Jōriki
定力 (jōriki)
The *jōriki* is the strength born of concentration: the power that arises when the mind, unified and focused on a single point in *zazen*, ceases to be scattered. More than a mere ability to concentrate, it is a dynamic force that, once mobilized, allows one to act immediately, without deliberation, in a way that is right—and frees one from the slavery of passions. The first of the three aims of sitting, it is cultivated endlessly through practice, and fades if neglected.
Joriki, the first of these, is the power or strength which arises when the mind has been unified and brought to one-pointedness in zazen concentration.
Yasutani-rōshi calls the first harvest of sitting: “Joriki, the first of these, is the power or strength that arises when the mind has been unified and brought to one-pointedness in zazen concentration.” The term combines jō (定), collected stillness—samādhi—and riki (力), force. It is the power that wells up when the mind, ceasing to scatter, gathers into a single point.
The rōshi stresses: this is not ordinary concentration. “It is a dynamic power which, once mobilized, enables us even in the most sudden and unexpected situations to act instantly, without pausing to collect our wits, and in a manner wholly appropriate to the circumstances.” One who has cultivated it is no longer enslaved by their passions; they move with real freedom and equanimity, the mind become “like still, clear water.”
Yet jōriki alone is not enough. “Through it alone we cannot cut the roots of our illusory view of the world.” One may practice for years, amass strength, and still not open the eye. It must be joined by kenshō, the breakthrough—though jōriki is its very ground, for without it an isolated glimpse “will fade into mere memory.”
Jōriki ≠ concentration in the usual sense: it is not sustained effort of attention, but a dynamic force that acts of itself in the unforeseen. Jōriki ≠ satori: the power of concentration may grow endlessly without severing the root of illusion; it prepares awakening, it does not contain it.