Good morning!
After our sittings, we have a very peaceful world inside and out. We are very fortunate that we are walking in the Awakened Way and have the concrete practice to attain it. Zazen is the essential way and the full functioning of our life.
The Buddha said that religion is cultivation (bhâvanâ). Dogen made it very clear that the practice of zazen is essential. I translated the Shushogi (Significance or Meaning of Cultivation and Verification), which is a later compilation of passages from his Shobogenzo (Storage of the Right Dharma Eye), for propagation among lay people. There was some criticism that this work did not mention the practice of zazen. I think his Fukanzazengi (A Universal Recommendation for Right Zazen), is the real message. In this work he gave us the essence of our practice.
Religion is not just belief in ideas, much less book reading alone. It must be lived right here and now, a constant cultivation of ourselves and verification of the results. Dogen said, “Even though everyone is abundantly endowed with this dharma, without cultivation it does not develop. Without verification, it is not attained.”
I see now the true character of cultivation. It is the key to make one completely good in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end, oneself and others together. We now have a lot of really big problems individually, socially, and ecologically because of our human karma. We are now in the sixth mass extinction, without a solution.
To really understand the crucial significance of cultivation, we must understand our true situations – our fundamental problems and sufferings. Then only we can understand and act with total dedication, full power, and full function.
The Buddha did not really understand life, death, and the true way. So he strived strenuously for six years and attained unconditioned peace and unsurpassed complete right awakening. But, even after his awakening, he lived always practicing zazen, morning, noon, evening, and sometimes in seclusion for many months at a time.
Dogen, too, could not understand why we should practice if, as Mahayana Buddhism claims, we are all buddhas originally. He had studied Buddhism from a very young age, reading widely, after seeing the brittleness of life. Eventually he went to China to seek the truth, but, disappointed at not finding a true teacher, he nearly left the country without finding his answer. Then, someone recommended that he meet Juching. He practiced devotedly under his guidance and experienced the dropping off of body and mind.
He was awakened to the universal truth, the master key to solve suffering. He returned home, empty handed, embodying it. Soon after he returned from China, he wrote this Universal Recommendation for Right Zazen. He wanted everybody to practice zazen, but unfortunately, only a limited few actually practice it, and those who do rarely continue their whole lives.
Dogen devoted himself to this essential practice and established a practice place. This practice is very hard for humans – as animals (my body) and symbolic handlers (I, my, me, mine) – to understand and actualize. That’s why we still have all kinds of problems and sufferings. Unless we cultivate ourselves truly, we don’t attain the result. If we never attain wholly wholesome truth and peace, mankind and the life system are doomed. We must strive in this practice and let others practice also.
Dogen made poems about our situations:
Many a month and day
Are spent in vain.
But, little is the time
For seeking the Way.
In the course of the horse
Of flying light of the day,
How few are those
Who ride the right Way!
On the path-ends of
One foolish mind,
One seems to tread
As the Six Paths.
The Six Paths are the paths of hell beings, hungry ghosts, beasts, fighting devils, human beings, and celestial beings. We constantly go up and down, transmigrating among these existential realms. We never stop doing this until we stop karma. But if we stop, we can be in unconditioned peace and unsurpassed awakening. So, also he made this poem:
How precious are the time-honored
Words of the Seven Buddhas!
Through learning them
We surpass the Six Paths.
As the Buddha said, we are all karma machines. So we run on tread wheels in rat races. We now see a lot of commotion, and more will come with our ecological, economic, and ego-centered states; revolutions, counter-revolutions, and dictatorships. Though we say “democracy,” presidents of countries or companies cause a lot of damage and disasters. We never realize the real consequences. What they do, they boast of, believing their ways are best. So, there’s no way to change.
We know the case of girls raised by wolves. Dr. Suzuki said, “We are children of our environment.” We have karma, both individual and shared, social karma. We are raised in karma. I recall the zen story, if I remember correctly, of Paichan and his group passing a mountain range and seeing a lot of monkeys. He said, “Look, each one has a mirror on its back.” We all carry a karma mirror but, unfortunately, it’s on our backs, so we cannot see it. Others can see and observe ours quite clearly. We say, “My way is the best way. I’m doing okay. I’m following my choice. It’s none of your business!” That’s why we don’t stop and seek the true way. That’s why we don’t really put it into practice.
There is a funny story: There was a black dog and a white one. The white one behaved well, so God promised it would live in heaven. This dog then wondered and worried a lot – will I be able to eat dung in heaven?
We have all kinds of things to crave. We don’t know what they really mean. So, we are in the tread wheels or fire wheels like rats, or in warming water like frogs, quickly killed. We don’t know what’s going on in our own lives, much less what’s taking place in the outside world – such as mass extinction. So, we must really reflect on our behaviors, how we run things and how they go. We are driven by our karma.
So long as we are in the karma world, we say how nice it is to scratch an itch. But, possession is possessedness. We are possessed by what we like and we consume ourselves to death. But, we don’t see this process. So, we constantly drive our tread wheels, that is, our karma kinetics and karma kinemas. Only when we stop this karma, by sitting, do we find that there is another world, another way. We find that having no itch is better than scratching an itch: this is good for all always, wholly wholesome. Only when we stop our karma do we see nirvana, unconditioned peace. Only when we see nirvana do we see bodhi, awakening, and an awakened perspective and priority. Then we can become buddhas. But karma is very strong. That’s why the Buddha and Dogen continued, cultivated, and devoted themselves to zazen.
This meaning and message is as Dogen expressed it: cultivation itself is verification. Only when we sit, do we verify nirvana and bodhi. Some after effects may continue in our activities in our karmic world. But these dissipate and disappear quickly. That’s why we must know that cultivation is verification. Unless we cultivate, unless we sit, we don’t experience nirvana and bodhi.
Only stopping karma makes nirvana and bodhi. Only when we attain them, are we are in the five blisses of awakening, freedom, equality, love, and peace. And then we find the supramundane world. Then, we can stop the five mundane calamities of delusion, bondage, discrimination, exploitation, and extermination. When we stop karma, we stop the three poisons, and thus our sorrows and sufferings. We see the clear crystal world.
Cultivation in Buddhism is the triple learning of morality, concentration, and insight or prognosis (prajnâ). The core practice of Buddhism is zazen. When we sit, morality is observed and we are in concentration and insight. These give us true freedom, peace, and awakening.
As we studied in our Dharma Study class, the generation of bodhi-citta, awakening mind, is the crucial turning point that supports our practice constantly. As we make our karmas, we cause more karma kinetics and kinema for all, more complicated and confused.
We see meeting is parting, up is down, birth is death: all is impermanent and suffering, going against the grain. We need to see the reality. The Buddha said, “Better than conquering thousands upon thousands in the battlefield is conquering one’s self. That is the true conqueror.”
How can we conquer? We just cultivate ourselves. When we conquer, what happens? No self. If there is no self, there are neither poisons nor problems, neither foes nor fears. Then we can have a good day every day.
There are a lot of expressions of this state, for example: the unmoved state, fearlessness, the whole world uncovered, clear crystal, immortality.
We live in this mundane world, so of course we face ups and downs, sorrows and sufferings. But we know the essential art to resort to the ultimate ground. So, let us sit and see unconditioned peace and unsurpassed awakening, tasting amrita, immortality.
Note: The verse of the common admonition of the Seven Buddhas is:
Doing no evil,
Doing all good,
Purifying the mind
Is the teaching of all Buddhas.
2/27/11