Aiki Dojo Message: Fall Back Friday - Without Thinking
Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on November 1, 2002.
The other day, I was talking about how students learn. Usually, we interpret too much or “add" too much to what we hear or understand so it is almost never the same as what we actually hear, see, or sense. If I say "green," they only think of their favorite color of green - it is almost never the "green" I am speaking of. In teaching, I might say, take a small step to the side - but many of us do not understand what a "small step" is or "stepping" at all. Of course as human beings, we have this type of misunderstanding or miscommunication all of the time. We don't understand what something is, only what we "think" it is. In Zen, there is a difficult word: Hishiryo (非思量 ). Hishiryo literally translates as, "not-thinking” but it is supposed to mean “thinking without thinking.” The other day I said that some students think too much and some not enough. What I meant to say is that we should all "think without thinking.” I know that you have already added your own thoughts to this and are saying to yourself, “Now, Sensei is telling us to act like zombies!" No! In thinking without thinking, we are all moving in the same direction, we are all in the same boat, we are all on the same mat practicing. We must all be of "one mind.” To my friends practicing Zen, it always has to be "this or that" doesn't it? It can never be "just" what it is. . . . . In Zen sitting, we talk about "shikantaza," or that “sitting is just sitting,” nothing else, "just sitting!" Indeed, it is almost the same meaning as hishiryo.
Watch this video of Furuya Sensei talking about the benefits of training