Different meditations
As we might expect, Japanese Rinzai Zen has a different take on sitting Zen (zazen) than Japanese Soto Zen. It has the ring of a metaphornot a rigid practice that is totally dependent upon putting the physical body into a sitting posture.
Rinzai Zen master Daikaku (12131279), who was Chinese, came to Japan with several of his disciples and spent thirty-three years teaching. He says of sitting meditation that it is the inner mind of the enlightened ones. He next goes on to say, The essence of sitting meditation is the nonproduction of a single thought which he defines as what is known as the original essence of the mind. Following this he says that, If you merge with this original essence, this is called the realization of thusness of the reality of things. Thusness, I need to add, pertains to the fundamental substance of reality, this being Mind, which is like space but only spiritual not material.
Again, quoting a Zen patriarch, Daikaku says, Walking is also meditation; sitting is also meditation, speaking, silent, active or still, the body is peaceful.
One more thing of interest concerns practicea very important term thrown around by Western Zennists. We learn from Zen master Daikaku that practice is unnecessary if you know the fundamental reality which he further goes on to say is like the cure of a disease in which the medicine is no longer needed. This is not the case with Soto Zen. Soto Zen advances the fiction that practice and enlightenment are identical so that one has to practice zazen endlessly to stay enlightened. This is quite absurd. Its an idea not found in the Buddhist canon.
