Robert Aitken Roshi

Using the Self  (1981)

In the Ts'ai-ken t'an, a seventeenth-century Chinese book of brief essays and fables, we find this passage:

The wind blows through the bamboo grove, and the trunks clatter together. When it has passed, the grove is silent once more. Geese crossing the sky are reflected in a cold, deep pool. When they are gone, no trace remains. For the sage, when something comes, it is reflected in the mind. When it goes, the mind returns to the void.

We can test our practice with these metaphors. "What is it that does not die down in our mind?" Ask yourself that. It will probably turn out to be something that centers on yourself.

-oOo-

If the bomb goes up at last

I vow with all beings

To relinquish even the Earth

To the unborn there all along

From, The Morning Star, by Robert Aitken. Pages 179, 228

I usually do about half an hour of tai chi each morning in my garden. It’s very private, surrounded by trees. I become completely relaxed there, and quite unselfconscious.

I usually begin with five minutes of standing yoga asanas and a short karate breathing kata I learnt 50 years ago called sanchin.

I find this tai chi time very good for the Zen experience of “The falling away of body and mind,” also translated as, “Functioning as body and mind, but being completely free from body and mind.”

The tai chi seems to help move this from being just conceptual or something academic into an actual experience. Perhaps like in our kinhin.

To see that even though we are born, mature, decline and die, we are at the same time unborn and undying.

Songs of the Soul in Rapture

John of the Cross

Upon a gloomy night,

With all my cares to loving ardours flushed,

(O venture of delight!)

With nobody in sight

I went abroad when all my house was hushed.

In safety, in disguise,

In darkness up the secret stair I crept,

(O happy enterprise)

Concealed from other eyes

When all my house at length in silence slept.

Upon that lucky night

In secrecy, inscrutable to sight,

I went without discerning

And with no other light

Except for that which in my heart was burning.

It lit and led me through

More certain than the light of noonday clear

To where One waited near

Whose presence well I knew,

There where no other presence might appear.

Oh night that was my guide!

Oh darkness dearer than the morning’s pride,

Oh night that joined the lover

To the beloved bride

Transfiguring them each into the other.

Within my flowering breast

Which only for himself entire I save

He sank into his rest

And all my gifts I gave

Lulled by the airs with which the cedars wave.

Over the ramparts fanned

While the fresh wind was fluttering his tresses,

With his serenest hand

My neck he wounded, and

Suspended every sense with its caresses.

Lost to myself I stayed

My face upon my lover having laid

From all endeavour ceasing:

And all my cares releasing

Threw them amongst the lilies there to fade.

Translated by Roy Campbell

Self-Realization as described by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj 

The ever-awaited first moment was the moment when

I was convinced that I was not an individual at all. The idea

of my individuality had set me burning so far. The scalding

pain was beyond my capacity to endure; but there is not

even a trace of it now, I am no more an individual. There is

nothing to limit my being now. The ever-present anxiety and

the gloom has vanished and now I am all beatitude, pure

knowledge, pure consciousness.

The tumors of innumerable desires and passion were

simply unbearable, but fortunately for me, I got hold of the

hymn “Hail, Preceptor”, and on its constant recitation, all

the tumors of passions withered away as with a magic spell!

I am ever free now. I am all bliss, sans spite, sans fear.

This beatific conscious form of mine now knows no bounds.

I belong to all, and everyone is mine. The “all” are but my own

individuations, and these together go to make up my beatific

being. There is nothing like good or bad, profit or loss, high

or low, mine or not mine for me. Nobody opposes me and I

oppose none for there is none other than myself. Bliss

reclines on the bed of bliss. The repose itself has turned into

bliss.

There is nothing that I ought or ought not to do, but

my activity goes on everywhere, every minute. Love and

anger are divided equally among all, as are work and

recreation. My characteristics of immensity and majesty, my

pure energy, and my all, having attained to the golden core,

repose in bliss as the atom of atoms. My pure consciousness

shines forth in majestic splendor.

Why and how the consciousness became self-conscious

is obvious now. The experience of the world is no

more of the world as such, but is the blossoming forth of the

selfsame conscious principle, God, and what is it? It is pure,

primal knowledge, conscious form, the primordial “I”

consciousness that is capable of assuming any form it

desires. It is designated as God. The world as the divine

expression is not for any profit or loss; it is the pure, simple,

natural flow of beatific consciousness. There are no

distinctions of God and devotee, nor Brahman and Maya. He

that meditated on the bliss and peace is himself the ocean of

peace and bliss. Glory to the eternal truth, Sad-Guru, the

Supreme Self.

 - From: Self Knowledge And Self Realization by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Edited by Jean Dunn

From Lao-Tzu"s Tao Te Ching 

 
Some say that my teaching is nonsense.
Others call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
this nonsense makes perfect sense.
And to those who put it into practice, 
this loftiness has roots that go deep.
‍
I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patience with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.

― Lao-Tzu (from The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry edited by Stephen Mitchell)

 

Zen provides us with three ways that make our journey home possible: First is zazen, silent meditation wherein we become still and quiet through and through and touch the clear, vast, empty tranquil Mind. Second is koan study, the study of the sayings and doings of our ancestral teachers that enable us to truly understand the nature of the self, that is, to know deep down that even as we are born, grow, mature, decline, die and perish we are at the same time unborn, undying, infinite and eternal. Finally, there is the practice of our daily lives, whereby what we have realized in our zazen and koan study may clarify, deepen, integrate and express itself as compassionate action towards all that breathes and does not breathe.

   -Danan Henry Roshi. Forward to Dogs, Trees, Beards and Other Wonders: Meditations on the Forty-eight Cases of the Wumenguan, by Ken Tetsuzan Morgareidge.

The light of 

the mind-moon

and colours 

of the eye-flower

are splendid;

shining forth 

beyond time,

who can 

appreciate them?

    -Keizan Zenji

AVATAMSAKA SUTRA
Pages 300-302
Translated by Thomas Cleary
 
This is the realm of the learned
Who delight in ultimate peace.
I will explain for you;
Now please listen clearly.
 
Analyze the body within:
Who herein is the “self’?
Who can understand this way
Will comprehend the existence or not of the self.
 
This body is a temporary set-up
And has no place of abode;
Who understands this body
Will have no attachment to it.
 
Considering the body carefully,
Everything will be clearly seen:
Knowing all the elements are unreal.
One will not create mental fabrications.
 
Based on whom does life arise,
And based on whom does it disappear?
Like a turning wheel of fire,
Its beginning and end can’t be known.
 
The wise can observe with insight
The impermanence of all existents;
All things are empty and selfless.
Forever apart from all signs.
 
All consequences are born from actions;
Like dreams, they’re not truly real.
From moment to moment they continually die away.
The same as before and after.
 
Of all things seen in the world
Only mind is the host;
By grasping forms according to interpretation
It becomes deluded, not true to reality.
 
All philosophies in the world
Are mental fabrications;
There has never been a single doctrine
By which one could enter the true essence of things.
 
By the power of perceiver and perceived
All kinds of things are born;
They soon pass away, not staying.
Dying out instant to instant.
 
Then Manjushri asked Chief of the Precious, “All sentient beings equally have four gross physical elements, with no self and nothing pertaining to self — how come there is the experience of pain and pleasure, beauty and ugliness, internal and external goodness, little sensation and much sensation? Why do some experience consequences in the present, and some in the future? And all this while there is no good or bad in the realm of reality.” Chief of the Precious answered in verse:
 
According to what deeds are done
Do their resulting consequences come to be;
Yet the doer has no existence:
This is the Buddha’s teaching.
 
Like a clear mirror.
According to what comes before it,
Reflecting forms, each different.
So is the nature of actions.
 
And like a skillful magician
Standing at a crossroads
Causing many forms to appear.
So is the nature of actions.
 
Like a mechanical robot
Able to utter various sounds,
Neither self nor not self:
So is the nature of actions.
 
And like different species of birds
All emerging from eggs.
Yet their voices not the same:
So is the nature of actions.
 
Just as in the womb
All organs are developed,
Their substance and features coming from nowhere:
So is the nature of actions.
 
Also like being in hell —
The various painful things
All come from nowhere:
So is the nature of actions.
 
Also like the sovereign king
With seven supreme treasures—
Their provenance cannot be found:
So is the nature of actions.
 
And as when the various worlds
Are burnt by a great conflagration.
This fire comes from nowhere:
So does the nature of actions.

 Words of Meng-Tse

When a man has reached old age
And has fulfilled his mission,
He has a right to confront
The idea of death in peace.
He has no need of other men;
He knows them and knows enough about them.
What he needs is peace.
It isn't good to visit this man or to talk to him,
To make him suffer banalities.
One must give a wide berth
To the door of his house,
As if no one lived there.

C. G. Jung and Hermann Hesse: A Record of Two Friendships. By Miguel Serrano

 

The very 0rdinary life of Zen Master Chou-chou

Chao-chou, Joshu in Japanese, was born in China in 778. He lived for 120 years and was one of the greatest and most famous Zen masters in ancient China. He taught in a simple manner with just a few words, he did not use the stick or shout as some other Zen teachers did. He was without pride in his achievements.

His koan Mu is usually the foundation koan for students in the Diamond Sangha who wish to do koan work.

He began his Zen training at 18 with the eminent master Nan-ch’uan (Nansen, in Japanese), remaining with him until Nan-ch'uan died 40 years later. After 2 years of mourning, he set out on pilgrimage - for 20 years - visiting eminent teachers, inviting them to probe his mind, and checking them as well. At the age of 80 he settled down in a small temple, Kuan Yin temple, and for the next 40 years guided disciples from his wonderfully seasoned understanding.

His teaching style could be called a style of no style. It passed to him through his teacher Nansen.

He asked his teacher, “What is the Way?”

Nansen said, “Ordinary mind is the Way.”

Joshu said, “Should I direct myself toward it, or not?”

Nansen said, “If you try to direct yourself, then you deviate.”                      

Joshu asked, “How can I know the Way if I don’t direct myself?”

Nansen said, “The Way is not subject to knowing or not knowing.  Knowing is delusion; not knowing is blankness.

Nansen’s response resonated deeply with Joshu.

A later story about Joshu’s Zen is that of the oak tree:

A monk asked him, “What is the meaning of Zen?” The question was actually, "Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?" But, in essence, the monk was asking, "What is Zen truth?"

Joshu replied, “Oak tree in the front garden.” - A very 'ordinary' answer.

 After Joshu’s passing, someone asked his successor: “Your late Master had a saying - The oak tree in the garden. Is that correct?”  The successor said, “He had no such koan, don’t defile him!”

Just the tree, stripped clean, before it’s called a koan, or a teaching device. When we practice with the breath there is only the breath, only the doing. Just getting up. Just sitting down. Nothing clinging to it. A fish moving through clear water.

Another teacher commented that Joshu’s Oak tree had the activity of a thief. That is, it clears the mind, takes everything else away. Revealing the splendour of the oak tree. I dare say that Beethoven had the same experience with the first 8 notes of his 5th symphony.

Master Mumon commenting on Joshu’s Oak Tree said, “If you can see intimately into the essence of Joshu’s response - Oak tree in the front garden - there is no Shakyamuni Buddha in the past and no Maitreya Buddha in the future.“ That is the Non-Attained Buddha. No extra heads on your own head... crystal clear… precisely the same clarity that permeates everything. The Taoists have the image of empty vessels each filled with the same essence. 

Joshu left a poem titled SONG OF THE TWELVE HOURS OF THE DAY. An English version of it is in James Green’s 1998 book THE RECORDED SAYINGS OF ZEN MASTER JOSHU.

The Chinese hour was equivalent to two western hours. So the poem covers 24 hours, not 12. Joshu’s humour comes through in his poem. On the surface things seem quite grim there in his little temple; but it’s a song… a tribute:

 

Song of the Twelve Hours of the Day 

The rooster crows. Three in the morning. Aware of sadness, feeling down and out, yet getting up. There are no warm under-cloths to wear, just some tattered pance and something that looks a little like a robe. Originally I intended to practice to help save others; who would have suspected that instead I would become a fool!

 First light, five in the morning. A broken-down temple in a deserted village — there’s nothing worth saying about it. In the watery morning gruel there is not a grain of rice. Idly I face the open window. Only the chattering sparrows as friends. Sitting alone, now and then I hear dry fallen leaves blow by. Who says that to leave home and become a monastic is to cut off likes and dislikes? If I think about it, before long, tears start to fall.

Sun-rise. Seven in the morning. Doing anything with a goal in mind is to get buried in the dirt, yet the boundless domain has not yet been completely swept. Often the brows are furrowed, seldom is the heart content, it’s hard to put up with the decrepit old men of the village. Donations have never been brought here, and an untethered donkey eats the weeds in front of the hall.

Mid-morning, nine o’clock. Working to kindle a fire and gazing aimlessly at it. Cakes and cookies ran out last year, thinking of them today I swallow my saliva in vein. Seldom are things in order, incessant sighing. Those who come here just ask to have a cup of tea and not getting any they go off muttering in anger.

Late morning, eleven o’clock. Shaving my head, who would have guessed it would be like this? Nothing in particular made me ask to be a country monk. Outcast, hungry, lonely, given no respect. When visitors arrive at the gate, they only ask to borrow tea and paper and then they go.

Sun high in the sky, noon. For carrying the bowl to collect rice and tea there are no special arrangements. House after house and given only excuses. Some bitter salt, some soured barley, and millet paste mixed with old chard. The way seeking mind of a practitioner must be solid. This is called “not being negligent of the offering”.

Sinking sun, three in the afternoon. Turning things around, not walking in the realm of unity or separation. Once I heard a saying, “At the time of eating ones fill a hundred days of starvation are forgotten.” Today my body is just this. Not studying Zen, not discussing the teaching, I spread out some torn reeds and sleep in the sun. I can imagine a pure land that would not be as good as this sun toasting my back.

Late afternoon. Five o’clock. Someone is actually here burning incense and making bows. Of these five old women, three have goitre, and the other two have faces lost in wrinkles

Sun down. Seven in the evening. Except for the deserted wilderness here, what is there to protect? The way of a monk is to flow on without any special obligations. Wandering here and there for eternity. Words that go beyond fixed patterns do not come through the mouth. Aimlessly continuing where the disciples of the Buddha left off. A staff of rough bramble wood; it’s not just for mountain walking but also to chase off dogs.

Golden darkness. Nine in the evening. Sitting alone in the darkness of this empty one room. For ever unlit by the flickering candlelight, the space in front of me is pitch black. Hearing no temple bell only the sound of scurrying old rats. What more has to be done? Every moment is going beyond.

Bedtime. Eleven at night. The clear moon in front of the gate, to whom is it not given freely? Going back inside my only regret is that it is time to go to sleep. Besides the clothes on my back, what covers are needed? It’s no matter if this old bag is empty who could understand such a thing.

Midnight. This indescribable feeling, how could it ever cease. Thinking of all the people who have left home and become monastics it seems like I’ve been a temple priest for a long time now. Dirt floor for a bed, with a torn reed mat, an old block of wood for a pillow. To the Holy figure on the alter no expensive incense to offer. In the ashes of the incense burner hearing only the falling turd of an ox.