Good morning!
Zazen brings us to a completely different world than the ordinary one. Of course we have a different world from moment to moment. So, we can enjoy spring after winter. We must withstand a chilly winter after fall.
Recently among the Soto teachers we talked about the han, the wooden block that hangs in front of the practice place, which says:
Informing the Great Assembly:
The matter of birth and death is great.
Impermanence is swift.
All be mindful of this.
Strive without indolence.
This came from the last words of the Buddha. I will quote the last portion of the Buddha’s life (the translations within the quotation marks are from the Pali, by me):
Mahā-pari-nibbāna (Great Complete Peace)
Arriving at the bank of Hiranyavatī he (the Buddha) asked Ananda to spread a bed of folded robe,
“Come, Ananda, spread my bed between the Sala trees for me. Ananda, I am tired. I want to rest.”
Thereupon he laid himself on his right side, putting one foot on the other, keeping his mind right. To the weeping Ananda in back of him, he said,
“Stop, Ananda. Do not grieve. Do not mourn. Haven’t I told you thus: We must depart from the beloved, the liked, and be separated from and become different from them. There is no reason to desire the non-destruction of the born, existing, composed, and destroying. Ananda, the Improving One, you have long served me with compassionate, helpful, comfortable, pure, and immeasurable actions of your body, speech, and mind.”
A religious wanderer, Subhadda, approached Ananda for permission to ask a question of the Buddha about the real religious teacher, referring to the then famous teachers, but he was refused by Ananda three times, for fear of disturbing the Buddha. The Buddha, however, called him to come closer and said,
“Subhadda, I renounced my home for the good (kusala, lit. skillfulness) at twenty nine years of age. Subhadda, I spent some fifty years since my renunciation. I have walked just in the realm of the right way (naya, lit. lead, method) and truth (dhamma). There is no other ‘striver in the path’ than this.”
Subhadda became the last disciple of the Buddha in his lifetime.
Upon the news of his last moment, disciples gathered around him. He turned to them and said,
“If there are any questions about dhamma, sangha, and practice, ask them now.”
No one asked. He repeated and said,
“It may be that you do not ask out of respect (for me). This is not good. Ask as a friend asks another friend.”
Ananda said,
“No one seems to have any questions.”
“Now, mendicants, I tell you: All things in the world are impermanent. Strive without indolence. These are my last words.”
The Buddha breathed his last in the depth of night. He betook himself to Mahā-pari-nibbāna, Great Complete Peace.
The very same day when I mentioned this fact, that the han verse is from the Buddha’s caution, the NHK program “Meet the Legend” featured Shuji Hojo, a dramatist. He and another famous dramatist, Kazuo Kikuta, were in Taipei. They wanted to go back to Japan, and so negotiated hard to get on board a plane. When they arrived at their hotel, they found the news that the plane they wanted to board had been lost in the ocean near Okinawa, with its all passengers. Both of them decided to devote their lives to what they really want to do, taking it that they died on that very day.
We cannot say when we will meet our last moment, even if we are alive, young, and healthy. Actually impermanence is taking place every moment. So, the three marks of dhamma are impermanence, suffering (going against the grain, our wishes), and selflessness due to the previous two. These are called the triple characteristics and the triple dharma seals (三法印), with the forth, nirvana, added (four dharma seals). All Buddhists admit and accept them in the unique Buddhist view, though in our ordinary world we usually want permanence, happiness, and the self, and all kinds of karmas, actions, for the self.
Buddhism is very unique in these regards, different from all other religions, philosophies, and ideologies, in that it tells no self and selfless, supramundane truth, due to the dharma of dependent origination, that is, that all phenomena are dependently originated on countless causes and conditions. So, no one thing, or some other things we may think we can control, can control them all (no self-sameness, no self-sovereignty, thus no self-entity).
The Buddha was the Awakened One, awakened to this truth and to the way of going beyond our sufferings by stopping our karmas, stopping the source of suffering, the self, though almost all people think of it as the source of happiness. He understood the truth of dependent origination, and awakened from the long night of nescience to it. Just like we know the nightmare was simply a dream only after we wake up, we know our delusion only after we wake up from it.
Until we become awakened, we must struggle in our delusion, desire, and divisiveness (triple poisons) like in the nightmare. We want to cry out and run away, but we cannot control our bodies and minds, as in our dream. The Buddha said that all creatures are karma-machines, bound by karmas. So, we cannot really be freed from this dream-like delusion, desire, and divisiveness. So, he found the only way to solve karma-kinetics is to stop it. So, he sat down, stopping physical actions, verbal actions, and even mental actions, at the present and from the past.
When we sit down, naturally our emotions, volitions, and conceptions settle down and cease – even perceptions. And we find they are dependently originated. The so called mind and mental world are all dependently originated in our sense organs and objects, just like clouds suddenly appearing in the blue sky, becoming overcast, darkening, thundering, storming, etc. So, the mind is like cloud in the sky, appearing and disappearing, creating all kinds of forms, colors, sounds, tastes, figures, fantasies, but there is no substance or entities there.
So, when we sit, we can observe the appearance and disappearance of our minds, material worlds, depending on our sense organs and objects – the interplay of the total system. So are our life, karma, etc. Only when we stop our mental fabrications, do we see the original state of our minds, our nature, and the nature of the world. There, we are in peace and prognosis, no longer tossed up and down, not moved by anything. Thus we can enter into nirvana.
Nir-vāna (nib-bāna) is no-wind (of karmas), like this candle flame at the altar. It burns still and bright in the windless room (cf. stock phrase ni-vāte padīpa, lamp light in no wind). That is nirvana – no emotions, volitions, conceptions – but only pure peace and prognosis. The truth before our karma creation is the absolute truth, beyond our relative views and values. If we want the universal truth, it is in our sitting and getting into nirvana, a selfless, supramundane (uttara-loka) state. Then only do we understand the triple poisons and the triple learnings of sila (morality), samādhi (concentration), and prajñā (prognosis) to stop them, which all Buddhists learn.
Buddhism’s core practice is Zazen, the essential function and the functional essence, as Dogen called it. Zen is neither mere meditation nor resting relaxation. Only when we reach the supramundane, selfless, absolute truth, do Buddhism and Zen become true Buddhism and Zen. Otherwise all else is not true Buddhism and Zen. So, Dogen (道元) cautioned in his Universal Recommendation for true Zazen that mere meditation is not Zazen and that we must pursue the right form of the Buddha-mind Seal, that is, Zazen, and find out the Buddha mind for twenty four hours, everywhere. That is the Awakened Way; that is Zen.
From the Buddha, Mahakashyapa succeeded to the Dharma, passing it down to us. Fortunately we have met the true Dharma from mind to mind, from heart to heart, from life to life, from Dharma to Dharma. As our transmitted lineage shows the blood line from the Buddha to us and back to the Buddha, we must live up to it, not defiling, disturbing, and destroying it. Without it, just by reading or listening, we miss the true embodied and enlivened Dharma witnessed and held by the Buddha and ancestors. We must witness and hold them together. What we don’t know, we cannot aim at, strive for, much less attain, appreciate, and actualize.
The Soto tradition of practice is learning not only by the mind, but by the body, and by the whole of life as the body-mind being one (shinshin ichinyo: 心身一如) together with the whole world. That is why we must sit, see our minds and the worlds. And we find that cultivation is itself verification (shushō ittō: 修証一等), sitting itself is witnessing. Only by such striving, can we witness such learning, life, way, and world. We say that deportment is itself the Buddha Dharma (igi-soku buppō: 威儀即仏法). This sitting in the Buddha-mind seal is becoming Buddha – anyone can do it and become Buddha. Sitting constantly and concentratedly is essential, otherwise we are instantly drawn back to karma ways and worlds. Zen practice is not only sitting (zazen), but also samu (physical work:作務, lit. doing duty) with the whole being always. That is making the Dharma, realizing the Dharma, becoming the Dharma, without separation, struggle, strife, and suffering.
Do you know the Ten Ox-herding, or rather Ten Bull-taming, pictures (十牛図)? We have a hanging scroll of it in our library. I recommended an article about our mental state and its ten stages to Garyo – and intended to include you all. Do you understand everything – bull, no bull, ichiensō (perfect circle, unity:一円相), Hotei (布袋) or Maitreya (弥勒), etc.? There are the stages of Bodhisattvas, which tell us to go further than the ichiensō. We say that learning by seeing or intellectual understanding is clear cut, but that of cultivation is subtle and severe, like breaking a lotus root – it is cut clearly, but with fine threads remaining even after the cut pieces are widely separated.
That is why we need cultivation, that is, sitting and samu. We need our original experience, original way of life, original words from the original witnessing person. Otherwise we degrade and destroy the true ways, meanings, and witnessing. So, we say Shō (Right:正), Zō (Formal:像), and Matsu (Degenerate:末) Dharmas and Periods. We must be careful of losing the true Buddhism and Zen. There are many, many temples and monasteries becoming sightseeing sites and funeral facilities, easily defiled by mundane minds and matters, secular senses and states. So, in China monks had to escape from them and write theses saying not to bow to kings or emperors. Many monks and priests, however, encouraged participation in wars, empowering nuclear power plants, etc. They don’t care about capital punishment, global warming, mass extinction, etc.
Our practice includes all of these undefiled (無漏:selfless) good things, but not defiled (有漏:selfish) good, much less bad, things. Unless we stay in the selfless, supramundane, true triple treasures, we mistake and get involved in pyramidal power, progress, prosperity, etc. Dogen and other ancestors said, “If it is not with all, it is not the Mahayana, Great Vehicle, and Awakened Way.” I received a novel about Ryokan (良寛). He lived in a small hut, living on given food, giving Dharmas, away from monasteries, mundane matrix. He never forgot his pledges and vows to the Buddha, the poverty path and purity path, always wanting to embrace all, even lice, fleas, and trees in the cold rain.
I wanted to follow the Buddha’s path, and founded this center, sangha, to serve everyone and all. I give my life to serve the true triple treasures. If you want to save all beings, then you had better save yourselves, that is, conquer your selves. Please see widely, not just from your side, sight, and interest. We all must strive hard in this impermanent, suffering, selfless world. The Buddha said, “Better than conquering thousands upon thousands in the battlefield is conquering one’s self. That is the true war conqueror.” So, let us strive without indolence and preserve the true triple treasures in the selfless, supramundane, supreme state forever.
3/17/13
