it The Ten Fields of Zen Practice: A Primer for Practitioners. The title may change, but I plan to write one chapter on each of my Ten Fields of practice, which I have discussed on the podcast before and will talk about again in this episode (previously it was Nine Fields, and it may evolve more as I write the book).
At this point in my teaching career, having covered most of the topics I care deeply about, the challenge becomes focusing on the things I think are the most important. For example, if I want a new student of Zen to understand our zazen practice, what do I say in one chapter? What is essential? I can easily wax eloquent about zazen over the course of a dozen podcast episodes, but all that can be quite overwhelming to a newcomer and long-time practitioner alike. Having to whittle all the ideas, images, words, topics, and possibilities down to the equivalent of one 20-25 minute podcast? That’s a challenge!
The good thing is, at the end of this exercise I will have a book I can send to a publisher or just self-publish, all while not falling off your radar for 6-9 months while I concentrate on a book. Hope you enjoy. This particular episode is the introductory chapter of the book: What Is Zen Practice? Note that I am not going to worry, in these episodes, about repeating myself. I know I did an episode called, What Is “Zen Practice” Anyway? in 2017! I’m not even going to go back and read what I said. Hopefully seven years of teaching and the intention of this being the first chapter of a book will give my treatment of the topic a new flavor.
Why Do We Call It “Zen Practice?”
Why do we call it “Zen practice?” Zen is about what we do, not about what we believe. Therefore, if you’re exploring Zen, it won’t be long before you hear someone talking about their “practice,” or read something that talks repeatedly about “practicing Zen.”
It’s a lucky accident that the English translation of the Japanese and Chinese words for what we do is “practice,” and in English “practice” has two meanings. One means to make a habit of doing something, and the other means to do something over and over to get better at it. Both of these meanings apply to our Zen practice, and it is extremely valuable to keep both of these meanings in mind – whether you are a beginner or someone who has been studying Zen for decades.
If we practice Zen in order to get better at something, what exactly are we trying to get better at? Our aim is definitely not to become a star at Zen – knowing all the teachings, quoting all the texts, bowing at all the right times, commenting wryly on life with an air of mystery and detachment. Becoming a Zen star might be a fun hobby, but it’s not the point. In Zen we are practicing being a Buddha, or an awakened human being. Nothing more, nothing less.
What does it mean to be an awakened human being? Imagine what you would be like if you were completely relieved of fear and anxiety, if your heart was open and you felt goodwill and compassion toward all beings, if you lived each day with a sense of contentment and purpose, if you knew for certain that your true nature is eternal, joyous, selfless, and pure. That’s what it’s like to be a Buddha. Of course, “Buddha” is an ideal, but with practice we can live more and more like a Buddha with each passing year.
Why do we need to practice being human? This is the perennial, mysterious spiritual question addressed by all major religions. We don’t need to know the answer in order to practice. If you care about such matters, though, think of it this way: We evolved as individuals. Part of that evolution required us to develop a sense of ourselves as separate from everything else, and to be constantly vigilant as we look after our own survival and well-being, and that of our offspring. Such adaptations allowed our ancestors to pass their genes down to us, but they weren’t engineered for happiness or spiritual peace. To access true happiness and peace, we have to transcend our sense of separateness and our all-consuming self-centeredness while remaining individuals. This is the essence of spiritual practice in whatever form it comes in.
Why do we call a Buddha an “awakened” human being? This is because our greatest transformation comes not from striving to meet an ideal, but from awakening to the truth of our lives, the truth of existence. When we see things clearly, we know what causes suffering and what brings true happiness. We’re naturally inspired to change because we naturally want to be happy and avoid suffering. We realize we’re interdependent with all things and lack any inherent, enduring self-nature, and this realization frees us from fear and selfishness.
We also practice Zen in the sense of making it a habit. We recognize the many practices within Zen – meditation, mindfulness, morality, generosity – as being wholesome ways to live. When we do this kind of practice, we are not aiming to become a Buddha. We’re not aiming at anything at all. We just practice because it is a good way to live, letting go of any self-centered notions of improving or attaining anything.
The most dynamic engagement with Zen includes both aspects of the word “practice:” Practice aimed at getting better at something, and practice adopted simply because it’s the way you want to be in the world. Each approach serves to mitigate the excesses of the other. If we are too idealistic and strive too much, we get in our own way. Then it’s good to relax into the practice for its own sake. If we just practice without thinking about it, we may become complacent and stop developing and learning. Then it’s good to challenge ourselves to taste a little bit of a Buddha’s awakening for ourselves.
How Ambitious Do You Have to Be?
Many people new to Zen feel intimidated by all the things there are to learn. Meditation is daunting all by itself, and then there are countless teachings and texts, new vocabulary, foreign-sounding names, and strange rituals and ceremonies. There are formalized ways of doing all kinds of different things from stashing your shoes after you take them off, to walking across a room. Then people talk about enlightenment and awakening and Buddhas, as if we’ve all embarked together on a great spiritual campaign. People enthusiastically invite you to weeklong silent meditation retreats where you meditate for 8 hours a day.
How ambitious do you have to be if you’d like to practice Zen? The good news is, it’s totally up to you. Pick up even one small aspect of Zen and it can be beneficial to you and others. It’s all good. There’s no minimum amount of time and energy you need to devote in order to make your practice legitimate.
There’s a classic Buddhist metaphor that illustrates how you can relate to the Dharma – the Buddhist teachings and practices – as an individual. In the Lotus Sutra, the Dharma is compared to rain falling on a forest. The rain falls equally on the trees, shrubs, and herbs, without discrimination. Each plant takes up just the amount of water it needs. This is an invitation to explore Zen practice in a way that is appropriate for you and your life circumstances.
Ideally, no one in a Zen community will pressure you to do anything you don’t feel like doing or imply that you don’t really belong unless you sign on to some kind of program. Meditate every day and join a Sangha (Buddhist community) multiple times a week, or stop by for meditation once a year. Spend all your spare time reading Buddhist books, or never pick one up (after this one). It’s up to you. Feeling inferior – or superior – about your practice completely misses the mark, because this isn’t about comparison with other people, or with an ideal. Zen practice is about becoming the best human being you can be, and you are not other people. They are also not you – no one else can know what is right for you, or what an awakened you looks like.
In Zen we repeatedly remind people to “Do your own practice.” Try not to worry about others, or about the expectations of teachers. If you read about awakening and can’t wait to taste it for yourself, if you want to meditate for hours every day and spend all your vacation time on retreats, go for it! If you have no interest in teachings and texts and just want to maintain mindfulness in your everyday life, that’s fine. If you value the moral precepts of Zen but don’t relate at all to discussions of enlightenment or emptiness, go ahead and take what works for you and leave the rest.
Progress on the Path of Zen Practice
At the same time, don’t sell yourself short. If some part of you longs to experience some profound aspect of Zen for yourself, follow that longing. You may doubt your capacity, but fortunately Zen has nothing to do with talent, intelligence, or skill. Instead, progress on the spiritual path comes as a result of stubborn determination, open-mindedness, courage, humility, curiosity, passion for the truth, and faith in the path of practice.
Some Zen practitioners may look very impressive from the outside because of their dignified bearing, or the way they can sit like a rock for hours on end, or the way they quote Zen texts, but don’t be fooled by appearances. A person who truly embodies Zen may or may not do these stereotypically “Zen” things, but you will be able to recognize them because they have made peace with themselves in a very deep way. As a result, they tend to be present, grounded, flexible, and receptive. They are aware of their shortcomings and are able to apologize sincerely without defensiveness or self-recrimination. No longer obsessed with self – positively or negatively – they are aware of what’s going on around them and take interest in other people. No one is perfect, but a true person of Zen is sincerely kind and generous and can laugh at themselves.
It is said that Zen practice requires three things: Great Doubt, Great Faith, and Great Determination. Great Doubt is what drives you to practice – your sense that there’s got to be more to life than what you currently perceive, that there’s got to be a better way to live. Society often discourages us from exploring or talking about our Great Doubt, or else it assures us that our dissatisfaction can be overcome by making changes to our conditions. Profound peace and happiness can be found if only we are able to improve our lifestyle, get to an ideal weight, find the right job, move to a better house, hook up with the right partner, explore our artistic side, or get our family members to behave the way we want them to. Buddhism says exactly the opposite from society: No matter how many changes you make to your conditions, if you don’t address the Great Doubt in your heart, true peace and happiness will elude you.
Great Faith is what keeps you on the path of practice rather than running around seeking solace or distraction elsewhere. Faith in Zen practice is built gradually; you take one step on the path and find it is beneficial. Then you take the next step, keeping your eye out for anything that seems untrue or harmful. Over the course of many years, you may find that the path of Zen, a creation of human beings, is far from perfect, but that the Dharma – the deepest truth – Zen points to is the bedrock of your life. It is something you can rely on no matter what, wherever you go, whatever you are doing. Because of this, you may find yourself thoroughly committed to Zen practice because it is what helps you live in accordance with the truth.
Great Determination is what keeps us moving along the path of practice, especially when the going gets tough or we doubt the efficacy of Zen or our own capacity. Of the course of many years of practice, determination is likely to manifest in many different ways. It often starts as a desperate longing to end our own suffering; having tried everything else, we cling to practice as the only thing that has given us any relief. Great Determination may manifest as self-centered greed to comprehend the Dharma or achieve special meditative states or awakening experiences; this isn’t the best kind of motivation, but as long as it keeps us practicing, the practice itself will correct our spiritual materialism. Determination may come from a desire to help others. In the long term, it usually evolves into love for the Dharma itself, and then into a deeply ingrained part of our character unattached to any outcome.
People often ask how to deepen their practice, and that is why I created the Ten Fields. However, even if you give structure to your practice and work very hard, progress on your spiritual path is not a straightforward, linear thing. It’s not like completing a college degree or progressing through different colored belts in a martial arts class. Practice is about our entire life – how we perceive the world, how we think, how we behave, our relationships, our orientation to the universe, everything. At the beginning of practice, we don’t even understand the nature of the project we are undertaking. In addition, the conscious part of our mind – the part that sets intentions and evaluates results – is only a tiny part of who we are. True freedom is achieved after practice is allowed to work on our whole being: Body, heart, subconscious, unconscious, worldviews, core values, habit energy… the list could go on. At any step along the path, we will be unaware of a great deal of what is changing within us.
Fundamentally, to have Great Determination in practice, we should have faith in the law of karma, or behavioral cause-and-effect. Everything you do, every effort you make, matters, like drops of water eventually filling a bucket. Another metaphor for the path of practice is walking in a very fine mist you hardly notice, but after some time you find you are thoroughly wet. Most of the way along your path, hopefully, you will experience positive things that fuel your faith and determination – like insights, changing habits, or relief of suffering. If you practice long enough, though, there are likely to be dry spells that make you doubt yourself or Zen. It’s important to keep practicing through these unrewarding times, because once practice opens up and feels alive once again, you will be incredibly glad you did.
The Ten Fields of Zen Practice
It is common for people to have a limited view of what they think their Zen practice is. When asked how their practice is going, they’ll often describe how much they meditate, attend Sangha (Buddhist community) activities, or study Dharma teachings. These are explicitly “Zen” aspects of our practice and are very important, but practice extends far beyond them into every moment of our lives.
I created the Ten Fields of Zen Practice to give people a sense of the breadth of our practice and help them envision all the various ways it can manifest. This list is just one way to describe practice. The Buddha created a list called the Eightfold Path. Other Dharma teachers have spoken of practice as having three aspects, or five, or delineated eight gates.[1] You are encouraged to use whatever list makes the most sense to you, or to use several of them. My teacher Kyogen Carlson used to say, “There are many ways to slice the Dharma tomato.” It isn’t necessary to correlate the lists with one another or decide which is objectively best; they’re all ways of making the Dharma digestible.
I call my list of ten areas of practice “fields.” A field is a space within which you move, not a goal to achieve or a step to complete. From the beginning to the end of our practice we will have these Ten Fields to explore. While I encourage you to explore all the Fields at least a little bit, I don’t recommend relating to them as a list of ten obligations to fulfill in order to be a good Zen student. The amazing thing is that the Fields interpenetrate and overlap, so if you thoroughly explore one, you’ll end up exploring many others at the same time. Hold the list lightly, with curiosity, and see where it takes you. If the only thing it does for you is expand your ideas about what Zen practice is, that’s good enough.
One last thing before I briefly introduce the Ten Fields: If you want to experience the most profound dimensions of Zen practice, it’s important to remember every element of it has two aspects, related to the two meanings of the word “practice.” We engage various practices in a purposeful way because they are beneficial. They help us learn, grow, and live a more ethical and awakened life. At the same time, we adopt each practice for its own sake, with no goal in mind, because this is a wonderful way to live. In the end, we recognize that these two aspects of practice – purposeful and goalless – are not separate. Both aspects bring us closer to alignment with our natural, awakened nature.
Here, then, are my Ten Fields of Zen Practice:
Bodhicitta – Nurturing the Mind that Seeks the Way. Buddhism is based on seeking – seeking freedom from suffering, greater wisdom and compassion, greater skillfulness in benefiting beings, and a more authentic, connected way of being. Our spiritual growth depends on arousing and sustaining “Bodhicitta,” or the “Way-Seeking Mind,” which in turn generates questions, curiosity, energy, and determination. This is turning toward and honoring our Great Doubt.
Zazen – The Sacred Act of Just Being. Our zazen is not meditation practice but our “total response to life.” When we sit, we aim to be wholeheartedly present with our life just as it is. We stop imposing ourselves on the world either through our habitual thinking or through any effort to control or judge our meditative experience. Only in the midst of this stillness and inner silence can we meet the world as it is unfolding around, within, and through us. As we pay close attention without agenda, Reality is illuminated.
Mindfulness – Silent Illumination Every Moment. The silent illumination we practice in zazen is something we can do anytime, anywhere, no matter what is going on. Paying attention to what is happening – inside us, and around us – is the essence of Buddhist practice. If we don’t pay attention, we can’t see how we are creating suffering, or how to live with greater wisdom and compassion. In addition, Zen emphasizes that there is no activity too mundane to do with care, and nothing we encounter is unworthy of our attention and respect. We cultivate gratitude, respect, and appreciation, and vow to live by choice instead of on autopilot.
Dharma Study – Wrestling with the Teachings. Studying Buddhist teachings, or the Dharma, is not about acquiring knowledge or ideas but about challenging the ideas and assumptions we already hold. The teachings describe Reality-with-a-Capital-R and invite us to investigate and verify the truth for ourselves. We will not understand most of the teachings at first, and we don’t need to read every text or memorize all the teachings, which is impossible in any case. It’s enough to gradually expose ourselves to the essential teachings and continue to wrestle with them.
Precepts – Studying the Self and Transcending Self-Attachment. The Buddhist precepts guide our ethical conduct, ensuring we minimize the harm we do to self and others. Such conduct is a prerequisite for the peace of mind we need for spiritual practice. The precepts also serve as valuable tools for studying the self; when we are tempted to break them, it alerts us to our self-attachment and reveals our persistent delusion of self as a separate and inherently-existing entity. Keeping the precepts familiarizes us with acting as if the self is empty of inherent existence.
Karma Work – Taking Care of Our Lives. The self as we usually conceive it may be an illusion, but the “small” self as a bundle of tendencies, habits, conditioning, and concerns is very real and has tangible impacts in the world. As Buddhists we vow to take responsibility for our unique karma – the result of countless causes and conditions from the past – and learn to act more compassionately and skillfully for the sake of self and other. Karma work is also part of our study of self, which leads to forgetting, or transcending, the self – and therefore to real spiritual freedom.
Relationships – Opening the Heart and Exploring Non-Separation. We may think practice is all about us, and that opening our hearts – to other people, all living beings, and the universe itself – is somehow extra. However, working explicitly to open the heart not only benefits living beings, it puts us in accord with the Dharma and supports all other aspects of our practice. We work on real and personal relationships with other beings – overcoming our fears, being willing to be seen and known, learning to be authentic, and learning to harmonize with others.
Awakening – Direct, Personal Experience of Reality-with-a-Capital-R. Buddhist teachings are most transformative when we gain a personal, direct experience of them. This means wrestling with the teachings and passionate investigation of truth in our meditation, our daily lives, and our interactions with others. Central to cultivating personal insight is learning to see each obstacle or challenge in our lives in Dharmic terms, and as an opportunity for growth in wisdom, compassion, skillful action, and liberation.
Bodhisattva Activity – Living the Vow to Free All Beings. The Bodhisattva Vows are not metaphorical. Seeing ourselves as interdependent with all things and beings is a result of personal insight, but acting as if we’re interdependent with all things and beings also leads to insight. If we’re ultimately seeking to transcend the self, there’s no substitute for getting off our meditation cushion and really trying to put our deepest aspirations into action. What is ours to do in the world? How can we serve? What are our skills, or who/what are we uniquely positioned to care for? How are we already serving, and can we incorporate that service into our Bodhisattva Vow?
Connecting with the Ineffable – Aligning Ourselves with What Is Most Important. Zen is not based on a belief in God in a theistic sense. However, at its core is a strong emphasis on a reality much more profound, inspiring, significant, and hopeful 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 to the Great Matter.
Read/listen to Chapter 2
See all Ten Fields of Zen Practice
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[1] E.g. John Daido Loori’s The Eight Gates of Zen: A Program of Zen Training.
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