カテゴリ： Zazenshin

2023年03月24日

Zazenshin The Ninth

https://youtu.be/fnFEjg-B1OI
I will read a little.
“The Zazenshin of Zen Master Wanshi is as such. There are still no Zazenshin like this among the veteran Zen adepts of all generations. If those who are sacks full of stinky skin would like to say like this Zazenshin, they would not be able to do it even if they try their best in a life time or in two lifetimes. There is only this one Zazenshin, which is not seen in other directions.
When my late Master held preaching in dharma hall, he would always say, “The old buddha Wanshi!” He never spoke of other men like this at all. If you have a good eye to know people, you should know and understand buddhas. Truly, we know that there have been buddhas in Tozan.”
This is what Dogen Zenji taught in his Zazenshin. What we read last time was the Zazenshin of Wanshi Zenji. Following it, we are currently unfolding as we are now. As Dogen Zenji said, the Zazenshin of Wanshi Zenji may seem to be a methodology on how to do zazen, but it is already more than a methodology. Each one of us is in our own state of being right now, so there is no sign that we will ever reach it. It suddenly shows us the reality that everyone is sitting like this in our own state right now. I think it is very grateful.

If I may add a little more, we are now able to live a proper life before we can say that we understand or know. Moreover, it was quite a while later that we thought about the other side and this side. At first, we are just in the real state of our own truth, without any reference to the other side or the other way around. It is the same for everyone. As you can see from the way we are sitting right now, there comes no sign of anyone else. And there is no such thing as it being only my appearance. This kind of thing must be at the heart of the Zazenshin of Wanshi Zenji. It is what Dogen Zenji was feeling when he came across this Zazenshin, I suppose. It must be something like that.

“among the veteran Zen adepts of all generations.” Among the many distinguished people of the past, this kind of Zazenshin, or a statement of the essentials of Zazen, is really missing. “If those who are sacks full of stinky skin would like to say like this Zazenshin, they would not be able to do it even if they try their best in a life time or in two lifetimes.” It is rare to find a person who can really focus on such a point, and address the vital point like this, like sticking a needle. And to get to this point, it is written in the phrase "their best in a life time or in two lifetimes,” but I suppose it is said, "Don't take it easy.” “There is only this one Zazenshin, which is not seen in other directions.” Being said "now," when Dogen Zeniji went to China and asked about the Dharma Seal, the true content, he said that there was no one who had really shown such a thing. He even said that among them it is only this Wanshi Zenji's Zazenshin. He also included the words of his own master, Nyojo Zenji.

“When my late Master held preaching in dharma hall, he would always say,” This means how much Nyojyo Zenji adored Wahshi Zenji. “The old buddha Wanshi!” Well, an old Buddha is probably the best way to appreciate a person in the Buddhist way of worship. Old Buddha. It doesn't mean old Buddha. It means a wonderful person, and among the Buddhas, old Buddha is a better way to describe him, like a Buddha among the Buddhas. When Dogen Zenji heard Nyojo-Zenji speak, he felt that he had never heard Nojyo Zenji refer to anyone outside of Wanshi Zenji in this way. “If you have a good eye to know people,” It is the power to know others. To know someone, you have to be in the same state, and you cannot really understand what the other person is like. It is the relationship that the two persons can just about read each other's minds. “If you have a good eye to know people, you should know and understand buddhas.” The word "Chiin: mutual acquaintance" is used, as mentioned in the footnote, this refers to the story that during the Chunqiu era of China, there was a virtuoso on the zither named Haku-ga: Bo Ya, who had a friend named Syoshi-ki: Zhong Ziqi . Whenever he played the zither, the friend would listen to the tone of the zither and even read his mind by listening to the tone of the zither, which is how it is said that they had such a close relationship. Then, after that, his friend Zhong Ziqi passed away. When he passed away, it may be said that he had no true friend who could understand him, Bo Ya took his own life, and that is the origin of the idiom "Chiin : mutual acquaintance.” Well, you can see that at the bottom of the page. The Zazenshin of Wanshi Shōgaku Zenji is appreciated for the first time by Dōgen Zenji, or by Nyōjō Zenji, who came out and recognized the Zazenshin of Wanshi Zenji as truly wonderful. Without such people, even if there were something wonderful out there, it might have been buried in the world. There are many things in history that are discovered by others. If Dogen Zenji had not met Mr. Ejo, his greatness might not have been recognized by the world. In such a situation, there is a mutual acquaintance, or “chjin” which means to meet someone who understands the other person well, and more specifically, to inherit the Dharma. Inheriting the Dharma can only be done in the context of this "Chi-in". That is how it should be when we inherit the Dharma. “Truly, we know that there have been buddhas in Tozan.” Wanshi Zenji is also from the lineage of Tozan. “It is now eighty years since the death of Zen Master Wanshi,” The reason for this is that it has been only eighty-five years, just as it is there, when Dogen Zenji himself came into contact with the zazen proverbs of Wanshi Zenji, and when he himself experienced them intimately, he must have felt that what Wanshi Zenji had to say was complete, but he also felt a desire to say it himself. This must be what made Dogen Zenji create his Zazenshin. There is a detailed description of the age. “after reading his own Zazenshin.” It is said that Dogen Zenji saw the Zazenshin of Wanshi Zenji and left his own Zazenshin there as well. When was that? “Now it is the 18th day of the third month of the third year of Ninji era.” Dogen Zenji was 43 years old in the spring of that year. If we go back and count, it was 85 years ago that Wanshi Zenji created this Zazenshin. So, we read the Zazenshin left behind by Dogen Zenji. Dogen Zenji, as a matter of course, does not quote his own Zazenshin, phrase by phrase, as if he were advocating the Zazenshin of Wanshi Zenji. He doesn't do on things that he himself proposes. That may be the case.

Zazenshin
The functional pivot of buddhas, pivotal function of patriarchs.
Not thinking but manifesting, not turning around but being accomplished.
Not thinking but manifesting, the manifestation in naturally intimate.
Not turning around but being accomplished, the accomplishment is naturally enlightenment.
The manifestation is naturally intimate, there has never been taint.
The accomplishment is naturally enlightenment,7) there has never been rightness or deviation.
The intimate of having never been taint, the intimation is non-doing and dropping off.
The enlightenment of having never been rightness or deviation, the enlightenment is aimless and making efforts.
The water is limpid, fishes go like fishes.
The sky is vast and transparent through the heavens, the birds fly like birds.
Zen master Wanshi’s Zazenshin is not deficient in his sayings, but it should further be edited like this. Generally, the children and grandchildren of buddhas should practice thoroughly that Zazen is the most important thing.
Shobogenzo Zazenshin
Compiled at Kosho-horin-ji on the 18th of 3rd month in the 3rd year of Ninji era.
Preachedto the assembly at Kippo temple in Yoshida districts of Esshu, in the 11th month, in winter of the 4th year of Ninji era.
After expressing his own Zazenshin, he added a few words to say that there is no excess or deficiency in the Zazenshin of Wanshi Zenji. As I mentioned earlier, neither of these two zazen proverbs is about how to be in zazen. They are suddenly showing us how our current state of being is already. That is the The functional pivot of buddhas, pivotal function of patriarchs. The important elements, conditions, and points for us to become aware of as buddhas are written in this way.
“Not thinking but manifesting,” It may be true that we have come to understand things through discernment, or that we have come to comprehend things. However, if you touch it carefully, you will see that this fact exists before we can know things through discernment. As it is expressed following, “not turning around but being accomplished.” There is no need to understand that there is an object on the other side, and when you touch it, you can see things. We have never seen things in such a way. We are in a situation where we see things like this from the beginning. Not knowing that we can see it, we are there. Later, it finally became possible to explain that this is what it means to see, to be able to see, and that we are here, and that when this tool called our eyes face an object, we are able to see in this way. The word "invention" is used as an idiom to describe the ability to clearly and theoretically define what is supposed to be, but the invention was already there before the invention was made. When we use the word "discovery," we may think that something has been discovered for the first time, but we were unaware that it was there from the beginning. You can see this clearly when you look at it like this. This is “Not thinking but manifesting,” This, therefore, is not about how it should be to do Zazen. The appearance of the current state of us in this way is the important way of being when we are really doing zazen. He explains this in even greater detail and with even greater care. “Not thinking but manifesting,” What is the way in which the thing appears? “the manifestation in naturally intimate.” Well, one might read it as being familiar. Since the character for "親(shin)intimate" has another translation, "naturally" is probably used. The word "naturally" means more than "intimate," but it also means directly itself. "親(shin)intimate" means "close" in Japanese. “the manifestation in naturally intimate.” It takes no time or effort at all. There is no need for methods or means. Without using anything about how to become like that or anything like that, this kind of activity (opens fan and shows it to the audience) is above you all. “Not thinking but manifesting,” I will clap my hands now, so please listen to me carefully, and then I will do, CLAP! (He claps his hands.) When you hear the sound, there is no room for your discernment to insert. That is the extent to which the manifestation of not thinking is familiar to us.

“Not turning around but being accomplished, the accomplishment is naturally enlightenment.” Since human beings have only seen the world after they have come to recognize themselves, we think that the logic of all things is based on the separation of self and others, or self and things other than self, no matter how much we try to do so. In Buddhism, however, the issue is the state before the separation of self and others. Even if you are here now, you can at least understand that there is nothing other than your own body and mind. We understand that there is an object over there, or that there is a sound over there, but all of these things themselves are nothing more than the activities of our own body and mind, and they are far beyond the relationship between self and others as it is shown “Not turning around.” There is no such thing as coming together. From the very beginning. This is true everywhere and at all times. We are subject to an environment other than our own, but the things we consider to be other than ourselves are not becoming together with us, but always and everywhere we go, we are never separated from them. I think that's how we live our lives. “ is naturally enlightenment.” That is already clear.
“The manifestation is naturally intimate,” As I have just mentioned, the situation of oneself in a really intimate way, such as this, has been unfolding like this all the time. “there has never been taint.” Saying "there has never been" means we don't know when it began. It means from the time we don't even know the beginning. “never been taint” If you reverse it, there is no staining. No dyeing or staining means that there is no contamination, which, to put it another way, means that there is no other way to be, as I have always told you. It is the same when you are looking at an object, but when you are looking at the object, there is no other way to see it. The same is true when you are listening to a sound. There is never another way of hearing a sound at the same time. When you are eating a meal, there is no such thing as another taste appearing at the same time. This is what is known as "no taint." If you are not satisfied with that, if you pry into the content of existing purely in current situation, what you will find is, for one thing, that there is no room for disturbances of the mind. Because it is a pure lifestyle with nothing to compare and contrast, there is no such thing as this, that, or the other. We are in such an unshakable place. There is no wavering. Therefore, we are far away from such a thing as delusion. There is no need to use the word enlightenment. Moreover, since this is always the case, there is no time for anxiety to come in between. That is the truth of ourselves, which is said to be “there has never been taint.”
“The accomplishment is naturally enlightenment, there has never been rightness or deviation.” It's the way things are established. We are trying to develop a theory as if the other side and this side touch each other and become one and we can see things, but in reality, we don't have to wait for such logic. “there has never been rightness or deviation.” Is it something like being right or biased? There is no such thing. As I mentioned, the fact that there is not another way of appearance at any given time is proof that there is no bias. There is an expression in Buddhism called the Middle Way. It is written "Nakamichi," or the middle way. There are left and right, and there is a middle, which means that there is neither to the right nor to the left, and the middle is the middle way. What we mean by "the middle way" is always the present state of being itself. The truth of oneself, the state of the present reality itself, is like that. People have come to look at things with various thoughts about them. You bring what you experienced in the past and the present into it, otherwise you will not be able to understand things well. And you think that if you try to remember as much as possible of what you experienced in the past and compare them, the present condition will become clear. You do that and it makes it less clear what's going on now.

“The intimate of having never been taint, the intimation is non-doing and dropping off.” Really bottomless, there is nothing to do. Just sit. Because it is the very real truth of your own. It says, “non-doing.” The character for委(i) :entrust has a meaning, as in "leave it to someone" or " entrust it to someone. The expression "leaving things as they are" is used, but we do not use that kind of expression. This is the reason why it is said, “non-doing.” You are doing such a wonderful activity without really doing anything at all, that must be the truth about yourself. That's what you all really want to know. The way it was earlier is nowhere to be found, so it must be strange, doing this. Nothing has been done. There is no sign of what happened earlier. That's how this one works. It's probably the same with what you think. Even the many things that come to mind, they are not all the way they were before. It is always the state of things as they are now. But if you put it into words, when we think of things that happened yesterday, we tend to think of them as not being what they are now. However, the thought of how things were yesterday exists only as an activity of the present. And what happens after the thought comes to mind? There is no place where they disappear, no place where they are put away. It must be that clear. And yet, once people have a lot of things in their minds, they grip onto those things and make them into problems. That is why I say that Zazen is not for that. It is for the truth of oneself itself.
That's what it says, “The enlightenment of having never been rightness or deviation, the enlightenment is aimless and making efforts.” Without planning. My teacher used to say, "Planning without planning, real planning is that trying to do something really ceases is the true meaning of planning. Then, I believe that for the first time, it is called non-thinking. Whenever we do Zazen, we must always use non-thinking. Without doing anything by yourself, you are in your own reality, or rather, there is nothing other than your own reality. The content of that reality is what is being preached now as Zazenshin. This is not what we are about to create. Everyone is in the midst of such activities. When you are fully in your own reality, it becomes clear, so when you do zazen, you will really have a use for it.
So, finally, as such a true state of affairs, “The water is limpid, fishes go like fish.” Some people may read it as "water clear and to the bottom." In short, although water is specifically mentioned here, if the water is clear, the appearance of the bottom of the river will appear immediately. Even though there is water, it does not make one feel anything that looks like water, but rather, the bottom of the river is there as it is. This is what it means to express the content of Zazenshin once more in a concrete way during Zazen. If you ask what is meant by "water" more concretely, it must be yourself, right? It's you, and yet there is definitely this body-mind thing that you call yourself, yet it must be the appearance of this body-mind when you're living your life, when you look closely, there are flowers, tastes, sounds, and so on. There, not a single thing like you comes out. It is suddenly thorough to the bottom, to the ground. It is as if a fish is swimming when it is swimming.

“fish go like fish.” The character for "like" is not to smile. It is not about boiling or baking. If it were only about the fish, you wouldn't use the word "like." When fish are swimming, we are together with them, and when we are together with them, we forget all about ourselves, and only the fish swimming there appear, and this is what it means to be like fish. It means that there is more than one thing, that is what it means to be similar. You use the word "like" when there is always another thing. It means that they are similar.
“The sky is vast and transparent through the heavens,” I suppose it is the same thing. You call it the sky, the space. Is it the presence of air? That's what it means from a meteorological point of view. If there were clouds, it would be different, but if you touch a clear sky without a single cloud, you will understand it well. When you touch such a scene. When you touch a bird flying in the sky like this, you forget all about yourself, or rather, you don't come out. Only the bird flying there like this. That is the truth of your present state. That is the way people have been from the beginning, not separating this side and that side. “not turning around but being accomplished.” The same is true of the character如し(gotoshi): like which means "to be as one," and being one is not only one. As there are expressions such as 自己,(jiko),:self" and "他己,(tako),: other self," both of which must be one's own state of being, people use the terms "the other side" and "this side. It is all the truth of oneself. Since the time when people began to recognize "I," they have come to see one thing separating into two, as if they were sorting things out or dividing them. In such a situation, the characters for "like" and "similar" must have come to be used. Let's look at the very beginning, “Not thinking but manifesting,not turning around but being accomplished.” This is the very truth of who you are when you are sitting right now. It would be good if you could sit like this. There is nowhere to ask. This concludes this Zazenshin, but Dogen Zenji says again, for the last time, “unfailingly,” “the children and grandchildren of buddhas should practice unfailingly that Zazen is the most important thing.” This is what He strongly indicates there. "The most important thing is now." Which he also indicates somewhere, that there is really no use at other time. It is not something to go to an outside place and do. Everyone is now in the reality of himself/herself, and the reality of himself/herself is not a world that you can make up and do something about it. I really want you to know that, and please practice it. This is the essence of correct Zazen as conveyed to us.
Shobogenzo Zazenshin
Compiled at Kosho-horin-ji on the 18th of 3rd month in the 3rd year of Ninji era.
Preachedto the assembly at Kippo temple in Yoshida districts of Esshu, in the 11th month, in winter of the 4th year of Ninji era.

Afterword
Dogen Zenji's Zazenshin consists of the "Non-Thinking" of Grand Master Yakuzan Kodo, the dialogue between Zen Master Nangaku and and his disciple Zen Master Baso Doitsu beginning with "Planning to become Buddha", "Polishing to make Mirror," and then Zen Master Wanshi's Zazenshin and Dogen Zenji's own Zazen shin.
Using the character for "shin" in acupuncture, he shows the essence of zazen. He indicates the way of Zazen called non-thinking, not comprehending but as actual practice. The text is difficult to understand without the guidance of a clear-eyed master.
I had been studying Dogen Zenji's "Shobogenzo" by myself. In 2016, I listened to the talks of “Shoubogenzo” by Kando Roshi and found it was very easy to understand. Since then, I have learned from Kando Rhoshi, and with his permission, I have transcribed and published his teachings. I feel that with his explanation, I can understand Dogen's original text and get his true meaning across.
The reason why I attempted to translate it into English is that I thought I could express in English the true meaning of Dogen Zenji that I have come to understand through the practice of zazen and publishing under the guidance of Kando Roshi. The annotations are taken from Kando Roshi's advocacy.
I am not sure if I have expressed the pivot of Zazenshin as shown by Dogen, the way of practicing Zazen in a way that is not affected by the way of human thinking, and the state of the masters beyond thinking, yet I would appreciate your comments and suggestions.
In the end, I would like to introduce a passage from Master Kando's speech.
"As Dogen Zenji said, the Zazenshin of Zen Master Wanshi may seem to be a methodology on how to do zazen, but it is already beyond methodology. Each one of us is in his or her own state right now, so there is no indication that we are going to get there. Everyone is showing us the truth of themselves as they are sitting right now, right away. I think that's something I'm very grateful for. If I may add a little more, we are now able to live a proper life before we understand or know. Furthermore, it was quite a while later that we started thinking about things like the other side and this side. In the beginning, there was no need to think about the other side and this side, and suddenly we are here in the truth of ourselves. It's the same for everyone. If you look at the way you are sitting now, you can see that there is no sign of anyone else anywhere. And we are here without even saying that it's just our appearance. This kind of thing must be at the core of Zen master Wahshi's Zazenshin.”
Sep. 2021,
Taihaku Sokan. S. Tatsuta　

2023年03月02日

Zazenshin The Eighth

Zazenshin　 Compiled by Imperial posthumous Zen Master Wanshi Shokaku
Pivotal function of every buddha,
functional pivot of every patriarch.
Without touching things, yet knowing,
Without confronting circumstances, yet being lightened,
Without touching things, yet knowing,
The knowing is naturally fine.
Without confronting circumstances, yet being lightened,
The lighting is naturally subtle.
The knowing is naturally fine,
There has been no discriminative thought.
The lighting is naturally subtle,
There has been not the slightest sign.
There has been no discriminative thought,
The knowing, not being dual, is singular.
There has been not the slightest sign,
The lighting, without gasping, and finished.
The water is limpid right to the bottom,
Fishes are swimming very slowly.
The sky is vast without limit,
The bird are flying, faintly far way.　　　　　　　
As a sentence and in terms of the number of words, it is very short, but it has implications. “The “Shin” of what is called “Zazenshin” is the Great Function is already appear before our eyes, it is the dignified manner beyond form and sound, is the point in time before mother and father were born.”
As I mentioned earlier, acupuncture, this shin with bamboo crown radical, acupuncturists, those doing acupuncture used this kind of needles and cured illness in old time. In the same way, Buddhas pierce the crucial point correctly, which makes you all clarified. “It is good not to speak ill of buddhas and patriarchs,” We should not treat the words of enlightened the Buddha and the patriarchs as if they are not important. If someone has actually reached the summit of a mountain, we should not listen to his or her story and make fun of it. Certainly, those who have been to the summit: the state of enlightenment, are clear that they have been to the summit. It's not something that people who don't go there can say anything about. “is never to escape from losing body and life,” There is no lie. If people who don't see it say they saw it, it's not a story. That will lose you your life. You don't know what is true. “and is the head three feet long and the neck two inches.”Then it says, "The head is three jyaku tall and the neck is two sun long." The head is about 90cm long. Three jyaku. The length of the neck is about 2 sun. You may be surprised, but this is how you are as you really are. I guess that's how he put it in the character. The head is longer than the neck, and the neck is shorter than the head, which is normal. Some people say that some peoples have long necks, and some peoples have various types of necks, but I think it is still difficult to reverse the length from the neck up and the length of the neck down. Well, that's enough here. He says that the figure is not something that can be measured by human common sense, but even if we don't use common sense to measure, if we touch the person in front of us, the length of the neck and the length of the head will come straight out without any measurement. It is interesting, isn't it? It's not that it's that length because it's measured. The length of the head and neck are exactly as they were before we measured them. This is also a matter of honor before the birth of the father and mother. It is the dignity of advancement of form. It must be the manifestation of the great use. Now, let's move on to the main text.

“The pivotal function of every buddha: ‘Every buddha” is without fail makes every buddha it’s pivotal function, the pivotal function is manifested, this is Zazen.’” The pivot is an important function. The important thing for a Buddha to become a Buddha would be the state of Buddha itself. If we put it in a concrete form, we can say that we do Zazen. That's the best way to get in touch with the truth about yourself. When we say to be in touch with, there is something apart from ourselves, it is also strange to say that one encounters the truth of oneself in this way, because it is the truth of oneself. It is the very truth of oneself. That is Zazen. To make it manifest, when you sit, the thing that you have sat is immediately present, without you having to ask or search for it, and before you are convinced of it, it is the pivot of Buddhas.

“There are not such words of the late Master.” There is the saying, " This word is not spoken by the late master." “This principle itself is ‘every patriarch.’” We are taught to look over there, and when we look over there, they tell us, "Look over there and you will see the other side," and so we try to look over there, and indeed we can see the other side. Then, you will feel as if you can see the other side for the first time because your master told you to look over there like that. However, the ability to see the other side is not an indication that one can see the other side because one's master has taught one. It might be the case that there are practice and realization, However, the ability to see the other side is not an indication that one can see the other side because one's master has taught one. Although there are some signs that we were taught or guided by a master, it is not as if anyone gave it to us. It is our own truth from the beginning.
“There are the transmission of the Dharma and the transmission of the robe.” When the Dharma is transmitted in, there is a ceremony called the transmission of the robe. In the past, this was the case in the time of the Buddha when he handed down a gold brocade kesa to his disciple, Mahākāśyapa. It is not that he simply gave his disciples the kesa that he was wearing, but that he was conveying the whole Dharma to the disciple. Giving the entirety of the Buddha's realization to his disciple Mahākāśyapa does not mean giving the disciple what he has. If the content of the Buddha's enlightenment were to be handed over to his disciple, Mahākāśyapa, exactly as it is, if it were a thing, nothing would remain in the Buddha if it were handed over to Mahākāśyapa. That is not the case. The way the Buddha Dharma is transmitted is called "conveying" or "giving," but there is nothing to be received from others. That is how the Dharma is conveyed and transmitted.
“In general, each face of turning head and changing face is ’the pivotal function of every buddha.’ Each head of changing face and turning head is ’the functional pivot of every patriarch.’” Let me give you one example. I don't know how long it has been since we have recognized our "self" as having this much body here, and we have come to regard the outside of that body, the part that is not the body, the part that is not the body of this mass, as belonging to others. It is a way of looking at things that separates the self from the rest of the self. I think most of us are feeling that kind of thing right now. However, if you look at it carefully, what you see as something other than yourself is an activity within each of your present selves, not somewhere else. Moreover, there are things that we recognize as being over there, but what we recognize as being over there is itself a function of what we consider to be ourselves, you see. There is no such thing as a separation between the other side and this side. It is made like this. This is the expression, changing face and turning head. The other side and this side are not separate. This is the state of being now that the patriarchs and the Buddhas are really experiencing like this. This is the state of being seated right now. When you sit, there is nothing else but the state of sitting. Everything becomes is the state of sitting, even the sound of the birds. Everything will be the way it is when you are sitting. Suddenly, there is no sign of having changed it, yet there is no sign of anyone having changed it. It is interesting to see that when you sit, you become what you are when you sit. This kind of thing is the taste of this part.
“Without touching things, yet knowing,” Reading in Japanese is "Ji wo soku ni shite, shiri.” I see that there is another way to read it, "Ji ni soku ni shite shiri.” I wonder how much difference there is in the way it is when you change the okurigana(kana written after a kanji) like te, ni, wo, and ha. “Without touching things, yet knowing,” Is it something called knowing the thing without touching it? Knowing the thing without touching it. "Ji ni soku ni shite shiri.” I think that it is similar in both cases. I think the person who wrote this reading down is also Ms. M Yahoko. The original text does not have that kana. I guess that's what they mean when they talk about the pivotal function of every buddha. Well, I would like to ask a linguist about that. Is there such a thing as "Ji wo soku ni shite, shiri,” and "Ji ni soku ni shite shiri,” I'll go read it.

“Knowing is not perception,” The kind of knowing we are talking about here, it is not the kind of knowing we think we know. Like this, CLAP! When a sound is made, it sounds like a "Pan" but it is not a way to know the sound saying, "Oh, I just heard a sound." Ordinary perception is when you hear something and then have a thought, "Aha!" But in this case, he is saying that the sound of "pan" is not perception. The usual perception that you hear a sound after the sound is done is only a small amount, and you can only perceive and grasp what you hear, but this is a way to get all of it without leaving anything out when it sounded "pan." Is that a good comparison to this small amount?
I think the next 了知,(Ryochi)recognition, will be the same. I guess it's called "I see.” Recognition. Normally speaking. CLAP! It means that you don't recognize the sound afterwards. Pan! It's not the kind of knowing that you can tell when the sound is over, when you're done listening to it. It's the way to know at the time. Recognition is certainly a creation. But this is CLAP! that you don't make anything up. When this happens without your knowing, it happens as it does. There is a way of knowing that is not made. “Therefore,” that's the way it's written, and this “knowing” is “not touching things.” There is no distance even though nothing has been done. When you touch the sound like this, it is called "touching," but there is no distance when the sound is made. So, this is happening without anything like touching what sounded or hearing what sounded. This is interesting. Dogen Zenji says that this is knowing.
So, we are reminded, “We should not speculate that it is universal wisdom,” is that the real content of this kind of thing does not include even the way of tasting, measuring, and knowing which that's all there is to it, and that we are taking everything, without leaving anything out. And even more “axiomatic knowing.”
Things like the way I am or the way things are done on me, and not even that. This is really true, isn't it? Now you touch it like this, now like this, you will see if we try. CLAP! Let me try it again CLAP! We usually live our lives in this way, but we are not really aware of this. The reason why we don't notice this is because we have only ever looked at things from the perspective of ourselves having set ourselves up. This is why he mentions that doing Zazen is not about that.
It is not the world of one's own way of seeing and thinking. That is the Zazenshin used by the Buddhist patriarchs when they practiced Zazen. This is how the Buddha first came into contact with the facts themselves, not his own way of thinking.
“This not touching things is when a clear head comes, a clear head does, when a dull head comes, a dull head does, it is to break by Zazen the skin of this body that mother gave birth to.” The characters are lined up like they are difficult to read, but they are, CLAP! if we do it this way, (making a sound)it will be this way, if we do that way,(making a different sound) it will be that way. This is done with sound, so if we do it with things, we can do it this way, (showing a closed fan) it will be this way, and if we do it this way, (opening the fan) it will be this way. That's how you live your life, isn't it? A red object appears to be red when the eye goes to a red object. When the eye goes to a white object, the red object appears to be white. There is no mystery in this. But in many cases, we are only talking through human understanding. Herein lies the crucial point that we may or may not be able to achieve a settlement. If you don't understand, CLAP! you can't hear it, that's not. If you don't understand, definitely CLAP! it will be like this. This is　more important, this is how you spend your time in Zazen.
Za-ha is to break. Sit and break. What is it, if I were to say that we encounter the state of things when we don't even know that we were born and are here like this? It's called “it is to break by Zazen the skin of this body that mother gave birth to.” It must be the state of one's self when one does not know one's birth into this world. So, when we do this, CLAP! everyone has become such a "PAN!" without knowing whether you heard it or not, I'll end with what I just said. Now, I am introducing Zazenshin as a textbook, but Buddhism and Zen are not about knowing the meaning of the words written in this way, such as what they mean. In fact, it is necessary to encounter the truth of oneself and clarify oneself. The path, or rather, the way it should be, is written like this for a while. Therefore, it is not a matter of listening to what is written and saying, "I see what you mean," but rather, it is about one's own state of being. As I have always said, to learn Buddhism is to learn oneself. There is no other thing. The Buddha is a person who is aware itself.
Let me try one more. “Without confronting circumstances, yet being lightened,” It means “to illuminate without facing circumstances.” It is the common sense understanding of ordinary people that there is an object over there and you are here, and when the object touches you, you can see the object.
However, this illumination when illuminating without facing circumstances, “This 'being lightened' is not the lighting of completion, it is not spiritual lighting, the lighting is “without confronting circumstances.” The word "lighten" here means to illuminate without facing circumstances, which means that there is no line between the other side and the other side. That is what is called lighting. Do you understand? Is it possible to be able to see after you touch it? When we do this, we touch this thing and then we can see it. When do you touch it? When we do this, we touch this thing and then we can see it. When do you touch it? At what time do you touch it? How about when you touch it, when you see it, and when it becomes like this? Without any such thing, this thing comes out there suddenly, doesn't it? Is that not the case? Not thinking. It is not the way of thinking. It is not when you are thinking. It is non-thinking, it is not thoughts. You can't see it without understanding it, which is not the case. There is no person here. A person. Nothing that is me is coming out. Although you may be looking at it, I often talk about it, but you must be looking at it, in a way that you understand it. But when you are really looking at an object like this, only the appearance of the object is there. But we know. Because we know, we say that I am here now and I am seeing, but when we are really seeing, we don't say that we are seeing, do we? Without confronting to circumstances, Dogen Zenji is pointing it out to you what it means to be illuminated, so we must learn and practice about ourselves and how this thing is on us now. It is not learned by our thoughts. We learn by the state of being now itself.
“Being lightened is not changed to circumstances,” it doesn't happen in the way that we see things over there here. “because circumstances are lighting.” What is going on over there is exactly the way you are. What is your situation is suddenly the situation of the other side. If you look at it that way, it's without confronting. There are not things to be opposed to. “Not confronting is that the whole Universe has never been hidden,” I think it says the whole world has never been hidden. That the whole Universe has never been hidden means that it is always that way. I suppose you could say it's that way everywhere. “is that a head has never appeared from the broken world.” Somehow, I wonder, there is no such thing as having something that you put your hand on, or having something tear off and show its face. For example, if there is something in a bag, and the bag is torn, you can finally see what was in the bag. This is not like that. This is how we are living now.
“It is fine, it is subtle,”is said, and though it changes, though it changes, you should all use your eyes and try to learn how your eyes work. You should try to learn how your eyes look like this. Is it called turning the head? When you turn your head like this, your vision changes rapidly. Isn't it exquisite? It's called changing, but you can't put a line where and when it happens, as if it is really there. You call it fine, don't you? There is a slight hint of change, but there is really no way to say when and where the thing you saw before will become the thing you see now. “and is being turned around and not being turned around.” You can say over there and over here. “being turned around and not being turned around.” There are many things, many things that we can see, hear, and taste, but if you look at the way we live, this is how it is. The previous scene is nowhere to be found. It must be exquisite that there is this kind of appearance while there is no sign of where the previous appearance disappeared. It must be subtle. It is surely “being turned around and not being turned around.” This is really what Shokaku Wanshi Zenji is talking about in his Zazenshin and this is the way everyone is right now. We say it is the real original face of us, but I guess we all live like that. We have never worshiped this. Even though it is our own thing. We have never really witnessed this. That is why things are not clear. So, this is what he says about the importance of Zazen. What are you doing when you sit? We are not doing anything that we seek after having sat in Zazen. You think Zazen is boring or useless if you are not doing what you are seeking to do. That is because you don't know Zazen.
Zazen is really the real aspect of oneself itself. It is like this, you are suddenly bumping into the truth of yourself, the real thing itself, the flesh and blood of your own. There is no room for a single objection. That is the way to study. That is the way of being when you are sitting. The time has come, so I would like to end here for today.

2020.12.14
I'll read some.
“The knowing is naturally fine, there has been no discriminative thought.
That ’thought’ is ’knowing’does not always rely on other power. The ’knowing’ is form, form is mountains and rivers. These mountains and rivers are ’fine,’ this fineness is subtle, it is vivacious in using them. When making a dragon, it does not concern whether being inside or outside the Dragon Gate. When just using one knowing of now, one twirls up the mountains and reivers of the whole Universe, and strive to know. If there is not our own knowing in the intimacy of mountains and rivers, there should not be one or half knowing. We should not lament the late arrival of the discriminative thought. The Buddhas who have already discriminated have already become manifested. ' It's never been done yet' is that it has been already occurred, and that it has been already occurred, is manifestation. Therefore, 'there having been no discrimination' is having never met a person.”
Before I go into this, I would like to say something about Zazen, and what Zazen is to learn from your own state, right here, right now. That is what you have to know more than anything else when you do zazen. It's the way you are living right here, right now, in the flesh, and that's what you need. And that is where we come in today.
“That 'thought' is 'knowing' does not always rely on other power.” It is true that there is no such thing as borrowing help from others. From morning till night, from night till morning, we are doing various things, but with this one body and mind that we have received, we do not need the help of others to distinguish things, nor do we think. This is our own thing, and if you look at it carefully, you will understand it well. Then Dogen Zenji says an interesting thing. He said, " What does it mean to know?” He said that it is form. It is called "understanding," knowing. When things are seen, you say you understand, right? When you see things, you understand. When you meet people, you recognize them as well. To understand, what do we understand? In other words, it is the form. What we call a form is a thing, because it is described as a mountain or a river, it is the thing itself. Like mountains and rivers, there are people, clocks, desks, microphones, and many other real things. That's what form means. It is a thing.
“ These mountains and rivers are ‘fine,’ this fineness is subtle,” What it means to be subtle or to be strange can be easily expressed as follows: Whenever you touch a form, you suddenly become the appearance of the form itself. You can see the shape as it is. I would say that we can see the appearance of the shape on the other side as it is. It is very fine as a function of subtlety. In terms of time, there is no gap. When it comes to the way shapes are conveyed, no matter how detailed or complicated they may seem, they are conveyed exactly as they are. That would be a wonderful thing to say as a function, wouldn't it? It is subtle, exquisite, and wondrous.
As the idiom " exquisite" implies, it is a magnificent work. It means that when we don't do anything, but something is there, it is instantly conveyed as it is, without waiting for a time. This is how you are when you are in touch with the truth of yourself.
Now use it, “it is vivacious in using them.” It's about how active and working they are. Not attached to anywhere. “When making a dragon,” to become a dragon, “it does not concern whether being inside or outside the Dragon Gate.” There is a legend. There are three or so gates that a carp climbs up and through which it becomes a dragon. But here, as it says, “it does not concern whether being inside or outside the Dragon Gate,” he says that there is no need to say anything about it. I suppose anyone is now suddenly in a state of reality like this. It is that knowing, and it is like this to know it. So, to the extent that you are unaware of it.
“When just using one knowing of now, one twirls up the mountains and reivers of the whole Universe, and strive to know.” Even though it is said one knowing, one knowing of now, in order to know things, it is really unfolding only by the present situation at any time. You probably know this better by now as it is all about you. “one twirls up the mountains and reivers of the whole Universe,” Is there an expression that says "at any given time, at any given moment, we are full of it"? Nothing else comes in.
If we do it in this concrete way, when I have a clock or a drink on the table right now, when I try to do something like this, it is expressed here “one twirls up the mountains and reivers of the whole Universe,” though, I use the phrase, "I can't see one more way when I am looking at something. When you are looking at an object, whatever you are looking at, I don't think you will see two or three different ways of looking at it. There is always only the way you see it now. It would be good if you could see it this way. “and strive to know.” It says, “by striving to know" but it is not scattered to other places. The true meaning of this is that a thing is always as it is, and no two or three ways of seeing it do not appear at the same time. If you analyze it a little more, you will understand how important it is and how wonderful the content is. When we take up the issue of being lost, suffering, or having problems in our daily lives, when we look at things, we are looking at a thing, we are living our lives in such a way that we can see things in various ways. That is why you have things to compare. It can make you feel lost, tormented, or even worse, angry. Thankfully, however, when you study with us in this way, at which you are currently touching, it is always clear, which means that there is nothing to do but what you can see now. There is no object to get lost because things are clear and untouched. There is nothing to fight about. When you analyze it, you will find that you are in the state of things being seen just as they are.

Now, on to the next one, “If there is not our own knowing in the intimacy of mountains and rivers, there should not be one or half knowing.” Well, you may think that there is something outside of you, but in fact, as shown here, “If there is not our own knowing in the intimacy of mountains and rivers,” which means that you can truly live with that thing anytime and anywhere, without any separation from it. No matter where we go, no matter what our surroundings look like, no matter what environment we enter, we have never been unable to live like this with that environment unless we are prepared and ready to do a lot of things. No matter where we go, suddenly, we are never separated to the extent that there is no sign that we have become one. That's why that thing is showing up on us as it is as the way we are. I believe that such a thing is called “the intimacy of mountains and rivers.” Be kind, really kind. That's the way you are. Because of the way we are, it is always, “If there is not our own knowing,” we are ready to be able to know a thing by the thing itself, anything no matter how trivial it might be. It says, “We should not lament the late arrival of the discriminative thought.” Discrimination and thought is a concept that comes from what we acquired after we are born, such as cultivation and knowledge. For example, saying " a flower is blooming there," that is discrimination as 'this is a flower." When we did not learn such things, we did not discriminate whether it is a flower or a leaf, because there were no thoughts we did not distinguish. Such a difference is created by the words, which everyone can understand as common sense, but here, it is called discernment. “We should not lament the late arrival of the discriminative thought.” It's not that you can't tell who the person you meet is, but “We should not lament the late arrival of the discriminative thought.” If there is such a thing as not being able to come up with a name, you will lament the late arrival of discretion, as mentioned here. I suppose there is no need for such a thing. Even if you don't know the name of the person, when you meet him or her, there is no doubt that he or she is the person, so it is all right. “The Buddhas who have already discriminated have already become manifested.” Is this what I just mentioned? “The Buddhas who have already discriminated have already become manifested.” You may not know the name of the person, but if you meet him or her, you will be certain that he or she is the right person. “‘It's never been done yet’ is that it has been already occurred, and that it has been already occurred, is manifestation.” At any given moment, this is where we are living, so it will be clear to say this. It's never been done yet. “It's never been done yet” means being already. The “yet” in “It's never been done yet” is already, isn't it? It's about the same as saying "after it's finished.” That's what is always done here.
“Therefore, ‘there having been no discrimination’ is having never met a person.” “having never met a person.” Never meet one person. Well, to put it simply, we can say that for 24 hours each of us is really nothing more than the way we live ourselves. Discrimination is different. When we see things in our own activities, we see Mt. Fuji, we see who came here, and so on, so when we discriminate, we encounter many different people and many different things. The handling by discretion and this part is different. The truth of oneself is really like that, and we don't meet one person in another place. I have seen 親鸞: Shinran wrote somewhere that there is only one mind of one's own. Only one mind. It may sound lonely, but when you say "only one mind," it is really quiet and there are no more problems. I think it's a very tasteful word.

And now we move on. “The lighting is naturally subtle, there has been not the slightest sign.” Dogen Zenji first of all sees this sentence as, “To say that ‘the slightest sign’ is whole Universe.” I guess that would be a bit of a puzzle to us. The word “the slightest sign" is exactly what the character means. It refers to a very small world. By contrast, the whole universe is a wide world. Therefore, it sounds like there are contradictory things, so when you read something like this, you may wonder what he is talking about. Everyone talks about small things and big things, but when you look at things like threading a needle when sewing, you are probably living in a place like “the slightest sign." But if you look closely, that is all you are now. You may think that there is a wider world, but you are living in such a place where such things as threading the needle, such things are really being done and developed. We live in such a place. Well, I think that would be helpful. It is the same in everyday life. When people see words like "narrow" and "wide," they are immediately fooled.
“But it is ‘subtle naturally,’ is naturally lighting.” It is naturally subtle and illuminates itself. It's good. See? Thread through the hole of a needle, and it becomes subtle by itself, and illuminates by itself. “Therefore, it is like not coming yet.” There is only the appearance of what we are doing now, so “it is like not coming yet.” There is no such thing as something coming from somewhere in the future. We often use it, but there is a word created by human beings called now. There is a word that indicates the time of day, but it is a strange word when you look at its content. The word "now" does not come from anywhere. It does not leave. It neither comes nor goes. That kind of thing is what we call now. However, once people assume that something called "now" exists, I think there are many people who are under the illusion that there is something other than the present. Cherish the present, live in the present. These may sound like good words, but I feel that there is a sign of looking before and after in the sound of "now." If you really look at it, here is what he says, “it is like not coming yet.” Specifically, he says, “Do not doubt eyes, do not trust the ears,” This is a way of saying, "Be attentive to your own present condition.” He is saying, "Be close to the truth of yourself.” “Do not doubt eyes, do not trust the ears,” Both eyes and ears are realizing things exactly like what I'm preaching now. It is carried out.
“that we should clarify the meaning outside of words, and do not read patterns in words, is lighting.” This is why it is better to learn from the real thing than from words. With words, we pry a lot, but when we touch the real thing like this, the eyes and the ears, we can understand this. Let's try it, let's try the ear, like this, CLAP! You can tell by doing it. The same goes for the eyes. You can understand it better if you try it like this. “That is why there is not being dual,” There is nothing to deal with, you see. There is nothing to be an object. If we do this, there will be a sign that you want to deal with what you see here right away. Even the sound is like this, CLAP! CLAP! If there is a sound, it will be a sign that you want to treat it. However, if you look closely at the eyes and ears, you will see that they are not the other party. As a proof of this, when you do something like this (showing an object), the object will just become like this. Or when I do this, CLAP! CLAP! It's just like this. “not being dual,” another compensating point can be covered by saying this. When a sound is made, strangely enough, no ears come out. There is no such thing as listening with the ears. There is only sound. That would mean that there is no object. There is no object to be the opponent. It is the same when we see things. There is no sign of an object reflected in the eyes. When you see something that is just there, that is visible, that comes out, there is no partner. Well, let's not be too wordy about it. “and for this reason, there is no attainment.” There is no such thing as receiving. So they are close. If you put something from the other side into this side, it would be like receiving. There is no such thing. It is said, “This has been maintained as “it is singular,” for singular, it is one and only, it means that it is just the way it is. That's how we live. I may have mentioned it a bit earlier, but even if you can hear the sound, CLAP! When we do it this way, we will say that we don't hear the other way. That's how we live our lives. ““This has been maintained as “it is singular and has been retained as ‘having been finished,’” "Oh truly," I guess he is taking it as a way of saying yes. It is followed by “我却疑著: but it is that I still doubt.” “but it is that I still doubt.”
This is not to say, the word "疑,(gi)doubt" is the same as "doubt," but this word "doubt" is not the same as "question" in the general sense. It should not be taken that way. It is doubt. In Shinran Shonin's writings, there is the teaching of absolute belief, the teaching that leads to absolute belief, and doubt is the teaching that is the trigger leading to absolute belief. I found a passage in Shinran Shonin's writings that says, "Doubt is the teaching that is the trigger for absolute belief.” I believe it is the same for us, but when we are not sure about something, we have the power to use that as a trigger to ask questions about what we don't understand until we are sure. This is one of those things. “but it is that I still doubt.”
“水清徹底兮、魚行遅々:The water is limpid right to the bottom, fishes are swimming very slowly.” You may read it this way. The term “Water is limpid” means that “what suspended across space is not being thorough to limpid water.” What suspended across space, I wonder, what you mean by that. I guess if we go and read it after that, we will understand. True, pure, clean water is, as Dogen Zenji said, “There is no shore or cliff at the edge of the Universe, and this is the water limpid right to the bottom,” in other words, up to this point it is water, and from this point on, there is no boundary like that, which is what Dogen Zenji meant by pure water. This is true even in your everyday life. There is no boundary so that you can never deviate from the state of being now at any time. No matter how far you go, there is no end. It is all about the present. That is how you are living in the fresh water on you. However, as I have been saying, the word "now" is often misunderstood, and when we use the word "now," we seem to be using a limited version of "now" based on the understanding that there is something else. Such a thing is not thorough, is it? It is not thorough clean water. It is safe to say that you do not know what the true state of things is. “And much less water is in vessels is not clean water.” It is a vessel, vessels, water is in vessels. It translates to "like water that is deep and clear.” Even if we say "deep and quiet," in a world where the bottom of the container exists like this, it would be called "not clean water.” It is fine up to the bottom of the vessel. The bottom of the vessel is also the bottom, and while it is fine to say that the water is fine up to that point, there are things beyond that point, such as what is beyond the vessel, that concern us.
This is what he means when he says in the next sentence,"There is no shore or cliff at the edge of the Universe, and this is the water limpid 'right to the bottom.'” This is really all about the current state of things.
So, he has brought out about fish. “If fish goes through this water, it is not that there is no ‘going’. Although going advances in tens of thousands of distances, it is unmeasurable, is unattainable.” Taking up a look at how fish swim in the water, regardless of whether there is a lot of water or not, even if you keep fish in a goldfish bowl, for example, there is no such thing as fish swimming out of the water and running out of space. Even in the smallest amount of water, no matter how far they swim, they never seem to run out of space. Even in the smallest amount of water, no matter how far they swim, they never seem to run out of space. You can see this in the condition of fish. That is our own condition, essentially. However, if a fish were to feel the same way as a fish, that it is being kept in a small vessel, it would probably wish that it were kept in a larger ocean rather than in such a small place. It is the same for human beings. That is the way of thinking, isn't it? But in reality, there are people who spend all day working on a futon, and there are people who drive around in their cars. Some people may be envious of others, but both of them are able to live well enough there without really thinking about how spacious or cramped it is.
“There is no shore to measure, no sky to float in, no bottom to sink into, so there is no one to measure.” I can say that there is nothing at all that bothers us. We don't have to worry about how big or small something is in our lives. Things like such-and-such place or such-and-such place are naturally no longer an issue. That is how you are really living. It is the truth about yourself. But the way we think makes us do something extra about it. Sometimes you think, "Why am I the only one being in a place like this?” “If we want to discuss measurement, only the ‘clean water’ of ‘thoroughness’ will do.” What is really going on is what is being measured. If we are to discuss such things, we have the appearance of activities in which each person is truly alive in the here and now. There can be no mistake in saying that there is no other way. “The merit of Zazen is like that going of fish.” Zazen, as we have just compared it, is like this fish, isn't it? It is like a fish swimming.
“Who can measure the ways of thousands or ways of tens thousands?” There are many different routes, but “Who can measure?” We use the character卜,(boku) for fortune-telling, but it is like a fish swimming endlessly, endlessly, without rest, or our activities from morning to night and from night to morning, “Who can measure?” It is not something trivial that can be measured, even if one wanted to. “The procession of thoroughness is the whole body without following the path of birds.” I suppose he would say that it is like a bird flying through the sky without leaving a trace. When you really touch the truth of self in this way, you will not tread on the appearance of what you have just seen. It would be thoroughly so. If you were in the place of the appearance you just had, you would not say that you are in the place of the appearance you are now. We use it like that in our words.
I'll go another paragraph. “The sky is vast and boundless, the bird are flying faintly far way.” “The sky is vast is” The sky is wide open, which means “not suspended in the heavens,” The word "suspend " is a colloquialism, so it can be used to describe a situation that does not stay in the eyes or mind. “the sky suspended in the heavens is not the vast sky.” He emphasizes it. Somewhere, for example, we are trying to create a new word to describe a vastness like infinity, or limitlessness, or various other kinds of vastness, but true infinity does not need to be said to be limitless. Many people have the mindset that there is a limit, so they have to say there is no limit. There is no need to say from the beginning that it is truly infinite. So much so that there is no such thing as “the sky suspended in the heavens,” which is probably a broad appearance. The same goes for things like saying "absolutely" and saying there is no conflict. What makes you say that is that there is still a glimmer of something that is bothering you somewhere. When you are in a state of absolute certainty, there is nothing there that is bothering you. When you look at it this way, “the sky suspended in the heavens is not the vast sky.” If there is even the slightest thing that bothers you, it is a problem. “Much less is the one that is universally spread over this place and that place, the vast sky.” Saying "here" and "there", this and that. When you close a storm door, when it doesn't close properly, we use the onomatopoeic sound of a rattling sound, but if there is a contrast between "I" and "the other," that and this, it is not really a spacious world. There remains something that is not clear unless you do something about it. It makes you say things like you have to get along, or that you don't become one. “The one that is not hidden or revealed, and has no back and front, is called the vast sky.” That would be good. Is it the hidden of seclusion? So, it is the invisible one. Also, we say 顕微鏡,(kenbikyo), microscope, but when you can see even the smallest of things, we use this word 顕,(ken),and there is no front or back in the appearance of what is seen and hidden. It is all about the state of being now. It is said to change one's attitude abruptly, front and back, but human beings inevitably look at the current changes based on what they have seen before, and there is a stagnation in that. We never leave the way we look at things, saying, “It was like that before, and now it's like this.” This is the trouble. In fact, there is no such thing as a way of looking at things that it was like this a while ago and is like this now. There is no such way of being. It's all about what's going on right now. There is no other way. That's the work of concepts. It must be the work of thoughts and discrimination. It may be easy to understand what you are speaking about, but you may be a little far away from the truth. In other words, there is a danger that, although you try to tell the truth, you may end up showing off the fact with what you have photographed. If you look at this kind of thing, you will understand a little more about the meaning of “The one that is not hidden or revealed, and has no back and front, is called the vast sky.” And now he mentions birds. “If birds fly through this sky, it is one Dharma of flying.” Birds are airborne. Well, they may walk on the ground, but the most important characteristic of birds is that they fly in the sky. “The activity of flying in the sky is not to be measured.” It is so rich in content that it is difficult to describe its appearance in just one word. “The flying in the sky is the whole Universe,” When a bird is flying in the sky, it is all about the bird as it flies in the sky. Although we humans can assume the time before and after the flying, aside from what we assume, in reality, flying is all about flying when flying. It is not supposed to be perched on a branch, or down on the ground foraging for food. When a bird is flying in the sky, it is flying in the sky, and that is all. That is all there is to it. “and because the whole Universe is flying in the sky.” Because that is how it is. “This flying, even if they don’ know how long, how far away it is,” How long it has been flying like this, it must be a long time, but it is impossible to measure. “if they don’ know,” Would it be correct to say that it doesn't measure up? "when saying it with the words beyond human thoughts, is described 7far away faintly.'” It is beyond the scope of considering the merits and demerits, good and bad, right and wrong. When human beings consider the merits and demerits, good and evil, they are weighing them by comparing them with what they have been taught, measuring right and wrong in this way. When we are apart from that, “is described ‘far away faintly.’” “faintly” is translated as "far away." It is translated that the appearance of being far away and faint, dark and indistinct. It is an appearrance that a bird is flying there.

“Directly, there is not to be a thread under feet.” As it was said earlier, “without following the path of birds,” so is the flight of the bird, and so is the flight of the fish. They leave no trace of the water in which they swam. Looking at the bird's flight, nothing like bird footprints is left behind in the flight path. When you watch airplanes, you sometimes see white trails of clouds called contrail which sometimes remain after the plane has flown. When you see this, you may think that a trace remains, but it is not a trace of the plane after it flew, but rather a change in the liquid gas that was released from the airplane, not a trace of the plane itself. You might say that the plane flew away and that's why those things were left behind. Because we are looking at things, we can't help but think so.
When a bird lands in a swamp and walks around pecking at its food, everyone looks at it that way, thinking that it has left footprints. Because there are clear footprints. We are tempted to say that even birds walk without leaving footprints, but really, it's about you, so please take a look at it. Where is the state of things now that happened a while ago? Where is the state of things now that happened a while ago? Such things are really cut off, or rather, they are not cut off, but they are not carried over behind. This is why Zazen is necessary, because Zazen is not a time to look at things in the world of human discernment and thinking. This is why zazen is necessary, because Zazen is not a time to look at things in the world of human discernment and thinking. It is the very truth of one's own body and mind in which one is active right now. If you stay intimately with this, this will become clear. When it becomes clear, as I have said many times, doubt will be removed. This is what makes you feel really relieved and at ease, and makes you a person without any problems.
“When the sky flies away, the birds also fly away. When the bird flies away, the sky also flies away.” That would be true. It is not just one side of the issue. When you go down a river in a boat, you can say that the boat is moving and the shore is also moving. The way we look at things is that when we are walking along a road, we tend to think that we are moving even though the mountains are not moving. “Sayings of thorough practicing of flying away is expressed that it is just here and now.” It is saying how things are going, but if you really want to see that, you need to get in touch with the state of yourself right now. “it is just here and now.” “This is the needle of the steady immovable state.” It is a form of sitting on a futon doing zazen. The important thing is “it is just here and now.” To be in the truth of one's own itself is the most important vital point when doing zazen. “This is the needle of the steady immovable state.” So, there is an expression, "Don't look away.” It also sounds like how it is now, now and then. To be just here and now means the very moment of now. It is like saying, “What about you of being now?" “How many times, tens of thousand times, it is said eagerly ‘it is just hear and now.’” Whenever, again and again, hundreds of times, thousands of times, every time we encounter one after another, it is always said eagerly the point. It is not good if you turn your eyes to elsewhere. This is the way zazen should be, and Wanshi Zenji left us this short text called Zazenshin, which really describes the essentials of Zazen, and which Dogen Zenji has now proposed in detail. This is all I have to say.

2023年02月17日

Zazenthin The Seventh

It goes on further. This is a quote from Dogen Zenji, it follows. “Nangaku and Kozei, the great master and excellent disciple” are like this. I guess that means the disciple is stronger than the master. “the great master and excellent disciple” Nangaku is the master and Kozei is the disciple. Dogen Zenji said of this, “the great master and excellent disciple are like this.” He says they're both amazing. Neither of them is second to none. It's not like one of them knows what he's doing and the other is still a disciple, so he's in a position to learn, and there are a lot of things he doesn't know. They can just read about each other’s minds. Here, Nangaku and Baso Doitsu, who is called Baso Doitsu in Kozei. That is what it means to be enlightened. There is no superiority or inferiority. Now that we are equal, there is no such thing as "I'm better than you.” There is nothing more to say, "You're more boring than me," that kind of put-down. Equality means. It's unnecessary. That's why it's interesting. It's calm, isn't it? Each of us has our own way of expressing ourselves. No one else can express it. Only you can express yourself.
It would be like drinking a cup of tea. What does it taste like? When you are asked how it tastes, if you have the ability to taste it now, you should have the ability to express it with the power of your own taste rather than someone else's expression. It is troublesome, so there really is no way to taste or express others in such a way as to say that it is the same as what he or she is saying, or that you are tasting it in the same way as he or she is saying. In the world of poetry, this is true for tanka and haiku as well. When the theme is snow, everyone can write their own poem about the snow while looking at the snow. There are a hundred people, and each of them can compose a different poem. Even though the tradition has been going on for hundreds of years, there are still many poems that can be composed. There is no such thing as "I can't write any more poems because the previous poet has already written one. That's how interesting it is.
“The sitting buddha demonstrates the state of becoming buddha, which is Kozei.” He says that it is Baso Doitsu who has truly revealed what Zazen is all about. That can be understood if you read the previous one. “For the becoming buddha, it is shown the sitting buddha that is Nangaku.” This is the way of Nangaku Ejo Zenji. Let's take a look at the front part for a moment. That's the way of Nangaku Ejo Zenji.
Let's look a little bit at the front, because starting on page 229, there is an exchange with Nangaku-san. The next page is p. 230, or p. 231, Baso Doitsu Zenji of Kozei said, “Zusabutsu: planning to become buddha.” The sitting Buddha's realization of making a Buddha means Zusabutsu. He said, "This is exactly how I am sitting now," and he showed it to him. Kozei did. Master, what do you think? It's just like this, isn't it? He says, "Master, do you understand?” This is what it means to be sitting like this. So there are several exchanges. “For the becoming buddha, it is shown the sitting buddha that is Nangaku.” This is the way of showing how he polished the tiles by placing them on the stone. Many people read the story as follows: Baso Zenji was still unsure about zazen, so his teacher polished a tile, saying Baso to make it a mirror. When Nangaku polished the mirror like that, Baso replied, "No matter how much you polish it, it won't turn into a mirror,” which must be what shows the Master how Baso's Zazen is done. You can't bring something else to show how you are now. No matter how small the thing is, you have to rely on that thing itself to show it. That's how absolutely clear both of them are.
“In the Nangaku’s faction there is suchlike effort. In Yakusan’s faction there are sayings exchanged on the way of practice, cited earlier.” What is meant by Yakusan’s faction is that the first thing that is mentioned in the very first page of this book, there are such things as non-thinking, not thinking, which is what is cited earlier. There are that kind of study, learning, receiving, and exchanging things.
“We should remember what has been maintained as the pivot of practice the by every buddha and every patriarch, is this sitting buddha.” If we are to ask what is the most important point that the Buddha and the patriarchs value most in their training, it is the state of sitting like this. That is what we call Zazen.

“Those who were the buddhas and the patriarchs used this pivot.” The people who are called Buddhas have all spent their time like this. There is no other way. The best way to truly understand the now is nothing but by being in the now, to understand the now.

The matter is perfectly simple, this way, CLAP! I always do this. Where can you really get this sound to hear this sound? You can't get it anywhere else. It is neither later nor earlier. When I do this, it's always there, and that's how we all live our lives. And yet, you don't even know if there is anything left that is not clear when doing like this.
CLAP! When I do this, there must be nothing suspicious anywhere. There will be nothing unclear, nothing missing, when we do it like this. We can only hear half of it. Everything is out, nothing is left out, all and everything, the thing is done is done exactly as it is. And yet, when a way of thinking comes to mind, you are immediately struck by it. It means that we try to seek what is true from the way we think, and that we cannot attain what is true. At least, that's how the Buddhas practiced, CLAP! You are all really living like this. We live only in such a way, unavoidably. Although we are only living thus, we are in a world where we are immediately taken up with our way of thinking, so we are called human beings (ningen). That's why we call them "jinkan" among human beings. The world of the Buddha is different.

“Those who have never experienced have never seen it, even in a dream.” Those who don't know about it have never dreamed or thought such an important thing could be in a place like this, which is expressed by Dogen Zenji here. “Generally, when the Buddha Dharma has been transmitted in India; West, and in China; East,” The Buddha Dharma, also in Japan, the transmission of the Buddha Dharma means “the sitting buddha has been always transmitted.” As I am saying now, the transmission of the way of being in sitting and the way of spending one's time in this way is the true transmission of the Buddha Dharma.
Until Dogen Zenji met Nyojo Zenji, this kind of thing must not have been conveyed even to Dogen himself. There was only a world where he had seen things from the top of the way of thinking. “This is because it is pivot.” Without it, we would never be able to attain the truth of this. We cannot figure it out. We cannot be convinced. It cannot be touched. We cannot be like this, as it is. “If the Buddha Dharma has not been transmitted, Zazen has not been transmitted.” This is an outstanding expression. “If the Buddha Dharma has not been transmitted, Zazen has not been transmitted.” The form of Zazen, as it is commonly called, can be done easily by anyone. But Dogen Zenji said that the transmission of Zazen is not achieved no matter how much the form of zazen is transmitted or how much time is spent practicing it, unless the content of what I am saying is conveyed properly. I think this is the question that is being asked today. If this is the case, it does not mean that Zazen has really been transmitted.

“The only thing that has been handed down steadily right successor to right successor is this principal of Zazen.” Steadily right successor to right successor, it means that it is the important part that the status of sitting itself, as I am talking about now, has been understood and passed down from generation to generation without error. “Those who have not received the transmission of this principal, are not Buddhist Patriarchs.” If this is not clear, there are many expressions "enlightened" "enlightened," "what is the content of enlightenment," "what does it mean to be saved," "to be separated from the lost," it is not clear how these things are supposed to be. If it were unclear, it would be a shame to give it a name like Buddha's.
“If you don’t clarify this one dharma, you don’t clarify myriad dharmas, and you don’t clarify your myriad conducts.” If this point is not clear, then this is the root of everything, and no matter how long you live, all you have is what you are living here now. If you are not clear about what is really going on in your life here, then no matter how many things you look at, you will never be clear. “If every dharma is not clarified, it cannot be called open-eyed, and it is not the attainment of the Way. You cannot say that one's eyes have been clearly opened. He says, " You cannot say that you are the one who attained the Way, or that you have clarified the Way or that you have got enlightened. “How could they be Buddha's and Patriarchs in the past and today?” Although there has been a long history, those who are said to be ancestors of the Buddha have a very clear understanding of the relationship between master and disciple, with no discrepancies. “This is why we should be certain that the Buddhas and Patriarchs, always, directly transmit Zazen.” That is why Zazen is the core of our practice, even though there are many different ways to practice.

“For that reason, from old times, there have been few who know that Zazen is Zazen. Today, on the mountains of the Great Sung Dynasty, among the abbots of Kassatsu temples; ranked under five great monasteries and ten temples, there are many who don’t know Zazen and don’t learn Zazen. Even though there are some who clarify what is Zazen, but they are few.”

After reading this sentence again, it is said, “there are many who don’t know Zazen and don’t study Zazen.” Or, before that, it is like saying, “there are some who clarify what is Zazen, but they are few.” When you get the text like this, I think it is necessary to take a look at it, “there have been few who know that Zazen is Zazen.”
If I may rearrange things a bit, there is this one line of verse in this Zazenshin. “If the Buddha Dharma has not been transmitted, Zazen has not been transmitted.” This must be a tremendous thing. “If the Buddha Dharma has not been transmitted, Zazen has not been transmitted.” Zazen is certainly a practice, and everyone is practicing Zazen, but when you look at Zazen, when you look at how you are sitting, how is the Buddha Dharma truly and is the certain thing conveyed to you? One expression of this is that when a person used to sit on the ground, he asked what he should think about when he was sitting in the steady immovable state. What should I be doing when I am sitting like this? “What are you thinking in the steady immovable state?" In response to this, Yakusan Zenji indicated, “Thinking thus the state of not thinking.” After that, the monk asked, “How can the state of not thinking be thought?” And the answer is. “It is non-thinking.” This is what is conveyed in the beginning.
Looking back at the scene, we can see that the form of Zazen has been created, but when he was sitting, he must have wondered what exactly he was doing in Zazen. Looking at the situation like this, the form of zazen has been handed down, but it was not clear as to what they were really doing in Zazen. And for those who have been transmitted the Buddha Dharma properly, like Yakusan-sama, when they say how they should be in zazen, he will clearly show them how they should be in their own reality, not in their own way of thinking. Here, a number of situations have been mentioned as aspects related to “there have been few who know that Zazen is Zazen.”

For example, there were those who were obsessed with sitting form. Also, it is said, “The effort of Zazen is accomplished if you attained emptiness of the mind, that is the state of being peace.” They think that the content of Zazen is to be quiet and not to have a noisy mind, and that it is good when there are no more things to deal with or worry about. This is a lack of knowledge about Zazen. Also, as it is said that practicing Zazen is the pivot for beginners and late leaners, one is always taught to do Zazen when he or she first enters to practice. Or late leaners, when people encounter this kind of thing now and try to learn it, Zazen is always the main thing that is taught, but this is for beginners and late students and it is not necessarily a way of conduct for patriarchs who got enlightened. To the extent that zazen is positioned as a method, a means, or something like that. It may be good to say that once you are enlightened, you don't have to sit. That it is taken in such a way may be part of the fact that there have been few who know that Zazen is Zazen.
These things are shown in various ways in the first half of the text before we have read it here. In the exchange between Nangaku and Baso, the master Nangaku and his disciple Baso Doitsu Zenji, Baso was doing Zasen for a long time when the master came to him and asked him what he was doing, to which Baso replied, "Figuring out making Buddha. Planning to become Buddha.” In response, Nangaku picked up a tile and rubbed it on a stone. He said, "Polish and make a mirror," or "polishing to make a mirror.” Both of these are the way of Zazen of those who have truly attained the Buddha Dharma. That is what they are talking about. Well, looking back, such things have been mentioned, but here he dare to say again, “For that reason, from old times, there have been few who know that Zazen is Zazen.” If there is such a thing in Zazen as something to be done from now on, then you don't know Zazen. Figuring making-Buddha means that if you do Zazen, you will be instantly in the state of Zazen itself and have no need to ask for anything else. That's how we sit.
Now, let's try it a little more with the way hand that we always use, CLAP! Whenever you hear a sound, you hear it as it sounded, right? So, to hear the sound already ends completely, without using anything else. Everything you want to know, everything you want to convey, everything you want to learn, is within this sound, CLAP! That's how it's done, that's the state of Zusabutu- planning to make Buddha. This would not necessarily be just Zazen, but all things. Everything that is called now, we've never done later. It is all perfectly absorbed by the thing at the present time. That is what it means to know that Zazen is Zazen. Zazen is truly Zazen. It is said, “there are many who don’t know Zazen and don’t learn Zazen.” Those who don't know, let people seek enlightenment by doing zazen, that's they do not know Zazen. It's like saying, "make one seek the law outside of your mind.” It is like that there is something real besides what we are doing right now. Or, " Let people wish for liberation in the other world." Besides the present state, they set up the idea that there is a world of enlightenment, a world of salvation, and lead people to that place, there were a lot of people who were doing Zazen or practicing Zen in such a way, about which Dogen Zenji has shown us. When we look at such things like this, we can see it clearly.

It is written that there were some who were clarified. “Although there were some who were clarified, there were not so many. In many temples, of course, time to do Zazen are fixed. Every temple has a set time for zazen, and people are sitting there. That must have been the situation at that time. “All of abbots and monks refers doing Zazen as the important task. When they recruit learners, they recommend them Zazen.” The abbot, the monks who spent time there, and the people who practiced there did zazen with the understanding that zazen was the most important thing. Whenever someone came to study there from other places, he or she was sure to have them practice zazen. But, as it says, “But abbots who know Zazen are rare.”
They are sitting, that's for sure. They are sitting in a form of zazen, or something like that. But they don't really know what they are doing when doing Zazen, do they? This is probably true even today, and we have that kind of tendency to Zazen in some places. Teach people to sit. Sit with them. Form a shape. They sit there until the time comes. I suppose it is true that they have sat for a while because you have spent some time sitting quietly, but it is not clear for them to the extent that they are wondering what it is worth. They say that just sitting is enough, but I wonder if that will really make you feel at ease inside. I wonder if the problem inside yourself is being cleared up.
“For that reason, from ancient times to recent times, there have been one or two old veterans who have written Zazenmei, and one or two old veterans who have compiled Zazen-gi, and there are one or two old veterans who have written Zazenshin, among which Zazenmei are good for nothing, Zazengi are still unclear on their conduct.” By the time of Dogen Zenji, there were many people who had left behind instructional texts on zazen, and he must have read them all, one by one. Well, I will not name names here. If you look them up, you will find them. If you read it, I think you will understand what Dogen Zenji is talking about. “good for nothing,” There are very few instructions on what sitting really means, how to do it, or how to spend one's time. For example, there are basic instructions such as "don't sleep," "sit with your eyes open," or "stop thinking about various things. However, there are very few things that carefully indicate that there is a need to be intimate with the state of being in a sitting.
Therefore, “They are written by people who do not know Zazen and who have not attained the immediate transmission of Zazen.” To say that they did zazen and practiced with a master but did not get transmitted is to say, a little worse, that the master, the master who taught them, had nothing else to pass on to his disciple. Since he only understood that much, it could be said that he could not convey more than that. This is what is meant by “people who do not know Zazen.” As I mentioned earlier, “If the Buddha Dharma has not been transmitted, Zazen has not been transmitted.” This is something that needs to be mentioned again.
“Keitoku-dento-roku,” there is a footnote at the bottom here. Among them, the most representative of which is by Wanshi Zenji, I believe. Zazen-shin. There is also a zazen-shin in the Dento-roku by Goun in Koshu.
"Katai-futo-roku, ” that includes Zazen-mei, which are written by people such as Gako Daigi,Tendai Daizyo, Doan Josatsu, Butsugen Seion, etc.
“It is pitiful that those people spend a life time successively passing though monasteries of ten directions, and yet they have not completed an effort of one sitting.” Even in a single session of Zazen, they did not have enough insight for the way of zazen which is what they really need to focus on. “Sitting is not them any longer,” I think this is quite common. “Sitting is not them any longer,” You are sitting with this body, but you are not really paying attention to what is going on in your own body, or you are not concerned with what is going on in your own body, but many things come into your mind, and you spend your time dealing with them while sitting. “Sitting is not them any longer,” “their effort does not meet them in the least.” They do that because they don't know things. But you all know what I'm talking in terms of the principle of things. CLAP! When you hear a sound, the sound is heard when you are one with the sound. When there is a sound over there and you are over here, and eventually you and the sound come together and you hear the sound, it is probably just the principle of the thing we humans take it all in our heads. The real thing is not like that. Even when you are doing Zazen, when you are doing Zazen, you don't do anything, you just become undeniably the way you are doing zazen itself. You don't ask what happens when you do Zazen. The real thing will be just thrown out there. And you will be just as the real thing is, only the real thing within the real thing. This is why it is said, “This is not because Zazen hates their own body and mind,” But they don’t set their mind on true effort. If people don't know the state of true contrivance, they can be really messy in their handling. That's “they are deluded,” you don't know things very well. It is like being lost or drunk. Because they don't know what is what, they don't know which things to value and how to value them, and they think they are just making a form and doing Zazen for a while.
And what these people are trying to say in their "collections " is, “just the look of Gengen-henpon : getting back to the source or returning to the origin,” It's like saying, "Return to the source. Return to the origin, “the look of Gengen-henpon.” That's how they see it. There is no place where our truth goes back to somewhere, like going back to the source, or returning to the source, or reaching the origin. We are always in this kind of situation. Do you understand what I mean by this situation? In other words, there is no place to go back for the state of being now and the appearance of now. There is no place to reach. There is only current state from the beginning. It's not like that because you are away from it, you are away from the way it is now, and now that you realize it, you can go back to the way it is now.

And“it is useless operation of Sokuryo-gyojyaku; to stop thinking and keep mind tranquil.” Since you know that you stop thinking and thinking about extra things and become quiet, you make an effort to become like that by setting up such a thing. In reality, CLAP! We don't do anything to hear the sound, but it is free from doing leads Enlightenment. As it is said that Nirvana: Enlightenment leads serenity, it's just as it is, no noise, no fuss, just quiet. You might say that you have to make an effort, that you have to try to be like that, but there is nothing like that, you are always like that, even when you are sitting now, even when you are living now. Suddenly, CLAP!
“It is does not come up to the stage of Kanren-kunjyu; to attain a state by training and endeavoring after a model,” Generally speaking, what is called Kanren-kunjyu is a way of practicing, and making effort after effort to imitate the example of a great person, so that one can become able to do the same thing. If you make that effort, and you are able to do so, it will be admirable in its own way. Compared to that, the things I just mentioned are probably more boring, you would say. Or “it does not reach the views of the tenth bhumi and the balanced state of truth,”People who know a great deal about things, they don't say such trivial things. They are doing something more sophisticated, even if only in terms of their views and understanding. That's the way it is now and even time is like that. You know that when you look at it from the perspective of the view. You know from the viewpoint that there is no such thing as "now" that will lead us to some place, or that will lead us to something. And yet, when you look at things like " Kanren-kunjyu" and "Sokuryo-gyojyaku" they are probably more boring than the viewpoints and principles that these people are talking about.
“how could they have directly transmitted Zazen of buddhas and patriarchs?”
It is impossible for such people to correctly convey the content of the practice called Zazen, in which the Buddhas sit. As I mentioned earlier, there are some, but not many, as one or two, and there are only less than ten people. he people who compiled such texts at various times, such as those with titles like "Zazen-gi" and "Zazenshin" are known as Chroniclers in the Song dynasty, which means that these writings were compiled into books in the Song dynasty. We, late learners, we don't need to take it up, “leaners in late times should discard them and should not study.” But we have a habit of reading them because we can't tell if they are great or not.

To give you a terrible example. It is written there that if you take this medicine, you must not take it because it is highly poisonous. It says that if you take it, you may die. If someone takes this medicine and says, "I can't tell if it is poisonous enough to kill me if I drink it," what will happen if he or she drinks it? In the past, they dropped an atomic bomb on Japan. After that, they have conducted similar experiments in various places. They are researching how much radioactivity will be emitted and how much damage will be caused if they blow up a certain amount of material. Every time they do it, the damage will be spread all over the world. I think it's stupid, really. I think this is also true for studying Zen. When you read a book, what it says remains somewhere in your mind, and you begin to evaluate it in terms of what it says and how it says it. Once they are able to make such evaluations, they have the illusion that they have become great. This is also scary.
Now, in saying that, “As for Zazenshin, the one complied by Zen Master Wanshi Syokaku of Tendo-kentesu-temple Taihaku Minsan in Kingen-fu in the Great Sung Dynasty is the buddhas, a real needle for Zazen, and a true manifestation.” Dogen Zenji said that only the Zazenshin of Wanshi Zenji, which are mentioned next to this, can really provide the right guidance for us who practice Zazen, for us who do Zazen. He highly appreciates this. The way he evaluates it goes on to say, “That is the only light of grace the inside and outside of the Dharma world and he is a Buddhist patriarch among buddhas of today and old days.” This is what he evaluated. “Former buddhas and later buddhas have been cured by this needle; Zazenshin, and patriarchs of today and patriarchs of old times are manifested from this needle; Zazenshin.” In acupuncture and moxibustion, this is the vital point, and if you miss it, it will have no effect. The ancient and modern Buddhas have never missed this point, and they have all obtained this point and the truth is clearly in their hands. This is because Dogen Zenji, who has transmitted the Buddha Dharma, is really able to say this in Zazen, convincing it to be true in Zazen. So we come to the Zazenshin of Wanshi Zenji which Iwe will follow in a moment. The text is given first, and then Dogen Zenji gives his remarks one after another. Let us take a quick look at the text.

2023年02月03日

Zazenshin The Sixth

Zazenshin

The teaching material is Zazenshin, starting with the second line on page 237. I'll start by reading a little bit down the page.
“Nangaku says, ‘If you learn sitting buddha, it is non-set-form.’ In order to express what should be said is these words such as Nangaku’s. The reason ‘sitting buddha’ appears as one buddha and the second buddha is that it is solemnized with ‘non-set-form.’ Now, Nangaku’s saying ‘buddha is non-fixed form’ means the form of buddha. Because it is non-fixed-form, it is entirely impossible to escape from sitting buddha. If so, because buddha embellished with non-set-form, if you learn sitting Zen is just sitting buddha. Who, in the Abodeless Dharma, could sort out not being buddha or being buddha? Because it has dropped off before sorting out, it is sitting buddha.”

Well, I guess that's it for now. The master, Nangaku-sama, is talking about this with his disciple, Baso Doitsu Zenji. “If you learn sitting buddha, it is non-set-form.” Doing Zazen is not about making a form, I would say. I think it is appropriate to say that zazen is not a way to spend one's time making and observing the form that has been taught. So, the way to take it is, “In order to express what should be said,” Therefore, as Nangaku-san says, “If you learn sitting buddha, it is non-set-form,” which is the correct way that Dogen-sama treats it.

“The reason ‘sitting buddha’ appears as one buddha and the second buddha is that it is solemnized with ‘non-set-form.’” Can you understand set-form定相, (jyoso) ? 定(jyo) is 定(jyo)of禅定(zenjyo):dhyana-samadhi. 相(so):Phase is form. As the word "non" is used here, the word "non-set-form" means that even though you are sitting like this, when you look at the content, you will see that there is nothing like what you saw before. From the outside, you think there is no change because you have been sitting there with the same shape for a long time. But the contents are completely different.

It is often used, I think, for that Kegon Sutra. It is called Kegon Falls. I wonder if the author Dazai Osamu or someone has ever dealt with it. He must be the one who committed suicide by entering the water, but well, let's leave it. It is a waterfall. A waterfall is called a waterfall when water is flowing, so no matter whenever you go to a waterfall, you always see water flowing down. That is one definite phase, set-form, because we are looking at the external flow. We are looking at a definite figure, non-set-form means that if we look at the content, we see that the water is flowing from top to bottom, so it is impossible to say that the water is flowing as we saw earlier. They are the appearance of different water. If we understand that there is no such thing as the same water flow for all time, then we can understand what is meant by “it is solemnized with ‘non-set-form." You will understand this very well. That's what it is the state of now and that's where you can all catch a glimpse of it. When they freeze up and become the appearance of a frozen waterfall, it won't be the appearance of a flowing waterfall. You'll see it frozen solid now and then because it's cold right now. It is the same with the way that everyone is doing the sitting. The content never stays the same. The contents have all been completely changed. And when it is said "solemnize," how it is solemnized, it is so fresh. So fresh that not a single old thing remains. There are words like "switching," but as you can see from your own experience, when you try it like this, there is no such thing as switching things around. It is the same when you see things with your own eyes. Various things look like this, but they don't get swapped. People remember what they have just seen, so they look at it as if the previous object has been replaced by the next one, but if you look at the contents of the eye, it's amazing, isn't it? You can see it when you try it, but you just see the current state all the time. If you look inside what you can just see now, you just don't see what you saw earlier. But there is not a single appearance that you replaced it with yourself. And when you look for the appearance you saw before, saying where did it go, you can't find it anywhere. So, it's solemnized like this. Isn't it beautiful? There is not a single leftover thing.

“Now, Nangaku’s saying ‘buddha is non-fixed-form means the form of buddha.” This means to receive the content of zazen by saying, " The sitting state of the Buddha is like this." Rather than looking at the external form of zazen, we are receiving the very content of sitting, a lively state of Zazen, which is the content “non-fixed-form of buddha.” “Because it is non-fixed-form of buddha, it is entirely impossible to escape from sitting buddha.” As I am saying now, the content of sitting is so much that it cannot be grasped or discarded, what is it, there is no place to escape. “it is entirely impossible to escape from” There is no other way than the way you are sitting undeniably, when you are sitting. It is the same for everyone, isn't it? However, the human way of thinking is that one is not in the true state of being when one is sitting, letting it go, say "this is so and so," and spend one's time doing whatever comes to one's mind, one is already in the world of thinking, which is a different dimension from the world of sitting. That is something you should pay attention to first.
“If so, because of buddha solemnized with non-set-form,” If you really want to learn zazen, then there is no other state than this one in which you are sitting. If you want to know the truth, if you really want to clarify the truth about yourself, there is no other place to ask than in your present state. And yet, even though you are in the midst of this truth, it is easy to think that there is something else that is real, away from the truth, without paying attention to the truth. Probably, there are more people who see it that way. I would like you to correct that.
“Who, in the Abodeless Dharma, could sort out not being buddha or being buddha? Because it has dropped off before sorting out, it is sitting buddha.” Is it all right with the Abodeless Dharma: non- abiding Dharma? It is just the way you are living now. To put it in a more explanatory way, the way you are living now, as you can see here, is that it never stays anywhere. If it was the way it was just a moment ago, we wouldn't say it's the way it is now. Right? That's what I mean. And the current state itself is also the non- abiding Dharma. It's never stayed there. It's like being out of the bottom. It is just as it is called the great liberation. We are not bound or tied down by anything or anyone, or we don't live a life of inconvenience. That is the kind of activity that is called the Abodeless Dharma. And in the midst of that, it is clear that there is no need to take or discard things like I am a Buddha or I am not a Buddha. I would like to add more, there are many people in the world who see things as you and others. As a matter of common sense, that is true, isn't it? We think of the body we receive as ourselves, and if there is something else, we see it as someone else saying it is not ourselves. However, if you look at the contents of the body carefully, you will see that it is only what your eyes are seeing on your own body, on your own body and mind. You say that there are various things. You say, "That person is here," but if you look at it carefully, you will see that it is just the way your own eyes are working right now. It is not about the appearance of the person on the other side. This is something that is difficult to notice.
Even when we hear a sound, such as a bird singing over there, a dog barking over there, or a car driving over there, we all recognize that it is not our own, but something from the other side. But the fact that we hear sound is nothing more than the function of this ear. This is what makes us hear various sounds. It is the reason why it expresses what is called sound. All is the state of this ear of yourself. We have never heard it anywhere else. We have never heard sound in another person's body. Such a thing is the content called the Abodeless Dharma. So there is no need to take or not to take, to throw away or pick up. Look at yourself from morning to night, 24 hours a day, everything is the state of your own body and mind. If there are things to throw away and things to pick up, it would be strange. After the activity is over, people think it's important or disturbing, so there is a tendency to want to keep it or give it away, but they can't. If you ever had to make a choice, your life is falling to pieces. Isn't that right? If you only take what is important and discard what you think is not important. You would be full of holes for the rest of the day. However, whether you like it or not, whether it is good or bad, it is all your own state of affairs. Without missing anything. That is how different the truth about ourselves is from what humans think and handle. It is this truth that is of use.
So it says, “Because it has dropped off before sorting out, it is sitting buddha.” Even before we take or throw anything away on human thoughts, from the very beginning, from the very first, even before we do such a thing, “Because it has dropped off” we are detached from such a thing. We live a life completely free from that kind of boring life. That is what we are doing when we are sitting right now. Being in it means that you are doing Zazen. It would be superfluous to say that it is directly connected to the truth of oneself, but it is the very state of oneself from the very beginning. However, to go somewhere to ask for it, to search for it, would be to make a mistake in Zazen. You will be away from Zazen.

Let's move on to the next one. “Nangaku says,” Furthermore, the master says, “If you are sitting buddha, this is just killing buddha.” I would say that's how we learn. “If you are sitting buddha, this is just killing buddha.” Reading it down, that is what it says. If you sit, you will kill the Buddha. Killing buddha. So, Dogen Zenji wanted to make sure that there would be no mistake about the word for "killing" in "killing buddha.” In the next page, Dogen Zenji first says about the word "kill", “Even if the word “to kill” is the same as that of an ordinary man, we should not equate it with that of an ordinary man.” Although we generally use the word "kill," the word "kill" is used, but he says that the usage of the word is different from the meaning of the one used in general, so please be careful. Well, there is an expression that says "to hold one's breath," right? Thoughts and discernment cease to arise, when one's breath stops coming out. That's what it means to die. However, dying in general really means that one ceases to breathe, and thoughts and discernment inevitably cease, but here we use the term "killing" to refer to the situation during life in which thought and discernment cease. This is what differentiates it from the ordinary person.
So when we say " Jyobutsu: Enlightenment", the dictionary says it means that a person has passed away, right? The real Jyobutsu: Enlightenment is different. A living person becomes a Buddha. It is not that a person becomes a Buddha after death. It means that a living person, just like a dead person, has the power so to live like this, being carefree from being kicked around, being told terrible things, and so on. When you are alive. That is the state of becoming a Buddha, being enlightened. However, if a person dies in the same way, there is no response to kicking, punching, or cursing, because he or she is already dead. Which is replaced with the word "death." However, as Dogen Zenji said, the way ordinary people perceive killing and the way the Buddhas use it are completely different.

So, I will go on to the next one, “What is called further, when thoroughly studying “sitting buddha”, the virtue of “killing buddha” is present.” When we say the merit of killing Buddha, that's what it means. It means something like "killed, dead and useless, never to come up to life again," but this is the state of a living person, this one. That's not the state of a dead person, those things are in the state of a living person. Living is never lived by taking up what has just been done. It is always just the way things are now. What we're referring to as "what just happened" is itself what's going on right now. The things that you mention that happened yesterday are what's going on now. Even the things that we say will happen tomorrow are all about what's happening now. Similar things, like "Yesterday it was like that, and the time before that it was like that," we think to ourselves and say as if it is similar, but it is every time a new situation. Unless you look at this carefully, you won't understand it. What you are saying is what you are thinking, but your thoughts are, possibly, designed to create a wrong way of looking at things. You will know better when you see the actual activity. This is how it is shown now, this is how it will be shown. One at a time, this is how it is now. There is no room to touch on what happened previously. But you think he is doing the same kind of thing. The fingers don't change. The same person is doing it. So, somewhere, the same thing is being done like this, you think. That is common sense, but if you take a closer look, you will see that it is the same person, but it is not the same. The time is conveniently set by humans to explain it, and when we say, "This is not the same body as before," the body is not the same body as before. By saying, "Even though it looks like the same body," we have come to understand it a little better. This is the merit of killing Buddha. That's what killing means. It is completely dead. It's just that the thing is done at that time, and it will never come up again in the same way.
“The precise moment of ‘sitting buddha’ is ‘killing buddha.’” It is not only when you are sitting, but when you are sitting, it is really the state of your truth. The reason why we know this is because we are in the truth of what we are acting on, without crossing over into thoughts and discernment. Discernment is centered on what we have experienced, and since that is the starting point for our thinking, it recognizes things that remain somewhere. Actual things cannot be recognized that remain in place. It is really only for that moment. Everything is done exactly the way it should be done at that time, and everyone lives so orderly that nothing is ever touched and redone. Such a thing is killing Buddha. “The good features and the light of grace of ‘killing buddha’ are,” Its contents. The wonderful form, coloring, and workings of the Buddha are “The good features and the light of grace.” “if we want to search for, always sitting buddha.” If you want to see what the content is, there is no other way than to look at the truth of your own present state. And I have just read, “Even if the word “to kill” is the same as that of an ordinary man, we should not equate it with that of an ordinary man.”
“Furthermore, we should also inquire in practice what form is the state that sitting buddha is killing buddha.” When each one of you says what the truth of your sitting is like when you are sitting, there is no other way but to know by yourself how you are sitting. I have added some explanations on your behalf, so you can rely on them, but you have to see for yourself the truth of yourself, not your thoughts, but the real thing, how your real thing is living while you are sitting right now. When there is a sound outside, you instantly become like the sound, depending on the thing that is making the sound. You don't change like that. Chirp! Chirp! Caw! It is always like that. That is “what form,” form, and shape of this thing. You don't even think you're hearing it that way, but that's the way it is. Because we are sitting like this with our eyes open, what is in front of us is exactly as it is. We are not looking at it, but it is there as our own present state. That is what it means “we should also inquire in practice what form is.” We just heard Chirp! Chirp! but there is no sign of it remaining anywhere, is also a form of kata-dan. This is the way you are sitting now.
“Taking up the fact that the virtue of buddha has already been killing buddha,” we'd like to take up this kind of appearance, “we should thoroughly clarify whether we ourselves are a person of killing or not yet a person of killing.” It's really happening or not, it's about oneself. When we are sitting. The word is " killing" or "not killing," but the content of the word is thinking or non-thinking. You know. Killing is not thinking and non-thinking. Not killing is a person's state of being when he or she is in consideration. It's a half-killed, right? Not killing? Because it is half-killed, consciousness remains there. Because there is a world that crosses over into discernment, things become unclear when they cross over into discernment. As I have always said, the real thing is not attached to any discernment, perspective, or thought that we humans think of.
For example, even with regard to a single flower, there is nothing attached to it that says it is beautiful or dirty. When the viewer looks at it from his or her own perspective, he or she simply evaluates it by saying, "This is beautiful," or "This is not so beautiful.” And that is the way each one of us sees things, so even if we see the same thing, if we see it that way, although it is one thing, you think that it looks different to each person who sees it. It's not that what you see is different. It is because there is only one thing. It is not that what you see looks different from what everyone else sees. We see things exactly as they are, but the reason why we understand them differently from what others see is that there is no appearance of other people in what each of us is seeing right now. It's just that the way you see it is different. The Buddha Way is not about the way you look at things, but about what is seen in this way. A person who spends his time like this is called the state of killing. The term not killing means that those who think they are doing this or that are doing that are not killing. If you don't practice and learn from it, even if you sit in Zazen, it will not be effective if you are not doing zazen in a non-thinking way, as is really shown here. If you do not practice what you are told correctly, you will not be able to derive the correct results. It is impossible if you are just sitting there, not paying attention to how you are really sitting, you know.

Let's move on. “If attached to the sitting form,” If you are attached to sitting form, if you are attached with sitting form, you can use the letter “に:ni” or "を:o." It could also be read as “If attached with the sitting form, it is not to reach the principle of Zazen.” When saying to attach to sitting form, it conveys the form of zazen. The legs are crossed, and even in the full lotus position, it says that the right leg should be on the left thigh and the left leg on the right thigh, or the right leg on the left thigh and the left leg pushing on the right thigh, or something like that. Well, the expression is a little different, but that's the way it's described. There are also things such as thighs should be equal, and the right and left legs should not be out of alignment. And the shape of the hands, the posture, condition of the mouth, the way the eyes look, and many other things are considered as the sitting form, but what is said to be attached to the sitting form first and foremost is to keep these things in proper alignment for 30 minutes or an hour without even the slightest movement. If you waver or move even a little, you may be scolded. But as Nangaku Zenji says here, that is not the true meaning of Zazen. Then we have failed to reach the truth.

There is a record of a conversation with Sekito Kisen Zenji, who is mentioned as the subject of thinking or non-thinking. There, he wrote about thoughts, not thinking, or non-thinking. He left the following message. I would like to show it on the screen later.
“Our Dharma gate is what Buddha transmitted of old. Irrespective of samadhi or diligence, it directly reaches the wisdom and heart of the Buddha; what the Buddha realized.” It is written like that. Samadhi and diligence are not discoursed. Samadhi, as I said, is about how to be in the form of zazen, and then about the diligence is continuing to keep the form all the way. For one thing, when we say " being diligent,” whether it is for a long or short period of time, we can probably understand "being diligent" in the same way that working for a long time.

Nevertheless, he is saying that sitting for a long time or keeping a proper shape is not the point. He didn't say it doesn't matter. He doesn't say that it doesn't matter. And that is not the most important central thing. Not to be discussed. If so, what it is, to attain the Buddha's wisdom is that you really touch the truth of what the Buddha has realized, how the true state of yourself is and that this certainty becomes clear to you, which is important, he says.
Everyone has their own truth state, right from the start. Not from now on. Even though you have the true state of you self, you cannot be clear yourself about the true state of yourself, it is a waste or a waste of time, or foolishness, or whatever you want to call it, not knowing yourself what you are is the main reason why you waver when you face various problems to solve it. You will be shaken from within, on what you see, what you hear, what you touch. The true aspect is that you are all in order, but when you suddenly feel that you are not sure if you are right with this, or if this is true, you start to ask seek around these thoughts when such thoughts unexpectedly happen. It's not that way. When that thought arises, the way of Zazen is not to use it, but to stay in the state you yourself are touching. That is the way of Zazen.
n response to Nangaku's statement, “If attached with the sitting form, it is not to reach the principle of Zazen.” Dogen Zenji said something like this, “What is called “if attached to the sitting form,” To be attached to sitting the sitting form means to abandon sitting form. “is to abandon the sitting form and to touch the sitting form.” The character for "touch" means, when you look at it on a human being, touching means to touch, right? When you touch an object that is over there, something other than yourself, the sensation of touch is generated when you touch it. This is called touch. When we say touched, when we touch like this, the appearance of touching suddenly comes out there. You can tell. If you hold something hot like this, you can feel its temperature. If you let go of it, you can touch its state when you let go like this. That kind of thing is called touch. Saying, “to touch the sitting form” means that we are setting up the other side and this side, the self and things other than the self, and dealing with things that may or may not come together, which is called being attached to sitting form, you are treating sitting form. He says that such Zazen is not good enough. Thankfully, when we sit, we can't help but become completely the appearance of sitting. That's fine. There is no such thing as you make it like sitting after you sit, is there? It's been already done. f I do this with my hands, it becomes immediately like what I did. There is nothing to do later. Doing it this way could have been done by the thing itself, when it was done this way. Am I wrong? If I say, " Do it this way," if you do it this way, you'll just be like this. You don't do anything else. Just by doing it like this, it become like this. Would you do this later? You would not do it. So, when you do Zazen, it will suddenly become like that, and when you sit down, it will be fine as it is.

“This principle is” Is it a saying, the way things are, can I say fact? Principle is.
“This principle is that when you are already sitting buddha, it is impossible not to be attached to the sitting form.” So, I suppose you can't say that you will leave the way you are sitting now. If you sit. That's what you mean by “not to be attached to the sitting form.” When you're sitting, you can't leave the way you're sitting. We say, "Let's not get attached to it," but it is non-attachment. They say, "Let's not get attached," but when you sit, all you have is the appearance of sitting. Try it. If you sit down, it is impossible to get away from the sitting state. “Because it is impossible not to be attached to the sitting form,” Whenever you sit, you can't leave your sitting state, “even if being attached to the sitting form is serene,” If you really sit, it's like you're sitting. It must be very clear. “it should be not to reach the truth.” It never reaches the principle. There is no such thing as from now on. It's called not reaching the truth. Is there such a thing as sitting and becoming as if you were sitting from now on? No, there is no such thing. It is a wonder that as soon as you sit down, you are already in the sitting state. There is no way to say that it will be like that from now on. “it should be not to reach the truth.” Not to reach that truth. After you sit down and finally understand it, will you come up with something like, oh it really does happen? CLAP! After you hear it, do you finally come to understand the sound that was really struck just now? When we hear a sound, we understand that it is exactly what it sounds like. But it is different from ordinary understanding. Normal understanding is, what is it, reaffirmation? But this is the understanding that it sounds on the spur of the moment. Isn't it right? When you do it this way, it's good to say that you understand what you have done as you have done. When you look at it this way, the fact that you can see it as it is means that you understand it, doesn't it? But that is not the end of the story for human beings. If you don't have something comparing it with your own memory and knowledge in your mind, making you think, "I see...", you don't feel like you understand it. If we replace this on a small child and look at it one more time like this, the child is also in the world as seen in this way when we do this. But they live every day with just this. They don't use the understanding of "I see" or "I understand", just live with just becoming like this. That's just as it is in life. So, when I do this, when the same thing comes up, they respond properly. That's how they have grown up. It's really interesting, isn't it?

So I'll move on to the next. “Such effort is called dropping off body and mind.” Saying that you are in a state of being like this is “Such effort.”To put oneself in a state that is really agreeable is that one is completely away from this body and mind, and although one recognizes this so-called self, even though one recognizes the workings of body and mind, even being with this body and mind which is one's own, what is called human is still act in a way that is separate from that sort of things. Which is called "body-mind castoff." All are activities of this thing, body and mind. It is the state of this thing, but this one acts in the way away from saying this one is. Isn't that right?
It is the same with the eye. We can see things because we have eyes, but when we see things, we don't use any of the things that we can see because we have our own eyes. You don't know that. And moreover, they don't come out when you look at things. You're supposed to be seeing with your own eyes. All you see is the appearance of seeing things. If your own eyes are glimpsed there among the things you are seeing, that's strange. It's just what you think is the other side. When you are looking at it, you are assuming that there is the appearance of this side and the appearance of that side, so when you are looking at it, you are aware that there is only the appearance of that side, but when you are really watching, it is not what is happening only on the other side, but only what you are seeing. There is not the appearance of this side, on the appearance of the person who is looking at it. That is the state of the person who is looking at. That is how much body and mind are detached. You are engaged in activities that are detached from body and mind.
But if you don't understand that, when you hear someone talking, you will start listening to them as if he is saying such-and-such. He is not there. Neither is this guy. The only thing that's unfolding is the sound of it. There's no sign that you're listening here. You only hear it like the sound is sounding where it is sounding. If you hear a sound far away, it will sound like a sound far away, and if you hear a sound near you, it will only sound like a sound near you. When you hear it, there is no indication that I am listening. There is nothing like me, just the way the sound is. Then, if one were to ask where the appearance of the sound itself is, all that would come out is that it is the appearance of the place where the sound is made. It would not appear as if it were in mine. There is no problem because you are so detached from what seems to be your own self. There is no sign of conflict. It's not like "What is he talking about?”
Well, if you look at such things in detail like this, “Such effort is called dropping off body and mind.” There is no other way dropping off the body and mind. This is always unfolding in the truth of the present self. When you truly realize it, you say your eyes have been opened. There are many ways to describe it, such as "becoming aware," "becoming enlightened," and so on. There are many expressions, but the question is whether the content is truly acceptable, certain, and unquestionable. We know this when we live our lives. If you aren't clear when you live your life, there is bound to be a problem. You know. I guess that's the proof that there are leftovers somewhere. And to go honestly and without being deceived with it is the way to truly complete the practice.

“There is not this way for those who have never sat.” That is true. If you have never been sitting, all you can do is listen to what is said, read what is written, and understand it in your head, then there is no way you can know the content. You just think this or that, but you can't help how much you do that kind of thing. So it says, “It exists in the moment of sitting,” It is when you are sitting, it is there on the person who is sitting. It can also be said that it is on the sitting buddha. “It exists in the sitting buddha who is learning.” The thing is unfolding on top of the truth of each one of us being present.
“The sitting that people sit and lie on is not this sitting of Buddha.” Dogen Zenji has this expression. “The sitting that people sit and lie on” That's sitting as the expression that of sitting or lying down in a somewhat usual way. It is different from Zazen. Zazen, as I have just said, is not dealing with thoughts and ideas that come to mind, but rather the actual thing itself in which you are active. That is different from the sitting that you normally do when you just sit, sleep, or lie down. “is not this sitting of Buddha.” That's what's different about zazen, first of all. So when you are sitting normally, you are spending your time with the thoughts that come up when you are sitting as this is your chance. That's how you normally spend your time when you are sitting. Isn't it? Ordinary people do not sit in such a way as to be in the truth itself without dealing with the thoughts that come up. There was some talk about whether this was the right thing to do, whether there was a better way to spend time, and whether it was okay to just do this. Even those who have studied zazen for a little while are not sure if such a way of sitting is appropriate, and they start to spend their time dealing with thinking without knowing it. You have to be careful. I am surprised. You are dealing with the way of thinking. I was taught this way, but I am sitting like this, but I am not sure if this is the right way or not, it could be different, and you become to spend your time in your way of thinking without knowing it.
Give up the operation of mind; sensation, discrimination, cognition. Stop measuring with Nensokan; consciousness, thoughts and views. Do not think good or bad. Do not judge true or false. We have been taught many things, but some of us may not realize that we are doing the exact opposite of that without even realizing it. If one doesn't understand that in order to sit properly, one cannot do it because one doesn't know whether one is really sitting properly or not, I think many of us spend our time doing this with the way of thinking. From the outside, you still haven't left your way of thinking, and you are in a world where you are all clued up with your way of thinking.a I hope you can see what I'm talking about here.
“Although the sitting of a human being is similar to that of sitting buddha or a sitting of buddha,” Sitting in Zazen means that everyone can form a visible shape in the same way. If you follow the manual of the form taught to you, there are many people who are doing Zazen, and they are all doing it. They look exactly the same. It's amazing. But when we look at the content, “it is like there is a human being becoming buddha, or a human being of becoming buddha.” There are those who are really sitting and those who spend their time making up what they are supposed to be do as hard as they can. “Although there are people who become buddhas, all people are not buddhas,” Although they spend their time trying their best to look like the Buddha, like the Buddha they were taught to be, “Although there are people who become buddhas, all people are not buddhas,” Are you really able to say that you are in your truth itself? You never create your own truth. There is nothing to come from now on. There is no distance to go looking for it. There is no place. That's how it is. It is your truth itself, right now. That is the way it is when you sit. "You should not ask, nor inquire." Don't ask, don't seek, don't peek, are the first things you learn in Zazen. “and buddha is not all people.” That is true, isn't it? Can you say that everyone is a Buddha? Can you all believe that I am a Buddha? Are you now in the same state of enlightenment as the Buddha? Are you free completely from doubts? Are you living a life without doubts? You will know better if you list them all. All people are not Buddhas. You are not aware of it. Theoretically, logically, we must all be made like the Buddha, we must all be living like that, but as long as you are not aware of yourself, you will not be convinced of that. No matter how much people tell me. So you are forced to do it by all means yourself. Even if you are told not to practice, it is impossible to reach that point without doing it yourself. But thankfully, it is certain that one's truth is there even if one does not do anything about it, so there is a way to realize one's truth immediately through a certain method or means, not to say that one arrives at one's truth in this way. That is Zazen.
“Because all buddhas are not just all people, a person is not always a buddha, and a buddha is not always a person. The sitting buddha is also like this.” It may sound like a troublesome expression, but what he is trying to say is that when you look at the truth of yourself in this way, there are those who are at a point in their lives where they are still not truly convinced, and there are those who have come to the point where they say, "You are right, you really are." Of course, it varies. If you reach a point where you feel satisfied with yourself, you can say unconditionally that you really feel satisfied with yourself without any help from anyone else. There is nothing to lie or hide. You know yourself best. You know best how you really are. And the other thing is, the truth about what you are really like when you really leave the way of thinking, when you don't use it, will only come out when you really stop using your own way of thinking. You know. Therefore, when we leave our own thinking and become intimate with the truth, the present fact itself, the truth of things becomes clearer when we are in this way, not in the way we think. That's the way to do it. CLAP! (He clapps his hands.) There is not a single marker that says it is big or small. It's just that the sound is exactly what is heard as it is. But, like this, CLAP! If I ask you how it sounds compared to the sound you just heard, you can tell the difference. There is no leftover sound, though. There is no sound left, but when I do this, CLAP! you can tell that it's different from the sound you just heard. It is so even if I drink a cup of tea, (Drinking a cup of tea) I can tell the difference between what I just drank and what I am drinking now. The reason why we know this is because there is currently no appearance of the drinking earlier. It is clarified because there is only the appearance of drinking right now. Well, I guess I'll leave it at that.

2023年01月23日

Zazenshin The Fifth

Zazenshin Ⅴ

Then, when all this talk was over, Nangaku-san said, "Well, if that's the case," and he put forward the following story.
“Nangaku says, ‘If when a person is riding in a cart, the cart does not move, is it right to prod the cart, or is it right to prod the ox?’” He mentions the scene when a person is riding in a car, or in the old days, a carriage, pulled by a horse or an ox. Now, it could be a car. It could be a private car. At that time, if the car does not run, if it does not go forward, do you hit the car or the cow that is pulling the car? In the old days, when the engine would not start, the driver would kick it and it would start. Well, it reminds me of that kind of thing. The question is, "What should we do?”
Before that, since we are talking about cars. I often use the term, this one lump that is called the body and mind of each one of us, which is expressed "I", this "I" is a top-class car that carries you for a lifetime. So we will never get out of this car again for the rest of our lives. This is the car body that is called the body and mind. We will never leave it and go somewhere else. This is the car, the body and mind of the self. You wouldn't leave your body and mind at home and wander around somewhere else, would you? And there is only one in the world. That's why you have to take good care of it. It would be nice if there were parts that could be replaced. What is even more interesting is that, as I have just mentioned, it is absolutely impossible for someone else to get in and drive this masterpiece of a car called "one's own body and mind. If it were an ordinary private car, there would be many cases where the rider changes. But this one car that is treated in the Buddhist Way is, you see, of such a high quality. The name "Dai Byakugo Sya: Great Urna-Car" is mentioned in the Lotus Sutra. It is also mentioned in the Lotus Sutra as a car pulled by a big white ox, a top-class car. Then Dogen Zenji refers to the “the cart does not move," which means that if the car does not go. “What is cart moving? And what is cart not moving,” What does it mean for a car to move, and what does it mean for a car not to move? I will continue to read. “for example, is water flowing cart moving? Is water not flowing cart moving?” When water is flowing, a river, or even a stream, saying that water is flowing, we see that it is moving to the other side, flowing away and we take that to mean that the car is moving. Or, this time the water not flowing is what it is when the car is running. There will be things like this. In the Genjo-koan: the Realized Law of the Universe, it is written, “When a man rides in a boat and he moves his eyes to the shore, he misapprehend the shore is moving. When he closely keeps his eyes fixed on the boat, he knows that the boat is moving forward.” That's what he's saying. When you look at one side alone, it seems that one of the two is not moving. That's what he's saying. Is it a nursery rhyme? There is a nursery rhyme that goes like this: "The fields are flying, the houses are flying," when you look out the window of a train, you see the scenery outside changing rapidly. At that time, you don't think that the train you are on is moving. This is what is meant by the expression "Is water not flowing cart moving?”

“flowing is," to say that water flows is, “We could say water not moving.” it should be water moving is not flowing. This time it's the other way around, that water flows, which means it doesn't move. “it should be water moving is not flowing.” I wonder if people will understand if I talk about it like this. We look at an object as if it is placed there and does not move like a still object, but in order to reproduce a situation where an object is placed there and does not move all the time, you have to draw hundreds of similar pictures and turn them around quickly. It looks as if there is an object there without moving. It is the same with film.
It would be the same with film. If you want to project a still image on the screen, you take thousands of pictures of a still image and send them at a speed of thousands per second like this, we can see the situation as if there is an object standing still and not moving. If you look at the contents, they are changing that much, actually. If you put the unchanged contents as it is, it doesn't look like that. It is the same with the flow of a waterfall. We tend to look at waterfalls as if they are flowing smoothly, but they do not flow all the time, and the same water does not flow but completely different water flows, which makes the waterfalls look like they are flowing. This is probably what it means in this part of his talk. Well, I am sure there are many other things that you may feel.
“If so, we practically master the words, ‘if it does not move,’ we should practice as there is not moving, and we should practice as there is without not moving, because it must be the time.” Both are ways of being in time. Time never overlaps, either when it stays or when it moves. More specifically, it has never stayed in place. There is no way for it to remain. Time is not a movement that comes and goes. The "now" is an activity that has no such thing as coming and no such thing as going away. “The saying ‘if it does not move’ has not solely expressed only not moving.” Generally, if one says something like "it doesn't go," it is easy to understand it that way, "Oh, it doesn't move," but he says it's not like that.
So let's move on to the next, “’Is it right to prod the cart, is it right to prod the ox?’” is said, and when we look at the translation at the bottom of this page, the seventh one, prodding cart refers to zazen and prodding ox refers to becoming buddha. If we were to quote from the text of the Zazenshin, it would be better to read prodding the cart as becoming buddha and prodding the ox as polishing to make a mirror. Zazen is really good if you do zazen, or Nangaku Zenji puts a tile against a stone like this and polishes it, and says that it will become a mirror. This kind of thing is the most obvious, isn't it?
So, here's the thing, “can there be prodding the cart and can there also be prodding the ox? Must prodding the cart and prodding the ox be equal, or must they be not equal?” He reminds us that many things are said, whether they are different or the same, though, there are many things. It is the same in our lives, isn't it? Since we have six senses, our eyes can see things, our ears can hear sounds, our nose can smell things, our tongue can taste things, and our body can touch things, but are they different or the same? It's different when we say it's different, it's the same when we say it's the same, and it seems that there are a lot of them when we say there are a lot of them. If I say that there is only the current situation, it would be like that there is only a slight appearance. If you really take a closer look, you will see that the way things are now are just unfolding. The unfolding of that current state of being, whichever it is, whatever it is, will make us aware of how we really are. For Shakyamuni Buddha, it is a glance at the bright star, and for Master Tozan, it is wading across the stream. Ozankoku realized, with the fragrance of rhinoceros flowers when he walked under them when they were in bloom, and Sotoba realized, with the sound of a flowing river. There are many different kinds of awareness, but in any case, they are all people who have come into contact with the truth about themselves in their current state of being and have realized. Those things are expressed here as prodding the cart and prodding the ox.
“In the secular world there is no way of prodding the cart. Though the ordinary man has no way of prodding the cart, we have known that there is the way of prodding the cart in Buddhism, it is the essence of thorough practice.” GONG! that's how people realize it. When ordinary people hear the sound of a gong, all they know is, "Oh, there's a bell ringing over there.” Even if you give them a cup of tea, if they drink it, they will naturally taste it, and they will say, "It tastes good," or "It's hot," but within the same thing, there is a certainty that is unshakable, and whether or not they have the power to touch that certainty. This is like saying, “In the secular world there is no way of prodding the cart.” “Though the ordinary man has no way of prodding the cart, we have known that there is the way of prodding the cart in Buddhism, it is the essence of thorough practice.” It is not like leaving what you are doing and practicing something else, or attaining enlightenment. However, ordinary people think they have no use for what they are doing now. Because they start out searching for something, thinking that there is a more important way of life somewhere that will make them truly aware of themselves, they are already far away from the truth from the beginning. Leave their own truth behind. When I see such things, I think they are foolish. They don’t have the essence of thorough practice. There is no real power to learn. PANG! When you hear this sound, you have no need to ask for anything else. You really learn the sound just by itself immediately. That's the way it's supposed to be.

So, "Even though we learn that there is the way of prodding the cart,” this time, the way of prodding the cart, even though we know that there is such a thing, “it cannot be the same as prodding the ox. We should work out in detail.” When you teach something like that and tell people that everything is the same, they easily change their viewpoint to "Oh, so it's the same for everyone," when they understand. This is understanding. The fact is that holding a teacup is different from holding a cup. Then what is different and what is the same is that both are the way they are now. Whether you hold a teacup or a cup. There is no other way to be than the state we are in now, either way. Although there is no difference between the two, if you ask whether holding a cup of tea is the same as holding a cup of tea, it would be a problem if they were the same. It would be strange if every flower looked the same color when you look at them. You know. That can't be true. That's what is said in this place like, “it cannot be the same as prodding the ox. We should work out in detail.”
“Even though there is the way prodding the ox in the secular world,” This is probably a common occurrence in the world. When an ox is pulling a cart and the cart stops, it is probably because the ox stops there that the cart stops. The ox and the cart are connected together, so when the ox walks, the cart moves, and when the ox is hit, the cart goes forward, so, you know, “Even though there is the way prodding the ox in the secular world,” is said.
However, “we should ask further and master thoroughly the prodding ox in Buddhism.” He says, "What does it mean to plod an ox in the Buddhist way." The monk Zuigan himself said, "Zuigan, are you all right? He himself answered, "Yes," and practiced Buddhism. Zuigan, the protagonist, just calls himself "Zuigan." While he was sitting there, he called out to himself, "Hai, hero," and said, "Yes.” He practiced in this way. It says that he trained in this way. There must be such a way to practice of plodding the ox. When we say "plodding the ox," it seems as if we are hitting someone other than ourselves or something over there, so I would like to mention an additional point, plodding the ox.
Moreover, this time, there are so many references to oxen. “Is it the prodding of a castrated water buffalo? Is it the prodding of an iron ox? Is it the prodding of a mud ox?” It's all about how we are at a given moment in time. Here he has listed oxen, but each and every one of us has our own state at that time and place. You might say, "Which of them do you deal with?" You might say, "Which of them do you deal with?" You say which one to handle, but there are not a whole lot of different things in line. So, there is no need to choose. Whatever the moment, we are now, because the way we are now is as a water buffalo, an iron ox, a mud ox, you know.
Now for the striking method, do you whip it? “Should it be the prodding with a whip? Should it be the prodding of the whole Universe? Should it be the prodding of the whole mind? Should it be the beating of the marrow altogether? Should it be the beating with a fist?” There are many things to be said about how to prod. I think it is a little too much to say that you hit with a whip. It seems as if you have something in front of you, and then you raise the whip to it and give it a good smack. What he means by "Should it be the prodding of the whole Universe?," it is, when you do something with a prod, does it look like only the place where you did the prod get hit in this way? Or, if you do it this way, does everything change at once to the appearance of having been hit like that? When spring comes, everything inside and outside the room, the desk, the cushion, the ceiling, the roof, and everything else will become spring, won't it? It's a wonder.

“Should it be the prodding of the whole mind?” It is said that it strikes the heart completely. You may be able to separate body and mind, but as for yourself, just a slight movement of your body or a slight touch on your body will cause everything to move. You poke the tip of your finger with the tip of a needle, and even though it is really only the tip of the needle that is being pricked, your whole body will already be in pain. And when your whole body is in pain, the way you look, the way you think, and everything else will naturally change to that painful state. It's so strange. Some people say that if you hit lightly, you may not notice it, so they say that even with an encouragement stick, it is easier to remove something unnecessary if you hit boldly, and some people hit badly, but even a slight touch may have the same effect. When someone gets hit by a Zen stick, they want it to be hit more boldly because they think it is not good to hit lightly, and they think hitting with all might seems to have some effect. When you hit a ball with a bat and hit a home run, if you swing it as hard as you can, it will be a home run when you hit it, but that is not the case. You should also know that even if you release tension, if you hit the core, the ball is made to go flying. Otherwise, they think that the harder they hit, the better. There were people who used to go to Zazen in other places who were beaten with the Zen stick and broke their bodies, and people on the other side broke their bones or got hurt, so there were people who were really afraid of Zazen and stopped doing it. When used in the wrong way, such things can happen. “Should it be the beating with a fist?” Strike with the fist. Earlier, there is whipping, so hit with the whip, hit with the fist. Nyojo Zenji took off his slippers and beat the sleeping people. It is written that the sleeping people also wanted to be struck by Nyojo-Zenji, and all of them joined their hands together and wished to be struck by him. It is amazing that a person of virtue would make people want him or her to beat them. If he goes to the next person without hitting someone, he might have a strange feeling like, "Why is he dropping me off, or does he not think I am important?" As it is said, "Strike while the iron is hot," that may be the case. There will be times when we will say that the thing really strikes the thing. There will be the way that the appearance of the thing is conveyed by the thing itself, without using any means, without any perception, namely without using any awareness. When he told this kind of story, is there “Daijaku makes no response,” I suppose that means he didn't seem to respond to it in any way. He did not say anything. It could be said that he was silent. Dogen Zenji first of all mentioned this situation, “this is the state we should not vainly overlook.” He feels the power in the silence of Daijaku. He is not frightened, not in doubt, not in thought, but in the silence of Daijaku, in the midst of the silence, Dogen Zenji sees a wonderful, unmovable, and irrepressible the Daijyaku 's appearance. And he's telling us not to overlook it by being naughty. I would like to add one more thing. The reason why he can be silent is because there is no one left to make a fuss about.
There is a phrase, "Throw a tile and pull in a jade.” If we make a mistake, we say to throw away the tiles we have at hand, and then we pull in a stone, a jade, as a treasure. “There is throwing away a tile and pulling in a jewel,” On the surface, as I just mentioned, it seems as if he is throwing away what he has and attracting something new and wonderful, but the silence of this Daijyaku must be very close to that. It's as if he had abandoned the trivial thing and taken in the wonderful thing. When seeing the way he responded to Nangaku's words without saying a single word, Dogen Zenji must have felt that way.
And, “there is turning the head and changing the face.” Turn your head around and turn it into a face. It is the same as what I have just described. “Nothing can deprive of this state of no response.” To deprive. It's said taking away, so you take it away from them. If you take it away, it will become boring. The appearance of this Daijyaku's quiet silence is not something that can be deprived of. We also should not take it away. In the secular sense, it is like "silence is gold." When we are facing each other and the other person does not give any answer, you can feel the power of silence. When I see someone trying to explain a lot of things in a plausible way, I think it's a bit flimsy, but that power of silence has a certain awesomeness. And if we look at the character for 黙"silent," it says "black dog," right? You know, it could be white. A big black dog, no matter who or what passes by it, it stays still like this, not changing a thing, which is the character for "silent," isn't it? But it is scary. Suddenly, unexpectedly, if you are at ease, you may be attacked. Such an expression is s Nothing can deprive of this state of no response. iaid to be like the黙雷,(ikazuchi): (a silent thunderbolt) of Yuima: Vimalakirti. Well, at any rate, this “Nothing can deprive of this state of no response.” This is an end of this section. After this, he goes on to explain the reason for things in more depth, like this.

“Nangaku teaches further and says ‘Your leaning Zazen is learning sitting buddha.’” He is saying that doing Zazen is really learning the state of Buddha, not that there are two separate things. So he is indicating that zazen is not the way to enlightenment. When Daijaku was asked by the master, "What are you doing?", Daijaku said, "I'm trying to make a buddha" and they understood each other the content of his reply like this. If you don't know that, the exchange between the two of them is like this: the master is admirable, but the disciple, Daijyaku, doesn't really understand such things, so the master takes a tile, puts it on a stone and polishes it, and says, "If you polish it, will it become a mirror? you are sitting there without knowing that.” There are many people who understand in such a way. However, if you read this Zazenshin, you will understand it well. It is completely different in content from what they say.
“We should study these words thoroughly in practice and attain the pivot of successive patriarchs.” Which means, as I am saying now, that even if you read the same story of this exchange, if you don't understand things well, you may take it as if the master who is superior to Daijyaku, is trying to make Daijyaku aware of his lack of ability by showing him various things, but that is not the case, Dogen Zenji is saying. “We should study these words thoroughly in practice and attain the pivot of successive patriarchs.” So, it's about what the patriarchs really care about and what they are trying to show. And then we go into the content. “We are not aware what the exact nature of learning Zazen is, but we have known that it is learning sitting buddha.” In between, before the understanding of " this and that" enters, as it is said, “Without touching things, yet knowing, without confronting circumstances, yet being lightened.,” CLAP! When I do this, there is no one there to listen to it. This is one of the first things. This is how we are living our lives, isn't it? “How could anyone but the child and grandchild of the right successors know that learning Zazen is learning sitting buddha.” He says that unless people have really inherited these things, they would not understand these things. “We should truly know that a beginner’s Zazen is the first Zazen, the first Zazen is the first sitting buddha.” It is not limited to Zazen. If you are offered a cup of tea that you have never drunk before and you drink it like this, it would be called your first Zazen. Yet, the first Zazen, when you are served a cup of tea you have never drunk before and you drink it like this, it is probably designed to taste just as you have never drunk it before. If we don't use an experience that we have drunk, that we have had many times before, we will not be able to taste this first time when we drink it, that is not the case, which is what is being said here. “the first Zazen is the first sitting buddha.” However, people who don't know things consider the first zazen to be still elementary. They think that as they do zazen from now on, they will gradually reach a deeper and deeper place, if that were the case, it would be of no use. Our life exists being immediately in touch with the state of now. It would be useless if it were only after an hour that we could get a sense of the state of being now. That is not true. It is always now, what is now is now, and it is always just as it is, even if you don't do anything about it, it is perfectly right. This is what it means to be in close contact with one's own present reality during Zazen, and that is why we are in a place where everything is being realized. If you don't know this, if we say why we do Zazen, they think it's like a Hokke drum that gets better and better. In the tone of the more we hear it, and the more we do it, the more we do it, I think there is a hidden thought that the more times we do it, the better it will become. That is why it is clearly stated that Zazen is learning Zen. It is not something you can learn and gradually improve.“The practice-realization of totally culminated enlightenment.” We are made to suddenly awaken to the reality of our true selves. When you do Zazen, as I am saying now, as long as you are sitting in a way that treats from the human way of thinking, because based on this, the human way of thinking covers the whole, you will not be able to clarify things. So, at the beginning of Zazen, the prerequisite is that Zazen is not to deal with discrimination, and thoughts like that.
“Expressing Zazen, he says, ‘If we learn Zazen, Zen is not sitting or lying down.’ What he is saying now is that Zazen is Zazen, it is not sitting or lying down.” All that is Zazen when you are doing Zazen. When you are doing zazen, things like sitting or lying down are not going to be a problem. It is the same when you are looking at an object. When you are really looking at something, you have no use for anything else. That's how it is, isn't it? “After the direct transmission of not sitting and lying down has been achieved, limitless sitting or lying down is the self.” It's the way you are, that the thing is really there at any given moment. It has never not been that way. Perception through the six senses (of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and consciousness,) no matter on which you are on. There is boundless working of the infinite. No matter when, where, or what you come in contact with, you are always living in such a way that you are sure of your truth, which is essentially called attainment of Buddhahood. “Why should we seek the thread of life in the relative degree of intimacy?” Where's the need to be, like we're going to deal with the human thinking like we're going to be close or we're going to be distant. We've been away from that kind of thing from the beginning. We've left such things as intimacy and estrangement. “Why should we discuss delusion and enlightenment?” And moreover, why do you make an issue of something like being lost or enlightened? Are you going to argue about it? Before you argue, look at the truth of yourself like this, where is there anything vague about being enlightened or lost? What's more, “Who wants to pursue intellectual resolution?” It is things like without using such a thing that "only if you don't understand, you can break the doubt for the first time," you are really living such a wonderful life. “Who wants to pursue intellectual resolution?” I think I'll leave it at that for now.

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