seventh world of chan buddhism - Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yun

When we finally decide to get in shape, we consult a physician; and if he informs us
that our blood pressure is 220/l80 and prescribes a suitable medication, we don't take it with
the view that we have solved our problem by ingesting a few little pills each day. We take
our medicine as we revolutionize our diet with the strict intention to one day be able to
discontinue the drug. Sometimes we have to act like absolute madmen in pursuit of this goal.
If the only cafeteria available to us does not offer the kinds of food we require, we
must `brown bag' it and supply our own food. We may not eat salty foods and then count
upon a diuretic to undo the salt intake. If we are on a cholesterol-free diet, we have to eat oat
bran in nonfat milk while others breakfast on bacon, eggs, and potatoes fried in lard. If we
are obese we are likewise enjoined from consuming fattening foods. There are no
exceptions. Chan means control of mind and body. Fat people can't sit in lotus. Hypertense
people can't relax enough to enter easily a meditative state. Good health pushes the spiral
upwards. When we feel better, we meditate better; and when we meditate well, we feel
great.
Nietzsche once said that it wasn't easy to get a good night's sleep: you had to stay
awake all day in order to achieve it. Attention needs to be given our sleeping routine. We
can't lie around all day as models of inertia waiting to collide with a more massive soporific
force at nightfall. We need regularly to spend energy in order to feel the need regularly to
replenish it. On the other hand we have to curtail activities that leave us too exhausted for
meditation.
Yoga also offers salubrious alternatives to tranquilizers or sleeping pills. If we are too
aroused by the day's encounters to get to sleep, we don't reach for the pill bottle. We stay in
bed and perform one or two of several yoga postures that guarantee deep relaxation. Many
people who find a rogue elephant charging inside their head when they retire, can do the
cobra posture, long and slow to the count of l08, and bring that rampaging beast to earth.
In Chan, we don't try to become anything but a Chan man. Hatha Yoga probably
offers mankind's best method of physical exercise, but we don't strive to become hatha yogis.
This kind of ambition is no different from the usual status seeking ambitions of samsara.
Some people study yoga or tai ji quan in order to show off and entertain like dancers or
acrobats. Mastering these disciplines for the purpose of acquiring masterly status is the exact
opposite of what we should use these disciplines for. We don't learn yoga or tai ji quan to
enhance our egos. We learn these exercises because they assist us in keeping to our practice.
What benefits the health of body and mind, benefits our Chan practice.
Although we are prohibited by the precepts from using mind-altering drugs we ought
not to assume that the proscriptions involve recreational drugs alone. We are in a sense
forbidden to use any drug that through our own self-control we can get along without. Just as
we don't eat salt and then take drugs to eliminate sodium, we don't eat like sows for three
days a week and take amphetamines for four to maintain a nice, willowy, Chan figure.
Neither do we binge and purge.
CHAPTER 16 RIGHT EFFORT
S EVENTH W ORLD O F C HAN B UDDHISM
169