I have been contemplating being stuck. You know that feeling that something else should be happening. Something more, or different, or better. The sense that whatever is happening is somehow wrong, or bad, or amiss in some way.
The sense of being stuck can even manifest as an over-identification with the hope for growth or healing in a particular area of life.
I want to share a koan from the mumonkan. It’s an old buddhist folktale, that offers some playfulness and insight to this dynamic of being stuck and trying to get unstuck.
Mumonkan CASE 42: Stuck in Samadhi
Case: Once in the ancient days of the World-Honored One, Manjushri went to the place where Buddhas were assembled and found that all the Buddhas were departing for their original dwelling places. Only a young woman remained, sitting in samadhi close to Shakyamuni Buddha’s throne. Manjushri asked the Buddha, “Why can that woman be near the Buddha’s throne while I cannot?” The Buddha said, “Just awaken her and raise her up out of samadhi and ask her yourself.”
Manjushri walked around the woman three times, snapped his fingers once, took her up to the Brahman heaven, and exerted all his supernatural powers, but he could not bring her out of samadhi.
The World-Honored One said, “Even a hundred or a thousand Manjushris would not be able to bring her out of samadhi. Down below, past twelve hundred million lands as innumerable as the sand of the Ganges, is the Bodhisattva Mômyô (Delusive Wisdom). He will be able to arouse her from her samadhi.”
Instantly the Bodhisattva Mômyô emerged out of the earth and made a bow to the World-Honored One, who then gave his command. The Bodhisattva went before the woman and snapped his fingers once. At this, the woman came out of samadhi.
Mumon’s Commentary: Old Shakya plays a country drama on stage, but people of shallow realization cannot appreciate it. Just tell me: Manjushri is the teacher of the Seven Buddhas; why can’t he bring the woman out of her samadhi while Mômyô, who is the bodhisattva of delusive wisdom, can? If you can grasp this completely, you will realize that surging delusive consciousness is nothing other than greatest samadhi.
Like all koans, there are many ways to read this. And we are often invited to take the perspective of all of the characters in the koan. So, who in the koan actually thinks the woman is stuck? She doesn’t seem to. The Buddha doesn’t seem to. Manjushri is quite bent out of shape by this woman’s samadhi.
Now, the point of the koan isn’t to analyze who is right and wrong here, or think too much about what it is about. Koans are meant to be brought inside. So one way of working with this is to see all these characters as parts of us.
I think we all have a part like Manjushri. A part that is good at finding the problem, of diagnosing, of trying to fix.
There might be aspects of your life or spiritual practice that this part is keeping track of. Where it feels you are stuck. If we were to inquire where in your life you are feeling stuck (could be in your relationships, in you career, in your spiritual practice, in your home life, in your experience right now?) We would meet this inner Manjushri.
It starts with a seeming commonplace thought—this shouldn’t be happening, something is wrong!
Manjushri is a wise part, as the koan goes, he is the teacher of the past seven buddhas. This part of us knows a lot of spiritual maneuvers, a lot of tricks to get you unstuck.
for example: take deep breaths, practice metta, imagine your body is made of light, see it as a dream, feel the space around the feeling
Manjushri knows all of the tools in the spiritual toolkit. And, he’s operating with that belief— that this shouldn’t be happening, you shouldn’t be feeling this way.
That you need to fix it, get rid of it, change it.
This koan is showing us, an experience that we probably all know: that when we are trying to get something that we don’t like to go away or change using spiritual practice, it often appears to grow stronger.
So the Buddha here, that wise and compassionate aspect of being, says even 100 thousand wise Manjushri’s wouldn’t be able to get her unstuck.
But there is a being, the bodhisattva of delusive wisdom, who lives in the depths of the earth, they will be able to do it.
So who is this being, bodhisattva means awakening being, so we have the awakened energy of delusive wisdom.
But, what is delusive wisdom?
The zen the teachings say you must become like a fool, an idiot.
Forget all that accumulated knowledge.
Forget even the names for things.
Slip below all thoughts and distinctions.
To the place before right/wrong, good/bad, success/failure
before buddha/delusion, wise one / idiot, woman/man.
What is this place?
Out before ideas of right and wrong there is a field, i’ll meet you there—Rumi
This is a place of true, fundamental acceptance.
Spaciousness.
This being isn’t outraged that a woman is sitting near the buddha’s throne, nor does it have an issue with her being stuck in samadhi
Delusive wisdom is meeting her as she is. Momyo doesn’t have some big agenda about what is supposed to be happening.
Momyo is the aspect of our mind that just is.
We sometimes call it the mind ground.
Openness.
When we meet our stuckness from a place of spacious acceptance, its allowed to change on its own.
And so, the woman comes out of samadhi at the snap of delusive wisdoms fingers.
It’s hard for the thinking mind to believe that it can trust the simplicity of awareness itself, that there is medicine here.
The mind thinks if we stop feeding our thoughts, or stop all of our doing—that we’ll be stupid or inadequate in someway.
There is wisdom in being no one special, in the openness of being itself
—which is never stuck.
…
I’m Amy Kisei. I am a Zen Buddhist Teacher, Spiritual Counselor, Astrologer and Artist. I offer 1:1 Spiritual Counseling sessions using IFS and somatic mindfulness. I also offer astrology readings. Check out my website to learn more. I currently live in Columbus, OH and am a supporting teacher for the Mud Lotus Sangha.
Summer Read— The Hidden Lamp: Stories from 25 Centuries of Awakened Women
Join me starting on the Summer Solstice, Friday June 20th for a summer read of the Hidden Lamp. I hand selected 15 stories from the book that we will explore over the course of the summer.
Weekly Online Meditation Event
Monday Night Dharma — 6P PT / 9P ET Join weekly for drop-in meditation and dharma talk. We are currently exploring supportive practice forms for engaging the dharma in life outside of retreat.
Feel free to join anytime. Event lasts about 1.5 hours. ZOOM LINK
Zen Practice opportunities through ZCO
Grasses, Trees and the Great Earth Sesshin—August 11 - 17, in-person at Great Vow Zen Monastery (this retreat is held outdoors, camping is encouraged but indoor dorm spaces are available)
In-Person in Columbus, Ohio through Mud Lotus Sangha
Interdependence Sesshin: A Five Day Residential Retreat Wednesday July 2 - Sunday July 6 in Montrose, WV at Saranam Retreat Center (Mud Lotus is hosting its first Sesshin!)
Share this post