Here now in awakened way, global ethic, voluntary simplicity (the three pillars of the Missouri Zen Center: http://missourizencenter.org) is presented from talks at the center, posting at stl.today, etc.
The four potency bases (iddhi-pāda) are will-, striving-, mind-, and investigation-potency bases attained by refined effort in samadhi. These decrease the unwholesome and increase the wholesome like the four efforts.
These increase potency or potential power to morality leading to nirvana and awakening. These are sometimes described as miraculous power to read other’s minds, go through walls, touching the sun, etc., but figuratively.
In the samadhi states as in the limitless space realm samadhi, one may feel like freely going through or being with anything throughout space and time in the subjective mental world. Serene senses may see person, past, etc.
When Kevatta asked the Buddha to show supernatural power, the Buddha said that it is virtuous conduct, not supernatural show, that display the superiority of a teacher, as they can be falsified by charms, spells, etc.
Life, light, liberation, and love are miracles. Everyone is provided with potential, called Buddha-nature, to limitless life, light, liberation, and love. So, let us cultivate our potential for potency bases with virtues, not vices.
The four right efforts (sammappadhāna) are effort for non-arising of the unwholesome (akusala), for abandoning of the unwholesome, for arising the wholesome, and for maintaining of the wholesome (kusala).
These are general definitions of the four right efforts for the right exertion (vāyāma) in the eight holy ways – not starting and stopping the unwholesome and starting and securing the wholesome/skillful.
So, the four right abandoning (pahana in Sanskrit, its translation断: cut in Chinese) are wrong rendering of the original Pali, telling only the half of avoiding side, missing the encouraging the wholesome side.
Four efforts in more general terms for practice of meditation, etc. are given as restraint of bad actions, abandoning bad habits, cultivating (bhāvanā: causing to be) new good actions, and securing good habits.
Cultivation combines inner energy (viriya: virility, striving force), intent exertion (vāyāma), and intricate effort (padhāna) to produces abundant ability crops to appreciate with all. Let us cultivate with all!
Welcome back home from the trip to Japan for her academic meeting, Rofu! Coming home and sitting happily is the best thing we can enjoy entirely. We hope we can listen to her experience of the trip.
Thank you!
おはようございます！
「四正勤（sammappadhāna）」とは、
① 不善（akusala）を生じさせない努力、
② 生じた不善を断つ努力、
③ 善（kusala）を起こす努力、
④ 起こった善を維持する努力
――この四つの努力を意味します。
The four mindful orientations (Satipaṭṭhāna) paces one’s mind on 1. body (kāya) 2. feeling (vedanā) 3. mind (citta) 4. dharmas (dhammā), and from the body to feeling, mind, and the Dharma (Law of all dharmas: forms).
This fits to the process of the four stages of meditation (jhāna). We can observe the body’s impermanence, leaving the five coverings of lust, etc., feeling’s comfort/suffering/neutral, leaving the four fluxes of samsara, etc.
We observe the mind’s triple poisons, leaving nescience, witnessing nirvana (no wind, of karma) and awakening in the Dharma of Dependent Co-origination (of sense organs/object/consciousness, body/mind/world, etc.).
Zen (jhāna) stills karma and leads to awakening from the long night of nescience (no witness, of nirvana). Otherwise, we are karma-machines with the triple poisons, etc., in samsara suffering, heading to the world doom.
So, let us orient our minds to observe our bodies and minds to see our karma and the Dharma, and share our practice with others for a better world in harmony and happiness!
The Buddha prognosticated the four holy truths of suffering, its cause, its solution, and its path, which is the holy (wholly wholesome, applicable for all problems in healthy solutions) problem solving truths applicable to all.
We can apply these four solution steps on all our problems and write theses in these orders to give clearcut presentations. Buddha’s doctor Jivaka must have used these steps in his diagnosis, etiology, prognosis, and treatment.
Suffering comes from craving, whose cessation is nirvana, and paths are usually identified as the eight holy ways of right view, thinking, speech, action, livelihood, striving, mindfulness, samadhi (synthesis).
Theravada tradition lists 37 awakening limbs made of 4 mental stations, 4 right strivings, 4 superpowers, 5 faculties, 5 powers, 7 awakening limbs, 8 right ways (some duplicating). Mahayana stresses on the 6 perfections.
So, let us study and strive in these truths and paths to solve our problems and others for a better world to live in harmony and happiness!
Zazen is the Buddha’s legacy and the key to open anyone’s treasury. He learned samadhi, but was not quite satisfied by it. He witnessed nirvana, and thus awakened from the long night of nescience of ego, karma, the Dharma, etc.
He prognosticated our suffering, its cause, solution, and path, sharing them with as many as possible, advising people according to their needs. The source was his prognosis produced through his daily Zen practice.
The four Zen stages and four samadhis are combined and called the eight-fold gradual samadhi. He learned the last two samadhis from his two teachers. The other two seem to have been borrowed from the Upanishad thinkers.
Samadhi is complete absorption into something, but Zen is the calm, clear synthesis of all, functioning freely and fully in the real world. Zen was his key to open the treasury for the best use of it as well as for all of us to use.
May 2, 2025 C.E.
Notes:
Zen (jhāna) is considered to be the Buddha’s innovative practice of samadhi (sanmai, jō). This is complete self-absorption into something (in formless, consciousness, realm only, eyes closed), but that is the balanced and well-regulated practice of nirvana and awakening, peace and prognosis (in form, sense object, realm, to cope with real life, eyes half-opened). The Buddha learned no-possession realm samadhi from Alara Kalama and neither ideation nor non-ideation realm samadhi from Uddaka Rama(putta). He, however, was not satisfied with them, because these led neither to emancipation from samsara nor to complete awakening. He left these teachers and strived in his own search. The other two samadhis (limitless space realm and limitless consciousness realm samadhis) may be added (to the four samadhis list) from the older Upanishadic tradition like Yajnavalkya and Uddalaka to make four (the holy number coming from four limbs). So, the title of the eight gradual samadhis is not appropriate. The importance is in the fourth stage in nirvana in free function, in synthesis, but with serene senses.
The Buddha analyzed the mind further into feeling, idea, formations (volition, habit energy, etc.), and consciousness to find out if any of them were permanent (self-same), independent (self-sovereign). He determined that there is no such thing as Atman (Self-substance, which was considered to transmigrate: samasara) in them, or in the (physical) form. Thus, the Awakened Way admits the two truths: conventional (common) and ultimate (universal). Humans are prejudiced by their views, values, languages, etc. The geocentric view was corrected by the heliocentric one.
Yesterday we touched on the four limitlessnesses or Brahma-abode of friendship, compassion, joy, and liberation (upekhā, lit. letting go, releasing, discarding). The last two appear toward the end of meditation (jhāna :zen).
The four zen stages show a cessation process of intellection, emotion, and volition. It is a natural stilling process of karma from outer to inner brain functions. The last stage is nirvana, cessation of karma wind blowing us.
The last stage is natural release, though it seems discarding the vital life function, volition for survival. It is also called liberation (mutti, vimutti: liberation from body/mind like cicada shedding skin, cf. body/mind falling).
Jhāna is essentially samādhi process, as often used combined as zen-jō. The true meditation starts after reaching nirvana, where ego-sense is left behind. Awakening is in nirvana with constant practice. Practice makes limitless.
Let us continue our cultivation, as only practice makes perfect – limitless cultivation makes limitless verification of the four limitlessnesses!
“No evils done, All good provided, One’s heart purified, Is the teaching of all Buddhas.” (Dhp.183) Bailutien said, “Even a three-year-old kid could know it.” Rev. Bird’s Nest relied, “Even an eighty-year-old man can’t do it.”
Purifying one’s heart is discarding and become liberated from one’s karma of the triple poisons of desire, divisiveness, and delusion. Then, one can have joy, compassion, and friendship with all. These can be limitlessness.
The Bodhisattva’s three collective pure pillars (sīla) are embracing all restraints (saṁvara), all good (kusala) dharmas, and all beings with beneficial actions (sattā-artha-kriyā). These are truly the great ways.
Why do we remain in the small selves, fighting for money, matter, and might? It is due to no witness of nirvana and awakening, sharing life, heart, and harmony in limitless life, light, liberation, and love of and for all.
So, let us continue our cultivation in the triple collective pure pillars for all to live in a better world in limitless life, light, liberation, and love!
The triple vehicles are Hearers (sāvaka), Solitery buddhas (pacceka- buddha), and Bodhisattva/Great (mahā) Vehicle (yāna). Bodhisattva/Great Vehicle is to save all or even to save others first and oneself last.
Pacchekabuddhas were thought to be those who were awakened to paccaya (causal conditions) or paṭiccasamuppāda (dependent origination). Pacceka/ prati-eka means solitary or individualistic, not living or sharing with others.
The Buddha first sought goodness for his salvation, but after rightly and completely understanding the Dharma of Dependent Origination, sought for holiness to save all as a bodhisattva, as all are inseparably interconnected.
Bodhisattva was first applied to his aspiring for his awakening but later applied to his aspiring for others’ awakening. The most famous bodhisattvas like Avalokitasvara, Maitreya were coined from his own life episodes.
So, let us correctly and completely understand the Dharma of Dependent Co- origination to live the bodhisattva ideals to share it with and for all, as Dogen said, “If not with all, it is not the Awakened Way or Great Vehicle!”
The Triple Worlds (loka, √lok: look) or Realms (dhātu, √dhā: put) originally meant the triple realms of lust/desires (kāma), form (rūpa), and formless (a-rūpa), dependently originated on our sense organs and objects.
They later became connected with our existential realms according to the mental states of beings of desires (humans, animals, divinities from old traditions, etc.), physical (in meditation), and non-physical (in samadhi).
The further became the realms of beings with desires (hell beings, hungry ghosts, fighting devils, animals, humans, divinities), desireless physical state (those in meditation), and non-physical states (those in samadhi).
The fourth stage of zen and samadhi is blissful (sukha-vatī), so is called gokuraku (paradise, most blissful) and jōdo (pure-land by liberation). Anyone can sit still, settle in nirvana, gokuraku, jōdo beyond desires.
Let us continue our cultivation in siting, stilling karma, and settling in nirvana – gokuraku, jōdo, paradise, pure-land – with, of, and for all! Thank you!
Awakening for All; Zazen Treasure: Triple Treasures
Good morning!
Mankind can now destroy the whole world with its life systems by a dictator, war, nuclear holocaust or even its mishap. This is due to individual ego and national ego. This is the abnormal absurdity and irony of homo sapiens.
This is the cul-de-sac of human evolution of karma with the triple poisons of desire, divisiveness, and delusion, the dead-end of ego after billions of years of self-survival strife. Egotistic masses even don’t care about this.
The solution lies in an awakening of the majority to stop it, observing the universal truth/ethic, and reforming the social system. This is to make the triple treasures of the Awakened, the Dharma, and the Community universal.
The concrete way is to sit still, settle in nirvana (no-wind, of karma), see the Dharma of Dependent Co-origination, secure the global ethic, and serve and save all in holy harmony, health, and happiness, in friendship, and freedom.
So, let us strive in sharing the triple treasures with as many as possible in holy (wholly wholesome) harmony, friendship, and freedom!
Thank you!
April 25, 2025 C.E.
Notes:
“The Dharma (Norm/Law/Truth/Ethic) of all dharmas (forms/phenomena/ truths/ethics)” is Dependent Co-origination, i.e., all phenomena are interdependently co-originated on limitless causes and conditions (similar to the Law of Causality, but deeper and wider – beyond conventions, conceptions, objects, etc.). This means that we are interrelated with other beings (other species, elements, stars, etc.), and relatives to each other, and that we must therefore live together harmoniously and strive to make a wholly wholesome world to become harmonious, healthy, and happy.
Karma (grow/create with the past/present physical/verbal/mental action, habit, heredity) is instilled with the triple poisons of desire, divisiveness, and delusion (of ego/mei: I/my). The Buddha said that all living beings are karma-birthed, -heirs, -owners, -machines, and -refuged. He clarified that there is no self-substance with self-sameness (permanent) and self-sovereignty (wishful) entities due to the Dharma (Truth/Law) of all dharmas (phenomena), Dependent Co-origination. We as karma-machines must change to the Dharma-refuged in order to change the world in suffering to that in holiness (wholly wholesome: harmonious, healthy, and happy).
The Twelve-limbed Dependent Co-origination (bhava-cakka/bhava-cakra, becoming wheel) is the most well-known representative application of the Dharma of Dependent Co-origination, though it is misinterpreted due to its linear presentation by oral tradition and the Hindu idea of transmigration (an embryogenetical interpretation called two causalities in three generations). Actually, it is a compound formed from the Dependent Co-origination of consciousness on sense organs and objects, of suffering on craving, and of samsara (total flow: moment-to-moment change, not like transmigration in Hinduism) on appropriation. It illustrates how our life goes with the five aggregates (originally identifying and analyzing so-called “self,” later “world”), resulting in suffering due to the triple poisons.
Please refer to 3 of “Why Buddhism Now?” for the detailed explanation of the structural explanation of the Becoming Wheel (bhava cakka/cakka):
Ego (I, Ich, Je, etc.) is the pronoun used to point to oneself as the subject, the speaker, the agent of action, of responsibility, the possessor of property, etc. separating oneself from others. The repeated use of this enhances the self-sense, leading to the substantiality of “self, Self, Soul, etc.” The Buddha analyzed the self as a psycho-physical system further into (physical) form and (psychical) feeling, idea, formation (emotion, volition, action), and consciousness, finding no self-same (permanent), self-sovereign (independent) self (-substance: entity) – no Atman, Self, Soul, etc., also finding the Dharma (universal truth/ethic) of Dependent Co-origination.
Ernst Cassirer defined humans as homo symbolicum in his Philosophy of Symbolism, its summary AnEssay on Man, where humans are described as skillful in handling the symbolisms of language, myth, religion, art, science, history, etc. The Myth of the State is an important work that shows how states operate and how people are misled to wars and even nuclear Nationalism is the blind belief of the (nation) state as a real entity to be devoted to. Self, Society, Status, State, and Species are five symbols or pseudo-substances.
The triple learnings of morality, samādhi (synthesis), and prognosis counter the triple poisons. Jhāna (Zen: meditation, practically zazen: sitting meditation) is the essential way to still karma, unwind the involution/devolution of the triple poisons, reaching nirvana (no- wind, of karma), embracing morality and prognosis by samādhi (synthesis) of all (psycho-physical-world in universal truth/ethic). Prognosis practice is the union of knowing and acting (awakening in the Dharma and acting in morality, both in nirvana).
The solution to the global problematique, mutually related global problems such as climate change, mass extinction, nationalism, war, nukes, dictatorship, dogma, discrimination, pollution, and poverty, requires the global ethic (issued by the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1993 with more than seven thousand people from all religions and from all over the world attending), which is based on the Five Precepts (and the fundamental common elements in the Ten Precepts, the Ten Commandments, etc. of Buddhism, etc.). The Inter-Action Institute drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities (counterpart to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to be published at the 50th anniversary of its issuance) for the U.N. to publish, but it has been shelved for the time being.
