In particular, paragraph 27 shows that this practice is not a matter of
attention to subconscious mental activity, as Jung seemed to think.
28. Fixing the length of time for meditation can have negative effects,
turning what is supposed to be a liberative technique into an
automatizing ritual. Japanese Zennists and their Western imitators often
seem to think of sitting meditation in quantitative terms, but in the
golden flower teaching quality is the foremost consideration. According
to National Teacher Muso Soseki, one of the early greats of Japanese
Zen, the establishment of fixed periods of sitting meditation was
originally a matter of discipline, instituted during the Middle Ages to
cope with large numbers of monastic inmates who had entered Zen
orders for economic or sociological reasons.
V. Errors in Turning the Light Around
1. "There are many pitfalls in front of the cliff of withered trees" is an
adaptation of a Chan Buddhist saying. The cliff of withered trees stands
for a state of nonthinking quiescence, from which standpoint it is easy to
fall unawares into deviations. Wilhelm translates "in front of the cliff of
withered trees" as "before you reach the condition where you sit like a
withered tree before a cliff" This may give the misleading impression
that the "withered tree" condition is the goal.
