The Five Traditional Ben

There are several wonderful advantages to what appears to be formalism in Zen that merge beautifully with what Zen is about. The silence we develop in practicing Zen, as a part of our path toward truth, relegates inner dialogue discursive thinking behind our attention to the present.

Seeing clearly is the way to go. And you cannot see clearly when your head is buzzing with all sorts of questions about how to do some aspect of practice. In formal practice, all the forms have already been set out for us to practice so that we don’t have to figure out over and over what the best way to do them might be.

This gives us the ability to just concentrate on what we are doing, without having to question each time, and spend time “reinventing the wheel” when we can spend time engaged in ever-presentness. (Of course, if some wonderful new idea occurs to you that would obviously greatly improve a particular aspect of practice, then it would be fair if this were incorporated without an abundance of discrimination.)

When the forms are taught in the traditional manner, then two other things happen. The person doing the teaching is then freed from having to reinvent things as they go along. And, the forms themselves, given in this way, tend to de-emphasize the domain of the ego-self being of the highest importance to you.

The importance and superiority of your “ego” is set aside as you agree to engage in a practice that is within a form of tradition that is “larger” than yourself, and in a manner where your personal “ego” is not the controlling factor. Many of the forms of doing certain actions reflect the incorporation of several factors, including some age old customs, the need for convenience, and a need for an economy of activity as resources must be conserved, being as scarce as they would be in many monastic settings.

Of course there is the Busby Berkley factor, where a group of people performing the same activities is very pleasing to the eye. But beyond that, the mindfulness that you can bring to the practice of an activity is more important than whatever special meaning uniformity might have.

We here in the west are embarked upon a great movement to incorporate the form of Zen, as it comes to us from a completely different cultural milieu, into a western framework. Not an easy task. And I personally don’t think that the application of traditions needs to be the same as blind obedience.

Both cultures and their underlying traditions need to be respected as we carefully work through what can work here and what may need to be modified for our own values, without losing its meaningfulness. There will probably be those attempts that fail and those that succeed. However, I think that for our own personal development on the path toward truth, and that for generations to come, it is well worthwhile to do.