A reflection on the first of the ten precepts: I take up the way of not killing.

About 50 years ago Arthur and I studied with Joshu Sasaki Roshi. Sasaki said that when you are bitten by mosquitos, just let them bite. But thinking about this today, I think there was a twisted sense of humour somewhere in this comment.

I don’t recall if I read it or heard it in a teisho, but once in Philip Kapleau’s zendo a scorpion walked along the line of meditators. When it reached Kapleau Roshi, he took up his shoe and Bang! Flattened it.

I believe this precept is the first for a reason. It goes to the heart of Zen and Buddhism. Essentially it is about non-separation. Accompanying each of these vows are  brief statements by Bodhidharma and Dogen. With this first precept, Bodhdharma comments, “In the realm of the everlasting dharma, not giving rise to the idea of killing is called the precept of not killing.”

For those of us who do koans, Case 68 of The Blue Cliff Record has Kyozan asking Sansho, “What is your name?” Sansho said, “Kyozan.”  Kyozan said, “But that is my name.” Here Sansho was taking Kyozan into his own body. This interbeing, non-seperation,  is represented by the Sambhogakaya Buddha. In  the second part of the case, each of these characters refers to themselves by their own name. This represents the Nirmanakaya Buddha – uniqueness, individuality, the aspect of infinite variety.

The Buddha said that above the heavens and below the heavens there was only himself alone and sacred. He was referring to the world of non-separation. Everything was his own content. This experience calls for the complete dropping away of our own ego; or as Dogen says, body and mind.

We practice this, for example, in counting the breath: One – there is only One; Two – just Two, just Three, and so on.

Whenever Gutei was asked a question about Zen, he simply raised one finger - That’s all!