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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781582435367 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Catapult |
| Publication date: | 09/15/2009 |
| Edition description: | Reprint |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.01(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.45(d) |
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CHAPTER 1
Book I
Intimacy
Intimacy is the quality of your practice and of your realization. It is the vast interior that knows no exterior. It is the great echo-chamber of your Mu, of your breath counting — "one, two, three ..." It is not coterminal with anything. Only you as a human being can know this marvelous place of practice.
The Virtue of Distraction
Thinking about yourself and your doings marks your distraction. Thinking about these words is also distracting. That's okay. Let your distraction remind you. Whatever happens, it is the Bodhisattva Kanzeon taking you by the hand. Distraction is your good fortune, popping up for you to use.
Buddha's Birthday
In the annual ceremony of pouring sweet tea over an image of the baby Buddha, we are purifying our own baby Buddha. Our baby Buddha is our own innocent nature. It is the silence and total absence of thought about a separate me. Once a year on the Buddha's birthday we overtly share our promises to restore our own original innocence. Once a moment we share them by example.
The Tangled Web
Walter Scott wrote: "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, / When first we practice to deceive." You and I aren't practicing deception deliberately, but we are content to let our minds fall into a deceptive mode. That's the problem in a nutshell. It presents itself with every breath. We forget our role as the Bodhisattva Kanzeon. We allow our self-concerns to obscure the way. But really, "Mu" is simply "Mu" — nothing more.
Therapy
Some people think of Zen practice as a kind of therapy. That's not completely mistaken, of course. Yamada Koun Roshi used to say that the practice of Zen is to forget the self in the act of uniting with something — Mu, or breath counting, or the song of a thrush. That is wonderful therapy. Concern about me and mine disappears.
Lucky
Sometimes when I would complain unreasonably, my father would say, "You're lucky to be alive." I thought the old man was just rehashing his aphorisms. Now after studying a bit of biology, I see his point. You are indeed lucky to be alive. Moreover, you're incredibly fortunate to find yourself in a made-to-order dojo with a splendid teacher. Now the ball is in your court.
Vows
Great masters of the past were once as confused as you and I. They tell how they renewed their vows: "Even if it takes me for the rest of my life, I will devote myself resolutely to making it possible for my latent Buddhas to do their work. Even if I'm not successful, I devote myself right here to the very end." Now it's our turn. Your turn. My turn.
The Timeless
You have plenty of time — that is to say, you face the timeless. It is there that the moment of realization occurs. However, any concept of the timeless or of realization is the realm of here-and-there. You are just sitting with your thoughts. Dismiss all concepts. Dismiss all thoughts. Neti, neti, neti. Not this, not this, not this.
Liking Yourself
A lot of us start out on the practice because we don't accept ourselves fully. Under good tutelage we find ourselves in a process of forgetting ourselves, and realize that this is really the way to uncover the unique one that has been there all along. Give the Tao a chance. Give yourself a chance.
Doubt
Effort alone will get you nowhere, except maybe to the Slough of Despond. Your work must be doubt, that is, it must be your all-consuming spirit of inquiry. "What is Mu?" "Who is hearing?" Our ancestors advise us to summon up great doubt. That means that doubt is there, all by itself, in your mind.
Killing Time
Yamamoto Gempo Roshi used to say, "There is no murder worse than the killing of time." He devoted an entire teisho to this topic, reading aloud from the crime section of the newspaper. So-and-so knifed his wife and children. So-and-so ran amok at his workplace. After each item, he would repeat his theme, "There is no murder worse than the killing of time." Indeed. Let's make that our theme as well.
Light
In "the tables turned," Wordsworth wrote:
Hark! How sweet the throstle sings, He too is no mean preacher. Come forth into the light of things, Let nature be your teacher.
"Throstle" is the old word for "thrush." What are "things" that give light? The bell, the clapper, the thrush, your thought. Their light is your light.
Ground Your Practice
Your practice is to make true what has always been real. You get nowhere if you sit there brooding about what a wretched specimen you are. It has always been a fact that you are true son or daughter of the Buddha. Ground your practice there and forget about what you are or might be. "What is Mu? What is Mu?"
Do Not Kill
The Dharma is pure and simple. "Do not kill." Denial of this truth can be convoluted and complex. "Git along little doggie," chants the cowboy affectionately on the way to the slaughterhouse. "Do your patriotic duty," advises the leader on this or that side of a war. Come on! Start at the beginning. Killing is killing. Build your case there and make your presentation there, if you have the fortitude.
Teaching Yourself
One of my teacher friends cautions his students, "When you do zazen, try 'A' way. If 'A' way doesn't work, try 'B' way." I bow to the wisdom of his words. I am not really your teacher. You must teach yourself. As far as practice goes, you are not your neighbor. What works for her might not work for you. What works for you now may not work for you next year. Keep it open.
It Is to Laugh
The dream we call practice allows us to laugh. I first got acquainted with this phenomenon in Japanese monasteries. It seemed as though whenever the master opened his mouth it was to crack a joke. Gempo Roshi grew up in a family of farm laborers whose language was of the earth. His jokes were simply outrageous. The monks laughed until they wept, and they had to fish in their sleeves for a tissue. Students who can't laugh can't dream with the sangha. They are just faking it. Let yourself go — that's what the practice is about, after all.
The Domain of Integrity
The deeper our practice, the clearer truth becomes. At the source we touch the simple domain of integrity. The opposite of practice brings forth the complicated place of justification. You hear the inevitable, "What I really meant was ... blah blah blah."
The Perfection of Character
Zazen is not self-improvement. All these self-improvement workshops are really ego-improvement workshops. When Yamada Roshi said, "The practice of Zen is the perfection of character," he didn't mean you correct it. He meant that body and mind fall away, and the sparkling gemstone of character stands forth pristine.
As You Are
Over and over the master assures you, "You are all right to the very bottom." This is not an assurance that beneath all your differences and peculiarities you will finally reach something called "Buddhahood." It means that your differences and peculiarities mark your Buddhahood as you are — a worthy son or daughter of Shakyamuni himself.
Long-Lost Home
Nyogen Senzaki Sensei frequently quoted his teacher Shaku Soen Zenji, "Zazen is not a difficult task. It is a way to lead you to your long-lost home." Indeed. I would add that it is a way to lead you to the life your human nature anticipates.
Yourself as an Instrument
You are always establishing your practice. As soon as you notice that your mind is straying: "Mu" or "one ... two ... three." It's simple — very exacting, very demanding. It's also properly humbling. It becomes an exercise, as though you were learning an instrument.
Faults and Weaknesses
You are probably all too aware of your faults and weaknesses. You get angry and you are lazy. But really, faults and weaknesses are just pejorative words for qualities of character. You have faults as the Earth has faults — lines along which you expand and contract. Right Perspective is the ninth step on the Eightfold Path.
Be Yourself
The Buddha gave up austerities and moved on to a form of zazen. He set a fine example. You too must give up being hard on yourself and let "Mu" take over. Zazen challenges you to be yourself. It's okay to be human. The Buddha was naturally a man of great attainment. You too can be your own best person.
Essential Emptiness
The Sanskrit sutras Zen inherited from India include the collection called the Prajña Paramita, "Perfection of Wisdom." The Heart Sutra and the Vimalakirti Sutra belong in this category. Their fundamental message is Shunyata, the essential emptiness of everything. Unless you think and conduct yourself from this position, you are not yet squared away.
Make It Clear
The Zen teacher Seikan Hasegawa said, "A koan is a point to be made clear." That's correct. It is not associative. "The sound of one hand" is not "The sound of one hand clapping." "Mu" is not nothingness. "The one who hears sounds" is not listening to the thrush. Over and over, the master brings you back to the point.
The Heart Sutra
The Heart Sutra is a succinct presentation of Zen realization. "Form is emptiness / emptiness is form" is the sutra's heart in turn. Ask your teacher what it means. If he or she starts explaining, then you walk out. The heart of Zen is not a matter of explanation. You are responsible for keeping the practice clean and pure.
How'm I Doing?
Most beginning Zen students are preoccupied with questions about how they are doing. I remember asking Nakagawa Soen Roshi where I would be in terms of the Ten Ox Herding Pictures, a representation of progress on the Buddha way. He said very kindly, "You are ripening." He might more accurately (and ruthlessly) have said that I wasn't yet on the chart, and my question took me further away.
The Lesser Vehicle
In the Vimalakirti Sutra we read the words, "Why do you seek to arouse the aspiration of your students by using the Lesser Vehicle?" Well, the terms "Lesser" and "Greater" pander to the pejorative, and we don't need them. I would ask, "Why do you seek to arouse the aspiration of your students by encouraging self-improvement when fundamentally there isn't any enduring self to begin with?"
Get Serious
Our brief Sunday meetings are easy to sit through. Before you know it, the Ino strikes the bell for our closing sutras — we are having tea, and heading home. It is easy to forget that one period of zazen is enough, one breath is enough.
The Meaning of Jukai
To be human is to be humane. The two words are the same, as the Oxford English Dictionary tells us. Etymology thus explicates the sacred, for the word "humane" bears meanings that take us to the depths of the Dharma. With the training, ceremony, and ongoing practice of Jukai, we vow to realize our humane nature and its responsibilities. Our rakusu are reminders of the sacred nature of the humanity we share. They remind us of our ancestors who pass their realization of humane nature on to us.
CHAPTER 2Book II
Seeing and Hearing
When he was in college, my son volunteered at the Hawaii Center for the Deaf and Blind. He observed that deaf students seemed to be more handicapped than the blind. In Zen literature seeing and hearing are both emphasized, but somehow hearing gets more attention. Bassui asked, "Who is it now that hears sounds?"
The Shorter Kannon Sutra
The Kannon Sutra for Eternal Life is the Heart Sutra in the realm of thinking. Its last two lines are its own heart: "Thought after thought arise in the mind; thought after thought are not separate from mind." When we recite this sutra in Sino-Japanese, we risk missing its meaning. We may miss its intimacy and its complementarity.
The Impact of Truth
Chanyue Guanxiu was a master in the tenth century and is remembered particularly for his "Suggestions for Disciples," which Senzaki Sensei translated in Buddhism and Zen. One of the suggestions was, "Modesty is the foundation of all the virtues. Let your neighbors find you before you make yourself known to them." A Diamond Sangha student told me it was this passage that awakened him to the possibilities of Zen practice.
Six Essentials
1. There is a difference between Zhaozhou as a historical person and Zhaozhou as one who is teaching. (He will live 120 years — that's plenty of time for you to learn.)
2. There is a difference between a koan as an artifact and a koan as a presentation. (Who is hearing that thrush singing so urgently in the guava grove?)
3. There is a difference between waiting and "mustering body and mind." (What is happening?)
4. There is a difference between going through the motions and making it personal. (What is your real name?) 5. There is a difference between opinion and truth. (What is the time right now?)
6. What does "Mu" mean to you? What does "body and mind drop away" mean to you? Show me!
Me to You
Gassho is the Japanese equivalent of the Sanskrit anjali. It is the greeting, palm to palm, found among people throughout Asia, from the Dalai Lama to the Singhalese peasant, from the Pakistani weaver to the Japanese business executive. One palm is you and the other is me, and we are together. Gassho has universal appeal — my Tongan American caregivers respond to it with a clear grasp of its intimate message.
The Dojo
Dojo is a Japanese word that means "Dharma hall." It designates the room or building where monks, nuns, and laypeople do zazen. Dojo translates the Sanskrit bodhimanda, the spot under the Bodhi tree where the Buddha had his great realization. The corner in your home where you do zazen is your dojo. You bow with your hands palm to palm when you enter and exit that corner. Your cushions are your dojo, and you bow to them as well. You yourself are your dojo, and you venerate yourself. Thus the Dharma takes its rightful place in our daily lives.
Enticement to Live
Gempo Roshi retired as master of Ryutakuji monastery in 1951 at the age of eighty-six, after teaching there since 1915. He lived out the remaining ten years of his life in a hermitage attended by the monk Suzuki Sochu, who later became master of Ryutakuji himself. The old man never had much of an appetite, and he lost even that in his last years. Despite his master's lack of interest in food, Sochu Osho kept him alive. He was a fine cook, and had prepared delicacies for his old teacher at the monastery for many years. Finally, however, his enticements ran out. The old man just stopped eating, and died at ninety-six. It was time to go at last.
Guanyin
The Honolulu Academy of Arts, one of the finest small art museums anywhere, was established when I was about ten years old. I would ride my bicycle especially to see the Guanyin, a life-size Song period figure on display there. The collection was limited in those days, and she reposed in the mudra of Royal Ease alone at one end of a large room. There are other exhibits in the room now, but she continues to hold forth in the same place, more beautiful than ever. I had no idea who she was back then, and now that I know something about her iconography she is an even greater figure of mystery.
The Dharma
When I was a young student of Zen in Japan, I haunted bookstores in the Kanda district of Tokyo in search of books related to my practice. I would get lost in the legal section of the shops, as the graph for "Dharma" is the same as the graph for "law." This makes sense, for the two meanings are the same. "Singing and dancing are the voice of the law," as Hakuin Ekaku Zenji wrote.
Schiller's Creator
Yamada Roshi used to play music on his phonograph for us when we joined him for tea, following our evening dokusan. Once when the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony drew to a close with its burst of chorus of Schiller's "Ode to Joy," he pointed out that Schiller was hardly the equal of Beethoven. The Roshi rumbled a bit of the lyrics to the Ode, first in the German original, and then in English: "Do you sense the Creator's world? / Seek him above the starry canopy, / Above the stars he must live." "Ah," exclaimed the Roshi. "His Creator was certainly far away!"
Yakuseki
Yakuseki, meaning "medicine stone," is the Japanese word for "supper" that is used in Zen monasteries. Classical Buddhist monks do not eat after noon, but in the northern clime of the Mahayana, it would be unhealthy to fast for this third meal of the day. The medicine stone is heated in Asian medicine and placed on an ailing stomach. In the monastery, the leftovers from breakfast and the noon meal are heated with a bit of miso and served without sutras. It is yakuseki, technically not a meal, and thus the old strictures are unbroken.
The Raft Is the Shore
A number of scholars at Western universities have written about Zen Buddhism. Some of their studies have been pretty bad, and others are pretty good. Dale S. Wright, professor of Religious Studies at Occidental College, and his Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism put them all in the shade. To mix metaphors: "Even the most productive fishermen get hungry again." Once and for all, the notion that the raft is just a means to reach the other shore is laid to rest.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Miniatures of a Zen Master"
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Copyright © 2006 Red Pine.
Excerpted by permission of Counterpoint.
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Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Miniatures
Book I
Intimacy 9
The Virtue of Distraction 10
Buddha's Birthday 11
The Tangled Web 12
Therapy 13
Lucky 14
Vows 15
The Timeless 16
Liking Yourself 17
Doubt 18
Killing Time 19
Light 20
Ground Your Practice 21
Do Not Kill 22
Teaching Yourself 23
It is to Laugh 24
The Domain of Integrity 25
The Perfection of Character 26
As You Are 27
Long-Lost Home 28
Yourself as an Instrument 29
Faults and Weaknesses 30
Be Yourself 31
Essential Emptiness 32
Make It Clear 33
The Heart Sutra 34
How'm I Doing? 35
The Lesser Vehicle 36
Get Serious 37
The Meaning of Jukai 38
Book II
Seeing and Hearing 41
The Shorter Kannon Sutra 42
The Impact of Truth 43
Six Essentials 44
Me to You 45
The D&obar;j&obar; 46
Enticement to Live 47
Guanyin 48
The Dharma 49
Schiller's Creator 50
Yakuseki 51
The Raft Is the Shore 52
The Mountains and Rivers Sesshin 53
Vacancy! 54
Bishop Ditch 55
Folk Stories of Zen 56
Zen Study 57
The Buddha Dharma 58
The Beginning of Practice 59
The Exacting Master 60
Improvised Practice 61
"Beginner's Mind" 62
The Rich Ambiguity 63
Hush Hush 64
Maezumi R&obar;shi 65
The Old Teacher 66
Women in Zen 67
Itadakimas 68
Upright Livelihood 69
Zen and Psychology 70
The Snow Man 71
Upright Speech 72
Coping with One's Mistakes 73
The Great Master 74
Not Conventional 75
Ailments of Old Age 76
A World Religion 77
Important Work 78
Yaza 79
Study Practice 80
No Almighty God 81
Simone Weil 82
My Damned Mother 83
What Happens after Death? 84
The Attitude toward Dr. Suzuki 85
Zazen for the Mentally Unstable 86
Put God on the Shelf87
Shin-jin Datsu Raku 88
Breath Counting 89
In Charge of Nature 90
Whitman and D&obar;gen 91
Beliefs 92
The Disadvantage of Being an Old-Timer 93
Dangerous Work 94
The Way of Yao 95
No Zazen for Children 96
A Loaded Word 97
Dumbing Down 98
Déjà Vu 99
Be Decent 100
First Reasons 101
This Very Body 102
Enlightenment 103
Awareness of Time 104
Circumambulation 105
The Jewels 106
Thomas Traherne (1636-1674) 107
Book III
The Myth of Sisyphus 111
The Middle Initial 112
Danger Man 113
Gratitude 114
Guidelines 115
Love Never Faileth 116
The Drunk 117
Love 118
Prevalence of Gays 119
The Midway Rail 120
The Naming of Children 121
The Illegal Annexation 122
Son of a Famous Man Syndrome 123
The World of Make-Believe 124
Step'um 125
The Noble Cause 126
Choosing Your Battle 127
Overhead Wiring 128
All Beings Are Sick 129
What Works for You? 130
Our Elders 131
Obedient Objects 132
Kenneth Rexroth 133
Remembered in Museums 134
The Listening Project 135
Sixty Miles an Hour 136
Truth-telling 137
At Waimanalo Pier 138
Wrong as Hell 139
The Fragrant Emperor 140
Book IV
The Mountain Stream 143
The Palaka Shirt 144
The Eightfold Path 145
The Empty Space 146
Saint Andrew 147
FDR 148
Bon Dancing 149
"Moose, Indian" 150
Dinosaur Mountain 151
Old Age 152
Here I Come! 153
Colonel Boogie March 154
"Dasa Side" 155
A Cue 156
"Ta Dah!" 157
Miles Carey 158
Picture Brides 159
Old Asian Women 160
The Turnover 161
The Notch 162
The Green Flash 163
Finger Bowls 164
The Gurgling Magpie 165
Secret Sorrow 166
The Friendly Animals 167
"Tongues in Trees" 168
The Mejiro 169
Cinque Ports 170
Stephen Crane 171
A Turning Point 172
Sharing the Silence 173
Uncle Max 174
The Foreign Groom 175
Holocaust Survivors 176
Counting Seconds 177
Pleasant Memories 178
Grandmother's Admonitions 179
Humane Antennae 180
Reading the Book 181
Incredibly Naïet;ve 182
Liquid Sunshine 183
All Things Are under the Law of Change 184
A Fine Memory 185
Grandpa Baker's Failure 186
Impressing Mom and Dad 187
Mother's Inability 188
The Patriot 189
Dad's Indiscretion 190
Trick or Treat 191
The Human Spirit 192
Expelled 193
The Master 194
Advertisement 195
Carrying the Dog 196
Owly-Growly 197
Saimin 198
Unexpurgated Mother Goose 199
Dr. Maher 200
The Puffer Fish 201
Seahorses 202
The Music of the Spheres 203