Smash Notes

Back to Zen: Stop Trying to Quiet Your Mind | Henry Shukman, with Henry Shukman.

What Is the Backward Step in Zen?

Henry Shukman says the backward step in Zen is disengaging from outward activity. The step releases a person from activity and brings them back into the space of being. The space of being is very active. Coming back is a kind of innocence. The being people come back to is timeless, so it is always new, fresh, and innocent. Zen talks about beginner's mind because empty being is always new. It is new because it has no great history attached to it and is not dragging around a sack. Empty being is truly at the edge of unfolding.

He aspires to live at the edge of unfolding and sometimes can claim it. He does not try to live there, because trying would be a preference and would push it away. Over the years the experience has happened more and more. Since a decisive event 18 years ago, it has happened spontaneously a lot more. He does not want to stop being a human being. He cherishes emotions and feelings and does not want to be a heartless Zen robot.

Grokipedia·Henry Shukman

Transcript

Zen: Stop Trying to Quiet Your Mind | Henry Shukman ·

The Kevin Rose Show

More from this episode

  1. What Did Suzuki Roshi Teach About Monkey Mind?Henry Shukman says Suzuki Roshi, who wrote Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, taught a different way to meet monkey mind.
  2. Why Does the Great Way Dislike Choosing?Henry Shukman says the great way is the great reality, one single whole that excludes nothing. It has no size.
  3. What Does Rumi Mean by Come Back?Henry Shukman says Rumi's call to come back, in the translation by Coleman Barks, means returning to now after the mind has wandered off.
  4. What Was Henry Shukman's Awakening Like?Henry Shukman had an awakening as a youth, far from home, so complete that he felt he could die that night because his life had already been fulfilled.
  5. How Does Practice Become a Flow State?Henry Shukman says flow states might be some kind of preparatory training.
  6. How Can Someone Walk and Still Go Nowhere?Henry Shukman says a student who declared that Bodhidharma never took a step seems to have found a reality where there is nowhere to go.
  7. Would Kevin Rose Rather Fly the Plane?Kevin Rose would rather fly the plane than ride as a passenger, silly as that sounds. Needing to know shows up as a preference for control.

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