Lluís Nansen Salas, 2024, Indra i la Guineu, Ensenyances zen a Lluçà 5, Barcelona, Edicions Zen Kannon
The book “Indra and the Fox” is the fifth volume of the teachings given in Lluçà, in the Lluçanès region, during the sesshin, the Zen practice retreats. This book includes those held in 2019. As an example, it contains a question-answer discussion on the four dhyana.
Indra and the Fox contains all the mondo from those retreats, meaning the questions asked by students and practitioners of the Path and the answers provided by the master. The book has been made possible thanks to all the practitioners who transcribed the successive recordings.
You can find Indra and the Fox at the Gran Via Zen Temple, for 10 euros. (Available only in Catalan)
Contents of Indra and the Fox
Easter Retreat 2019
Ango, the Summer Retreat 2019
Rohatsu, December Retreat 2019
End of Year Retreat in Barcelona 2019
Excerpt from Indra and the Fox
Question about the Four Dhyana
Student: Regarding the four dhyanas, I’m quite lost. For example, I understand that it’s a state of joy that transforms into a state of equanimity. Then, from what I read, what one has to do with the state of joy is to remove the ego that experiences the joy, and I don’t know if that’s correct. What does equanimity mean? And how does it differ from joy? I don’t know, if you could give me a hint…
Response on the Four Dhyana
Nansen: Well, in the four dhyanas, it’s about shedding the various attachments of our mind.
First Dhyana
We start by letting go of the world of desires and expectations, which allows us to enter the first dhyana. This is achieved through the practice of zazen. It’s hard to see all these releases in a short meditation session, but if we practice longer meditations, like those we do in retreats, we can observe how, initially, we’re still caught up in the world of desire and ego-driven impulses, and as we manage to release them, we enter this first dhyana.
Second Dhyana
Next, even if we’ve let go of desire and aversion, there is still an internal struggle between opposites: between what we like and dislike, between what we believe is just and unjust, between good and evil. This still keeps us in a state of unease and anxiety. At the moment we can free ourselves from this struggle between opposites and enter a state of non-dual consciousness, this liberates us. For instance, when we are struggling to decide if something is just or not, this creates a restlessness that we can abandon once we let go of this struggle.
Third Dhyana
The next step is to realize that there is a subject to all our perception, that there is an “I” that creates a sense of duality between itself and what it perceives, between the “I” and the “I” that thinks. As we go deeper into meditation, we can shed this belief in the “I,” this tendency caused by our perception that makes us believe there is an “I” that perceives and thinks, something fixed in our minds. The belief in a fixed “I” is one of the roots of our suffering.
During meditation, there are moments when we can let go of this belief, and it feels as if there is no “I” living the experience, but rather that the experience itself is being lived, which produces joy.
Fourth Dhyana
Every time we let go of something, it produces joy. It’s like when we carry a heavy backpack and put it down; we feel a sense of relief and joy. Each of these joys is slightly different, depending on what we’ve released. This influences how we feel that joy, and the sensations are slightly different each time we let go of something.
Finally, we can also let go of that joy and the desire to seek that joy. When we discover joy in meditation, we might feel the urge to seek it out and enjoy it. That’s when it’s also time to let go of the search for this joy.
Equanimity
Then the mind enters a state of equanimity, in which we feel that nothing is missing or excessive, that we simply are, without wanting or desiring anything.
During sesshin, we can all experience these releases and enter into this equanimity and sense of simply being. We only need to follow the instructions and guidelines of sesshin, which truly guide us in experiencing and letting go of all this. But it’s essential to follow all the guidelines if we want to experience it, because, for example, if we move, if we don’t maintain stillness, we remain in the state before the first dhyana.
The Stillness of the Zazen Posture
Moving follows a desire, the desire to move, and we act on it. At the moment we move, we fall out of these deeper states of concentration and immediately return to the ordinary world. The moment we make a voluntary movement, our mind returns to its starting point. That’s why I insist so much on maintaining stillness. If, when we feel the impulse of “I would move now. I need to move,” we wait a bit longer, then that desire fades, and our mind can shift into a state of greater release and change its functioning. Throughout the sesshin, these are states of concentration we can experience.
Excerpt from the book Lluís Nansen Salas, 2024, Indra i la Guineu, Ensenyances zen a Lluçà 5, Barcelona, Edicions Zen Kannon