Five Ranks: Form and Emptiness

The five ranks demarking the relationship between the absolute and relative are unique to Zen, significant to the path of spiritual maturation, and difficult to comprehend and wrestle with. They remind me a bit of the trail markers on groomed cross country ski trails, they are nailed onto trees above normal viewing range during the dry season, but when it snows they are at eye level. Nobody can teach you the five ranks any more than they can teach you how to reach for your pillow when you are asleep. With practice and maturation, the subtleties of Mind reveal themselves. As students of Zen, we sit still, pay attention, and harmonize our lives.

Familiarizing yourself with the five ranks can give you some sense of the field of awakening. The absolute state is pure emptiness, and form is the relative state of the uniqueness of things, or the phenomenal world. The third state is the relative within the absolute, which is an appreciation of the dance between form and emptiness, with the foreground of perception on form. The fourth state is the absolute within the relative, which again is an appreciation of the dance between form and emptiness, but with the foreground of perception on emptiness. The fifth state is the integration of form and emptiness without attachment to anything; it is sometimes called 'the mysterious great way'. In Soto Zen, this is the realm of practice and the focus of dharma, not getting caught out by anything, not being run by the realization of emptiness nor the beauty of form, but finding yourself smack dab in the middle of the ever changing now. This is 'things as they is' to quote Suzuki Roshi.

Thinking about the five ranks raises the question of how do we learn about Reality in Zen practice. Zazen is the main way, which is sitting in the middle of not knowing. Sometimes we study teachings that can seem clear or abtuse, but again, they hopefully land us in the middle of not knowing. This not knowing is the stream of zen, of reality, of being, of givng and receiving, of picking up a book and putting it down, of being with friends and walking in solitude, of drinking tea and dying gracefully. The five ranks can give us some appreciation of the Zen path, and perhaps at various stages of our maturation process, they can help us appreciate the ground we share.

looking through five windows
the landscape changes
still the earth is round