Words from Our Ancestors:

A monk asked Zhaozhou, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?"

Zhaozhou said, "Mu."

This one word "mu" is a knife to sunder the doubting mind of birth and death. The handle of this knife is in one's own hand alone: you can't have anyone else wield it for you; to succeed you must take hold of it yourself. You consent to take hold of it yourself only if you can abandon your life. If you cannot abandon your life, just keep to where your doubt remains unbroken for awhile: suddenly you'll consent to abandon your life, and then you'll be done....You won't have to ask anyone else...

During your daily activities twenty four hours a day, you shouldn't hold to birth and death and the Buddha Path as existent, nor should you deny them as nonexistent. Just contemplate this: A monk asked Zhaozhou, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?" ZhaoZhou said, "Mu."

 - from a letter of Dahui to a student in Swampland Flowers translated by Christopher Cleary

Words from Don:

We make use of the expedients passed down in our tradition: 'sayings', koans, encounter dialogues, poems. We engage with, inhabit, enliven them in our practice. The process does not require anyone else's presence or permission. As Yasutani reminded us, "You sit alone, You awaken alone, You die alone." 

The great matter of birth and death is your matter to resolve. No one else can do it for you; no teachings will settle it; guidance can be reduced to "let go of false thinking."

"You can not grasp it; you can not reject it."

 -From Hilo Zen Circle Newsletter

Guishan Lingyou (771-853)

Kuei-shan asked Yun-yen

“What is the seat of enlightenment?”

Yun-yen said,

“Freedom from artificiality.”

The Sutra says, 'To behold the Buddha-nature one must wait for the right moment and the right conditions. When the time comes, one is awakened as from a dream. It is as if one's memory recalls something long forgotten. One realizes that what is obtained is one's own and not from outside one's self.' Thus an ancient patriarch said, 'After enlightenment one is still the same as one was before. There is no mind and there is no Dharma.'

One is simply free from unreality and delusion. The mind of the ordinary man is the same as that of the sage because the Original Mind is perfect and complete in itself. When you have attained this recognition, hold on to what you have achieved."

One day Master Kuei-shan Ling-yu came into the assembly and said: 
"The mind of one who understands Ch'an is plain and straightforward without pretense.
It has neither front nor back and is without deceit or delusion.

Every hour of the day, what one hears and sees are ordinary things and ordinary actions. Nothing is distorted. One does not need to shut one's eyes and ears to be non-attached to things.

In the early days many sages stressed the follies and dangers of impurity.

When delusion, perverted views, and bad thinking habits are eliminated, the mind is as clear and tranquil as the autumn stream.

It is pure and quiescent, placid and free from attachment. Therefore he who is like this is called a Ch'annist, a man of non-attachment to things."

During an assembly period a monk asked whether the man who has achieved sudden enlightenment still requires self-cultivation. The Master answered, "If he should be truly enlightened, achieving his original nature and realizing himself, then the question of self-cultivation or non-cultivation is beside the point.

Through concentration a devotee may gain thoughtless thought. Thereby he is suddenly enlightened and realizes his original nature. However, there is still a basic delusion without beginning and without end, which cannot be entirely eliminated. Therefore the elimination of the manifestation of karma, which causes the remaining delusion to come to the surface, should be taught. This is cultivation. There is no other way of cultivation. When one hears the Truth one penetrates immediately to the Ultimate Reality, the realization of which is profound and wondrous. The mind is illuminated naturally and perfectly, free from confusion.

On the other hand, in the present day world there are numerous theories being expounded about Buddhism. These theories are advocated by those who wish to earn a seat in the temple and wear an abbot's robe to justify their work. But reality itself cannot be stained by even a speck of dust, and no action can distort the truth. When the approach to enlightenment is like the swift thrust of a sword to the center of things, then both worldliness and holiness are completely eliminated and Absolute Reality is revealed. Thus the One and the Many are identified. This is the Suchness of Buddha."

https://terebess.hu/zen/guishan.html

We can take Layman Pang's last words to the Prefect Yu Ti as guidance:

"I beg you just to regard as empty all that is existent, and beware of taking as real all that is non-existent."

Thomas A Kempis

 Of a Pure Mind, and Simple Intention

By two wings, a man is lifted up from things earthly, namely, by Simplicity and Purity. Simplicity ought to be in our intention, purity in our affection. Simplicity tendeth toward God, purity apprehendeth and tasteth Him.

No good action will hinder thee if thou be inwardly free from inordinate affection. If thou intend and seek nothing else but the will of God and the good of thy neighbour, thou shalt thoroughly enjoy inward liberty.

If thy heart were right, then every creature would be unto thee a looking-glass of life and a book of holy doctrine. There is no creature so small and mean, that it doth not set forth the goodness of God. If thou wert inwardly good and pure, then wouldest thou be able to see and understand all things well without hindrance. A pure heart penetrateth heaven and hell.

  

Such as everyone is inwardly, so he judgeth outwardly. If there is joy in the world surely a man of pure heart possesseth it. And if there be anywhere tribulation and affliction, an evil conscience knoweth it.

As iron put into the fire loseth its rust, and becometh altogether white and glowing, so he that wholly turneth himself unto God, putteth off all slothfulness, and is transformed into a new man.

When a man beginneth to grow lukewarm, then he is afraid of a little labour, and willingly receiveth outward comfort. But when he once beginneth to overcome himself perfectly, and to walk manfully in the way of God; then he esteemeth less those things, which before he felt grievous unto him.

Thomas A Kempis b. 1379 or 1380, d. 1471).  The Imitation of Christ. The 

Harvard Classics. 1909-14

Yamada Roshi and Aitken Roshi. Koko An Zendo, Honolulu. Jan. 1981

Yuanwu (1063-1135)

Fundamentally, this great light is there with each and every person right where they stand – empty clear through, spiritually aware, all-pervasive, it is called the scenery of the fundamental ground.

Sentient beings and buddhas are both inherently equipped with it. It is perfectly fluid and boundless, fusing everything within it. It is within your own heart and is the basis of your physical body and of the five clusters of form, sensation, conception, motivational synthesis, and consciousness. It has never been defiled or stained, and its fundamental nature is still and silent.

False thoughts suddenly arise and cover it over and block it off and confine it within the six sense faculties and sense objects. Sense faculties and sense objects are paired off, and you get stuck and begin clinging and getting attached. You grasp at all the various objects and scenes, and produce all sorts of false thoughts, and sink down into the toils of birth and death, unable to gain liberation.

All the buddhas and ancestral teachers awakened to this true source and penetrated clear through to the fundamental basis. They took pity on all the sentient beings sunk in the cycle of birth and death and were inspired by great compassion, so they appeared in the world precisely for this reason. It was also for this reason that Bodhidharma came from the West with the special practice outside of doctrine.

The most important thing is for people of great faculties and sharp wisdom to turn the light of mind around and shine back and clearly awaken to this mind before a single thought is born. This mind can produce all world-transcending and worldly phenomena. When it is forever stamped with enlightenment, your inner heart is independent and transcendent and brimming over with life. As soon as you rouse your conditioned mind and set errant thoughts moving, then you have obscured this fundamental clarity.

If you want to pass through easily and directly right now, just let your body and mind become thoroughly empty, so it is vacant and silent yet aware and luminous. Inwardly, forget all your conceptions of self, and outwardly, cut off all sensory defilements. When inside and outside are clear all the way through, there is just one true reality. Then eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and conceptual mind, form, sound, smell, flavor, touch, and conceptualized phenomena – all of these are established based on that one reality. This one reality stands free of and transcends all the myriad entangling phenomena. The myriad phenomena have never had any fixed characteristics – they are all transformations based on this light.

If you can trust in this oneness, then with one comprehended, and with one illuminated, all are illuminated. Then in whatever you do, it can all be the indestructible true essence of great liberation from top to bottom.

You must awaken to this mind first, and afterward cultivate all forms of good. Haven’t you seen this story? The renowned poet Bo Juyi asked the Bird’s Nest Monk, “What is the Way?” The Bird’s Nest Monk said “Don’t do any evils, do all forms of good.” Bo Juyi said “Even a three-year-old could say this.” The Bird’s Nest Monk said, “Though a three-year-old might be able to say it, an eighty-year-old might not be able to carry it out.”

Thus we must search out our faults and cultivate practice; this is like the eyes and the feet depending on each other. If you are able to refrain from doing any evil and refine your practice of the many forms of good, even if you only uphold the elementary forms of discipline and virtue, you will be able to avoid sinking down to the levels of animals, hungry ghosts and hell-beings. This is even more the case if you first awaken to the indestructible essence of the wondrous, illuminated true mind and after that cultivate practice to the best of your ability and carry out all forms of virtuous conduct.

Let no one be deluded about cause and effect. You must realize that the causal basis of the hells and the heavens is all formed by your own inherent mind. You must keep this mind balanced and in equanimity, without deluded ideas of self and others, without arbitrary loves and hates, without grasping and rejecting, without notions of gain and loss. Go on gradually nurturing this for a long time, perhaps twenty or thirty years. Whether you encounter favourable or adverse conditions, do not retreat or regress—then when you come to the juncture between life and death [the last moment of your life], you will naturally be set free and not be afraid. As the saying goes “Truth requires sudden awakening, but the phenomenal level calls for gradual cultivation”.

I often see those who are trying to study Buddhism just use their worldly intelligence to sift among the verbal teachings of the buddhas and ancestral teachers, trying to pick out especially wondrous sayings to use as conversation pieces to display their ability and understanding. This is not the correct view of the matter. You must abandon your worldly mentality and sit quietly with mind silent. Forget entangling causes and investigate with your whole being. When you are thoroughly clear then whatever you bring forth from your own inexhaustible treasury of priceless jewels is sure to be genuine and real.

So first you must awaken to the Fundamental and clearly see the true essence where mind equals Buddha. Detach from all false entanglements and become free and clean. After that, respectfully practice all forms of good, and arouse great compassion to bring benefits to all sentient beings. In all that you do, be even and balanced and attuned to the inherent equality of all things – be selfless and have no attachments. When wondrous wisdom manifests itself and you penetrate through to the basic essence, all your deeds will be wonder-working. Thus it is said, ‘Just manage to accept the truth – you won’t be deceived.”

Make enlightenment your standard, and don’t feel bad if it is slow in coming. Take care!

From:  Zen Letters - Teachings of Yuanwu. Translated by J.C. Cleary and Thomas Cleary

Shunryu Suzuki

“When we practice zazen (Zen meditation) our mind always follows our breathing. When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. the inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say ‘inner world’ or ‘outer world,’ but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think, ‘I breathe,’ the ‘I’ is extra. There is no you to say ‘I.’ What we call ‘I’ is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no ‘I,’ no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.”

From Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

BODHISATTVA'S VOW

by Torei Enji (1721-1792)

LEADER: I am only a simple disciple, but I offer these respectful words:

ASSEMBLY: When I regard the true nature of the many dharmas, I find them all to be sacred forms of the Tathagata's never- failing essence. Each particle of matter, each moment, is no other than the Tathagata's inexpressible radiance.

With this realization, our virtuous ancestors gave tender care to beasts and birds with compassionate minds and hearts. Among us, in our own daily lives, who is not reverently grateful for the protections of life: food, drink, and clothing! Though they are inanimate things, they are nonetheless the warm flesh and blood, the merciful incarnations of Buddha.

All the more, we can be especially sympathetic and affectionate with foolish people, particularly with someone who becomes a sworn enemy and persecutes us with abusive language. That very abuse conveys the Buddha's boundless loving-kindness. It is a compassionate device to liberate us entirely from the mean-spirited delusions we have built up with our wrongful conduct from the beginningless past.

With our open response to such abuse we completely relinquish ourselves, and the most profound and pure faith arises. At the peak of each thought a lotus flower opens, and on each flower there is revealed a Buddha. Everywhere is the Pure Land in its beauty. We see fully the Tathagata's radiant light right where we are.

May we retain this mind and extend it throughout the world so that we and all beings become mature in Buddha's wisdom.

(Honolulu Diamond Sangha)

Loving-kindness Meditation

- Jack Kornfield

This meditation uses words, images, and feelings to evoke a loving-kindness and friendliness toward oneself and others. With each recitation of the phrases, we are expressing an intention, planting the seeds of loving wishes over and over in our heart. With a loving heart as the background, all that we attempt, all that we encounter will open and flow more easily. You can begin the practice of loving-kindness by meditating for fifteen or twenty minutes in a quiet place.

 Let yourself sit in a comfortable fashion. Let your body rest and be relaxed. Let your heart be soft. Let go of any plans or preoccupations.

Begin with yourself. Breathe gently, and recite inwardly the following traditional phrases directed toward our own well-being. You being with yourself because without loving yourself it is almost impossible to love others:

May I be filled with loving-kindness.

May I be safe from inner and outer dangers.

May I be well in body and mind.

May I be at ease and happy.

As you repeat these phrases, picture yourself as you are now, and hold that image in a heart of loving-kindness. Or perhaps you will find it easier to picture yourself as a young and beloved child. Adjust the words and images in any way you wish. Create the exact phrases that best open your heart of kindness. Repeat these phrases over and over again, letting the feelings permeate your body and mind. Practice this meditation for a number of weeks, until the sense of loving-kindness for yourself grows.

Be aware that this meditation may at times feel mechanical or awkward. It can also bring up feelings contrary to loving-kindness, feelings of irritation and anger. If this happens, it is especially important to be patient and kind toward yourself, allowing whatever arises to be received in a spirit of friendliness and kind affection. When you feel you have established some stronger sense of loving-kindness for yourself, you can then expand your meditation to include others. After focusing on yourself for five or ten minutes, choose a benefactor, someone in your life who has loved and truly cared for you. Picture this person and carefully recite the same phrases:

May you be filled with loving-kindness.

May you be safe from inner and outer dangers.

May you be well in body and mind.

May you be at ease and happy.

Let the image and feelings you have for your benefactor support the meditation. Whether the image or feelings are clear or not does not matter. In meditation they will be subject to change. Simply continue to plant the seeds of loving wishes, repeating the phrases gently no matter what arises.

Expressing gratitude to our benefactors is a natural form of love. In fact, some people find loving-kindness for themselves so hard, they begin their practice with a benefactor. This too is fine. The rule in loving-kindness practice is to follow the way that most easily opens your heart.

When loving-kindness for your benefactor has developed, you can gradually begin to include other people in your meditation. Picturing each beloved person, recite inwardly the same phrases, evoking a sense of loving-kindness for each person in turn.

After this you can include others: Spend some time wishing well to a wider circle of friends. Then gradually extend your meditation to picture and include community members, neighbors, people everywhere, animals, all beings, the whole earth. Finally, include the difficult people in your life, even your enemies, wishing that they too may be filled with loving-kindness and peace. This will take practice. But as your heart opens, first to loved ones and friends, you will find that in the end you won’t want to close it anymore. Loving-kindness can be practiced anywhere. You can use this meditation in traffic jams, in buses, and on airplanes. As you silently practice this meditation among people, you will come to feel a wonderful connection with them – the power of loving-kindness. It will calm your mind and keep you connected to your heart.

 Zen master Sixin Wuxin:

"While still alive, be therefore assiduous in practising Dhyāna.  The practice consists in abandonments.  ‘The abandonment of what?’ you may ask. Abandon your four elements (bhuta), abandon your five aggregates (skandha), abandon all the workings of your relative consciousness (karmavijnana), which you have been cherishing since eternity; retire within your inner being and see into the reason of it.  As your self-reflection grows deeper and deeper, the moment will surely come upon you when the spiritual flower will suddenly burst into bloom, illuminating the entire universe.  The experience is incommunicable, though you yourselves know perfectly well what it is." 

Robert Aitken Roshi — A Personal & Biographical Reflection by Alan Senauke

Robert Baker Aitken — Dairyu Chotan/Great Dragon (of the) Clear Pool — died on August 5, 2010 in Honolulu at the age of 93. He was the “dean” of Western Zen teachers, a great light of dharma. Aitken Roshi was a prophetic and inconvenient voice right to the end. I have a picture of him from a year or two back, smiling impishly, holding up a hand-lettered sign that reads: “The System Stinks.”

Over the last twenty years I was privileged to collaborate with Aitken Roshi at Buddhist Peace Fellowship, to study with him at the Honolulu Diamond Sangha, and to help with editorial tasks on one of his books. As thousands of readers found, his books are treasures — deep in dharma, crisp and vivid in voice, and ringing with the sound of justice.

Robert Aitken spent childhood years in Honolulu, not far from the Palolo Zendo he built later in life. When I practiced with him at Palolo in 1996, he took me for a walk through his old neighborhood, pointing out the parks and houses, strolling along the beach at Waikiki and through the grand old parlors of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. He loved the air and sea. The sounds of birds and geckos punctuated his lectures, calling him to attention.

During World War II, as a construction worker on Guam, young Robert Aitken was interned by invading Japanese troops and sent to a camp in Kobe, Japan for the rest of the war. A sympathetic guard gave him a copy of R.H. Blyth’s Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics which he read over and over. In 1944, by chance, Aitken and Blyth, who also been interned in Japan, were transferred to the same camp. They became close friends, and Aitken determined he would study Zen with a true master on his release.

He returned to Hawaii and earned a bachelor’s degree in literature and a master’s degree in Japanese language. A thesis on the great Zen poet Bassho became his first book, A Zen Wave. In the late 1940s he began Zen studies in Los Angeles with the pioneering teacher Nyogen Senzaki. He went to Japan in the early 50s to practice with Nakagawa Soen Roshi, one of the 20th century’s most original Rinzai monks, who invited him to lead a sitting group in 1959, placing Robert Aitken among the very first western Buddhist teachers.

From 1962 on, Aitken organized sesshins for Yasutani Roshi, whose Sanbo Kyodan (Three Treasures) school merged the shikantaza emphasis of Soto with rigorous koan work of the Rinzai school. Studying with Yasutani, and with his successor Yamada Koun Roshi, Robert Aitken was authorized to teach independently, and became known as Aitken Roshi. The Diamond Sangha arose from his travels and teachings. It now has more than twenty affiliates around the world, and a cadre of accomplished and transmitted dharma heirs.

Aitken Roshi, his wife Anne, and Nelson Foster founded the Buddhist Peace Fellowship on the back porch of the Maui Zendo in 1978. The idea was to further the interdependent practice of awakening and social justice. The spark for BPF was struck from Roshi’s in depth study of 19th and 20th century anarchism, and his long experience as an anti-war and anti-military activist. BPF continues to this day with the same mission. In a later book, Encouraging Words, Aitken Roshi wrote that “monastery walls have broken down and the old teaching and practice of wisdom, love and responsibility are freed for the widest applications in the domain of social affairs.”

I was drawn to Aitken Roshi’s books in the 1980s, first reading his classic Taking the Path of Zen (1982), a primer on Zen practice. I have a copy of The Mind of Clover (1984) signed at a reading at Black Oak Books in early 1985. In my reckoning this is still the best book around on practical Buddhist ethics. But among his thirteen published books (with more to come, I hope), I would also point out The Gateless Barrier — Roshi’s translation of the Mumonkan koan collection — and The Practice of Perfection, his commentary on the paramitas or Mahayana “perfections.”

Aitken Roshi was a disciplined writer. That was an essential part of his daily practice, writing for several hours each morning, trying to avoid interruptions and distractions. Several times I found him reading aloud to himself, polishing the language and voice until it sounded right to his ears. You can hear that distinct voice in every page he wrote.

There is an image near the end of the Avatamsaka Sutra, the pinnacle of early Chinese Hua-Yen Buddhism, that Aitken Roshi often cited. Similar to the interdependent reality of Indra’s Net, he delighted in the idea of Maitreya’s tower, extending into and throughout space, encompassing an infinite number of towers, one as brilliant and astonishing as the next. And somehow these towers co-exist in space without conflict or contradiction. I think this dazzling vision is how Roshi saw the world. It is also how we can see his mind and work.

Aitken Roshi never found an inch of separation between his vision of justice and the Zen teachings of complete interdependence. The vast universe, with all its joys and sorrows was his true dwelling place. It still is. Robert Aitken Roshi, presente!

 SONG OF THE GRASS ROOF HERMITAGE 

 by Shih-t'ou, 700-790.

I've built a grass hut where there's nothing of value. After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap. When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared. Now it's been lived in - covered by weeds. The person in the hut lives here calmly, Not stuck to inside, outside, or in between. Places worldly people live, he doesn't live. Realms worldly people love, he doesn't love. Though the hut is small, it includes the whole world. In ten feet square, an old man illumines forms and their nature. A Mahayana bodhisattva trusts without doubt. The middling or lowly can't help wondering, Will this hut perish or not? Perishable or not, the original master is present, Not dwelling south or north, east or west. Firmly based on steadiness, it can't be surpassed. A shining window below the green pines - Jade palaces or vermilion towers can't compare with it. Just sitting with head covered, all things are at rest. Thus this mountain monk doesn't understand at all. Living here he no longer works to get free. Who would proudly arrange seats, trying to entice guests? Turn around the light to shine within, then just return. The vast inconceivable source can't be faced or turned away from. Meet the ancestral teachers, be familiar with their instruction, Bind grasses to build a hut, and don't give up. Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely. Open your hands and walk innocent. Thousands of words, myriad interpretations, Are only to free you from obstructions. If you want to know the undying person in the hut, Don't separate from this skin bag here and now.  - Translated by Daniel Leighton with Yi Wu

Hui-neng

There was a monk named Chih-ch'ang from the town of Kueihsi in Hsinchou prefecture. He left home when he was seven determined to see his nature. As he came to pay his respects one day, the Master [Hui-neng] asked him, "Where are you from? And what are you here for?"

Chih-ch'ang said, "This student recently went to Paifengshan in Hungchou to pay my respects to Master Ta-t'ung and to receive instruction in how to see my nature and become a buddha. But I still had questions. So I have come all this way to throw myself at the Master's feet in hopes of his compassion and instruction."

The Master said, "What exactly did he tell you? See if you can remember."

Chih-ch'ang said, "After I had been there for three months, I still hadn't received any instruction. Because I was hungry for the Dharma, I went by myself to the abbot's room, and I asked him what my original mind and my original nature were like. He said, 'Do you see the space around us or not?' I answered, 'Yes, I see it.' And he said, 'When you see this space, does it have any distinguishing features?' I answered, 'Space doesn't have any form, much less any distinguishing features.' And he said, 'Your original nature is just like space. When there is nothing at all you can see, this is true seeing. And when there is nothing at all you can know, this is true knowing. It isn't blue or yellow, long or short. Just see that your original source is completely pure and the body of your awareness is perfectly clear. This is to see your nature and become a buddha. This is also what a tathagata sees.' Although I heard this explanation, I still didn't fully understand and have come to beg the Master to instruct me."

The Master said, "What he told you still includes views, which is why you don't understand. Let me give you this gatha:

Not seeing a thing but thinking of not seeing

is like when a cloud blocks the sun's face

not knowing a thing but thinking of not knowing

is just like when lightning appears in the sky

as long a such concepts keep suddenly arising

you won't find the means to escape your confusion

but if in one thought you know you're mistaken

your own wondrous light is there shinning through."

When Chih-ch'ang heard this gatha, his mind became suddenly clear, and he offered one of his own:

"I thoughtlessly gave rise to concepts

seeking Buddhahood still attached to form

harboring the thought of enlightenment

hoping to overcome old delusions

the body of my nature and source of awareness

just went along drifting in vain

if I hadn't entered the patriarch's chamber

I'd still be lost at the fork in the road."

From The Platform Sutra - Translated by Red Pine.

Sabbath Poem XIII

By Wendell Berry

Will-lessly the leaves fall,
are blown, coming at last
to the ground and to their rest.
Among them in their coming down
purposely the birds pass,
of all the unnumbered ways
choosing one, until
they like the leaves will
will-lessly fall. Thus freed
by gravity, every one
enters the soil, conformed
to the craft and wisdom, the behest
of God’s appointed vicar,
our mother and judge, who binds
us each to each, the largest
to the least, in the family of all
the creatures: great Nature
by whom all are changed, none
are wasted, none are lost.
Supreme artist of this
our present world, her works
live and move, love
their places and their lives in them.
And this is praise to the highest
knowledge by the most low.

—From the volume, "This Day: New & Collected Sabbath Poems 1979-2012” (2013)

St. John of the Cross compares man to a window through which the light of God is shining. If the windowpane is clean of every stain, it is completely transparent, we do not see it at all: it is “empty” and nothing is seen but the light. But if a man bears in himself the stains of spiritual egotism and preoccupation with his illusory and exterior self, even in “good things,” then the windowpane itself is clearly seen by reason of the stains that are on it. Hence if a man can be rid of the stains and dust produced within him by his fixation upon what is good and bad in reference to himself, he will be transformed in God and will be “one with God." 

~ Thomas Merton from Zen and the Birds of Appetite.

FUKANZAZENGI
Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen

by Eihei Dogen (1200-1253)

The Way is originally perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort? Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very place; what is the use of traveling around to practice?

 And yet, if there is a hairsbreadth deviation, it is like the gap between heaven and earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that glimpses the ground of Buddhahood, attaining the Way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens. You are playing in the entranceway, but you are still short of the vital path of emancipation.

Consider Shakyamuni, at Jetniva, although he was wise at birth, the traces of his six years of upright sitting can yet be seen. As for Bodhidharma, at Shaolin, although he had transmitted the mind seal, his nine years of facing a wall is celebrated still. If even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice? Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases, and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will manifest.

If you want to attain suchness, practice suchness immediately. For practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Do not think in terms of "good" or "bad." Do not judge true or false. Give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness; stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs on becoming a buddha. How could that be limited to sitting or lying down? At your sitting place, spread out a thick mat and put a cushion on it. Sit either in the full-lotus or half-lotus position. In the full-lotus position, first place your right foot on your left thigh, then your left foot on your right thigh. In the half-lotus, simply place your left foot on your right thigh. Tie your robes loosely and arrange them neatly. Then place your right hand on your left leg and your left hand on your right palm, thumb-tips lightly touching. Straighten your body and sit upright, leaning neither left nor right, neither forward nor backward. Align your ears with your shoulders and your nose with your navel. Rest the tip of your tongue against the front of the roof of your mouth, with teeth and lips together. Always keep your eyes open, and breathe softly through your nose.

Once you have adjusted your posture, take a breath and exhale fully, rock your body right and left, and settle into steady, immovable sitting. Think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Beyond-thinking. This is the essential art of zazen. 

The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the Dharma gate of peace and bliss, the practice-realization of totally culminated awakening. It is the koan realized, traps and snares can never reach it. If you grasp the point, you are like a dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taking to the mountains. For you must know that the true Dharma appears of itself, so that from the start dullness and distraction are struck aside. When you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately. Do not rise suddenly or abruptly.

In surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both mundane and sacred, and dying while either sitting or standing, have all depended entirely on the power of zazen. In addition, using the opportunity provided by a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, and meeting realization with a whisk, a fist, a staff, or a shout-these cannot be understood by discriminative thinking, much less can they be known through the practice of supernatural power. They must represent dignified conduct beyond seeing and hearing. Are they not a standard prior to knowledge and views? This being the case, intelligence or lack of it is not an issue; make no distinction between the dull and the sharp-witted. If you concentrate your effort single-mindedly, that in itself is wholeheartedly engaging the way. Practice-realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward is, after all, an everyday affair.

In general, in our world and others, in both India and China, all equally hold the buddha-seal. While each lineage expresses its own style, they are all simply devoted to sitting, fully blocked in the resolute stability of zazen. Although they say that there are ten thousand distinctions and a thousand variations, they just wholeheartedly engage the way in zazen. Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep you stumble past what is directly in front of you.

You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. Do not pass your days and nights in vain. You are taking care of the essential workings of the buddha way. Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from a flint-stone? Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass, the fortunes of life like a dart of lightning - emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash. Please, honoured followers of Zen, long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not be suspicious of the true dragon. Devote your energies to the way that points directly to the real thing. Revere the one who has gone beyond learning and is free from effort. Accord with the enlightenment of all the buddhas; succeed to the samadhi of all the ancestors. Continue in such a way for a long time, and you will be such a person. The treasure store will open of itself, and you may use it freely.

(Translation by Taigen Dan Leighton & Shohaku Okumura)