Sit

by Taisen Deshimaru

  In Buddha's time there were no rules, but when you do zazen together with others in a dojo, rules are necessary. Don't disturb others.... So in collective life rules must be created.

  In Buddhism it is the six paramitas which are most important. The first is fuse-gift without purpose. The second is morality, harmony. The third is patience. The fourth paramita is shojin, effort. The fifth is samadhi, concentration, and the sixth is wisdom.

  It is the same as in ancient times: Don't move! Don't move! In zazen patience, in the end, is the most important, the most effective.

  Complete these six paramitas and you can become a great master.

  But zazen is of the greatest importance.

  It is the shikantaza of samadhi.

  It is very difficult to have a perfect, normal personality. Even I have not yet been able to become a perfect, complete personality.

  But I concentrate on zazen and zazen draws everything along with it. Have faith only in zazen, unconsciously, automatically and naturally, and we can climb to the summit of the mountain, we climb without steps, we go by cable car.

  (The bell for kinhin has rung and everyone rises.)

  Stretch the neck.

  Stretch the knees.

  This is your last chance to stretch them.

  (The Master walks up and down the lines of two hundred people practicing kinhin. He examines the postures.)

  Everyone here has a good posture now. Don't forget this posture when you return to your homes. Come back again for another sesshin. Come back and practice again.

  Everyone's face has changed since the beginning. Everyone has completely changed. Dignity.

  (The bell is rung and everyone returns to his place, and after a silence, the master continues the teaching.)

  The third mouthful is to influence others, to educate them profoundly, through zazen.

  Sometimes one must jump into the muddy waters of social life. In Mahayana Buddhism one is to become pure, not just for oneself but for others too.

  "Even if I, (who am) too foolish, do not become Buddha," writes Dogen in San She Doei. (Dogen is here talking of himself; he says that he is too foolish to become Buddha but, tant pis, it doesn't matter.)... "Even if I, too foolish, do not become Buddha, I hope to become the body of the true monk, causing all sentient beings to pass." It is hannya haramita: to let others pass. Sometimes one must sacrifice his own personality. This is the true Bodhisattva.

  Some men say that they must help others, so what they do is they help women. They pass through one after another. So too with women: they pass on from gigolo to gigolo.

  One must not forget the kai, the moral precepts, for they too are important.

  In Mahayana Buddhism, in the end, if you want to break the kai, even this is not possible. Why?

  Because, finally, all is the same. No increase, no decrease.

  Take the thief: objects change place, and looked at from a high dimension, there is no crime, anywhere.

  But don't forget morals: they are important. Don't kill, don't steal, don't practice sexual perversity, don't lie or harm with words. It is like this.

  In Buddha's time drinking alcohol was not allowed. Transposed into contemporary times this means don't become drunk, don't become foolish.

  In modern times: don't take drugs.

  Patience, effort. In modem education, in schools, the students do not make enough of an effort.

  To educate others, to influence them, effort is necessary.

  Through patience your power of effort will increase; it will increase automatically. To educate, these factors are of great importance.

  Patience. This is the last zazen, the last kyosaku, the last fuse. Receive the kyosaku and it will become a fuse.

  Diminish desire, become calm, don't have illusions, don't have foolish discussions.

  Silence is beyond discussion. These are the last words of Dogen's testament: zazen is complete silence.

  When you return to your homes I hope that you will not forget your postures as they are now. And your pure mind. I truly hope you will remember.

  Chukai!

  SESSHIN:

  To touch true mind

  (The sound of the inkin (the small bell) can be heard tinkling in the distance. The master is coming. Before taking his seat, the master quickly passes behind the two hundred fifty people sitting in zazen, examining their postures. His tour completed, the master takes his seat and the dojo falls quiet. After a silence of thirty or so minutes, he addresses the assembly:)

  Beginning people must understand what is sesshin.' Sesshin is the practice of zazen, but not only zazen. From morning to night one must concentrate on all one's actions, on one's behavior, and one's manner in daily life. On how we eat. On how we make sounds. How we go to the toilet, how we wash our faces, brush our teeth. Master Dogen talks of this in Shobogenzo.

  Sesshin means to touch true mind. You must find your own true mind.

  Zazen is to find the true ego, zazen is to become intimate with oneself. So, during zazen you must follow the rules of the dojo. How we do zazen in the dojo. How we walk in the dojo, how we stand.

  If you follow exactly this sesshin, you can change your body and your mind.

  Dogen's Zen is very severe on posture: the zazen posture, the kinhin posture, on your behavior.

  If your posture is exact, then your body and mind will return to the normal condition.

  There are many Germans here for this sesshin.

  Rinzai Zen has spread throughout Germany first because of Professor Suzuki, and now because of Professor Durkheim and the Christian father Lassalle.

  Various Indian types of meditation and different kinds of esoteric and mystical practices have also begun to spread in Germany. Dogen's Zen is not like any of these.

  I just received a Japanese newspaper expressing with admiration that Dogen's Zen is today taking root and spreading in Europe.

  Rinzai followers in Kyoto and in Kamakura and elsewhere in Japan today are also following Dogen's Zen expressed in Shobogenzo. This is true also for the Obaku sect in Japan. My friend Murase, at the Obaku temple in Uji, teaches Dogen's Zen.

  Soto Zen and Rinzai Zen are not the same. Professor Suzuki spread Rinzai Zen, but only through books. Not through practice. He did not practice zazen. This is a great pity.2

  I have brought Dogen's Zen to Europe, and now it is here for the first time. So I hope that those who have come to this sesshin, I hope that all people will become educators and masters of Soto Zen.

  It is difficult to become a master after only one sesshin. But if you continue for one, two, three, five years, it is possible.

  Anyhow, you can understand what is the true posture, what is the essence of Soto Zen, you can understand this exactly, even after one sesshin.

  If in Germany and elsewhere people ask you what is Soto Zen, I hope that you will be able to explain it and to teach it exactly.'

  RINZAI EDUCATION:

  Severe but not strong

  Soto is not so severe as Rinzai. There are no katsus, no hard kyosakus. Rinzai Zen is severe but its education is not strong. They educate through mondos, through animated discussions, between disciples and the master. They use loud katsus and heavy blows with the kyosaku. The Rinzai kyosaku is very big and very long and it is used during sesshins, during zazen, and in the garden. It is used everywhere.

  Rinzai sesshins are very strong, and for powerful people it is not so bad. I experienced sesshins in a Rinzai temple when I was young. I escaped. Rinzai Zen is tougher than the army.4

  Professor Suzuki never underwent this experience.

  HITTING TO EDUCATE

  Those who wish to receive the kyosaku, please ask for it. When you are in kontin or in sanran, then you must ask for it. When your knees are in pain and you can no longer be patient, then it is good to receive the kyosaku. To receive the kyosaku is not like receiving a punishment.

  Dogen himself seldom used the kyosaku. Nonetheless Dogen had been deeply impressed by Master Ny
ojo's way of educating: sometimes by using the kyosaku and even sometimes by using his sandals. When Nyojo got angry, he hit only out of a profound compassion. "I do not want to hit," Nyojo said to Dogen, "but when I do, I do it only to educate more profoundly. Sometimes I hit because it cannot be avoided."

  In Soto, hitting is used as a means to truly deepen one's education. It is not for formalism.

  Receive the kyosaku during a sesshin and your brain becomes clear. It is given on acupuncture points above the shoulders. So when you receive the kyosaku, your nervousness, your tensions finish. Also the mind becomes strong. It changes. Exactly, it changes.

  ADMINISTERING THE RENSAKU

  During the day off yesterday some of the permanents entered the kitchen without permission. This is forbidden. To enter the kitchen during the day off, and to eat the food during sesshin, this is forbidden! And it has been this way since the beginning.

  In Soto Zen the tenzo (chief cook) is very important. Like that of the chief of the dojo. If the tenzo makes even the smallest mistake during sesshin, he is removed as tenzo. The atmosphere of sesshin depends also on the tenzo, and so the teachings to the tenzo are very important. Dogen wrote this in Tenzo Kyokun.

  I do not want to order the rensaku (a series of blows given by the kyosaku) for these people, but yesterday they made a serious mistake. So it is unavoidable.

  I do not want to mention their names. They are two strong boys, however they must receive it.

  They ate food in the kitchen. They stole food that even the dog didn't steal. Worse than dogs.

  They must be given the rensaku ten times on each shoulder.

  (The shusso administers the rensaku. The sound resounds through the dojo.)

  This morning we will perform a mortuary ceremony for the death of a disciple, a Bodhisattva who was very faithful and who was with us for many years. He died suddenly yesterday, in Paris, from a heart operation.

  I want to do him a heartful ceremony! Please, sing Hannya Shingyo!! Kanji Zai Bo Satsu (Bodhisattva of true liberty). Please, sing in a big voice! Surely he will arrive in heaven.

  AUG. 1ST/ 8.30 P.M.

  Zazen is like water in a glass. Leave the water to sit quietly and soon the dirt will sink down, down, and the water will become pure.

  When we do zazen our dirtiness drops down and our mind becomes quiet and tranquil. This is true during kinhin.

  Continue zazen for the next ten days and you will become completely calm.... But then one must also follow the rules of the dojo, and not go to the Santa Lucia and become dirty and abnormal.5

  MIND MOVING

  Our life is similar to traveling on an auto route. If we only look out at the landscape, then this is a mistake; we think that the landscape is moving and we forget that it is the car which is moving.

  But if we return into ourselves, if we look exactly at ourselves, if we look at the car itself, we see that it is the car and not the landscape which moves. It is the same when traveling by boat. Dogen describes this in Genjo Koan. We look out from the boat and soon we have the impression that it is the river bank which is moving. But look down at the boat6 and we see that it is not the riverbank but the boat which is moving.

  Zazen is exactly like this. In our daily lives, we are always looking towards the outside. Ah, the big mountain, the Mont Blanc! The big city, the big beautiful forest! It is like this, and we never have any understanding of ourselves.

  It is not the landscape which moves, it is us, we are moving.

  So, satori means to return to the normal condition, to the original condition. Satori is not a special condition. A special language is not necessary.

  The condition of satori is not at all difficult to obtain. Satori progresses, changes, deepens.

  But do zazen even once and you get satori: because satori is to come back to the normal condition.

  But then, after zazen, after the drum (announcing the end of zazen), after the ceremony, everyone runs into the town (of Val d'Isere) and starts dancing again-especially the permanents here-and the dirt returns.

  To look outside is easy. To look inside is difficult, and not very interesting. To become intimate with oneself is not so easy (and many people are scared to become intimate with themselves, to look inside themselves); but, still, if you do look inside, you can return to the normal condition.

  It's like looking at the car we are in. Oh, it is the car that's moving!... Moving towards the coffin.

  At this moment the true religious mind arises. But most people do not understand this. They think that it is the landscape moving. Especially the child. For the child everything is beautiful, everything moves. The landscape is beautiful. So is Tibetan Buddhism. So is Yoga.

  During the first sesshin, a woman gave me a book by Castaneda.7 It is in English and I read a little. Interesting landscape. The sounds too: Don Juan. The woman told me she has been studying this teaching for ten years now. But now, she says, she understands that Zen is of a much higher dimension.

  At exactly the moment I looked at myself, I understood."

  Our car is moving. It is moving toward an objective place, which really exists.

  Once people understand that they are moving towards the coffin, they try to slow down, they let up on the accelerator.... However, others in our modem civilization seem only to want to go faster and faster. At one hundred kilometers an hour. At two hundred kilometers. Dangerous.

  In any case, we must arrive at the coffin.

  For those who have a pure, clear, tranquil mind, in the end their karma becomes good and they become happy.

  It is mind which moves, not the exterior. Most people though, do not understand this, and they sleep in their coffins.

  AUG. 2ND / 7.30 A.M.

  Pas bouger! Don't move!

  There is one person here who is always moving. Patience is important. One person moves and it influences the others.

  MASTER NYOJO:

  He was like raw iron

  When Dogen first visited China, he was following the practice of Rinzai under master Myozen. Myozen had been a disciple of master Eisai, and master Eisai had been the founder of Rinzai Zen in Japan.

  So Dogen studied Rinzai Zen, and he thought that master Rinzai was the greatest of all the Zen masters.

  Why, then, did he later come to criticize Rinzai's methods?

  At first Dogen observed the landscape and it was Rinzai Zen which was moving. But later his mind deepened and he began to look at himself, and when he finally met great Soto master Nyojo, Dogen understood, and at that time he had received a big satori.

  The Rinzai Zen which Dogen practiced was like all Rinzai Zen: the katsu, the kyosaku, raising the hossu,8 holding up the thumb, and conducting clever discussions. Then he met master Nyojo.

  Nyojo had a strong, gentle face, and he was always doing zazen. Without katsus, without discussions, and with little kyosaku. Nyojo did not much use the kyosaku, but he was not always gentle and sweet. Sometimes he would get angry, like thunder.

  "Nyojo is like a hard diamond. He is like raw iron," wrote Dogen. Nyojo's words were like a heavenly dome; they were fresh, exactly like raw iron.... Nyojo's personality held everything. And when he became angry, he would flare up in a rage-he would become truly angry. It was impossible to bite him (to bite the essence, the substance of his personality), he was like a diamond, like iron.

  It was better to look at him from the outside. This is how Dogen saw him, from the outside.

  Master Nyojo was simple; he was sincere and completely honest.

  At the age of thirteen, Dogen left his family and went to the Tendai monastery on Mount Hiei. It was there that he received the monk's ordination. He studied Tendai for one year, but at fourteen he escaped Tendai to follow master Eisai.

  So, Dogen became a disciple of the Rinzai master Eisai, the most prominent Zen master of the time. And it was then that he also became close friends with Eisai's shusso, the disciple Myozen.

  Eisai had introduced Rinzai Zen to Japan; his
Zen was not so pure as his disciple Myozen's. While Eisai was a Rinzai monk, he was also a Tendai monk, a Shingon monk and a kito monk.

  In ancient times in Japan, monks had also to be kito monks, otherwise they were of no use to the governors and to the emperor. This is why monks who did not practice kito could not become famous; nor could they eat.9

  So Eisai was at times a Tendai monk, a Shingon monk, a Rinzai monk, and a kito monk.

  There are many monks like Eisai in Europe and America: sometimes Zen, sometimes Hinayana, sometimes Tibetan, sometimes Christian.

  When master Eisai died, Dogen followed Eisai's shusso, Myozen, to China.

  Until now all the masters Dogen had met had told him that he must distinguish himself, that he must become famous, that he must become useful to his country, and that he must obtain the greatest honors in Japan and in the entire world.

  When I was young and a disciple of Kodo Sawaki's, my brother disciple Kosho, and others too, were always telling me the same thing: that I must distinguish myself and become famous serving my country and that I must get the greatest honors. Everyone was telling me this, except Kodo Sawaki and Narita.... 10 But I did not want to become famous. I wanted only to come back to the normal condition.

  And so with Dogen. I understand Dogen.

  Dogen had read the autobiographies of the great monks of the past-of Kukai and of Denkyo, the (respective) founders of Shingon and Tendai in Japan-and they were not like Eisai." So Dogen read Chinese history. He wanted to find a true Rinzai master there. This is why after Eisai's death, Dogen went with Myozen to China.12

  During zazen some people become sleepy. Kontin. They are too calm, too tired, so they sleep.... Others are too nervous, too active, they think too much. Sanran. Both states are bad. Between these two states is hishiryo.13

  This morning a doctor, a disciple of the Marseille dojo, visited my room. I told him that I had a little pain in my shoulder. My own doctor Evelyne, who is very good at acupuncture and who has often cured me of different things, was not here, so the Marseille doctor told me that he could cure me. So very quickly he stuck fifty needles in me. Needles sticking in me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. On my behind too. I couldn't move and I was very surprised. I was just like a porcupine. He told me to stay quiet for one hour. To stay like this, with needles all over me, for one hour! (With Evelyne, it only lasts five minutes.) It was not possible. I wanted the needles to be taken out, but the doctor had quickly left, for lunch, and I could not take them out alone. (General laughter.) Very funny. I was in complete activity. Before the doctor had run out, he had said: "Now you can sleep." But not at all. I was completely in sanran and it was impossible to sleep.