Zazen & Memory

The primary task in zazen is to disable certain associative and specifically mnemonic functions. The intimate connection between memory and consciousness is the reason why the forerunner and Daoist counterpart of “just sitting,” called “sitting in oblivion” (Chinese “zuowang”) is sometimes (rightly) translated as “sitting in forgetfulness.” Not-knowing is precisely the inability to recall, and unknowing is the essence of zazen. In zazen we intentionally (or at lest willingly) disable the neural mechanisms that perform the numerous, mostly involuntary associative operations that make the texture of our ordinary mental life so rich and varied. To use a simile from the world of digital computation, the practitioner of “just sitting” gradually reduces the extent of the massive parallel processing that enables her to use multiple screens and multiple windows within a screen, and to compare the contents of innumerable open folders almost simultaneously. The closing of those programs greatly reduces the amount of mental activity while at the same time taking computing power away from the functions of higher-order awareness.

The success of Dōgen’s way is due to the clever misdirection of his instructions for zazen, and his insistence that dhyāna-samādhi is ever-present and self-realizing. We are relieved of responsibility for our own liberation and, therefore, the process of unlearning, de-centration, and dissociation is able to unfold gradually and naturally, mostly outside of awareness.