Zen Forms
When I talk about form here I am just simply talking about how to move around and conduct yourself in a Zen temple. There is another much more difficult concept of form in the sense of ‘form and emptiness’ in Zen but we will leave that for another lesson.
San Francisco Zen Center offers a short Saturday morning training on zendo (mediation hall) forms for people who are new to practicing Zen in a temple and I’m sure most other temples do this too. I encourage you to join one of these training sessions as it will give you more confidence and make it easier to join in the programs.
When I did this training the teacher told us to think of coming to the zen center as like being in a book club. If you are in a book club for it to work well you need everyone to agree to some basic forms: to all read the same book at the same time, to meet at a certain time and place and to be seated and settled by a certain time, to have some periods for silent reading and some periods for discussion and so on.
I really liked this analogy as there are lots of ‘forms’ to Zen practice about when to be where, when to be silent, how to hold your hands when you are walking, which way to spin around when getting on and off the meditation cushion and so on, but I think a lot of the forms (or rules) can be thought of as just like simple book club rules so that we can all be in the same space without causing each other trouble.
I will also say that I see someone get something a bit wrong every single day at San Francisco Zen Center (sometimes me!) and it really doesn't matter. I might forget to bow when stepping onto the tatami mat or not get into line at quite the right time, but everyone is very helpful and will gently and kindly correct you if you make a mistake. The important thing is to do your best, stay observant and respectful of others and you will pick it up over time. Zen is very much about doing, even imperfectly, rather than holding back and waiting to be perfect.
Next lesson I will cover the basic forms of being in the zendo.
