Fathoming Fathomless

Good evening!

After long lasting rainy days and some stormy days, we are now having a very fine, bright evening, and we can enjoy peace, harmony in zazen.

Dogen said, “Zazen is the essential function of buddhas, and the functional essence of the ancestors.” (Shobogenzo, Zazenshin) The buddha dharma means the awakened form and norm. So, we sit just like the Buddha (Awakened One) and enter into the awakened norm or truth.

Sawaki Roshi often said that zazen is “switching on” or “tuning in” the Buddha’s world. This is to switch from the human realm to the Buddha realm – in nirvana, unconditioned peace, and bodhi, awakening.

Nirvana means the “cessation of wind,” karma wind. We stop all physical, verbal, and mental activities, still all human and animal physical and mental fabrications, and enter into the ultimate truth – just settle in truth itself and peace, harmony, and holiness.

“Fathom the fathomless! How can one fathom the fathomless? Fathomless.” (Dogen, A Universal Recommendation for the Right Zazen) That is the ultimate state.