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無念無想
“Examine the nature of unborn awareness* ”
“Even the remedy is freed to subside naturally* ”
Once we start to tread the path of kata yaburi, what is next? Can there be something more?
If we sit and contemplate upon the name of the three hanbo kamae of the Bujinkan Kukishinden Ryu: ‘kata yaburi’, ‘munen muso’, and ‘otonashi’, they appear to contain three instructions on how to proceed once we have learned the form. The first of these ‘kata yaburi’ ( 型破り and/or 形破り ) is telling us to break/ destroy/ defeat/ become free from the form. The second, ‘munen muso’( 無念無想 and/or 無念無相 ) shows us where to go and what to do next.
As an instruction, rather than the name of a kamae, these words show us that to progress further we need apply kata yaburi to our mind, the source of all of our habits. Within these kanji we are being told to look directly, not conceptualise, just look directly at the nature of the unborn awareness. And as we do this we arrive at the state of munen. Once we are here (now, in the state of munen), the second part of the maxim tells us to let go of the method, which is a subtle conceptual form, and to rest in what ever is, however we appear. Through this we become completely formless, without concept, without a sense of I and other, and further more without the constrains of body and mind.
We can play a game with our mind to help arrive at this state as we approach the munen muso. We can ask ourselves when we arrive here: “how big are we”, “how small are we”, “how old are we”, “when were we born”, “when will we die”. More likely than not, when we truly are munen muso, we will find these questions irrelevant, but it is worth trying as often the nature of the answers that arrive in our heart can be very unexpected, taking us that one step closer to now.
*Quote taken from the 19th Century "The Root Text of the Seven Points of Training the Mind" by Jamgon Kongtrul; a great Tibetan teacher, credited as a founder of the Tibetan Buddhist Rime movement, and compiler of the 'Five Great Treasuries'.
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