The Concept of “Nen” [in Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen]

by Zen Teacher Daiju Zenji
https://daiju.com.au/

Frans Stiene asked if I would share some insight on the the topic of ‘Nen’ (念) for his website. I am happy to oblige because understanding Nen is an essential part in our journey to the heart of Zen.

If we look at the Zen tradition, especially through the Sutras and through the works of the great Masters, we see that it springs from a deep theoretical base. For many of us Westerners this can be a steep hill to climb. Going right back to Zen’s Indian roots, when Mahākāśyapa smiled at Buddha during the Flower Sermon, this same familiarity with philosophical, intellectual, ethical and emotional concepts informed countless generations of aspiring practitioners.

On the other hand, whether we follow the Christian faith or not, the majority of us Westerners have a core set of beliefs that are built around Christian philosophy and ethics. Some of this is faith-based, some of this is ethical, some is emotional – all of it has informed our world- view since we were children. Many of these concepts do not work hand-in-hand with Zen concepts.

When I teach Zazen I take time “to enter the weeds” and explain some of the philosophical concepts that drive the WHY.

One of these concepts is ‘Nen’ Much of this is an excerpt from the chapter “Why We Sit Zazen” in my book A Guided Course in Zen Meditation.

1 NEN, 2 NEN, 3 NEN
To the Japanese the ‘Nen’ (念) is the smallest unit of time. It literally means a “moment of awareness”.

We are so used to processing vast amounts of information that we never really understand how the human mind works. We see, think and do so much all at the same time that we feel we can multitask almost anything. However, the mind does not work like this. The mind can really only do one thing at a time, it is just that it does it so fast that we have the illusion we are multitasking.

If you were to look at the streets in Sydney (especially if you were born in a less chaotic city or in the country) it seems that everyone is trying to shove as many cars as possible down
roads that were not designed for this. When I used to drive to work in the morning I would find my main road of 3 lanes became a main road of 2 lanes and then finally a main road of 1 lane. As the roads became narrower drivers became more and more stressed since the number of cars had not changed, just the space to fit them! This is exactly how stress in the mind works too.

When we work and live at a rate we are accustomed to it is like a well-designed traffic system. Everything flows smoothly and things are resolved at a comfortable pace. When we are overwhelmed with demands of either an external or internal nature we are like those drivers who are trying to eat breakfast and navigate the car through hostile traffic whilst talking to the kids who are screaming the back seat. No wonder people (and drivers) snap… crying for it all to slow down for a moment – we are overwhelmed and just want a breather.

The question is: How do we become overwhelmed in the first place? The Japanese word ‘nen’ illustrates the smallest unit of time available to us. It is a moment of thought or awareness. It is that instant where we see, hear, touch, taste or smell something. It is pure and unadulterated awareness before we can think about what we see, before we can conceptualise it. We cannot even describe it because it is pre-thought and thus pre-speech. We actually live like this all the time; this is the reality of the mind at work. 1 nen, a sound enters our awareness; next nen we smell something; next nen we see something.

However well pure awareness might serve the poet and artist it is no good if we cannot share it with another. To do this we have to name what we have experienced. Thus we hear a sound (1st nen) and then we name that “bird song” (2nd nen). We experience vision (1st nen) and then we name that which we see “tree” (2nd nen), and so on. To name the objects of our awareness we have had to make a sacrifice though, we sacrifice one nen of awareness to allow that time to be used for the naming of the first object, thus instead of two moments of raw experience we have one experience and one name for that experience. Again, wandering through the world collecting experiences and naming them might be fascinating for some people but it is not going to be of much practical use for getting a report on your boss’s desk by 9am. This is why we use at least another nen to conceptualise further. It goes something like this: I see an object (1st nen) which I recognise is a “dog” (2nd nen) then a thought, a memory or an idea is born from this: “I was bitten by a dog” (3rd nen). We have used up another moment of raw experience to categorise and intellectualise that first moment of awareness from the name we have given it. 1 nen, 2 nen, 3 nen. Instead of 3 experiences we have a single experience and a line of thought; though usually we will go on and on embellishing it further with ideas about the dog’s pedigree and colour then our mind ambles off to think about the dog we wanted but could never have etc, etc… We are suddenly in a day-dream all starting from a single experience and time flows by as we become lost in our thoughts. Over the day these thoughts multiply. We take less and less in as our mind is overstocked and overfilled, our stress levels rise and we wonder why. When we practice Zen meditation we are paring our experiences back down towards the 1st nen by training the mind. We have the awareness of our breath entering our hara (1st nen) and then we give it a name “one” (2nd nen). There is nothing else to think about, there can be no 3rd nen possible because we catch our mind wandering and we bring it right back to the breath and “one”. We keep this going for the length of our sit; experiencing the breath fully and then letting that experience go. There is no comparison of breaths (“wow, that one was almost as good as the one I had 10 breaths ago”) and no holding onto the experience wanting it to be bigger and better. We experience fully, give it a name and do it over and over again.

When we stand up from our meditation we suddenly discover that we feel calm and centred again. Sure we might still have to write that report or drive through the mad streets but we have allowed the mind to go back to what it does best, just experiencing. We have ‘done nothing’ but are now clear, calm and centred. We are ready to do the work that seemed so daunting just 30 minutes before.

Commentary by Frans Stiene:

Within Okuden Reiki II we have the phrase: 本者是正念 hon sha ze sho nen – my original nature is right mind/awareness/mindfulness. This means that Mikao Usui was pointing out that we have to stay within the 1st “nen” and not interpret everything we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. Because if we interpret then we move into the 2nd, 3rd etc… “nen”. When we keep following our thoughts we get distracted, we make up a story and our “present” moment, the 1st “nen” is not fresh anymore. Thus the more we interpret what we feel in a hands-on healing session, during our meditation, and of course in our daily life, today, the less we follow Mikao Usui’s teachings and the harder life will be. Which means that we start to get more angry and worried, instead of less. But when we keep that 1st “nen” fresh then we have more gratitude, we will be more true to our way and our being and we start to develop a compassion for ourselves and others which does not change according to circumstances.

“When you see or hear something, leave it at that first perception. Don’t think about what has yet to happen. Always be fresh and ready for whatever does happen. Then, in each moment, the wisdom needed comes forth spontaneously.” – Not One Single Thing by Shodo Harada

Zen Master Shodo Harada also points this out in his teachings, leave it at the first perception, the first thought, don’t add more to the first thought.

“The treasure house spontaneously opens and one receives and uses it freely.” This is living from “just sitting.” In other words, just living as a pure white sheet of paper. This is the meaning of “being one single piece throughout the twenty four hours of the day.” This is maintaining right mindfulness.”  – Flowers Fall by Zen Master Yasutani Hakuun (1885-1973)

Zen Master Yasutani Hakuun teaches us that Right Mindfulness – Sho Nen is being like a white sheet of paper twenty four hours a day, again this means don’t write down a whole story around your first thought, feeling, or emotion.

“Unification of mind and body will lead to the development of fundamental techniques. Techniques that are created by nen [single-minded concentration, direct perception of the truth] are unlimited in scope. Techniques must reflect universal principles. For this we need true nen. Correct and relevant nen is essential for the proper practice of budo. If you are full of selfish and petty thoughts, you will never make progress in budo training. That kind of budo is malicious and will result in disaster. Nen never focuses on the physical aspect of confrontation. Link yourself to the cosmos through kimusubi [blending of energy]. If nen stagnates in the body, life begins to fade. On the other hand, when nen is interacting in body and mind, life flourishes. Powerful nen can even produce supernatural powers and enlightened insight. The nen that ties your body to the universe will allow you to become one with the universe; then you can transcend the realm of life and death and stand at the very centre of the cosmos. This is the secret of budo. Nen never contends with the universe. That would shatter its energy. Never think that nen is a physical entity that can be detached from the universe. Any thought that contends with the universe will lead to one’s destruction. Refine your nen, elevate your consciousness, and become one with the universe.” – The Secret Teachings of Aikido by Morihei Ueshiba

All these teachers point out the same again and again and this is really what Mikao Usui had in mind by adding Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen – My Original Nature is Right Mind/Awareness/Mindfulness to his teachings.

Below are some more teachings about this from a famous Zen master:

“Our state of mind of holding on to nothing at all is our true substance. Holding on to nothing at all does not mean that we lose our memories. It means that we don’t become confused by those memories. When we mix the reality in front of us with our memories of the past, those preconceived notions distort everything, and we can no longer receive things precisely as they are. We are alive right here and right now; we are not living in the past or in the future. When we add on the activity of a me and an I, we cannot see and hear what others are seeing and hearing. Because of this we become unable to believe other human beings. If we can receive the world without dualistic perception—just as when we are physically thirsty, we know to drink water; when we are hungry, we know to eat—we will learn to see clearly and know the truth directly. We understand that all beings are one and feel gratitude for this spontaneously.” – Not One Single Thing by Shodo Harada

“When you see or hear something, leave it at that first perception. Don’t think about what has yet to happen. Always be fresh and ready for whatever does happen. Then, in each moment, the wisdom needed comes forth spontaneously.” – Not One Single Thing by Shodo Harada

“An unmoved mind does not mean a mind that doesn’t move. It is not a mind that is stagnant and fixed, or one that is immobile like a tree or a rock. Rather, an unmoved mind is a mind that is not fixed anywhere, that doesn’t stop and linger in any one place. This mind is always in motion because it never attaches to anything. This, paradoxically, is the true meaning of an “unmoving” mind. When we hear this, we may think that it is nearly impossible to have a mind that is never stopped by anything or never adheres to anything. In fact, it is very simple and straightforward. If we look at it clearly, we’ll see that even a baby has this type of mind. In the mind of a baby there is no fear of being killed, or something terrible happening. In the mind of a baby there’s no extra layer of expectation added to what is perceived. I’am not saying that a baby is the same thing as a kendo master, or that a baby is a master of life. But what is it that allows a baby to perceive each thing directly? What is it that makes us unable to live in this state of mind? It’s not that we acquired a new mind in the process of growing older – that is not possible. We’re all endowed with this mind of a baby, but we’ve accumulated so much extraneous baggage that it is no longer accessible to us. We’ve gathered conceptual ideas, layers of conditioning, various experiences, and rational interpretations of those experiences. To know our original mind we must completely let go of all this clutter.” – Zen Master Shodo Harada

“The purpose of Zen is not to become people who don’t think, but to think only when we need to, not to be lost in unnecessary thoughts but to see what is most necessary right now. If we cook rice, we have to think about how much to cook and how to do it the best way. If we are chopping wood, we have to think about the best way to chop, or if we grow vegetables, we have to think about the best way to cultivate them. But people are always thinking instead about how they look to others. When it is cold, put on clothes; when you are hungry, just eat. No extra decorations need to be added to these actions. When you are sick, become sick completely. When meeting a crisis, instead of grumbling and saying, “Why did this have to happen to me?” just become that crisis completely, without separating from it and complaining. Don’t think about extra things, but live totally embracing just what comes to you, not carrying thoughts about the past or wondering what’s going to happen in the future. If you only think what is necessary, you won’t be carrying the past around, thinking “I should have done that,” “Oh, if I’d only done it this way.” We miss the present when we carry around these kinds of thoughts. Live this moment fully in the most appropriate way!” – Zen Master Shodo Harada

“The Sixth Patriarch stresses that to realize nonthought is to not hold on to anything, no ideas like living and dying, happy and sad, beautiful and ugly. Nonthought is like a mirror that precisely reflects only what comes in front of it, with no opinions or feelings about that which it reflects. Holding on to nothing at all, nonthought does not add on discriminative ideas about things. Nor does it hold on to an intellectual understanding of something; rather, it becomes the thing itself. We don’t lose our past experiences and memories, but we aren’t caught on them and confused by them. We don’t mix them up into everything we see and hear. Our zazen does not erase our past but allows us to see the present totally and clearly.” – Zen Master Shodo Harada

“When our zazen and state of mind are well aligned, the past, present, and future will not be confusing. Our emotions and ideas will not be a problem. We can experience clearly what we see, what we hear, what we feel. Like water that flows by, when things are finished, they are gone. Because we are one with everything and not hanging on to anything, we are always right here, right now. But if we are moved around by circumstances, it cannot work like this. As long as we are acting out of habit, we will be buffeted by what we see, hear, and feel. When our body, mind, and awareness blend into one, each and every moment’s actuality is well ripened, with no division between inside and outside. This is correct perception.” – Zen Master Shodo Harada

“One of the Japanese words for mind is kokoro. The word koro is the onomatopoeia for “rolling along.” Something that rolls like a ball is koro koro koro. So kokoro is something that is always moving and changing, never stopped. There is no object or form that we can identify as mind. It is always changing. Though we are always looking for something to rely on, we cannot find it in something called mind. In the Diamond Sūtra, the Buddha talks about the mind of the past, the mind of the present, and the mind of the future. Our past mind comprises our knowledge and experience. It does not exist in the present, but we access it for information about what we’re doing in the present. If we have preconceived notions about things because of that mind of the past, they may blind us to the reality of the present. That is also true of the mind of the future, which makes plans and directs our actions but is not an actuality. Yet the mind of the present isn’t real either. If we name a now, it is already gone by the time we have named it. “We cannot be aware of a present moment. Once we notice it, it is already a past moment.” – Zen master Shodo Harada

“If we have a lot of stagnation in our physical body and tight places where the energy is caught, then it’s only to be expected that we’ll have many stuck places in our mind as well. Much of our extraneous thinking comes from our energy not flowing smoothly. If you tense the upper half of your body then all your energy will go into that effort. However, if you keep centred in your lower half and properly align your back, your energy will flow freely and you’ll feel the upper half of your body becoming loose and relaxed. Thus it’s important to always keep your spine straight and let go of the tension in your upper part of your body. When you get rid of that stagnation and relax the places that are tense, you discover that many of the blockages in your mind also become looser and more fluid.” – How to do Zazen by Shodo Harada



Daiju Zenji’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Guided-Course-Zen-Meditation-ebook/dp/B0D4QX9JD8