... Chapter 14 ....... Contents ...
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| 13. To you who says that you have attained a better state of mind through zazen. |
As long as you say zazen is a good thing, something isn't quite right. Unstained [fuzenna] zazen is absolutely nothing special. It isn't even necessary to be grateful for it.
Wouldn't it be strange if a baby said to its mother, "Please have understanding for the fact that I'm always shitting in my diapers."
Without knowledge, without consciousness, everything is as it should be.
Don't stain your zazen by saying that you've progressed, feel better or have become more confident through zazen.
We only say, "Things are going well!" when they're going our way.
We should simply leave the water of our original nature as it is. But instead we are constantly mucking about with our hands to find out how cold or warm it is. That's why it gets cloudy.
There's nothing more unpleasant than staining zazen. 'Staining' means making a face like a department head, corporate boss or chairperson. Washing away the stains is what's meant by 'simplicity' [shikan].
There are bodhisattvas 'without magical abilities'. These are bodhisattvas who have even entirely forgotten words like 'practice' or 'satori', bodhisattvas without wonderful powers, bodhisattvas who are immeasurable, bodhisattvas for whom it's not all about position and name.
Zazen isn't like a thermometer on which the temperature slowly rises, "Just a little more c yeah c that's it! Now, I've got satori!" Zazen never becomes anything special, no matter how long you practice.
If it becomes something special, you must have a screw lose somewhere.
There are some who can even delude themselves with their zazen: they reckon that the temperature on their Zen-thermometer is already quite high. But this has nothing to do with zazen. 'Simply doing' it [shikan] is zazen.
The same is also true for nembutsu: You shouldn't practice nembutsu in order to go to paradise some day. You should simply do it. This means simply doing what buddha does.
[footnote: It is unlikely that Sawaki Rôshi practiced nembutsu himself. His frequent reference to it may be due to the fact that it is a very popular Buddhist practice in Japan, and many of the people who came to listen to his talks must have practiced it.]
We can't stock up on zazen. Shinran also stopped practicing a nembutsu that can be stocked up on. Practice that allows itself to be stocked up is rejected by the Shin school as "efforts from personal strength."
"When I was still young, I was so very honest that I've decided, now that I'm old, that I can steal things from others from time to time c" We can't stock up on honesty like this either.
If we don't watch out, we'll even believe that the buddha-dharma is like climbing up a staircase. But it's not like this.
This very step right now is the one practice that includes all practices, and is all practices which are contained in this one practice.
The spirit of the smaller vehicle prevails wherever distinctions are made between me and the others. In the small vehicle, liberation is only a fabrication.
You say you're finished with practice - from a religious standpoint there's nothing more absurd.
"Chestnut trees and prayers for a better afterlife often end up crooked."
Since you believe you're doing something good when you invoke Buddha's name, you're hopeless. Just like someone who thinks they've got satori.
That's why they say in the Shin school, "tear it up, tear it up, tear up even the mind that tears up!"
The satori of the buddha-dharma has got to fill all time and all space, heaven and Earth. A satori or two that we pick like apples or pears aren't worth a fart.
If you do something good, you get stuck in the awareness of doing something good. If you've had satori, you get stuck in the awareness of having satori. So it's better to keep your hands off of 'good deeds' and 'satori'. You've got to be perfectly open and free. Don't rest on laurels of any kind!
Don't hurry to attach yourself to any standpoint.
Even if I say all of this about the way of buddha, ordinary people will still use the buddha-dharma to try and enhance their value as humans.
It goes without saying that a mistaken practice leads to a mistaken satori.
Hishiryô [non-thinking] means to stop calculating.
In the buddha-dharma, we've got to examine very closely what 'unstained' really means. There aren't any fixed borders between 'stained' [zenna] and 'unstained' [fuzenna].
When there's an opposition between 'purity' and 'dirt', that leads to a fight between 'purity' and 'dirt'. We've got to go beyond 'purity' and 'dirt'.
When there's an opposition between purity and dirt, that leads to a fight between purity and dirt. You've got to go beyond purity and dirt.
Zazen is good. Because zazen is the form of great death.
... Chapter 14 ....... Contents ...