Reading Kapleau’s Three Pillars of Zen*; he makes the interesting remark (p. 17) that Chinese and Japanese masters stress that only upon full enlightenment can one truly know good from evil. There is something in this. Of course one knows good and evil in an egocentric sense from a very early age. Good is what pleases and evil what hurts. But to know in a cosmic sense, to see the inter-connectedness of all that is and the ramifications of even the most neutral-seeming actions, that is another matter. So often evil comes in the guise of good, good for the subject, that it is not recognised for what it is.
What an interesting connection with the Genesis myth and the command given to Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge because then they would be like God. They would cease to be like innocent children and know good and evil. In the Hindu tradition ignorance is the great evil precisely because it prevents the discernment of the real good, ultimate reality. Another reason why prescriptions and ethical codes are necessary. ‘Obey the nature of things and you are in concord with The Way’ said Seng Ts’an. This concordance must reverberate through one’s whole being and facilitate the search for the Truth. In a sense one has found the Truth but does not yet know it.
In Zen meditation great emphasis is placed on the importance of hara. This is the region just below the navel and is seen as the physical and spiritual centre of the body. The attention should be focused here. It takes one out of the head and into the body. The centre of gravity shifts to its proper place and one no longer feels top heavy. The whole body feels lighter, head raised, shoulders straightened, one is at ease with oneself, more detached, more able to see body and self in perspective. Kapleau makes a comparison between the agonised and tortured attitude of Rodin’s Thinker and the peaceful tranquillity of the Buddha in the lotus posture. Such a little thing and such a profound change.
*Philip Kapleau, The Three Pillars of Zen, Anchor Books, New York, 1989