CONCLUSION: Zen in theory and practice

Summary

When we discover that we have in this world no earth or rock to stand or walk upon but only shifting sea and sky and wind, the mature response is not to lament the loss of fixity but to learn to sail.

James Boyd White

During Huang Po's time, he left all the monks who followed him and became involved in the general work at Ta-an Monastery, where his continuous practice consisted of sweeping out all the rooms. He swept the Buddha hall and the Dharma hall. But it was not continuous practice done for the sake of sweeping out the mind, nor was it continuous practice performed in order to cleanse the light of the Buddha. It was continuous practice done for the sake of continuous practice.

Dogen

Zen Buddhism has been practiced in East Asia for well over a millennium. During this lengthy historical period, the Zen tradition incorporated into itself many of the spheres of culture – or cultural practices – that were dominant in its time. Theoretical thinking, or philosophy, was one of these, and the Huang Po texts are fine examples of its Zen form in the early Sung period. Nevertheless, Zen Buddhism is not primarily a philosophical movement. Indeed, criticism of theoretical reflection from the perspective of Zen meditation practice is ever present in Zen literature. Even when Zen Buddhists do philosophize, as Huang Po certainly did, practice, not theory, is the emphatic focus of reflection.