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Beyond Knowing: Zen's Attentional Path
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Zen-Riffs
The talk examines the nature of knowing within Zen practice, particularly the bodhisattva's awareness of the limits of knowing as described in the Prajnaparamita texts. It explores the "successional path," "gestural path," and "phrasal path," remarking on the challenges of translating these concepts into different cultural and lingual frameworks, as in the case of German. Emphasis is placed on a kind of attentional presence—being in the moment without intellectualizing—central to Zen practice and highlighted in Dogen's interpretation of "hishiryo," which suggests noticing without conscious thought.
- Prajnaparamita Texts: These texts describe the bodhisattva's practice of recognizing the limits of knowing, a central theme of the discussion.
- Dogen's Interpretation of Hishiryo: This concept emphasizes the practice of noticing without active thinking, illustrating a core element of Zen attentional practice.
AI Suggested Title: Beyond Knowing: Zen's Attentional Path
I'm often speaking about what's difficult to know, and not just because there's something to know that's difficult to know, but because there is difficulty in knowing because knowing has its limits. And for the bodhisattva, at the center of the practice of the bodhisattva, according to M, described in the Prajnaparamita Vedic The bodhisattva is defined by one who knows the limits of knowing, so is not fooled.
[01:09]
So I've given you, tried to present some targets for our knowing. the successional path, the gestural path, and last Sunday, the phrasal path. And in German you can't even say phrasal path. They don't have this concept of the phrase as a unit of language. So you have to use in German the mantra path or manta path I guess they say. Because they have adopted the idea of mantra. I give that example just to
[02:16]
to illustrate limits of knowing, hard to even translate phrasal path into another scheme or modality of knowing. So I'm trying to, immediate trying to, using, I have no choice, we're using Western ways of knowing. So I, again, suggesting to notice your knowing, you can develop a sense of what is meant by the, I mean, by a successional path.
[03:18]
And then you can begin to also notice, The gestural path is part of the successional path. The successional path is part of the gestural path. And then there's the phrasal path, like just now is enough. Or to pause for the particular. Or to pause for the pause. So attentionality is about the condition of the kind of energy of presence, I have to say. It's not just giving attention or doing attention. It's a kind of presence, a presence in the midst of knowing, which doesn't think about knowing.
[04:32]
That's Dogen's main point in translating hishiryo as using hishiryo, which means to notice without thinking about. Thinking about immediately limits absorbent knowing. So noticing, knowing, and the limits of knowing is the practice of the Bodhisattva.
[05:13]
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