Good morning!
We’re having a nice spring season with abundant greenery and pleasant spring air, especially after our sittings. Zen-jo, jhāna-samādhi, is the ultimate state of Zen and most of the 37 Ways. The Four Stages of Zen show its essence and effect of one-pointedness, one-centeredness, and one-wholeness (eka-agra-tā, agra = akros, top/cap) of the mind (one-mindedness, con-centration: samādhi) throughout (widened, deepened, and cleared as the stages are advanced).
It is initially focusing on one object (breathing, etc.), gradually letting go of mental fabrications or stilling karma (conceptions, emotions, and volitions as the stages are advanced). It is stilling, settling, synthesizing, and integrating in one wholesome whole (holiness in the dharma-realm from karma-realm). It is settling in one perfect sphere (ichi-en-so: one circle aspect: holiness) in peace and truth.
As Dogen said, “To learn the Awakened Way is to learn the self; to learn the self is to forget the self; to forget the self is to be verified by all dharmas.” The bodies and minds of the self and others (karma kinetics and consequences) are falling away, and the dharma world is witnessed in nirvana and bodhi, awakening, and prajňā, prognosis, more and more, wider and deeper.
This witnessing of one world of all beyond a separated, substantial self in substancelessness (suňňatā/śūnyatā) – the so-called “original face” or “true nature” – is important to be witnessed as the ultimate truth by more people, to be seen as the original state before the karma consequences of conventional truth. The difficulty is in actual cultivation and verification, as Dogen said.
May 18, 2019 C.E. Dharma talk
お早うございます！
特に坐禅の後の私達には豊かな緑と爽やかな春の空気で素晴らしい春の季節を享受します。禅定、jhāna-samādhi、は禅と三十七道種（八聖道等）の大部分の究極状態です。四禅（禅四段階）は（段階を進むにつれて広がり、深まり、清まる）四段階を通じて、心の一境界、一集中、一全体（eka-agra-tā, agra = akros、首・先/端：一心・集中：三昧）の本質と結果を示しています。
それは先ず（呼吸等）一対象に集中し、徐々に心的造作を放擲し、即ち業（段階を進むにつれて観念・感情・意欲）を静めます。それは一全体健全（業境界から法界の聖性に）浄化し、落着し、総合し、統合します。それは平和と真実の一完全境界（一円相：聖性）に落ち着つくのです。
「仏道をならふといふは自己をならふ也、自己をならふといふは自己をわするゝなり、自己をわするゝといふは万法に証せらるゝなり、万法に証せらるゝといふは自己の身心および他己の身心（業作用とその結果）をして脱落せしむるなり」と道元が言うように、涅槃と菩提（覚醒）と般若（洞察・智恵・処方）の中に更に多く更に広く更に深く法界が確証されるのです。
空（suňňatā/śūnyatā：無実体)―所謂「本来の面目」「真性」―の中に分離され実体化された自我を超えた一切の一世界の確証はより多くの人々に究極の真実であると確証され、俗諦の業果以前の本来の状態であると見られることが重要です。困難は道元が言うように実際の修行と覚証にあります。
2019共通年5月18日 法話
