... Chapter 12 ....... Contents ...
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| 11. To you who wants to strengthen your hara with zazen. |
"Through zazen you strengthen your hara."
When you know that this hara isn't worth a damn, that's real hara, real zazen.
Some people want to strengthen their hara with zazen. It would be better if they drank sake like real men, and with a roar sent the bill collector off running.
There are books around like "Zen and the Art of Cultivating Your Hara". This hara culture is just about making yourself numb.
Some try to become thick-skinned through zazen.
Developing real hara means putting aside your personal attitudes.
If there is even a bit of individuality left over, it isn't pure, unadulterated zazen.
We've got to practice pure, unadulterated zazen, without mixing it with gymnastics or satori or anything. When we bring in our personal ideas - even only a little bit - it is no longer the buddha-dharma.
In a word, Buddhism is 'no self' [muga]. 'No self' means that 'I' am not a separate subject. When 'I' am not a separate subject, then I fill the entire universe. That I fill the entire universe is what's meant by 'all things are true form".
True dharma means: nothing to gain.
False dharma means: something to gain.
We've got to lose as much as possible.
If you practice zazen when you are overwhelmed by feelings of pleasure, anger, sorrow and ease, these feelings will haunt your zazen like a terrible ghost.
Don't bring anything with you into zazen: neither buddha-dharma [buppô] nor firearms [teppô] - and especially not your wife [nyôbô]!
The way of buddha means that there is nothing to seek, nothing to find [mushogu-mushotoku]. If there's something to find, no matter how much we practice, it's got nothing to do with the buddha-dharma. If there's nothing to find [mushotoku], right there is the buddha-dharma.
Whatever it is you're trying to grasp, sooner or later you'll lose it again.
True wealth is not grasping for anything. It's to shine our light inwards and reflect upon ourselves. If we take a step back, we'll see that there's nothing to grasp, nothing to run after and nothing to run away from. The form of reality doesn't arise and doesn't pass, it's neither pure nor impure, it neither increases nor decreases.
Monk Yakuzan is practicing zazen and his teacher, Master Sekitô, asks him, "What are you doing there?"
- "I'm not doing anything at all."
- "If you're not doing anything at all, does that mean that you're just passing the time?"
- "If I were passing the time, than I'd dedicate myself to some pastime, but I'm not even doing that."
- "You say you're doing nothing. What is it that you're not doing?"
- "Even a thousand wise men couldn't name it."
Nothing is as still and noble as this zazen that even a thousand wise men couldn't name, the zazen which Yakuzan practiced and Master Sekitô praised.
These days there are some masters who you can sit with for a week, and for a nice sum of money you're guaranteed a kenshô experience. It's obvious that anything like that has nothing to do with Yakuzan's zazen that even a thousand wise men cannot name. Sitting and practicing that which even a thousand wise men couldn't call by name means simply sitting, shikantaza.
These days there's a lot of talk about zazen. The question is simply: what are they trying to do with their zazen? Some toil away to cultivate their hara, to become stronger personalities, to get satori and so on and so forth. Even the little monks call koan training a 'guessing game'.
All this is nothing more than buddha-dharma from the point of view of ordinary people. But the buddha-dharma isn't a dharma for ordinary people. We've got to observe the buddha-dharma with the eyes of the buddha-dharma. That's why it is so rare that zazen itself truly practices zazen.
Some people want to use zazen to become better people. That's nothing more than make-up.
This isn't an educational institution here! What we are trying to do is to become a blank slate. Here there's nothing to gain. Here there's nothing besides losing illusion and wisdom at the same time.
The buddha-dharma isn't about making average people into special people.
Zazen takes place when you stop elbowing the others to get ahead.
You go swimming every morning in cold water? So what: a goldfish does that all the time.
You've quit smoking? Yes, soc? A cat doesn't smoke either.
However much you pride yourself on how you run after this and run away from that, it's nothing more than wandering around in the world of impermanence.
You can't talk anyone into doing zazen - and you can't talk them out of it either!
[footnote: a literal translation would be : "Zazen does not elevate you, and it doesn't lower you either!" And yet another reading would be: "Zazen doesn't praise you, and it doesn't scold you either."]
True religion is the world without artifice.
Everything is good as it is. We don't need to fool around with it.
Everyone believes they have to add something to their zazen or nembutsu. We don't need to add anything.
However unusual and mystical your experiences may be, they won't last your whole life long. Sooner or later they'll fade away
Ordinary people go for miracles and magic. They love hocus-pocus.
Ordinary people by nature don't like practice, they only want satori. They want to earn money without working. That's why they form lines at lottery windows. And they don't want the true dharma, but they swarm towards the new sects that promise heaven on Earth.
You get stuck on satori, you get stuck on money, you get stuck on position and name, you get stuck on sex. Not getting stuck is what's meant by the buddha-dharma.
Zazen is a mature posture, a mature attitude, not a childish one.
... Chapter 12 ....... Contents ...