We hear this phrase a lot: just show up. It seems to make a lot of sense. If everyone shows up, we have a party. Hurray. If no one shows up, no party. Boo. In the West we’ve grown up to think of ourselves as unique, individual beings that are also somewhat interchangeable. We all have all of the qualities, and it’s a matter of developing those qualities equally. A good community will simply be a collective of balanced individuals who each have worked hard to bring forth all of the qualities.
We will all show up equally for each event. We do everything together! We sit zazen together! We demonstrate together! We feed the hungry together! We clean the temple together! In this model, it’s easy to see what people need to work on, and who’s doing the work.
Someone with a crooked posture should give their attention to sitting up straight. Someone who naturally sits up straight should focus more on kind action. If we show up, and work together in this way, it seems like eventually everyone’s qualities will balance out and we’ll have a strong community. And if someone is not showing up, they’re obviously not doing the work, right?
But what if this model is kind of backwards?
Story time!
Let’s look at three different teachers’ ways of asking students to show up. Their different approaches to working with students might inspire us look deeper into the methods of our own teachers, and think about our own practice in a new light.
First, let’s get to know these two students a little better.
The student with crooked posture has the aspiration to have a straight posture, and yet they were born in a body that is naturally crooked. Their insecurity about their crooked body has nurtured a natural instinct to be kind, and they don’t have to work hard to spread the seeds of kindness in the world. They accept the kindness the world offers them, and focus on the struggle in their body.
The student with the naturally straight posture does not struggle physically on the cushion. Their mind, however, is highly attuned to moral conceptions regarding right and wrong in the world. Their foundational experience is the body at rest, and their aspiration is to right the wrongs of the world through engaged action. Because of the anger and dissatisfaction in their mind, their actions often spread the seeds of conflict.
Let’s observe how three different teachers work with these two students, and how they encourage them to show up. We don’t have to say whether this teacher is good or that teacher is bad, because we will observe their actions, and make our own choice.
Disclaimer: (trust me, some will need to hear this stated explicitly. You know who you are. And if not, you should!). These vignettes are based on archetypes: they do not represent real students or teachers, and students and teachers will not been seen as fitting into to any of these archetypal roles completely. And the directions suggested here are not prescriptive, just as koans are not life instructions. They are simply useful characterizations with which to describe and observe certain aspects of practice.
The first teacher encourages their students’ aspirations through their deep respect for form.
Meeting the crooked student, they encourage their aspiration to be straight. They encourage the student to show up by sitting zazen diligently, and learning from their pursuit of their aspiration. Since their self-conscious instinct is that they need to straighten up, and the teacher is confirming that instinct, they work hard, and you can always see them showing up. The student struggles for years and years, and seems like a diligent student, and yet, no matter how long they practice to be straight, for them, crooked is straight.
Since the student is spending so much time showing up on the cushion, they are not out intersecting with the world in the kind ways that naturally flow from their heart.
One day, they force their body into a straight posture. In doing so, the naturally crooked student has worked their way into an unsustainable situation, that takes all of their energy to maintain, and they have no energy left over to share their natural gifts of kind action with the community. The teacher, from their perspective of deep understanding of form, commends them for their diligent practice, not recognizing the sacrifice they have made. They have attained the form of practice, yet in doing so had to abandon their true nature. Using all of their effort to maintain the form, and having been affirmed by their teacher for doing so, they lose sight of their natural gifts of kind action.
The same teacher recognizes the aspiration of the student with straight posture to kind action, and encourages them to show up by devoting themselves to engaged practice, involving themselves in all manner of interactions to create peace in the world. The student has already attained good posture, so the teacher instructs them in the eightfold path and answers all of their questions about right action and right intention. Yet, because the student’s mind is confused, they continue to spread the seeds of conflict through their attempts at right action.
In showing up for the world, and the forms of engaged practice, they experience conflicts. Focused fully on their intention, they don’t recognize when those conflicts are caused by their own actions. Not having a way to restore balance, and not recognizing that they are moving away from their natural center, the student’s physical practice suffers, eroding their natural straightness, and robbing them of the energy to practice in the world.
The second teacher encourages each student to consider the nature of emptiness. They see each student equally, and advise each with the same encouragement. They understand that the forms are just forms to create space to focus on emptiness.
This teacher gives the same advice to both students: “The way is vast. Understand yourself, and you will understand the way. ” Each time the students question the teacher, they are given this same admonition.
The first student, taking for granted their tendency to be kind, instead engages their self-conscious instinct–they focus on their aspiration to be straight. In showing up faithfully for zazen, the student abandons interactions which engage their kind instincts, (which result in spreading the seeds of kindness in the world), in favor of their aspiration, which results in diligent practice directed toward straightness.
The second student, taking for granted their tendency to be straight, instead indulges their self-conscious instinct–they focus on their aspiration to change the world for the better, and show up by engaging in good works. The student ignores their straight posture and instead focuses on action to make things better, and in doing so, they spread the seeds of their anger in the world.
The third teacher has a different relationship with form and emptiness. They see from where the student’s aspirations arise, and understand how those aspirations hide their gifts. They understand that the two students will better understand their own nature if they co-practice and observe one another mindfully, rather than just sharing the space. Each student’s natural inclinations will show something to the other, and they will slowly change one another over time.
The teacher understands that the crooked student will never be straight, and that they will, without much prompting, put just enough effort into being straight if they observe the straight student during zazen. The crooked student, whose actions in the world already spread the seeds of peace, knows naturally how to avoid harmful action. They are encouraged to keep showing up in the world, and to just come and sit zazen when they can. In observing the straight student’s posture, they are encouraged to be straight enough. Through their strong empathy, they will recognize the anger in the straight student’s mind and will consider ways to help them soften.
On the other hand, the straight student is encouraged to show up by devoting much time to the cushion, where they naturally inspire others, and spend less time sowing the seeds of conflict through their actions. The teacher encourages the straight student to tread lightly in the world, and observe the ways of the crooked student, whose kind choices are not ones that arise naturally in the straight student’s mind.
Over years of practice together, the straight student, with their strong discernment, learns to recognize kind action through observation, and because their posture is already straight, their time on the cushion is able to be well spent considering kindness, and their anger becomes transformed. They learn to have more respect for a student who, though appearing crooked, has cleared the mind.
The crooked student, having watched and considered the confusion and anger of the straight student, has learned to convey empathy in ways that the straight student can understand. Having a straight partner, they straighten just enough, without making it the focus of their aspirations.
End of story time!
How did that story land? Do we recognize anything about the role our aspirations have played in our practice? What do we observe about our practice spaces, our fellow students, our teachers? Do the ways students are being asked to show up reflect an understanding of their character? Are students being lectured about what kind action looks like, or are they being encouraged to observe it in others?
Sit, observe, study, and learn!