Post by OTB on Jan 27, 2008 21:34:17 GMT -5
Selections from Shobogenzo Zuimonki
(The Sayings of Dogen Zenji)
recorded by Koun Ejo Zenji
The meaning of reciting the Precept-sutra day and night, and of observing the precepts single-mindedly is nothing but doing shikantaza in accord with the practice of the ancient masters.
When we sit zazen, what precepts are not observed?; what merits are not actualized?
For a zen monk, the primary attitude for improving oneself is to practice shikantaza. Without being concerned about being clever or stupid, you will naturally improve if you practice zazen.
Once, while in China, I was reading a collection of sayings by an ancient master. At that time, a monk from Shi-chaun, who was a sincere practitioner of the Way, asked me, “What’s the use of reading recorded sayings?”
I replied, “I want to learn the deeds of the ancient masters.”
The monk asked, “What is the use of that?”
I said, “I will teach people after I return home.”
The monk asked, “Ultimately, what’s the use?”
Later, I considered the this and thought, “Learning the deeds of ancient masters by reading recorded sayings or koans or explaining them to deluded people, these are all ultimately of no use for my own practice and for teaching others. Even if I don’t know a single letter, I will be able to show it to others in inexhaustible ways if I devote myself to just sitting and clarify the Great Matter. For this reason, the monk said to me, “Ultimately, what’s the use?” I thought this to be the truth. Thereupon, I gave up reading the recorded sayings and other texts, concentrating wholeheartedly upon sitting, and was able to clarify the Great Matter.
Sitting itself is the practice of the Buddha. Sitting itself is not-doing*. It is nothing but the true form of the Self**. Apart from this, there is nothing to seek as the buddha-dharma.
[/li][li]
[** Literally, the Japanese expression means the ‘true body of the Self’, that is, the Reality of the Self which is before discrimination.]
When I stayed at the Tendo monastery in China, while the old master Nyojo was the abbot there, we sat zazen until about eleven o’clock at night and got up at about half-past two in the morning to sit zazen. The abbot sat with the assembly in the monk’s hall, never taking one night off.
During sitting, many monks fell asleep. The abbot walked around, hit sleeping monks with his fist or his slipper, abused and exhorted them to awaken from their sleep. If they continued to sleep, he rang a bell, and called the attendants to light the candles. Suddenly he would give a speech, such as:
“What is the use of sleeping wastefully, for what then do you gather in a monk’s hall? Why did you become a monk and enter a monastery?
Consider the emperor and officials of the government; who of them leads an easy life? The emperor governs with justice.
The ministers serve with loyalty and, down to the commoners; who leads an easy life without labor?
You have avoided these labors, entered a monastery, and spend your time wastefully; after all, what is the use of this? Life-and-death is the Great Matter. Everything is impermanent and changes swiftly. Both teaching schools and Zen schools emphasize this. This evening or tomorrow morning we may die or we may become sick. Yet, we do not know how death may come about or what kind of sickness we may contract. While you are alive, for the time being, it is most stupid to pass the time meaninglessly, sleeping or lying down, without practicing the buddha-dharma. Since you are like this, the buddha-dharma is dying. When people devotedly practiced zazen, the buddha-dharma flourished throughout the country. As of late, the buddha-dharma is falling into decay because no one will promote zazen.”
With my own eyes I saw him thus encourage the monks in the assembly and make them sit zazen.
In Zen, the Way is attained through both body and mind.
As long as we only think about the buddha-dharma with out minds, the Way will never be grasped, even in a thousand lifetimes or a myriad of eons. When we let go of our minds and cast aside our views and understanding, the Way will be actualized.
Reiun, for example, clarified the True Mind (the Reality of Life) when he saw peach blossoms, and Kyogen realized the Way when he heard the sound of a piece of tile hitting a bamboo. They attained the Way through their bodies. Therefore, when we completely cast aside our thoughts and views and practice shikantaza, we will become intimate with the Way. For this reason, there is no doubt that the Way is attained through the body. This is why I encourage you to practice zazen wholeheartedly.
The most vital matter is learning the Way is to practice zazen. In China, many people attained the Way entirely through the power of zazen. If one concentrates on practicing zazen continuously, even an ignorant person, who does not understand an single question, can be superior to an intelligent person who has been studying for a long time. Therefore, practitioners must practice shikantaza wholeheartedly without bothering to concern themselves with other things. The Way of the buddhas and patriarchs is nothing but zazen. Do not pursue anything else.
At that time, Ejo asked, “In learning both sitting and reading, when I read the collections of old masters’ sayings or koans, I can understand on thing out of a hundred or a thousand words, yet I have no such experience in zazen. Should we still prefer to practice zazen?”
Dogen replied, “Even if you may seem to have some understanding while you read koans, such studies will lead you astray from the Way of the buddhas and patriarchs. To spend your time sitting upright with nothing to be gained and nothing to be realized is the Way of the patriarchs.
Although ancient masters encouraged both reading and shikan zazen, they still promoted sitting wholeheartedly. Although there are some who have gained enlightenment using stories of the old masters, the attainment of this enlightenment is due to the merit of sitting. True merit depends on sitting.”
Selections from Komyozo-Zanmai
(Samadhi of the Treasury of the Radiant Light),
by Koun Ejo Zenji
I have some earnest advice for those who sincerely aspire to practice. Do not be pulled by a particular state of mind or by an object. Do not rely upon intellect or wisdom. Do not carry in your hands what you have learned on the seat in the samgha hall. Cast your body and mind into the Great Komyozo (the Treasury of Radiant Light) and never look back.
Neither seek to be enlightened nor drive away delusion. Neither hate the arising of thoughts nor love thoughts and identify with them. Just sit stably and calmly. If you do not continue to think, thoughts will not arise by themselves. Just sit as if you were the boundless empty sky or a ball of fire. Trust everything to the inhalation and exhalation. Even if eighty-four thousand idle thoughts arise, each and every one may become the Light of prajna (undiscriminating wisdom) if you do not pay them any attention and simply let them go.
Not only in sitting, but every step you take is the movement of the Light. Step after step, no discrimination. Throughout the day be like a dead person, completely without personal views or discrimination.
To inhale or to exhale, to listen or to touch, being without thoughts and discrimination is nothing other than the tranquil illumination of the Light in which body and mind are one. Therefore, when someone calls, you answer. This is the Light in which ordinary people and sages, the deluded and the enlightened, are one.
Even in the midst of change, the Light is not hindered by it. Forests, flowers, grass, and leaves; human beings or animals, big or small, long or short, square or round: all manifest themselves simultaneously, independent of discriminating thoughts or will.
This is proof that the Light is not obstructed by change.
The Light illuminates of itself; it does not depend on the power of the mind. From the beginning, the Light does not rest.
Even when Buddhas appear in this universe, the Light does not appear. When the buddhas enter nirvana, the Light does not enter nirvana. When you are born, the Light is not born. When you die, the Light does not die. It does not increase in buddhas, it does not decrease in sentient beings. Neither is it deluded, even if you are; nor enlightened, even if you are. It has not position, no appearance, no name. This is the whole-body of phenomena. You cannot grasp it; you cannot throw it away. Although it is unattainable, it penetrates the whole body. From the highest heaven down to the lowest hell, all places are perfectly illumined in this way. This is the divine, inconceivable, spiritual light.
If you trustfully open yourself to and believe the profound meaning of these words, you will not need to ask someone else what is true or false. You will be as intimate with the Reality as if you were to come face to face with your grandfather in a town.
Do not seek from your teacher certification of your enlightenment or a prediction as to when you will attain buddhahood. Much less should you be attached to clothing, food, or a place to live, or be driven by attachment to sexual desire.
From the beginning, this samadhi is the dojo (the place of practice) which is the ocean of buddhahood. This is zazen which is the sitting of the Buddha, the practice of the Buddha which has been faithfully transmitted.
Since you are already a child of the Buddha, sit stably in the manner of the Buddha’s practice. Never sit in the manner of hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, animals, fighting spirits, human beings, heavenly beings, sravakas, or pratyeka-buddhas. Practice shikantaza in this way. Do not waste your time. This is the dojo of straight mind. This is called komyozo-zanmai, the inconceivable liberation.
(The Sayings of Dogen Zenji)
recorded by Koun Ejo Zenji
The meaning of reciting the Precept-sutra day and night, and of observing the precepts single-mindedly is nothing but doing shikantaza in accord with the practice of the ancient masters.
When we sit zazen, what precepts are not observed?; what merits are not actualized?
For a zen monk, the primary attitude for improving oneself is to practice shikantaza. Without being concerned about being clever or stupid, you will naturally improve if you practice zazen.
Once, while in China, I was reading a collection of sayings by an ancient master. At that time, a monk from Shi-chaun, who was a sincere practitioner of the Way, asked me, “What’s the use of reading recorded sayings?”
I replied, “I want to learn the deeds of the ancient masters.”
The monk asked, “What is the use of that?”
I said, “I will teach people after I return home.”
The monk asked, “Ultimately, what’s the use?”
Later, I considered the this and thought, “Learning the deeds of ancient masters by reading recorded sayings or koans or explaining them to deluded people, these are all ultimately of no use for my own practice and for teaching others. Even if I don’t know a single letter, I will be able to show it to others in inexhaustible ways if I devote myself to just sitting and clarify the Great Matter. For this reason, the monk said to me, “Ultimately, what’s the use?” I thought this to be the truth. Thereupon, I gave up reading the recorded sayings and other texts, concentrating wholeheartedly upon sitting, and was able to clarify the Great Matter.
Sitting itself is the practice of the Buddha. Sitting itself is not-doing*. It is nothing but the true form of the Self**. Apart from this, there is nothing to seek as the buddha-dharma.
[/li][li]
[** Literally, the Japanese expression means the ‘true body of the Self’, that is, the Reality of the Self which is before discrimination.]
When I stayed at the Tendo monastery in China, while the old master Nyojo was the abbot there, we sat zazen until about eleven o’clock at night and got up at about half-past two in the morning to sit zazen. The abbot sat with the assembly in the monk’s hall, never taking one night off.
During sitting, many monks fell asleep. The abbot walked around, hit sleeping monks with his fist or his slipper, abused and exhorted them to awaken from their sleep. If they continued to sleep, he rang a bell, and called the attendants to light the candles. Suddenly he would give a speech, such as:
“What is the use of sleeping wastefully, for what then do you gather in a monk’s hall? Why did you become a monk and enter a monastery?
Consider the emperor and officials of the government; who of them leads an easy life? The emperor governs with justice.
The ministers serve with loyalty and, down to the commoners; who leads an easy life without labor?
You have avoided these labors, entered a monastery, and spend your time wastefully; after all, what is the use of this? Life-and-death is the Great Matter. Everything is impermanent and changes swiftly. Both teaching schools and Zen schools emphasize this. This evening or tomorrow morning we may die or we may become sick. Yet, we do not know how death may come about or what kind of sickness we may contract. While you are alive, for the time being, it is most stupid to pass the time meaninglessly, sleeping or lying down, without practicing the buddha-dharma. Since you are like this, the buddha-dharma is dying. When people devotedly practiced zazen, the buddha-dharma flourished throughout the country. As of late, the buddha-dharma is falling into decay because no one will promote zazen.”
With my own eyes I saw him thus encourage the monks in the assembly and make them sit zazen.
In Zen, the Way is attained through both body and mind.
As long as we only think about the buddha-dharma with out minds, the Way will never be grasped, even in a thousand lifetimes or a myriad of eons. When we let go of our minds and cast aside our views and understanding, the Way will be actualized.
Reiun, for example, clarified the True Mind (the Reality of Life) when he saw peach blossoms, and Kyogen realized the Way when he heard the sound of a piece of tile hitting a bamboo. They attained the Way through their bodies. Therefore, when we completely cast aside our thoughts and views and practice shikantaza, we will become intimate with the Way. For this reason, there is no doubt that the Way is attained through the body. This is why I encourage you to practice zazen wholeheartedly.
The most vital matter is learning the Way is to practice zazen. In China, many people attained the Way entirely through the power of zazen. If one concentrates on practicing zazen continuously, even an ignorant person, who does not understand an single question, can be superior to an intelligent person who has been studying for a long time. Therefore, practitioners must practice shikantaza wholeheartedly without bothering to concern themselves with other things. The Way of the buddhas and patriarchs is nothing but zazen. Do not pursue anything else.
At that time, Ejo asked, “In learning both sitting and reading, when I read the collections of old masters’ sayings or koans, I can understand on thing out of a hundred or a thousand words, yet I have no such experience in zazen. Should we still prefer to practice zazen?”
Dogen replied, “Even if you may seem to have some understanding while you read koans, such studies will lead you astray from the Way of the buddhas and patriarchs. To spend your time sitting upright with nothing to be gained and nothing to be realized is the Way of the patriarchs.
Although ancient masters encouraged both reading and shikan zazen, they still promoted sitting wholeheartedly. Although there are some who have gained enlightenment using stories of the old masters, the attainment of this enlightenment is due to the merit of sitting. True merit depends on sitting.”
Selections from Komyozo-Zanmai
(Samadhi of the Treasury of the Radiant Light),
by Koun Ejo Zenji
I have some earnest advice for those who sincerely aspire to practice. Do not be pulled by a particular state of mind or by an object. Do not rely upon intellect or wisdom. Do not carry in your hands what you have learned on the seat in the samgha hall. Cast your body and mind into the Great Komyozo (the Treasury of Radiant Light) and never look back.
Neither seek to be enlightened nor drive away delusion. Neither hate the arising of thoughts nor love thoughts and identify with them. Just sit stably and calmly. If you do not continue to think, thoughts will not arise by themselves. Just sit as if you were the boundless empty sky or a ball of fire. Trust everything to the inhalation and exhalation. Even if eighty-four thousand idle thoughts arise, each and every one may become the Light of prajna (undiscriminating wisdom) if you do not pay them any attention and simply let them go.
Not only in sitting, but every step you take is the movement of the Light. Step after step, no discrimination. Throughout the day be like a dead person, completely without personal views or discrimination.
To inhale or to exhale, to listen or to touch, being without thoughts and discrimination is nothing other than the tranquil illumination of the Light in which body and mind are one. Therefore, when someone calls, you answer. This is the Light in which ordinary people and sages, the deluded and the enlightened, are one.
Even in the midst of change, the Light is not hindered by it. Forests, flowers, grass, and leaves; human beings or animals, big or small, long or short, square or round: all manifest themselves simultaneously, independent of discriminating thoughts or will.
This is proof that the Light is not obstructed by change.
The Light illuminates of itself; it does not depend on the power of the mind. From the beginning, the Light does not rest.
Even when Buddhas appear in this universe, the Light does not appear. When the buddhas enter nirvana, the Light does not enter nirvana. When you are born, the Light is not born. When you die, the Light does not die. It does not increase in buddhas, it does not decrease in sentient beings. Neither is it deluded, even if you are; nor enlightened, even if you are. It has not position, no appearance, no name. This is the whole-body of phenomena. You cannot grasp it; you cannot throw it away. Although it is unattainable, it penetrates the whole body. From the highest heaven down to the lowest hell, all places are perfectly illumined in this way. This is the divine, inconceivable, spiritual light.
If you trustfully open yourself to and believe the profound meaning of these words, you will not need to ask someone else what is true or false. You will be as intimate with the Reality as if you were to come face to face with your grandfather in a town.
Do not seek from your teacher certification of your enlightenment or a prediction as to when you will attain buddhahood. Much less should you be attached to clothing, food, or a place to live, or be driven by attachment to sexual desire.
From the beginning, this samadhi is the dojo (the place of practice) which is the ocean of buddhahood. This is zazen which is the sitting of the Buddha, the practice of the Buddha which has been faithfully transmitted.
Since you are already a child of the Buddha, sit stably in the manner of the Buddha’s practice. Never sit in the manner of hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, animals, fighting spirits, human beings, heavenly beings, sravakas, or pratyeka-buddhas. Practice shikantaza in this way. Do not waste your time. This is the dojo of straight mind. This is called komyozo-zanmai, the inconceivable liberation.
