shobogenzokandoのblog

This blog presents Kando Inoue roshi's activities, mainly his dharma talks of shobogenzo in English. Kando is the top advocate of shobogenzo by Zen Master Dogen.

Zazenshin The Third

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Page 231 of the text. Please open it if you have it. It starts in the middle. I will read one paragraph down.
“You should know that the sayings of Daijaku are that Zazen is always becoming buddha, Zazen is, without fail, the figure of becoming buddha. The figure should be before becoming buddha, should be after becoming buddha, and should be at the precise moment of becoming buddha. Furthermore, let us ask, how many becoming Buddhas does this one figure entangle with? This entanglement is further entwining with entanglement.”
Well, that's what it says, and I will proceed. “You should know that the sayings of Daijaku” refers to what is said as Zusabutsu: becoming buddha. “that Zazen is always becoming buddha, Zazen is, without fail, the figure of becoming buddha.” Because it is about you, if you learn how to be when you are doing Zazen through your own body and mind, then you will understand that what is shown here is really true, without denial. It is good to say that when you sit, it is always state as you sit.
And what's more, the way you are when you're doing that Zazen, “The figure should be before becoming buddha, should be after becoming buddha, and should be at the precise moment of becoming buddha.” Well, what is it, if you put it in terms of the past, present and future, you will understand better. People think on presumption of time as past, present and future. The very precise moment is probably the current state of affairs. Before might be the past. The after may be the future. But time is only the way things are now. Time is, in fact. When you spend time in the state of the present, you can understand what happened earlier and what will happen in the future, so it becomes something like the past, present and future. In a word, it would be to say all the time.It is hardly new, it's not you become like doing Zazen when you do Zazen, always, even when you do something other than Zazen, you're never away from the state of being now at any time. Wherever you go, you've never been away from the way things are now. That's how people live their lives, isn't it? As my teacher used to say, we are always together with our environment. We don't live separately from our surroundings. That's exactly how it is.
So, we should ask for a while, “Furthermore, let us ask, how many becoming buddhas does this one figure entangle with?” It means how much of that content there is. I think it would be better to learn a little bit about the idiom ' entangle, ' too. Wisteria and ivy cling to the trees. From now on, the ivy will be beautiful in autumn when the leaves turn red, but let's put that aside. This body-mind that you and I are talking about is called the body-mind that we have received. It is as if everything and anything winds around this body-mind, and it all appears on this body. Perceptions of six organs: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. There are various functions of the six organs, and all of these surroundings cover around each person's body and mind like wisteria and ivy, we are living together with such things like a shot, which could be expressed what is called entangle. When you open your eyes, what you see in front of you is exactly the way of yourself, and you don't live there separately, without fail. Being visible means that it is there as an appearance on you. That's how it is. So when you open your eyes, you see all kinds of things, so there are people who are misled by what they see, and there are people who get angry because of what they see, to put it in a more extreme way. There is another taste in the expression called entanglement in such a place. It's called “to entangle.” People who are disturbed will have a problem with being entangled. Well, it is entanglement. The Shobogenzo also has a volume on entanglement, but let's leave that aside.
“This entanglement is further entwining with entanglement.” The way we all live while being together like this, there is a way of piling up, but there is also an expression like "one after the other." It's a strange function, because it's one thing after the other, but they don't overlap. The next thing you see is, if we take up the appearance of the eyes, you see what you see now, and if you move your head left and right like this, the appearance of the next place you move to is coming in. It comes into view. Although it is said that the previous and the current things come together, there is not any sign of a clinging bond. This is the interesting part.
“At this time, every item of entanglement as the utmost becoming buddha, is always being straightforward of becoming buddha, altogether the figure of each item.” At any given time, at any given place, there will only be this way of being now. That would already be definitively so. I think that the idiom 'straightforward' is also very resonant. When do you also use the word 'straightforward'? To say straightforward. You never miss the mark. You a dead shot, you've already hit the target. If I change the angle more, there's never been the slightest misalignment. Or it's out of touch. Or it's working in such a way that even if you wanted to change it, you wouldn't be able to change it, that's what they all are the way of being straightforwardly like this. “We cannot flee from a single figure.” It is said. The state of being now, you can't neglect it. The way we are now like this, to stay away from it, it is expressed ‘flee’, we cannot ignore it. However, it is easy for people to feel like they want to escape from something they don't like, because they are disturbed by it. That's why they go the wrong way. Here's how they make that mistake, “When we flee from a single figure,” it is written that you will lose your life. Here is the way we are now. It is your own way of life, but you treat it poorly by thinking it is trivial, an obstacle, or better off without it. It must be a waste if you do so. But one more thing to say, “we will lose body and life. When we lose body and life, it is the entanglement of a single figure.” Such movements must all be a way of being, one by one, at each moment. He has shown us this in such a careful way.
“Nangaku then picks up a tile and start to polish it on a stone.” When Kosei Daijaku Zenji talked about becoming buddha, when hearing the word becoming buddha, Nangaku Ejo Zenji , his teacher took a piece of tile, a piece of pottery, a brick or tile, and placed it on a stone nearby, and then rubbed it together as it is written “ to Polish.” “Daijyaku eventually askes, ‘Mater, what are you doing?’” Is it good to say "作什麼" what are you doing? It is better to say 'what are you doing. When one brings a brick, when he brings the brick and he is doing this on the stone like this, (gestures with a fan to polish it) when you come across such a situation, you say, "What are you doing?” What makes you ask the question in that way? What is it that you don't understand? What makes you wonder what is doing what? When you do it like this (the gesture of polishing a brick) it must be clear that it's exactly as you do so, but there must be this kind of matter to what is so clear. “Mater, what are you doing?”
Dogen Zenji says, “Really who could fail to see that he is polishing a tile? Who can see this polishing a tile?” If anyone comes into contact with this, it will be made to be seen in the way that what is being done is as it is. I think no one can never see it the way Nangaku Zenji does.
 “For all that,” although, “the polishing of a tile has been questioned like this, ‘What are you doing?’” Despite the fact that it's so obvious, you still ask, "What are you doing? Similarly, when you are with young children, they will say, "What's that?" It does not mean that the child does not know what it is when you say, "What is it? They can see it. That is why they ask. If they don't see it, they can't say it. Then, human beings try their best to answer the question with the knowledge they have learned. When children are constantly asking why and why and why, the knowledge and education that they have accumulated since their birth will run out, and they will not be able to answer. It is interesting. The real thing is there, but you can't answer the question. I am sure you have experienced this kind of thing as a similar phenomenon here. “For all that, the polishing of a tile has been questioned like this, ‘What are you doing?’ Being of ‘what you are doing?’ is inevitably the polishing a tile.” What are you doing with that, as it is said here. “What is that?"” What are you doing?" It's just what it is. It must be that, as you hit a tile against a stone.
“Although they are different in this world and in the other worlds, there should be purport to polishing a tile that has never ceased.” No matter where you go, in this world and in the other worlds no matter where you go, even if the place is different, even if the customs and culture are different, it is strange, no matter whether the culture is different, whether the language is different, whether the way of thinking is different, it can only be seen as it is. That is probably why it's good. “there should be purport to polishing a tile that has never ceased.” This means that it is not a matter of since when such things have been done and when they will cease to be done. I think that everyone is like that as the way of human beings.
“It is not simply a matter that one does not decide one’s view as one’s view, it is perfectly assured that there is the purport to be practiced thoroughly in the myriad kinds of work.” Well, as we've pretty much proved, one thing is that you can't be clear with the state of yourself even though it's your own thing. Why can't it be clear? The state of ourselves is properly being done on ourselves. Why is it not clear? As you can see, you can't allow yourself with the way of thinking. Because thinking is something that you think that is not or this is not. But in reality, on yourself, when you polish a tile, it is absolutely only as you are polishing the brick. Every single thing is “the myriad kinds of work” in that way. The way we live our lives, every single thing we do is exactly as what we do right now is as it is. This is what we need to see and be aware of the real aspect of ourselves. However, if a way of thinking suddenly emerges at this point and you start to see things through the way you think, this will become unclear. “You should know just as even when you see buddha you don’t know buddha and understand buddha, you don’t know water when seeing it, and you don’t know mountains when seeing them.” He has pointed out our deficiencies in such a polite way.
“The Dharma in front of your eyes, if you form a hast conclusion that there no passageway to it, that is not the study of Buddhism." It is the Dharma before your eyes. This is what is taking place right now, right in front of your eyes. There, in it, such wonderful content is firmly taking place. But you're saying that it's natural that you see things. You already have seen things before you know it, you know. We live in a world where we can see things, before we even try to look at them, so we don't deal with such things. It means that we treat them so carelessly that we don't think they are of much value, what is called “a hast conclusion.” That is why, even if we want to be aware of what the Buddha is aware of, even if we want to clarify the real state of ourselves, it is impossible to do so with such a way of life. Why do we become angry with what we see when we see things, or why do we have to be sulky when we are having a conversation and we can hear what the other person is saying? It's all the law in front of our eyes. This is what happens when you are living here now, living here every day. Just as it is said, “you don’t know water when seeing it, and you don’t know mountains when seeing them.” You are exposed to the truth about yourself, but you don't think that it is about you. We almost only see things in that way, that the person over there said that, or that the person over there is doing that. In an instant, you change it into something like that person over there, there are things over there, I can see things over there, and so on. To really see things, it means that you definitely lose all the things on your side, doesn't it? When you're really seeing things, your own appearance disappears completely. When you listen to the other person, when you really listen, you probably don't have any of your own stuff at all. Well, that is what is required of us. And even though that is actually being done, even though it is being done, if you don't know things, you treat things wrongly like on your own, and when that happens, there is no longer anything called a passage. Even if the content of the Buddha's awareness is preached, it would mean that you lose the power to understand it.
At the end of August, in a social situation where it is not very pleasing to go out and about, and I didn't have anywhere to go, I said I had some time, I was invited to go to Yamanashi Prefecture, which is next to Shizuoka Prefecture, and then to Nagano. During the five days, one man told me a story. When he woke up in the morning, he found his wife's mobile phone strap there and thought it was there. He said that he thought it was there, but when he realized, the thought he had had was nowhere to be found. That's all he said, but it changes people. He must have experienced for himself that thoughts are really only there when he thinks of them, and that they are not left anywhere, and that he is engaged in such activities. Until now, he listened to other people's stories and understood them. Understanding that it's the way it's supposed to be. However, when he touches it on his own body like this, he touches the way as it is being said, he feels that it is just as it says, that it is really true, and it clears his mind completely. So after that, even if many things come to mind, there is no need to deal with. Because he knows that there is nothing to worry about, he stays as he is, so his appearance is completely different from what he used to be. Well, there was a little talk like this, and I said that it would be good if you practice seriously.


Zazenshin The Second 冒頭は録音が5分ほど欠けています。)



The next part, you see, doesn't say much. I'll read it briefly. To say however, "Nevertheless,” there really is what I have just described. However, recently, "in recent years," there are many people who really dull-witted, he says "stupid nasty people have said. " What kind of things, then, are people saying these days? This was around the time that Dogen Zenji went to China, so not quite 1230. In such a time, this is what is generally said. “The effort of Zazen is accomplished if you attained emptiness of the mind, that is the state of being peace.” This is the completion of training. This is the end of the practice when you become this kind of way. You know what it means “emptiness of the mind.” They say that if there is nothing in it, then they can simply go about their daily lives and be happy because they are at peace, Dogen Zenji says that they are only saying that much.
“This view” is the way of seeing and understanding. “This view is inferior even to scholars of the small vehicle.” There are two kinds of Buddhism, Mahayana and Hinayana. Hinayana Buddhism is a small way of thinking, as you just need to be saved yourself. Mahayana Buddhism is the one that people have a great wish that if they are saved, if they understand the greatness of Buddhism, and they want to pass it on to all people, if they have a chance, then they are called Mahayana Buddhists. So, when it comes to that, “inferior even to scholars of the small vehicle.” Dogen Zenji says that it is still a trivial way of looking at things, a way of thinking, and a way of understanding, rather than someone who is just doing his own thing for the sake of himself. “It is inferior even to the vehicle of men and beings in heaven.” What is it in general? I guess it also includes things like the moral laws, “the vehicle of men and beings in heaven.” There are things like "if you do this, this will happen, and if you do that, that will happen," and there are things like adhering to them, but he says they are more boring than such things. “It is inferior.” “How can we call them the men of studying the Buddha Dharma?” It is hard to say that they are really learning Buddha Dharma.
“Nowadays in the Great Kingdom of Sung,” There are many people who are doing that kind of work. “it is pitiful that the way of the Buddha and Patriarchs has been desolate.” What a shame, he says, despite that such wonderful and correct teachings are still being handed down today. This is one paragraph. Also, he says there are people who are similar to the above, so he has listed them.
“And there is another party of men” What does that say about it? “Practicing Zazen is the pivot for beginners and late leaners.” Zazen is used when we ask ourselves what we should do because we are suffering or troubled at the moment, and once that is clear, I guess they say we don't need the rest. “It is not necessarily the way of conduct of buddhas and patriarchs.” That is not the way the enlightened Buddhas and patriarchs are. “Walking also is Zen and sitting also is Zen, the body is at ease in talking and silence, movement and stillness.” We read, "Going is also Zen, and sitting is also Zen." Both sitting and acting are the state of Zazen, they say. Or should we say that whatever we are doing, we are talking or being silent, moving or being quiet? To put it badly, it would be better to say that they are all mixed up. This is because people take up Zen as a way of thinking, and it becomes like this. Dogen Zenji also said, " are of this view." Because it is a view which is on the way of thinking or about what they have seen, they do not know or experience the taste of the actual thing itself. That is the problem, isn't it?
And then there are sentences like “What’s a beginner? Which is not a beginner? Where is a beginner located?” For example, as you may know, there is a ten-stage zazen ladder called the Ten Ox Chart, which shows the ten stages of training. The ninth, or the end of the ladder, is called henpon kangen, which means returning to the original state. That is what it says. I often hear people say that when they are practicing something and it doesn't go well, they say, "You say that it is good to go back to the original." When we are faced with such a situation, there comes the sound of Zen Master Dogen's words: "We say that we should return to beginners' minds, but is there any place where we can return to beginners' minds?” And where are the beginners' minds, and where are those that are not beginners' minds? When you look touching the way of things are now at random, you can really feel this kind of thing. As you all know, everyone is involved in all the activities of seeing, hearing and knowing, and touching and experiencing things they have never done before, because that is the proof that they are alive. “Where is a beginner located?” It sounds like something like this. This is what we have to keep in mind most when we practice Zen. “Which is not a beginner?” When it comes to the fact that everything is the way of beginner's mind, things like getting back to the original, or asking and reaching there, are already out of the question from the very beginning. It's out of the question. That is the way of being when you do Zazen. When you understand this well, even things such as “emptiness of the mind” and “the state of being peace” are different from what we humans are thinking about. It is really the only way of being now. That is the way things are in the midst of this whole body-mind activity. We often hear people say, "Never forget beginner’s mind," but beginner’s mind is not something that can be forgotten. Well, that's enough of that, let's move on.
“We should know that, in the thorough practice established in the way of learning, we have to practice Zazen thoroughly. The gist, in the state of being manifested, that there is acting buddha without wanting to be a buddha.”
As it is written here, “acting buddha without wanting to be a buddha” means that as Dogen Zenji said, as I have just mentioned, “What’s a beginner? Which is not a beginner? Where is a beginner located?” Such words show the proof of the “acting buddha without wanting to be a buddha.” Moreover, “Because acting buddha is not in the least becoming buddha, the absolute truth is realized.” What you are doing now, whether it is something you see or hear, “Because acting buddha is not in the least becoming buddha,” means that there is no such thing as starting over or replacing it and doing it again. That is what is happening right now in your body and mind. “The body buddha is not becoming buddha at all,” this is the state of the body. When you look at these things, there is absolutely no such thing as rebuilding or creating a Buddha from now on. “if one breaks the nets and cages,”
羅籠,(rarou),nets and cages, is a tool for catching beasts or fish. They are nets or traps. “if one breaks the nets and cages,” which means if we can break through the cages and nets that are holding us in those things. It means if we can free ourselves. If we don't get caught. “the sitting buddha does not hinder becoming buddha at all.” This must be how you are sitting now, “the Sitting buddha.” That is the true appearance of the Buddha as it is. “At the precise moment,” right in the middle of it, “duration of a thousand and ten thousand years, from the beginning, altogether, there is the power to go into the state of buddha and go into the state of demons.” This kind of life alone is made to be useful wherever you go, just as it is. You call it moving forward, retreating or moving backwards. You say advance or retreat, but either way, it must be the movement of the present. Having admitted where the face is facing, and on the form where the face is pointing forward, if you move forward towards the face, you are moving forward, and if you move backwards towards the head, you are moving backwards. That's how we see it. In any case, it is the activity of the moment, isn't it? I hope you are not fooled by the words. If you turn your head back, you will see that you are moving forward, not backwards. “Progress and regress, there is the quantity that intimately fills the gullies and valleys.” It is always full and never waxes and wanes. Well, I guess this is the impression that Dogen Zenji had when he briefly touched on the situation in China at that time. He showed us several important things in this way, so his point of focus was somewhat different from ours. Inevitably, you don't see the truth of yourself, and you try to see what you are looking for somewhere else, and you try to get it. It tends to be that kind of Zazen. Not so, but for the truth of oneself itself.
Next, the story proceeds from an exchange between Kozei Daijaku Zenji and Nangaku Daie Ejõ Zenji. This is historically what happened, but for those of us who are now practicing Zen with each other, this is our own appearance.
“Kozei Daijaku Zenji, while practicing under Nangaku Daie Ejõ Zenji, after receiving the transmission of the Dharma Seal, he always does Zazen.” Between the two of them, there is reference to receiving the transmission of the Dharma Seal, but they must be on the relationship based on intuitive understanding of each other about how Buddhism should be, how Zazen should be, and how it should be. This is a scene from the day-to-day life of the two of them. “One time, Nangaku goes to Daijaku’s place and asks, ‘Daitoku, what are you planning thus, in Zazen?’” It has been transliterated classical Chinese into Japanese. We can read “What do you aim at in Zazen?” Dogen Zenji said, “We should quietly work on this question and see thoroughly.” The word "quietly :shizukani" means without making a fuss, and in the same way, "quietly :shizukani" means to be in perfect alignment with this state of affairs without deviation.
“The reason for this is, whether there is any figure of improvement than Zazen?” There are several, but the first one is: “whether there is any figure of improvement than Zazen?” When you are sitting, is there anything still besides the sitting itself you might say? The two words for improvement may make you draw strange things when you understand, but when you are doing Zazen, is it not really all about how you are doing Zazen? “Except for Zazen, has there never yet been a way that should be drawn up?” Well, it is as I have just said. Is there a different state of being outside of Zazen, a different state of the world? Is that all there is? “Is there nothing that should be drawn?” When he says, “Is there nothing that should be drawn?” he really means that all he is doing is sitting. This is what Dogen Zenji was doing when he was quietly pursuing his own practice, and it also speaks for our current state of being, doesn't it? “At the precise moment of Zazen, what kind of figure will appear, you ask?” When you say that “At the precise moment of Zazen,” you are now asking what kind of figure you are really in when you are doing Zazen at this time. How is it really there? How is it really being? “We should work out in detail.” In order to work out in detail, you need to be intimately familiar with the truth of what you are sitting in now, otherwise you will not be able to clearly see how you are sitting in.
“Instead of loving a carved dragon, we should willingly love the true dragon.” Let's leave it replaced by saying that the facts are better than thinking. "We should learn that both the carved dragon and the true dragon have the capability of clouds and rain.” The carved dragon, and the real living dragon, both call the clouds to come and fall rain, and work in many ways. When you learn in this way what you are looking at on the basis of your thoughts and what is the truth of yourself apart from your thoughts, both have contents that are hard to discard. There is something to learn. Oh, thoughts are doing this kind of thing. Because it becomes clear this, there will also be a kind of learning from the way things really are, rather than from the way we think. If they were both similar in content, it would probably be inconceivable that people would leave their thoughts. “We should love the true dragon.” Therefore, there is a need to leave your thoughts and go to the true aspect of yourself. There is a need to be close to it.
 “Do not value the distant, do not despise the distant, but be familiar with the distant.” The way people look at things, they say 'far and near' meaning far and near, but at the root of words like 'far and near,' there is the habit of looking at things from one's own place of being. That is why distance comes up. Far and near. In reality, we can see both things that are far away and things that are near when we look at them, right? As soon as you open your eyes, you can see everything, whether you think it is far away or near. We call it a distant sound and a near sound, but when you hear a sound, it is not distant or close. It is only when you hear it that you can recognize the sound. More to the point, scientifically, unless the sound waves reach the eardrums, the thing will not appear as a sound, which is what each individual's own body and mind are like. Studies are different.

For example, lightning flashes. After that flash there is a sound. The speed of transmission of light and sound is different, so if you measure the number of seconds after the flash, you can measure how far away the lightning is. But in reality, this body-mind situation is different and more interesting than such academic activities. Around the post-war period, there was a word 'imported goods', and there was a tendency to value things from abroad. Therefore, although there are many wonderful things from ancient Japan, the things we encounter every day are not so important because they are not new. I think there was such a tendency. It is similar to that. “Do not value the distant,” This is true even for Zen practice. We know this because we live in a temple, but there are not many parishioners in our own temple who come to visit the temple. Everywhere. When we invite masters from other places, they gather. It's strange. However, he says, we should not mistreat things that are far from us. Either way, don't take too much care of it, and don't take too little care of it. That is what is important.
“but be familiar with the distant.” Once you have touched the object, you should always cherish the way you have touched it, and there is a word for this habit or "maturity." It ripens. When our eyes are distracted from the thing, we don't reach a point where we can fully realize what the thing really is. I think that kind of thing is called ripening. Even astringent persimmons, if they are kept on the tree to prevent birds from eating them, ripen and naturally fall away from the tree. The distance from the tree to the bottom is so great that unless a net is placed, the persimmon will be crushed to pieces, which is a pity, but by the time it leaves the tree, the astringent persimmon has developed an inexpressible sweetness and is delicious. When you say that, we use the word 'ripen', but the above is what you become accustomed to, or should I say habitual. If you don't know these things, you will immediately neglect what you are doing right now in your life and look for someone else, for an opinion, for a statement, and then you will see these things and you will be happy when you find these things. It's not that way.
This time, since there is distance, there is also closeness. Distant and close. “Do not value the close, do not despise the close, but be familiar with the close.” There's one specific example given there. “Do not take your eyes lightly, do not give wight to the eyes.” When giving teaching, I tend to focus on things such as the way the eyes and ears work, sound, hearing sounds and seeing things, so it tends to become a matter of focusing on just one function of the body and mind. This is one of the things that we tend to do. “Do not take your eyes lightly, do not give wight to the eyes. Let not put a high value on the ears, let not the ears be in low, and let the eyes and ears be sagacious.” This means that if you refer to your ears and eyes, and touch the way they are actively working in this way, you will find that there is content that clarifies the reality of yourself, which is what makes your ears and eyes brilliant.
In response to the first question just posed, Kozei Daijaku Zenji said “planning to become buddha.” The question earlier was “Daitoku, what are you planning thus, in Zazen?” It is about how to sit in Zazen and how to be. In response to this, there is “Zusabutsu: planning to become buddha.” It is something troublesome to read into Japanese. It would say that this is the way it is. “Zusabutsu” when we are sitting. There is nothing that you have to explain when we are sitting. Dogen Zenji, in response, said, “We should clarify and attain this saying.” This saying is, “Zusabutsu.” It is necessary to clarify the content. To say that one should reach means touching the conviction of saying, "Oh, yes, that's really true.” “What should it be to say becoming buddha?” It sounds like Dogen Zenji is saying the content of Daijaku Zenji is saying or expressing is the same degree of our understanding that doing Zazen is the same as Buddha.
“Is it saying becoming Buddha when becoming buddha is done by a Buddha?” When you sit, what you are sitting on is expressed in the content of what you are sitting on, and that is what is called becoming Buddha. Or, “Is it saying that making a buddha is becoming buddha?” One thing is that it sounds like portraying a Buddha and becoming like him, but the relationship between this Nangaku Zenji and Daijaku Zenji, who is Zen Master Baso Doitsu, said to have been established from “receiving the transmission of the Dharma Seal,” so they know well the content of the words used to refer to the Buddha. “Is it saying that making a buddha is becoming buddha?” When it is said, it's not like the general saying that you draw a Buddha and become like that. It has been asked about the appearance of not needing such a thing. The same is true of the sounds you use every day. “Is it saying that making a buddha is becoming buddha?” There is a sound. To say that you become exactly as the sound is, even though you don't do anything, you have become exactly as the sound when it sounds CALP. This is what leads to things like, “Is it saying that making a buddha is becoming buddha?”
“Is it saying becoming buddha is one appearance or two appearances of buddha?” “one appearance of buddha or two appearances” Faces are used by everyone to describe one's own face, or face, as we often say " one or two faces" or two-facedness. But there is no such thing as two different facial appearances. It is the appearance of the face at that time and that moment. Is that the way things are said to be making Buddha? Let me repeat that, everyone does what the appearance of that moment is in their daily life. No one has the same face as before when we are doing this. And there is no shortage of that alone, no extra things. That is what we are doing. In such a place, you can catch a glimpse of the Buddha's state of being.
“Is planning to become buddha falling off, or is it becoming buddha as falling off?” No matter how much the current state of the face, for instance, there is a state of the face, the next moment, it's strange, there is no cut-off. There is no break, it just slips away from the previous moment, and only the current moment unfolds like this. It's called dropping out. We've also seen mantis and others recently. Even the body that has been shed does not remain there. Even snakes leave behind their shells. It's called shedding. The shedding of those things is the same with crabs, the shell is left behind. The shedding is there, but for our real activity, we must be moving away from what we have just seen, but that appearance is not left anywhere. “or is it becoming buddha as falling off?” It never gets dirty. It's so clean that you don't have to do any cleaning at any time. “Even though becoming buddha is all sorts of matters, is it said that going on being entangled with this figure becoming buddha?” In any case, there is nothing to do outside of what is going on in each person's own body and mind at the present moment. When it comes to awareness, each of us has a real use for the state of our own body and mind at the very moment. “going on being entangled with” Can I say that many things are entwined in this one body and mind, like wigs and wisteria, in an expression called
見聞覚知(kenmonkakuti): perception through the six senses (of sight, hearing, smell, taste. touch, and consciousness). On this body-mind. On this body-mind, things unfold. Each one of them is, “is it going on becoming buddha?” Whenever things come up, in our thoughts as well, we immediately make it an obstacle or a problem. Persistent, attached, unwilling to leave, and you don't like it. It is easy to cause such things, but when you look closely at the conflicts as such thoughts, it is strange, because they appear, but there is nothing we can do about them. There is no way to handle it. On the other hand, what comes out, without any help, just falls out and there is no way to trace it. This is the truth of each individual, which is rightly Buddha-awakening. This is how each of us really lives our lives. Because we are not aware of this, we are deceived by the various phenomena that appear in our own body and mind, and we live with these phenomena as our problems. As to how the ordinary way of life works, it is not clear because we perceive the phenomena in our own body and mind, and then we deliberate and sort them out in our thinking and thoughts, and then we come to understand or not understand, easy or difficult, and various other things.
When you learn from the real thing itself, it becomes clear what is going on. That is what we are recommending,
坐禅箴Zazenshin. This is the essential point when doing Zazen. Let's leave it at that for today.

Recording


Good morning, everyone. Yesterday was the anniversary of the end of the war, and many events took place. We have decided to use the Zazeshin of Shobogenzo as a teaching material for our ZOOM Zazen meeting, and I would like to talk a little about it. If you have a copy of the Zazenshin at hand, please look at it with me and we will proceed the talk. I will read a few verses.
When Great Master Yakusan Kodo, when he is sitting, a monk asks him, “What are you thinking in the steady immovable state?”
The Mater says, “Thinking thus the state of not thinking.”
The monk says, “How can the state of not thinking be thought?”
The Master says, “It is non-thinking.”
Realizing the Great Master’s words like this, we should practice thoroughly the steady immovable state. We should rightly transmit the steady immovable state. It is the thorough mastery of the steady immovable state transmitted in the Buddha Way. Although the thoughts of the steadfast state are not only one kind, the saying of Yakusan is one model of it. The so-called “Thinking thus the state of not thinking. “There are thinking of skin, flesh, bone, and marrow, and not thinking of skin, flesh, bones, and marrow.
The monk says, “How can the state of not thinking be thought?”
Truly, although the state of not thinking is old, this is still “How can it be thought?” In the steady immovable state, how could it be impossible for thinking to exist? And why does it not lead to our advancement of the steady immovable state? If we are not the lowly fool recent time, we would have the power to ask the steady immovable state and would have the thinking.
The Master says, “It is non-thinking.”

I would like to pick up on that part of the story. If there is anyone who would like to know more about this Yakusan Zenji, there are some biographies available if you look up his name. In any case, we do not know much about the details. However, it is clear that he was one of the patriarchs in our Zen sect who followed in the footsteps established by the Buddha.
So, Dogen Zenji has taken up the exchange between Yakusan-sama and a monk, and has shown us once again how to practice. The content is not that difficult, because there are only three exchanges.
“The steady immovable state,” sitting like a rough rock, it expresses a sitting figure, “The steady immovable state.”
“What are you thinking?” Scholars have been asking various questions about how to read such a Chinese text in the Japanese reading. The question has been asked though, when you read it, it is the same question that everyone asks: what in the world are you doing when you sit in Zazen? Normally, when we say " doing Zazen," it is expressed in words such as "za o kumu: to do sitting (cross legs,)" or "Zen o kumu; to practice Zen (cross legs for Zen,)" according to what has been taught.In short, the problem is that the form has been created, and the person is sitting there, but as time goes by, what in the world is he or she doing with it? This is the same today. What is it that we do when we sit, it is called Zazen. In general, what is written is that one should not do anything, that one should not seek enlightenment, that Zazen with an objective is not good, and many other things. But, putting these things aside, what is important is how you seriously are when you are sitting in Zazen. “What are you thinking?”
In response to this, the Great Master Yakuzan Kodo indicates, "Thinking thus the state of not thinking." "Thinking thus the state of not thinking," means the state of being in which one's whole body and mind are active at the time when one is sitting like this. It is the actual thing, not the way you treat it in your way of thinking, but the very way your whole body and mind are active when you are sitting. That is not a thought. We have a habit of treating the real thing immediately as a concept, so it would be good if you paid attention to that. As its’ reality is. I think it's also expressed as "as it is" or " do nothing". I think it's fine to accept such words as not being that far out of line. If you don't know these things well, when you use words, you are already treating them according to your own viewpoint. It is rare to be in your own state of being as the reality as it is.
For those of you who have heard me do this many times, you may think I'm doing it again, because I use it so often. CLAP! Do it like this. CLAP! CLAP! When I do this, you stay just the way the sound is echoing? Or you look at it like, "Oh, when it sounds, it's really only a sound.” There is a clear difference between "Thinking thus the state of not thinking" and dealing with “the state of not thinking” by way of thinking. There, that's really how it's done, CLAP! "Thinking thus the state of not thinking." Just really doing it like that, just the way the whole body is active, it is not you touch it. To touch is to put the activity, the appearance of sounding, on the other side and watch it from here. There is a distance there. It is not that. It is not listening. It is the sound itself. Well, I really want you to know that, and I want you to do it.
In response to Yakusan-sama's answer, the monk asked, “How can the state of not thinking be thought?” because this is where he crossed over into thoughts.
When we are taught, we listen to what we are taught and understand what we are taught, and when we make mistakes, we come to live our lives based on what others have taught us. That is not the case. Even you all, when I do it like this, PANG! (Hitting the desk with a fan) you don't hear it like that because you are taught to do so. You don't become like that. PANG! This is the story that can really be conveyed.
However, the usual way of listening is to say, if I tell them, "If you do it this way, it will turn out this way," they understand, so they try to go that way based on their understanding of what they have been taught. The state of your own present, the state of not thinking, the state of not crossing to thoughts which is truly practice Zen, will disappear. So, they will only do so based on what they have heard from others. So as not to miss the point, Kodo Daishi of Yakusan said to this monk, “Non-thinking." PANG! PANG! PANG!
This way, we do not need anyone's help. Not doing anything, but PANG! This is how the whole body works like this. (Shows the fan waving from side to side continuously.) This is how our activities are supposed to work. This is where you may not be able to understand easily. For example, when you look at it like this, (waving the fan from side to side) you can figure out that there is a difference between the way it is like this and the way you understand the state as it is surely like this. Understanding that it is like this way is sure to lead to consideration. That is what it means to look at something. There is what is over there and you are over here, and when you see what is over there, then you say, "Oh, that's exactly how it is." That's already crossed to thoughts. But when I actually do it like this, (continues shaking the fan from side to side), there is the apperance here which is not over there or over here.
In a nutshell, that is the only thing that is different in our daily lives. When it comes to one's greatest weakness, shortcoming, or overlooked point, even though you are touching on what is going on right now, touching on the present means that you are out of alignment as anyone can see when you even glance the present over there and pick it up. So, you will always be looking and asking, and whether it works or not will always be an issue. There are a lot of things that come up, such as whether or not to believe, whether or not to be thorough, etc. But look at it this way. (Waving a fan) That's not what I'm talking about. That's not the dimension of what's going on right now. We are living now. Everyone is, right now, at any moment. This is what is meant by the following statement, “Realizing the Great Master’s words like this,” This is the way of practice that Yakusan-sama has handed down from the Buddha, and what should be done to make that part of the practice clear. By saying, “Realizing the Great Master’s words like this,” means.
I think that is actually the case. There are worlds that are crossing over to thought and worlds that are not crossing over to thought, and reality is what is not crossing over to thought. Having made that clear, now we will deal with it in terms of thought, and that is what I am explaining now. That is why I have explained with words. I am explaining with words because I want to take you to a place that is not an explanation, I am talking about something that is the content that is far from an explanation. The rest is about yourself, so you can practice what happens when I do this (waving the fan from side to side), and it is said that you practice “in the steady immovable state.” What you are doing when you do Zazen.
“We should rightly transmit the steady immovable state.” This means that what is really meant by Zazen is correctly conveyed in the instruction, so please practice it. In the worst ones, these things are almost completely omitted from the manuals and guides, and the first half of the manual is just about regulating the sitting posture and breathing. Zazen is. I think this was the case even in the time of Dogen Zenji. “It is the thorough mastery of the steady immovable state transmitted in the Buddha Way.” This "Zazen transmitted to the Way of the Buddha" is something that should not be overlooked. What is commonly referred to as zazen, is already that far off the mark. We should practice thoroughly this way of Zazen that has been correctly transmitted.
“Although the thoughts of the steadfast state are not only one kind, the saying of Yakusan is one model of it.” There are many people, too many to count, who have practiced, who have done Zazen, who have clarified the path, who have clarified their own truth. I think there are many different people who would express themselves differently in this context. That is because they express it with what they have on hand. It is impossible to express your content with what you don't have. In a sense of going with what one has and expressing one's truth, there will be a variety of people. Now, here, this means that the Great Teacher Kodo of Yakusan is one of those masters. If you want to learn about such a thing, you can look at the various materials of the patriarchs and see that they are not out of line with this content at all. “It is the thorough mastery of the steady immovable state transmitted in the Buddha Way.” There is the content that you are doing, or that is being conveyed to us. I believe we should not overlook that.
And there it says, " The so-called “Thinking thus the state of not thinking.” This is the important part. “Thinking thus the state of not thinking.”
There is a poem in Dogen Zenji's 傘松道詠,(sansho doei), a poem that goes like this: "As you hear it , if you are being selfless, that is you the falling raindrops from the eaves.) PLOP! PLOP! Rain drops are falling from eaves. When the sound is being made, “if you are being selfless” What it means according “as you hear it,” PLOP! PLOP! PLOP! They are falling like this. PLOP! PLOP! “if you are being selfless, that is you the falling raindrops from the eaves.” This is where non-thinking comes in. There is the appearance of non-thinking, the appearance that one is thinking the state of not thinking. There is the state of human being's non-thinking. (The name "Sansho" was taken from the mountain name "Sansho Peak" of Echizen Daibutsu Temple (later Eiheiji Temple). Sansho" means a pine tree whose branches open like an umbrella.)
The next sentence, “There are thinking of skin, flesh, bone, and marrow, and not thinking of skin, flesh, bones, and marrow.”
The “skin, flesh, bones, and marrow” are this whole body and mind. You all say "we," this thing that is called the body. So, there is the state of thought, there is the state of not-thinking, you might say. When you are thinking, you are in the state of thinking, and when you are away from thinking, you are in the state of your whole body’s activity in the state of being away from thinking.
Let's move on. “The so-called “Thinking thus the state of not thinking.” If we read it down in Japanese, will be read,「不思量底如何が思量せん」(Fushiryo -tei ikanga shiryo sen), how can you think of thus the state of not-thinking? “Truly, although the state of not thinking is old, this is still “How can it be thought?”
Is it correct to say that such words have been handed down and said for a long time? “although the state of not thinking is old,” From the old days, people would say, "Don't think about trivial things," without referring to Buddhism or Zen. It's like the popular saying, "Mickel fails that fools think.” It has been handed down from generation to generation that humans are always thinking about things they can't help but do not stop thinking about. Not thinking. “this is still “How can it be thought?” What this means is that now, let alone what happened in the past, each and every one of you, in your own body and mind, is asked how this matter really is. It is not about thinking in terms of the way of thinking. It is no use thinking about what it means to be non-thinking, or what it means thinking thus the state of not thinking when you are presented with a problem. “this is still “How can it be thought?” So, it is asked what is really meant by the phrase "not- thinking, thus the state of not-thinking.” Only then can we say that we are practicing Zazen. You are doing Zazen. It is impossible unless it becomes your own problem. It is not a matter of what others have said this or that, or what they used to say this or that.
Let's go on, “In the steady immovable state, how could it be impossible for thinking to exist?” When you are sitting like a rock like that, is there no thoughts? There is an expression that says that one's mind goes completely blank, but I wonder what that means. When you are really sitting, your whole body and mind are active as they are. We don't know why, but it's not a perception, but the appearance of activity is there as it is. It's just as it is. As I have said many times, it is not a world where you can look at yourself from the other side. “And why does it not lead to our advancement of the steady immovable state?” That is true. Because it is not a world where you look at yourself from the other side in this way, you will always be able to penetrate the truth of yourself directly and immediately. It doesn't use things like "reach," "attain" or "be thorough." There is no need to use them. “And why does it not lead to” He is saying, "It is made in such a way, so why can't you make it clear? This means that there is a problem here. It is not a matter of "getting through" or "reaching."
“If we are not the lowly fool recent time, we would have the power to ask the steady immovable state and would have the thinking.” It's called “the lowly fool recent time,” but it's such a thing of no separation from oneself. It is the closest thing to us. When we use the word "near," we tend to put things over there or over here, and then express that there is no distance between them. That is what we mean by "close," but close means that there is no such thing as the other side or this side from the very beginning. “If we are not the lowly fool recent time,” The true state of one's present state is. Isn't that true for everyone from the very beginning? I guess we really have to take this up as our own reality. Our life comes first before we can insert our thoughts into it. It is the same with things. We all look at things like this, and even the act of looking at them (looking at the ceiling), even in case of such an act, before looking at them as thinking there is something over there, there is a world that is clearly seen. Because it has been seen, we pick it up and look at it again. It is the same with sound. The sound is made first before we hear it. Because the sound was made first, you pick it up saying, "That's the sound.” There are ways, the way you cross over into thoughts and the way you are not crossing over into thoughts, so this is that was exchanged between the great master Kodo of Yakuzan and a certain monk even today. It must be unfolding throughout the time. Buddhism is such a familiar thing. It is your own truth. From the beginning. It is because we don't have the power to clarify the truth of ourselves that this is what Dogen Zenji is talking about. “If we are not the lowly fool recent time,” If you are not a fool, the truth about yourself will not go anywhere from the beginning. It never goes anywhere else, not even for a moment. It never leaves. If you know that, then you must have the power to make this point to be an issue really. This is the only place where you all can realize the truth about yourselves. To put it more plainly, when and where do you leave the things of now? What is the now? If you don't touch the present now here, if you don't touch it now, if you touch it later, you won't be touching it now. If you do that, things will not be clear. If you touch the thing now like this, everyone is made to get clarified.
So, it will be what we were talking about earlier. “The Master says, ‘It is non-thinking.’” Like this, CLAP! When I make a sound and you all hear it, CLAP! No need to go through any procedures. No need to think. CLAP! That's all there is to it. That's how you get the whole aspect of the sound. “Even though the use of what is called non-thinking is serene, in order to think the state of not thinking, we inevitably use the non-thinking.” What is it? CLAP! To really know this appearance. You don't need to use anything else. “Who is in non-thinking? Who keeps me?” “Who is in non-thinking?” CLAP! When I do this, it's not that we don't know who is listening to us. It's not that other people are listening. It must definitely be the state of yourself. It's good, isn't it? When we did this. CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! We never wonder who it belongs to. CLAP! Nothing is unclear. It is the perception through the six senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and consciousness, the eyes, ears, nose, body, and mind, all of which are working in each of us. Everyone is doing that no matter where you look. Stay close to it.
“Although, the steady immovable state is me, it is not only thinking and it is holding up the steady immovable state.” “holding up the steady immovable state” means to pick up something. That's what it means the state when you are sitting itself. The preceding " the steady immovable state is me," means, as I mentioned earlier, that sitting really does not mean that someone else is doing it at all. “Even though the steady immovable state is the steady immovable state, how can the steady immovable state think of the steady immovable state?" The thing must be the thing itself, but who is going to act that the thing is the thing itself? It really is the thing must be the thing, but who is going to take up that the thing is the thing itself?
“If so, that is to say, the steady immovable state is not the quantity of the Buddha, not the quantity of the Dharma, not the quantity of realization, not the quantity of understanding itself.” So, it is said that there is a way of being that cannot be measured by conventional human beings saying this or that. Because it is “the quantity of the Buddha,” some people think that when you become enlightened, you'll know that kind of thing, but it's not an amount that you can know when you become enlightened. Although we can understand that the truth of the Buddha Dharma, which is called "the quantity of the Dharma" is like that, it is far beyond what we human beings can conceive of as the truth of the Buddha Dharma this way or that way. These things are written throughout these pages. “the quantity of understanding,” means that we have a clear understanding of what is going on, but even that clarity does not mean that we are living in the content that we can say that this is the end of it. It's the same with our eyes all day long. We live our lives to the extent that we don't know how much we look at things. This is what it says.
“It has already been thirty-six generations from Shakyamuni Buddha that the direct transmission to Yakusan in this way.” Now that we are studying each other here on ZOOM, how many generations have passed since the time of the Buddha? I, for example, am 86 generations descended from Buddha Shakyamuni thorough my teacher. So I think that you are all listening to me, the 86th generation. “Tracing upward from Yakusan, there is Sakyamuni, directly thirty-six generations.” I would say that there is the appearance of the Buddha thirty-six generations ago. What this is saying is that there is no deviation. Years and years pass, but the real state of things is always the same, no matter what time period it is. It would be strange if what we call the state of being now were to be deviated from as the age goes down. The state of now is always now. There is no other place to refer to this at any other time. It is done orderly like that. “Having been transmitted rightly in this way, there is already thinking thus the state of not thinking.” “Thinking thus the state of not thinking.” It is necessary to really take up the content that is like this, and to attend to the truth itself when you are sitting in this way. So while you are sitting, before you know it, even the form of your sitting has been forgotten. It is strange. There is a saying somewhere, " How could that be limited to sitting or lying down?” It doesn't matter whether you are sitting or lying down. Well, I have read the first part of Zazenshin, just good place to leave off. Because of this content, Dogen Zenji used this story in "Fugan zazen gi" or promoting Zazen in all places. This story exchanged between Kodo Daishi of Yakuzan and a certain monk is easy to understand, or it would be rude to say that it is easy to understand. I suppose it is because this is what is really conveyed correctly about the rightly transmitted Buddhism and Zazen. As he himself says. “Realizing the Great Master’s words like this, we should practice thoroughly the steady immovable state.” “Realizing the Great Master’s words like this,” If you really want to sit, this is the important part. If you do Zazen without this, then you are crass ignorance. “We should rightly transmit the steady immovable state. It is the thorough mastery of the steady immovable state transmitted in the Buddha Way.”
I would like you all to do this as well. I have taken up the Shobogenzo  Zazenshin for the first time today, and I have to say that it is different from the Fugan Zazengi and has many different flavors.

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