A strong education is necessary. The lion who wants to produce a strong one of his own kind, hits the little lion and throws him down. Right down the mountain into the valley.
So after Nyojo hit the disciple, he apologized and he cried. And the disciple was impressed. Nyojo was always crying in his inside mind. Kodo Sawaki as well. When he hit someone there were tears in his eyes. I saw them. He was a true educator. In modern education, though, there is too much importance put on words, on discussions, and on being diplomatic. One must penetrate not only the frontal brain, but right through to the thalamus. Otherwise the education you receive is not effective.
Nyojo's poem is direct and simple and very delicate. Like a bell. Like maybe a cute little bell. Anyway, if you go into the provinces of Japan, you will see little bells hanging from the doors and houses.
TWO PROUD HORSES KICKED EACH OTHER
Here is another Rinzai koan: An old monk who came to consult Rinzai, instead of going through the usual formalities, asked quickly: "Is it making sampai, or is it not making sampai?" Rinzai gave a kwat! and the old monk did sampai. "A good robber of the green wood," said Rinzai, to which the old monk left shouting: "Robber, robber!" Rinzai then remarked: "To think that there is nothing further to seek is a mistake."
Rinzai then went looking for his shusso, and said: Was there a fault or not?"
"There was," replied the shusso.
"Was the fault with the host or with the guest?"
"Both were at fault."
"What was at fault?"
The shusso escaped, and Rinzai said: "Better not to think that there is nothing further to seek."
Very funny.... Later a monk related this exchange to master Nansen. (Nansen is the master who cut the cat in two).39 And Nansen criticized it. He said of this encounter that the governor's two horses kicked one another."
In this discussion between Rinzai and the shusso, the shusso was more clever than Rinzai. Rinzai was too young-that is what Dogen said of this encounter. The calm and the quiet are more effective. Silence is the strongest education. The horses of officers are very proud. And not at all scared. This story is about two proud horses who kick each other. It is the same as theater.
MONDO
Greater than the atom bomb
QUESTION: Many times I think without wanting to think. Where do these thoughts come from?
Master: From the subconscious. Jung called it the collective unconscious. It is a dream. It is illusion.
Thoughts arise from the center, from the thalamus, from the neurons in the thalamus. They are illusions, delusions, and bonnos. They are dreams.
Jung wrote that if someone were to dicover a method for bringing out the subconscious, this would be a great discovery. Greater even than the atom bomb.
This discovery: zazen did it. It is the biggest discovery of the twentieth century. But Jung and the psychoanalyists do not know this, and so they are still searching.
Good question.
Half a person
QUESTION: Will Zen continue after you are gone?
Master: There is no reason for you to think of "after."
It will continue, exactly. There are many disciples.
One person, one-half a person, is enough to continue it.
This is not a conference
QUESTION: Why do you give kusens (oral teachings)?
Master: You don't like the kusens?
Answer: Yes, but they are a little disturbing. I prefer the first part of zazen when you are not speaking.
Master: Ah, so you can think, yes?
When you are completely quiet then you think: "I want to eat a beefsteak." So my kusens are better than your thinking.
Sometimes it is necessary to teach, to educate with words, otherwise you will not progress. If you only do zazen, if you only practice shikantaza, then wisdom will not be realized.
For myself it is better not to give the kusen, to do nothing at all. The sound of the valley, the flow of the river; they are very quiet.
But for you the kusen is necessary. It is the teaching during zazen.
Answer: Yes, but the kusens make for thinking.
Master: Not necessary to think. To be natural is better. Think from the bottom of non-thinking, think not from the bottom of thinking. This is hishiryo, the secret of zazen.
If you continue to practice, then you hear with the thalamus and not with the frontal brain. You hear it with the body. This kind of an education is fundamental. It is not like with a university conference.
You don't like the kusens?
Answer: They're not so bad.
Master: Because you cannot sleep as you would like, this is why you do not like them. Next time you must put some cotton in your ears.
Pain and the fat man
QUESTION: What should we do when we are in pain?
Master: Think about pain and it gets worse.
Stretch your backbone, stretch your neck, raise the top of your head. Or else change legs, cross them the other way. Without disturbing those near you.
In any case, for fat people like you it is always difficult. Because the body is heavy. I experienced this when young. I stopped eating. It was very difficult, so I have compassion for fat people.
Like Marco Polo the American boy. He is very heavy and he says that zazen is too painful and that he cannot continue. But he continues. He came all the way from New York for this sesshin. Very expensive. I will give him a special certificate. He does not want to hear my kusens, but I will give him a certificate anyway.
AUG. 8 /8.30 P.M.
THE RINZAI TENZO DID SAMPAI
TWenty more people arrived today. There are no more rooms and so they are sleeping in the garage, where it is very cold.
If you want to do a fuse (give a gift) during this sesshin, it is important to whom you give it. A fuse given to a pitiful thief has little effect, but give a fuse to someone who practices zazen and the merit will be greater than if you had given a fuse even to Buddha. So for those who can, please, do not put on your heat and this way the heat will be concentrated in the garage.
Once I did zazen for an entire night in the snow. I did not get cold. During zazen the body temperature rises.
In a sutra it is written that if you want to have a second bowl of soup and at this moment you decide not to have it, then this will become a great fuse for all humanity. If you wish to change your tiny room for a big apartment and you do not, then this will become a great fuse for all humanity. And not just for one day or for one year, but more merit for always. It spreads throughout humanity. So surely the merit of such fuse will change your bad karma. To decrease your desire becomes a great desire, a desire of high dimension.
So tonight, if you can, please do a good fuse.
And so all together we wish to arrive into the world of satori. This is Mahayana Buddhism.
I will now continue the theater of Rinzai Roku:
"Rinzai had been invited to an army camp (not a summer camp) for a vegetarian banquet." (Again mistake! In military camps you do not have vegetarian banquets. Books in English are full of mistakes.) I continue: "At the gatepost Rinzai happened to meet two officers. Pointing his finger at the post, Rinzai asked: 'Is this the column of a sage or of the common people?' (This too is a complete mistake in the English translation... Anyway, that Rinzai spoke this way does not matter, but afterwards that his disciples and others interpret such statements is not good.) The officers did not reply, so Rinzai hit the post and said: 'Whatever you say, it is only a piece of wood.' ""'
Only this. Nothing more.
"Later Rinzai asked the shusso: 'Where do you come from?'
Shusso: 'From the prefecture where I sold rice.'
Rinzai: 'Did you sell the lot?'
Shusso: 'Yes, yes, all of it.'
Rinzai drew a line in front of the shusso and said: 'Did you sell this, too?'
Shusso: 'Kwat!'
Rinzai hit him."42
Good theater. One always needs two to play it
. Rinzai and the shusso.
This next koan on the tenzo (chief cook) is very interesting. It is only because of this koan that the tenzo has become famous in Rinzai.
The Soto tenzo has also become famous, because of Dogen. I have already given an account of Dogen's experience with the tenzo, so you can compare the two. By these examples alone you can come to understand which is zusan and which is menmitsu, which is deepest.
"When the tenzo approached, Rinzai related what had just happened.
Tenzo: 'The shusso did not understand you.'
Rinzai: 'How did you understand it?'
The tenzo did sampai. Rinzai let out a katsu and hit him." (General laughter.)"
I understand the deeper meaning, but it is still theater.
Time to stop. You must all be sleeping by now. So I will give you a discount. I am compassionate with you. Because I too am tired.
Stretch the neck, chin in; push the sky with the head, push the earth with the knees.
AUG. 9 / 7 A.M.
MASTER HAKUIN
(The master reads from Rinzai Roku:)
"Rakuho, Rinzai's secretary, who was standing next to master Rinzai, said to the scripture teacher" (this is a mistake; it is not a "scripture teacher" here, but a "Tendai master").44 "So Rakuho said: "How do you understand it?'
Secretary: 'Kwat!'
When the Tendai master had left, Rinzai asked his secretary: 'Was that katsu for me or for the Tendai master?
'Yes, for you.'"
He was very zusan so the Master hit him.
"Secretary: 'Ka!' Rinzai hit him again. Secretary: 'Ka!'"
THE KA-PA KOAN
In Japan, master Hakuin used this koan and it became known as the "Ka-pa koan."
Master Hakuin asked a disciple: "What is the meaning of this koan? You must solve it."
The disciple replied with a Ka! and then he hit himself. When he hit himself it sounded like Pa! (General laughter.) This is why the koan came to be known as the Ka-pa koan.
When master Rinzai used this koan it had a deep meaning. But Rinzai followers later turned it into theater.
"You must speak," said a Rinzai master. "What is the secret essence of Buddhism? You must tell it to me in one phrase. And with your hand covering your mouth...." Some Rinzai masters and their disciples talk this way during mondos.... So the disciple jumped up and covered the master's mouth and said: "You must tell me first!"
THE FORBIDDEN BOOK
In modern Japan most Rinzai temples are in the line of Hakuin. (There is another line called Takusui, but it has very few followers.)
I have an old book here with me, A Critic of Rinzai Zen, and it concerns
The Rinzai people do not like this book and they managed to have it suppressed. So for many years in Japan this book remained unpublished and forbidden. But if I translate it into English and publish it in America, the Rinzai sect would be very angry. The book says that Hakuin made many mistakes and he was not a great master.
Hakuin Zen is a concentrated Zen to cure sickness. And this is very sad; it is not shikantaza.
For a full year, beginning students do not eat and do not sleep (says the book). They are always receiving the kyosaku. And meanwhile they are given koans to solve. Every day the students repeat this, and they become very tired. When the student is on the point of becoming completely mad and neurotic, he is permitted kensho (i.e., satori). For the intellectual student it is very hard, and by then (i.e., when he is ready for kensho), he is thinking only of escape. So at this moment, the master tends him a bit of sugar saying, "Maybe now you have a little satori." So they have a comic mondo with a foolish koan, and the intellectual, who is now like someone falling into hell, wakes up. And nothing. This is the state of mind of satori. Right before the intellectual falls into madness, he wakes up-and this is satori, this is enlightenment.
This is how it is in all Rinzai temples of the Hakuin line. And it is a complete mistake. My master, Kodo Sawaki, also said that this method is completely crazy and dangerous:The weaker people who follow this method end up in the hospital.47 There has been much written about this in the book.
(The Master continues to refer to the same book:) In the next room to Hakuin's sat a nun (the nun Hakuin always consulted). She was waiting there to test the new disciple. The disciple entered and the nun, who was seated in a chair, said to him: "Without using your two hands, lift me up." The disciple, who was young and strong, kicked the nun in her sexual organs, and she quickly stood up.
There are many humorous scenes in this book but if I read them, none of you would stop laughing until the end of the sesshin.
Concerning the koan, "What is the essence of Buddhism?" Hakuin in the end replied. Hakuin's answer became books; it became a collection of koans.
What is the essence of Buddhism? Hakuin answers: "The sparrow goes tzu! tzu! The crow goes ka! ka! The dog goes wan! wan! The cat goes nyan! nyan!"
Disciples who wish to pass these koans quickly, buy Hakuin's book of koans. But as westerners do not make the same animal noises as do the Japanese, they would not be able to pass the test. In Japan cows go mo-mo; horses hin-hin; and cocks ka- ka-ka.
I finished this book in one night. It was better than a comic book.
I am now comparing Rinzai and Soto Zen. Rinzai and Soto are of the same source, only Buddha's way, only Bodhidharma's Zen. But then they separated.
I am Soto, so surely Soto is best. This is my conclusion.
Dogen was searching for the true way, the true Buddha's way. The true Buddha's way is only one. The ways leading to the top are numerous. But through shikantaza Dogen sought the true way. Why did Dogen begin Shobogenzo by writing that the direct gate, the front gate, to the top of Buddhism is shikantaza?
If you, here, understand both Rinzai and Dogen, and if you compare them both, and if you have the right knowledge of Zen, and if you educate others, then this work will become historic.
AUG. 9 /10-30 A.M.
THE BUDDHIC SPIRIT OF RINZAI, DOGEN
and all great religious leaders is the same
(The Master enters the dojo once everyone is seated, does gassho, and takes the high seat. Then reaching over, he hands the editor of this book a piece of paper. On it is written: "Zazen is eternal life. Zazen is the perfection of the true Dharma (sho-bo). Zazen is the Buddhic aspect which is realized in man. Zazen is the state of mind which is only one, which is aloneness. Zazen is to be intimate completely with oneself.")
This is the last zazen of this sesshin. Concentrate to the end. I will now examine your last zazen postures. I want to take a photograph of each of you in zazen to keep for the future. (The Master begins taking photos. His secretary helps him with the camera.)
I wanted to take more photos of you, but my secretary just broke the camera. She dropped it.
Now that I am again seated the camera is working again. But I took photos of most of you anyway, and I will see. For ten years I have been taken by you in photos, and now it is I who take photos of you. I will keep them. Historic.... But if you want I will give them to you.
Last zazen. Most of you will be leaving today. So those who leave, and especially the new people, do not forget your postures of zazen and kinhin.
Like with Dogen, Rinzai did not make any mistakes. Later though, the Zen Rinzai took another direction. But now you can see which one is the true meditation.
Rinzai, Dogen-everyone-search for the true way. But no one is the same, and everyone has a different karma.
Master Hakuin spread Rinzai Zen throughout Japan. He had a very deep influence, and he too believed in zazen.
Even if you do zazen only once, your bad karma will disappear for a long time afterwards. The spirit of each of us is the same, it is the methods which differ: zusan, men-mitsu. Jodo Shinshu, Nembutsu, and Master Shinran too. Here too the spirit of Buddhism is the same.
If you invoke the name Namu Amida Butsu,48 and if you concentrate on this name, then it is the same as when you concentrate on zazen. Without p
urpose. Mushotoku.
All karma of the three worlds (i.e., of past, present and future) transforms and decreases. All great religious people have transformed the bad karma of all mankind. Each one of us has a bad karma. Our lives are not so good, not so bad. Sometimes a storm comes, sometimes a rain comes, and sometimes it snows and sometimes it is a fine day.
In the voyage of our lives, sometimes waves, sometimes the calm. In Shodoka it is written that we walk alone. The voyage of our lives is alone, and when we enter the coffin we are alone. No one follows.
But for those who have experienced zazen, to be alone is not so bad.
In the end we are alone and in solitude. I have always said that the state of mind in zazen, the last state of mind, is in being intimate with oneself.
For those who continue to practice zazen: when we are alone we are completely calm. Not anxious and not frightened. We reach completely the supreme peace and the highest pleasure. When we practice zazen alone in solitude, we find deep calmness and peace. This is the world of true religion.
We are alone, our lives are in solitude. But people who have reached satori, these people can be with others, these people can play with others on the way of nirvana.
So those who have continued zazen here together and have together experienced this sesshin: these people are eternal friends, they are of an eternal family-Dogen said this. We can be together, we can step together, we can make a procession together, towards the eternal world of nirvana.
I hope that you continue zazen. Until death. To pile up the satoris. I hope that you get many satoris. Not one time, but ten times, a hundred times. A thousand infinite satoris in the eternal world.
Chin in. Last chin-in. Last stretch-of-the-waist. Last patience. Last ceremony.
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