On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious by Douglas E. Harding

Author:Douglas E. Harding [Harding, Douglas E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Body; Mind & Spirit, Philosophy, Zen, Science-1, Science-3, Religion, Psychology of Religion, Douglas Harding, Mysticism, enlightenment, Religious, Shollond Trust, Headless Way
ISBN: 9781878019196
Google: IOyAPwAACAAJ
Publisher: InnerDirections Pub.
Published: 2002-10-15T21:24:35+00:00

(5) Practising Headlessness

Now the “hard” part begins, which is the repetition of this headless seeing-into-Nothingness till the seeing becomes quite natural and nothing special at all; till, whatever one is doing, it’s clear that nobody’s here doing it. In other words, till one’s whole life is structured round the double-barbed arrow of attention, simultaneously pointing in at the Void and out at what fills it. Such is the essential meditation of this Way. It is meditation for the market-place, in fact for every circumstance and mood, but it may usefully be supplemented by regular periods of more formal meditation - for example, a daily sitting in a quiet place enjoying exactly the same seeing, either alone or with friends.

Here, in fact, is a meditation which doesn’t threaten to divide our day into two incompatible parts - a time of withdrawal and quiet recollection, and a time of self-forgetful immersion in the world’s turmoil. On the contrary, the whole day comes to have the same feel, a steady quality throughout. Whatever we have to do or take or suffer can thus be turned to our immediate advantage: it provides just the right opportunity to notice Who is involved. (To be precise, absolutely involved yet absolutely uninvolved.) In short, of all forms of meditation this is among the least contrived and obtrusive, and (given time to mature) the most natural and practical. And amusing too: it’s as if one’s featureless Original Face wore a smile like that of the disappearing Cheshire Cat!

At first, the essential practice requires much effort of attention. Normally, one takes years or decades to arrive at anything like steady and spontaneous in-seeing. Nevertheless the method is quite simple and the same throughout. It consists of ceasing to overlook the looker - or rather, the absence of the looker. Some find the practice very hard going for a very long time. Others - notably younger seers who have devoted fewer years and less effort to building the fictitious person at the centre of their universe - take to it more readily. This is to be expected: for they are still close to Stage (1) when, as infants, we were not yet objects or things for ourselves. Like animals, we then lived without complications from our central No-thingness, unconsciously. Now our intention is to get back in and live consciously from it.

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