What is the payoff of doing rituals?
Those who enter the gate of Zen are not entering the world of meditation but are entering the world of rituals (J., gyji), the most important ritual being that of zazen. However, bowing to ones sitting mat, sitting on a zafu with ones back ramrod straight for a certain length of time with hands positioned in a certain way, etc., dont begin to come close to real meditation.
The benefits of doing the zazen ritual are greatly exaggerated. A good daily walk, taking yoga classes, or riding a bicycle probably offer more health benefits than just sitting in some stuffy room. Again, taking a class in pottery is not a shabby way to learn concentration either, in addition to patience. The martial arts are preferable to the zazen ritual of sitting, too.
To be honest, ritualized sitting, that is, zazen, is a fools errand although doing zazen can be demanding and grueling leading the practitioner to believe their efforts will have a huge payoff in the future. But then what is the actual payoff it terms of awakening (bodhi)? After so many years, do all the Suttas and Sutras become easy to understand? Hardly.
Ritualized Buddhism, including ritualized sitting, was developed in China and Japans feudal societies. Essentially a feudal society is based on the relation of the lord to his vassals which insures a top-down command system. Submissiveness was the norm for the vassal. Like the lord, the Zen teacher had absolute authority over the student/vassaland still does, especially in Japan. But such a system does little to bring one to and actual awakening. It only suits the needs of a feudal society.
For the one who practices zazen, important and as vital as it may seem, given the time spent doing it, nothing shuts the gate faster to real Zen than rituals, including formal zazen. Add to this the students devotion to the Zen master as if he were the Buddha himself! But what warrants such devotion? Just a certificate of transmission and a set of robes?
We n eed to keep in might the Buddha was self awakened. He was not deceived by his teachers having realized that their enlightenments did not go far enough. Nor was the Buddha, as a student, deceived by other great teachers of his day especially by Brahmans who performed rituals for a living.
The only teacher we need are the words of the Buddha. They only meditation is to look within at our thoughts, penetrating through their veiling power until we reach pure Mind which is their substance or tathata. This is awakening. This is also the beginning of real Zen and the path of Mahayana Buddhism.
