MZC HERE-NOW

Good morning!

I forwarded a video recording a dog taking care of another in sickness, unmovable in between railway tracks and under passing trains for two days. One reaction I got was amazement for the compassion, the person thinking his wife would cry watching it when she returned home. Another comment: moved at first, then unmoved, wondering why the cameraman didn’t save them. Another one: the cameraman baited them for profit.

I responded to the first comment that living beings are naturally moved by the life source to take care of other living beings in difficulty. In personal crisis within oneself, one becomes self-centered – me, my family and friends, my community and country first – antagonizing others. Crises can be life, matter, money, etc. A small person has a small self, but a great person has a great self, including more and all.

The source of suffering is usually identified as craving (taṅhā, lit. thirst), but eventually it is nescience (avijjā, lit. no-witness, of nirvana), appropriating (identifying) and becoming (involvement in birth, sickness, aging, dying). Craving (lust, desire) is clear to witness and withdraw from, but nescience is cloudy to do so – existential suffering is subtle and difficult to analyze and avoid.

We are all karma-heirs, -owners, -machines, and –refuged, so complicated and compounded in heredity, habits, actions, and even ambient conditions. The Holy Eightfold Path shows the right action to take refuge in the Four Applications or Devotions of decreasing, stopping bad actions and increasing, starting good actions. The Samadhi limbs of mindfulness, striving, and samādhi, concentration, are for nirvana.

1/5/19　Dharma talk

Note 1. The above-mentioned video is here:

https://wordpress.com/posts/limitlesslife.wordpress.com

https://globalethics.wordpress.com/2019/01/05/%E5%85%B1%E3%83%BB%E5%8F%8B%E7%8A%AC%EF%BC%9A%E5%85%B1%E3%83%BB%E5%8F%8B%E4%BA%BA%EF%BC%9F/

Note 2. Comments on friendship were searched and presented by Erin, 恵林:

1. https://www.lionsroar.com/friends-buddhist-path/

2. https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/the-role-of-friendship-in-buddhist-practice-newimcwebsite/

3. https://buddhasadvice.wordpress.com/friendships/
4. https://bodhimonastery.org/spiritual-friendship.html

苦を救う

お早うございます！

犬が鉄道軌道の間で病気になり動けないでその上を列車が通るのに別の犬が面倒を見るのを記録したビデオを私が転送しました。受け取った一つの反応はその慈悲に対する驚異でしたが、その人は妻が家に帰ってそれを観たら泣くだろうというものでした。他のコメントは、最初感動したが、撮影者が何故救わなかったのかと思い感動できなかったというものでした。他のものは撮影者が利益のための餌にしたというのです。

第一のコメントに対して私は、生き物は命の根源に自然に感動して困難に陥っている他の生き物の世話をするのでしょうと反応しました。個人的な危機に陥ると自己中心的になりー自分、自分の家族、自分の友人、自分の共同体、自分の国が他者と敵対するのでしょう。危機は命、物、金などです。小人は小さな自我を持ち、大人は多くまた全てを含む大きな自己を持っているのです。

苦の源は通常執着（taṅhā渇愛）とされますが、究極的には無明（avijjā、無確証、涅槃の）で（身体の）所有（同一視）による生成（生病老死に成ること）です。執着（性欲、欲望）は確証も離反も明瞭ですが、無明はそれらが曇っています－生存苦は微妙で分析も回避も困難です。

私達は皆業の相続者、所有者、機械、依拠者であり、遺伝、習慣、行為、あるいは周囲の事情などとの複合物であり大変複雑なのです。八聖道は依拠する正行は悪行を減らし、止め、善行を増やし、始める四適用（献身）あるいは四正勤です。正念・正精進・正三昧の三昧支は涅槃に至る為のもものです。

2019‘共通年1月5日

註 1. 上記のビデオは下記です（英語・日本語）:

https://wordpress.com/posts/limitlesslife.wordpress.com

https://globalethics.wordpress.com/2019/01/05/%E5%85%B1%E3%83%BB%E5%8F%8B%E7%8A%AC%EF%BC%9A%E5%85%B1%E3%83%BB%E5%8F%8B%E4%BA%BA%EF%BC%9F/

Note 2. 恵林が友情（共：友）についてのコメントを検索し下記のように紹介してくれました：

1. 
   https://www.lionsroar.com/friends-buddhist-path/

2.https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/the-role-of-friendship-in-buddhist-practice-newimcwebsite/

3. https://buddhasadvice.wordpress.com/friendships/
4. https://bodhimonastery.org/spiritual-friendship.html

The above pictures were taken and sent from Shimoda, Japan

by Mr. Noriyuki Otsuka

上の写真は大塚卿之さんが撮り下田から送られたものです

Good morning!

The Four Holy Truths are problem solving methods: problem, cause, solution, and application/practice. Our life problem is suffering, duk-kha, wrong-going (against the grain: wish). Our life in suffering is illustrated in the schema of Twelvefold Interdependent Co-origination, awakened to by the Buddha. Though there was a tradition that claimed there were Seven Buddhas, culminating in the Buddha Gotama, who were awakened to the Tenfold I.C., Gotama stipulated that living beings are karma-owners, etc., and that his awakening was in solving the Twelvefold I.C.

The cause of suffering is wish (craving, lit., thirst, taṅhā in the 12 I.C., and lust, kāma, in the four leaks). Wish can be lust for, or hatred (divisiveness, view, one of the four leaks) against, or delusion (becoming, identifying as I, etc., one of the four leaks), which comes from nescience, lit., no-witness, a-vijjā, one of the the four leaks – the Triple Poisons in a wider sense. The root cause of these is nescience, no-witness of nirvana, no-wind of karma – animals instantly appropriate or identify, upādāna, their bodies as their properties, humans as egos by conception.

The solution is witnessing nirvana – no nescience, no three poisons, no karma. The four stages of zen, chan, jhāna, dhyāna, shows this very well – cessation of conceptions, emotions represented by the five coverings, volitions represented by the four leaks, which are together identified as nirvana. Za-zen, sitting meditation, stills karma, but not all karmas like breathing, heart-beat, etc. Thus, so long as we live, we live in the karma world in conventional, vohāra, dealing, or sammuti, consensus, truth. Buddhas, therefore, must be bodhisattvas in their daily dealings.

The application is usually identified as the Eightfold Holy Paths/Ways, which is for lay people, as right livelihood indicates. The Sevenfold Awakening Limbs lacking this item are for renunciants who don’t hold jobs for a living. Both of them include the Triple Learnings of morality (right speech, action, livelihood), sīla, lit., solid character, concentration (right mindfulness, striving, samādhi), samādhi, and prognosis (right view, thinking), prajňā, which all Buddhists must learn to attain nirvana/awakening and live with all as mitras, friends, sharing all of these.

December 29, 2018 Dharma talk

お早うございます！

四聖諦は問題解決法です：問題・原因・解決・適用/実行という。私達の問題は苦（duk-kha: 悪–行：欲に逆行)です。私達の苦の生はブッダ（仏陀：覚者）により覚醒され十二支縁起で表示されています。ゴータマ・ブッダが最後の過去七仏は十支縁起に覚醒したという伝えもありますが、ゴータマは衆生は業所有者などであり覚醒は十二支縁起を解決することであると示されました。

苦の原因は願望（十二支縁起ではtaṅhā :渇愛、四煩悩ではkāma愛欲）です。願望は広い意味では何かの愛欲、何かの憎悪（差別、四煩悩の一つ見解）、あるいは迷妄（四煩悩の一つである我などの生成・同一視：四煩悩の一つである無明、a-vijjā: 無体験）であり－これらは三毒です。これらの根本原因は無明、業の無風である涅槃の無体験です－動物は即刻自分の身体を自分の所有物として領有しあるいは同一視、upādāna：執着、しますが人間は観念により自我とします。

解決は涅槃の体験－無明・三毒・業の無です。禅、chan, jhāna, dhyāna,

の四段階はこれを非常によく示しています－観念・五蓋に代表される感情・四煩悩に代表される意志の滅、が涅槃であると示されています。坐禅は業の鎮静化ですが呼吸・心拍などすべての業を止めるのではありません。だから生きている限り、世俗、vohāra, 世業、賛同、sammuti, 合意真理（諦）の業世界に生きます。だからブッダも日常の世事では菩薩とならなければなりません。

応用は通常八聖道とされますが、正生業が示すように在家の為のものです。これを欠く七覚支は生業を持たない出家の為のものです。両者共に戒、sīla, 性格確固（正語・正行・正業）定、samādhi, 集中（正念・正精進・正定）慧、prajňā、般若（正見・正思）を含み、涅槃・覚醒を得る為にすべての仏教徒が学び、これらを皆と共に分かち友として生きるものです。

2018共通年１２月２９日　法話

The above pictures were taken and sent from Shimoda, Japan 

by Mr. Noriyuki Otsuka

Good morning!

Yesterday was the winter solstice with the shortest daytime. So, today is the first day we gain more light, the beginning of a new season, a new year. Release from darkness and chill is gaining light and warmth. Lighting on trees and in pumpkins are hopeful joy and celebration of the coming of a new season and year.

An interpretation of the Japanese word “hotoke,” buddha, is release, from “hodoke,” untied, unbound. The Buddha was released from all bondages, in nirvana, no wind of karma, and attained light, awakening from the long night of nescience, no witness of nirvana. Awakening and Awakened Way are hopeful joy and celebration of a new era.

Amida Buddha, Amita-ābha, Limitless-light, or Amita-āyus, Limitless-life, Buddha is the Awakened One in limitless light, enlightening all, limitless liberation, liberating all, limitless link, linking all, and limitless love, loving all, and limitless life, enlivening all in the truth of interdependent co-origination as in the Indra-net.

Shusho-ichinyo, unity of cultivation and verification, sitting and witness, stilling of karma and witness of nirvana-awakening, is the unity of release from karma, being attaining nirvana/awakening, as Dogen said. “Without cultivation, it is never developed: without verification, it is never attained,” as Dogen said.

“Picking a sapling and building a holy home” is picking a holy hope and building a holy home, planting the holy seed and growing the holy tree of life in truth and peace. Aspiring for awakening is attaining awakening with all, making the holy, wholly wholesome, world in limitless light, liberation, link, love, and life.

December 22, 2018 C.E. Dharma talk

お早うございます！

昨日は日中が最短の冬至でした。だから今日は日光が多くなる新しい日、新しい季節、新しい年の初日です。暗闇と寒冷からの解放は光明と温暖を得ることです。樹木上や南瓜中に明かりを灯すことは新しい季節や新年の希望に満ちた喜びと祝いです。

日本語の「ほとけ」仏の一つの解釈は、結び目を解く、束縛を解くを意味する「ほどけ」に由来する解放だとします。仏は一切の束縛から解放され、涅槃、業の無風、に入り長い、涅槃の確証のない、無明長夜から目覚めました。覚醒と覚道は新しい時代への希望に満ちた喜びと祝いです。

阿弥陀仏、Amita-ābha,、無量光仏又は Amita-āyus、無量寿仏は帝釈網のように縁起の真理に一切を照明する無量光、一切を解放する無量解、一切を結合する無量合、一切を慈愛する無量愛、一切を生かす無量寿に目覚めた者のことです。

道元が言ったように「修証一如」、修行と証悟、業の鎮静と涅槃覚醒の照明である、静座と確証の一致は業からの解放が涅槃確証の証明であるという一致と同じことです。道元が言ったように「修行しなければそれは決して発現せす、確証しなければそれは決して得られない」のです。

「一茎草を捻じて梵刹を建てる」とは聖なる希望を持って聖、全体健全、なる家を建てる、聖なる種子を植えて真理と平和で聖なる命の樹を育てることです。覚醒を発願することは一切と共に覚醒を得て無量光・無量解・無量合・無量愛・無量寿で聖なる世界を作ることです。

２０１８共通年１２月２２日　法話

Good morning!

Rohatsu sesshin is a week sesshin  held at monasteries and temples all over the world preceding and commemorating and celebrating the Buddha’s awakening on December 8. The Buddha’s attainment of nirvana/bodhi, awakening, is epoch-making; all beings can recognize that all beings are karma machines, and also capable of countering and conquering karma bondages.

The Seven Buddhas, Gotama Buddha being the last, are said to have awakened to the truth of the Twelvefold Interdependent Co-origination, the Bhava-cakka, Becoming Wheel, which shows that formations, past/present physical, verbal, mental karmas, drive us to become different beings, going through birth, aging, death, as humans, animals, hungry ghosts, fighting devils, etc.

The Four Stages of Zen, sitting meditation, inform us precisely how we can advance through stages of stilling conceptions, emotions, volitions, to reach nirvana beyond karma, including the Triple Poisons of desire, divisiveness, and delusion. The Five Coverings cover us so as not to reflect the truth world, and the Four Fluxes flow in samsara, bringing suffering and poisons into the world.

Karma makes mini-max mistakes, taking miniscule as maximum, money, matter, and power creating all samsara and suffering. Nirvana allows us to awaken from this mistake and find the maximum value of life, heart, and harmony, beyond covering/darkened, flux/darkening beings, within the bright, brilliant crystals of the Indra-net, which is the meaning of the simultaneous awakening of all.

Dec. 9, 2018 C.E.　Dharma talk

甘露、不壊成道、の覚醒

臘八接心は仏陀の覚醒の１２月８日に先立ちその日を記念し祝う一週間の接心です。仏陀の涅槃・菩提、覚醒、の達成は画期的なものです；一切衆生が自ら業機械であることを認識し、また業の束縛に対抗し克服することが出来るようになったのです。

ゴータマを最後とする過去七仏はみな、行、過去・現在の身口意業、が私達を駆って人間・畜生・餓鬼・修羅などの生老死を経る様々な存在にならしめる生存の輪である十二支縁起の真実に覚醒したとされています。

禅、坐瞑想、の四段階は如何にして私達が観念・感情・意欲を静める諸段階を前進して貪瞋痴の三毒を含む業を超えて涅槃に至ることが出来るかを簡明に知らせてくれます。五蓋は私達を蓋覆して真実世界を見えなくし、四漏は輪廻に漏れ出て世界に苦と毒を漏泄します。

業は金・物・力のような小さなものを大いなるものと誤解する大小の誤謬を犯して輪廻・苦を創ります。涅槃は蓋覆・暗黒と漏泄・暗化の存在を超えて、この誤謬から目覚めて帝釈網の明るく輝く水晶の中にある命・心・和のような大いなるものを見出させます、そしてこれが一切同時成道の意味です。

２０１８共通年１２月９日　法話