Our standard for unsurpassable giving is: the three wheels are empty. In other words, when the giver, receiver, and things given are empty and peaceful, there is unconditional giving. When the giver, receiver, and things given are empty, then we don’t have any ideas attached to them; in fact, we don’t know who is the giver, who is the receiver, and what are the things given. Unconditional means that all these things are in their so-called empty nature, there is no gain and no loss, energy just flows in a natural way. Giving is at its unsurpassable best when done in this way.
In our practice, what to give is divided into categories such as material possessions. This reminds me of the story of the enlightened Layman Pang. He was a rich man who dumped all of his possessions into the ocean. Seeing him do this, his friends became upset and demanded, “Why don’t you give these things to others who can use them?” Layman Pang answered, “These things are not good for me. How can I give them to others?” Sometimes, having possessions can hurt us. Of course, when we know how to use things without any particular attachment or detachment, it doesn’t matter whether we have possessions or not. So being selfless, we can abandon things according to necessity or the situation, and it benefits others.
Another category is giving the dharma. For example, giving a dharma talk is sharing the dharma. In a dharma talk, the giver is turning the dharma wheel, the receiver is also turning the dharma wheel, and the dharma itself is turning. All together, all are turning in emptiness, in perfect intimacy, which is the most free, most precious way that the dharma turns. We are helping others to realize the most important thing; in life, which is accomplishing the Way. The Lotus Sutra says, “Why do buddhas appear in the world? To lead everyone to buddhas’ wisdom.” My teacher Koryu Roshi’s dharma grandfather used this as a koan. Buddha himself spent forty years of his life leading people like ourselves to realization. When the dharma is given, the giver is receiving the listeners’ response. The listeners are receiving and they are also giving. In a sense, we can say that everything is giving and receiving, isn’t it true?
Dana paramita is perhaps considered the most characteristic of Mahayana practices because it most obviously involves others. But this applies to all the other paramitas as well. In fact, each paramita contains all the others. For instance, in prajna or wisdom paramita, we practice selflessness, the empty condition of life. When we practice this wisdom, compassion arises naturally. This compassion is nothing but dana, giving. Being selfless, we can’t help but give. When we practice selflessly, we are functioning freely as all the paramitas.
We emphasize the importance of bodhisattva practice. In other words, sharing with others is emphasized over one’s own accomplishment. How can we truly share and appreciate this Buddha dharma? Although the three wheels are unconditioned and empty and we know this unsurpassable dharma can be freely given and received, yet somehow the wheel is stuck. It does not turn smoothly. Where do we get stuck? We can check ourselves against the three aspects of ignorance, anger, and greed. When our wheel is not turning quite smoothly, what are we ignoring? How can we help each other so that our wheels turn smoothly?
Of course, the wheel not turning smoothly is itself no other than the functioning of the dharma. We are the giver and we are the receiver and we are what is given, we are the dharma ourselves. Nevertheless, how is this wheel to be turned? Don’t forget, this give-and-take is always mutual, for no one is fully awakened unless the whole world is awakened. So my position and your position are the same.
Who is the giver? Who is the receiver? What is being given and received? We are giving and receiving these paramitas. We are giving and receiving giving, discipline, effort, patience, samadhi, wisdom. These are not mere principles. How are we giving and receiving all of these paramitas? Each of us is equally involved, each of us is completely responsible. We all are the Buddha dharma. Regarding this, Dogen Zenji says that the ocean does not decline any water, but rather it accepts any kind of water. That is why it exists as the ocean. And that oceanlike life is the life of each of us, do you see? How much are we truly appreciating, digesting, and turning our life in this way?
As a standard of giving, we say that the best thing to give is no-fear. How do we do this? In the Heart Sutra, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva does the practice of prajna paramita and relieves misfortune and pain. Prajna paramita is anything, everything! Literally everything! Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, in relieving all our fears and troubles, gives no-fear. How is this done? When we don’t have our self-centered ideas, then there is no-fear. So who is truly Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva? You know the answer, don’t you?
Each of us has abundant dharma to share. So in doing this paramita practice, the practice of reaching the other shore, all of us know that the other shore is right beneath our feet. Right here! Always here! Wherever you go, that is where here is! How can we make our realization clear and appreciate these wonderful paramitas as the life of each of us?
ON CEREMONIAL ACTION
IT IS INTERESTING TO REFLECT on how the most basic routines of our lives are conducted in an orderly way within a particular form. When our actions are conducted in this way, they become ceremony. What is ceremony?
The original implications of ceremony in Judeo-Christian culture reveal how we live and point to what is missing in our life now. In Latin, “ceremony” is caerimonia, which is related to cura, meaning “cure,” the act of healing or of being healed. In other words, ceremony is an act that cures or heals, or by which something is healed. In having a ceremony or in doing ceremonial action, we must ask, what is healed? By what?
The word heal means to be healthy, to be whole and sound. To make our life healthy is ceremonial. In order to live a healthy life, we live ceremonially every day regardless of our culture, country, or race. From morning to night, we live our lives through rituals, don’t we? We get up in the morning, wash our face, brush our teeth, and eat, going about these simple routines in an orderly way. When eating, we have the ritual of using a fork, knife, and plate. At work we act ceremonially when we greet our colleagues in a particular way.
From time to time, many of you express your discomfort with ritual. Most of us prefer informality or casualness. But regardless of whether something is formal or informal, still there is form. The definition of ceremony also includes the word law, the law’s of life. From morning until night, our life is continuous ritual, governed by rules, regulations, and laws. Behaving informally, can we follow the laws or regulations that are essential to living a healthy life?
We can say that living an informal life is more comfortable for us. But in fact, something is ignored when we do even simple things without an understanding of ceremony. What are we ignoring? How do we take care of ourselves in each moment? When the time comes to get up in the morning, just get up. It is a seemingly simple thing, but how do you do it? By doing it in an orderly way, you regulate yourself and your life. When you do these actions casually, you miss something.
Is being informal really more comfortable? Some of you wear formal sitting clothes in the zendo and some dress rather informally. Certain informal clothing is permissible. I do not mind if you wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt rather than a robe. But, for example, during the summer when it is hot, if you come to sit wearing short pants, you may think you will be comfortable, but this might not necessarily be the case. And vice versa; being overdressed would also be funny.
So following a particular form can cure us of our tendency to become too casual or disorderly and therefore unhealthy. In the zendo we should have a sense of being together. When you do certain things in your own way simply because you want to, this causes disharmony. Situations are regulated in a particular way. Ceremony means to follow that way! This is the best way to be healthy.
From time to time I have been emphasizing the importance of individual action. But I think that individual action and group action are the same. So ideally, ceremonial action should have the individual as the center of a group, of a sangha, of a
country, of society or world. By taking care of things in a ceremonial way, we become unified. We come together as one, staying away from our own self-centered interests, do you see?
Who do you think creates the casual, disorderly way of life? I do. Our ego does. Ceremony can be understood as a form or discipline by which we avoid self-centeredness, which causes our difficulties. Self-centered living creates trouble not only for others but also for oneself. Usually we do not understand ceremony in this way, but the definition I am presenting here is actually based on your own Judeo-Christian tradition. In the wisdom of your own tradition and culture, you have inherited ceremony as a way to regulate your life.
Regarding healing, there are some interesting points to consider. For instance, sickness can be a symptom of disorderliness of the mind, emotion, psyche, body, whatever. In one way or another, we are all sick until we have become unified and live a balanced life. Of course, we can be physically ill and still live ceremonially, in some balance.
How do we keep ourselves in order? By examining our body and mind. We are ceremonial by balancing ourselves and externals. In order to harmonize yourself, regulate your life from morning to night. When we live in this so-called formal way, sickness or the unsound life is avoided. And when we do not, we create a troubled life.
We practice this Buddha Way, which is literally the laws or teachings of the Buddha. Dogen Zenji says, “To practice the Buddha Way is to study oneself. To study oneself is to forget the self.” What happens when you forget the self? The Buddha Way is revealed as your own life. This is the purpose of ceremony. Dogen Zenji further says, “To forget the self is to be confirmed or to be enlightened by the ten thousand dharmas.” To forget the self is to be enlightened by everything, the order and forms that we live by from morning to night. This is the enlightened life itself.
Bowing is an important act in the Buddhist tradition. In Zen the most respectful bow is the bow in which our knees, elbows, and head all touch the ground. In Tibet and India, some bows are done by literally lying flat on the ground. This signifies the complete absence of one’s own ego or self—just complete obeisance to the laws that are the order of life. Bowing with absence of ego is the most polite bow. How can you unify yourself with Yourself as well as with anything, everything? This is bowing. This is the ceremonial action of forgetting the self and being enlightened by bowing.
The same thing could be said for brushing our teeth and washing our face. In Dogen Zenji’s Shobogenzo Senmen, he writes about how to wash the face. Washing the face is nothing but the treasury of the true dharma eye itself. Washing the face is the unsurpassable Way. Dogen Zenji even writes about using the toilet and how to wipe your bottom. He explains all this in detail. It is somewhat extreme ceremonial action!
When we read about this kind of detailed ceremonial action, it seems almost ridiculous, but Dogen Zenji is serious. This is nothing but enlightened action. It is life itself. By being ceremonial, we can order ourselves. If we have even the slightest idea of like or dislike, of what I want, we simply cannot be ceremonial in this way. In other words, such ceremonial actions in themselves become a powerful medicine. Unfortunately, it is so powerful that not many people can follow it.
We practice zazen. When we truly do zazen, everything is taken care of. This is ceremony. When we carefully understand our life, every bit of our life becomes ceremonial action, very orderly, formal action. This action is not for the sake of formality but for a healthy, sound life. When we live this way, healing or being healed is unnecessary. The enlightened life is an orderly, ordinary life. We should take care to live this way. This is ceremony, do you see?
PART TWO
Clarify the Great Matter
WHAT IS KOAN?
WHAT IS THE POINT OF OUR PRACTICE? We are not just sitting on a cushion. Someone said to me this morning, “Roshi, one person sitting could not bear the pain and he left. I feel sorry about that.” I feel sorry for this person, too. Definitely our practice cannot be just bearing pain and being discouraged. Dogen Zenji said zazen has to be comfortable. He says, “Zazen is the dharma gate of bliss and joy.” Zazen should not be torture. Please try to sit comfortably. It is okay to use a chair or a bench. It is a shame, almost a crime, to let people get so discouraged that they feel they must give up.
So this leads us back to the point: What is practice? What is zazen for?
We are so goal oriented. Of course, there is nothing wrong with having a goal. But if there is any goal in practice, what is it? I am sure you have set up some kind of goal for yourself. Is it clear why you are practicing and what you are doing? We each know to some degree or other that our discriminating or discursive mind gives us problems. There is nothing wrong with this mind in and of itself. Without discrimination, life would be chaos. And yet because of this discriminating mind, we create problems for ourselves and others. How we solve this problem is the koan.
We use expressions such as koan practice or working on koans. What does this mean? When we embody a koan that we’re working on, then that koan is in realization. Otherwise, even though we talk about koan practice, it does not mean much. So we have to clarify this very fundamental point in order to make our practice truly meaningful and worthwhile.
There is a famous koan of the Sixth Patriarch Hui-neng, who established the Southern Ch’an School in seventh-century China, and his disciple Nangaku Ejo. Hui-neng asked Ejo, “What comes thus?” Since this was a conversation, the Sixth Patriarch may have used the word thus very colloquially. It is a very common expression, like “Where do you come from?” or “What comes like this?” Perhaps Hui-neng simply asked Ejo, “Who are you?” Ejo answered, “When anything is said about it, you miss the mark.” In other words, even when one word of expression is attached to it, then it is not it. What does this mean?
In order to answer, Ejo had spent eight years penetrating the Sixth Patriarch’s question. What was he doing during these eight years? He was trying to come up with something, and each time he tried, he failed. What made him fail? Somehow trying itself made him fail. It did not matter how fine a definition he gave to Who am I?. Finally Ejo gave up. When he gave up, he realized the answer. Or it could have happened vice versa, he may have seen that all this effort to find out Who am I? was unnecessary, and then he realized it! That is the realization of koan; this is seeing our original face as the unity of absolute and relative. This koan has always been realizing itself since the beginningless beginning. It is fact!
What does “comes thus” mean? Be thus! As this! What else is there to say about it? Are you seeing this very being itself and then objectifying it? You have got to be one with it! That is what Dogen Zenji means when he says that practice and realization are one. If we set up any goal as such, then there is a split. There is something extra which hinders us from seeing what our life actually is.
This reminds me of Tenkei Denson Zenji’s phrase on Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. The Heart Sutra begins thus: “Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva doing deep prajna paramita.” Tenkei Zenji says that Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva is your name. Isn’t it wonderful? I really love Tenkei Zenji’s expression; it is a very, very simple and clear-cut statement. And when you really take Avalokiteshvara as your name, when there is no separation between yourself and Avalokiteshvara, right there the koan is in realization. Avalokiteshvara is doing deep prajna paramita. That deep prajna paramita is also Nangaku Ejo’s answer. “When anything is said about it, it is off.” When there is even a tiny, tiny bit of discrepancy between who I am and who I am, between Avalokiteshvara and myself, it is off.
You are Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. That is the koan. How to practice that koan? How to make that realization your practice? When you do this, your life is marvelous. Marvelous in the sense that Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva realizes the state of no-fear and gives no-fear to everybody.
I believe that giving no-fear is the very best thing we can do. Giving no-fear is true compassion. Being compassionate, what do we give? What do we take away?
We take away pain, suffering. Do you want to take it away? Then give no-fear. All of us are Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. How do we take it as our practice, as our life, to manifest no-fear? When we do, we are truly practicing koan.
KOAN AND SHIKANTAZA
IN JAPAN WE HOLD a special sesshin,1 during which we express our gratitude toward the three benevolences. Generally these benevolences are the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; our teachers, parents, nation, and all sentient beings; and all beings in the six worlds.2 We understand sentient beings as living human beings and also, in a broader sense, as everything. We should be grateful for everything, literally everything.
Showing our gratitude for just the Three Treasures is sufficient because these treasures are all-inclusive. Everything is included in the Buddha Treasure, in the Dharma Treasure, in the Sangha Treasure. At their most condensed point, what are these treasures? They are the life of each of us. We express our gratitude toward ourselves as well as toward everything, not as two separate things but both as one life. Do you see? Whether you realize it or not, this one life is the most fundamental koan. What does that mean? It means that at every moment, our life is the unity of the absolute and the relative, of oneness and diversity. This very concrete and profound aspect of each of our lives is koan, absolute reality, fact.
Shikantaza and koan are seemingly two different practices. They are different and yet they are the same. This sameness and difference are our practice, and we appreciate the Buddha dharma in this way. In what sense are shikantaza and koan the same? What is shikantaza? What is koan? And most important, how do we practice shikantaza, how do we practice koan? How much are you getting out of it? Of course, on one hand, there is nothing to get. On the other hand, there is immeasurable value in these practices.
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