Sit

by Taisen Deshimaru

  The Zen of Rinzai is active; it is fascinating. The Soto Zen of Dogen is delicate, tranquil, thoughtful.

  To this question of the scripture master ("What is the nature of Buddha?"), Dogen explains that the three vehicles and the twelve divisions are Hinayana teaching and represent the five thousand sutras of Bukkyo (the Buddhist Teaching). Dogen explains that all the sutras of the Buddha, all teachings of the Buddha are the mind of Buddha. To understand the Buddha's mind is to understand the Buddha's sutras.

  Outside the Buddha's teaching-say the Rinzai school-there exists another transmitted mind.

  At the big conference once held by Shakyamuni Buddha, no one understood it except Mahakasyapa. When Buddha twisted the flower in his fingers, Mahakasyapa understood. So at that moment Buddha transmitted this special mind on to his disciple, Mahakasyapa.

  Dogen does not agree with this. No special mind was ever transmitted.

  Mahakasyapa knew all the teachings of Buddha and when Buddha died, he gathered them all together. And Dogen says that the mind of Buddha is his teaching, his sutras. We must respect all Buddha's sutras: they are the one-mind and they are the cosmic order.

  In Dogen's poem San Sho Doei, it is written:

  The color of the mountain,

  The sound of the valley

  Everything together

  Is of our Shakyamuni Buddha

  His holy posture and his voice!

  What are sutras? They are all the phenomena, all the cosmic order. The river in the mountains, the sound in the valley, always repeat the sutras of the Buddha.

  Master Rinzai was always giving the stick and the katsu, and so everyone continued to ask the same question: "What is the nature of Buddha?" And in the end one obtained the Rinzai kensho.

  Dogen, on his return from China, did not give koans to his disciples. And at the temple of Koshoji in Uji near Kyoto Dogen explained the meaning of genjo koan (genjo is the immediate manifestation of things as they are), of Maka Hannya Haramitsu (Great Sutra of the Profound Essential Wisdom and Beyond), and in Bendowa (Study on the Importance of the Practice) he explained Buddha's teaching. What is it? It is like this. Dogen explains all this exactly.

  This is Dogen's taste, it is his style, it is his Zen.

  Dogen's commentaries in Bussho (Buddha Nature) are very long.... Everyone has Buddha nature. It is always here and never changes. All existence is the realization of the nature of Buddha.

  Dogen makes commentaries in many directions. Dogen was gentle and delicate, and he never gave strange koans. He explains in detail, minutely, carefully, and this is Shobogenzo.

  JULY27/7A. M.

  (The morning zazen begins, the master is at his place and the dojo is completely quiet. Then, suddenly, there is the sound of voices coming from the far end of the dojo, by the river, and then a woman shouting. She is quickly escorted to the door. After a while the master says:)

  To become mad means to become attached to something; rest fixed on something and the mind becomes sick.7

  JULY 27/10 A. M.

  FIVE THOUSAND SUTRAS

  Furniture of the great way

  What is Bussho, what is Buddha nature? In Rinzai this question always becomes a koan, and it is never really explained.

  So the disciple thinks about it during zazen. What is Buddha nature? He thinks of this everywhere-on the toilet, in bed, and finally even in his dreams; and in the end he becomes like a crazy man.

  "Why must I eat?" This is what the crazy girl (who caused the commotion earlier) asked me this morning during genmai (rice soup).

  To stay on one thought is very dangerous.

  In Rinzai they say one should not heed the teachings of the patriarchs, one should not read the sutras. "Do not use the sutras. During zazen only koans. Make your body and mind as dry trees, as dead ashes. Be like a tub without a bottom."

  "After this fashion," writes Master Dogen, "Rinzai followers are completely in heresy and in devilry. They use that which they should not use. And so the true Buddha Dharma becomes a mad dharma, a devil's dharma. This is a pity."

  Dogen admired the sutras.

  I understand Rinzai's method. But he criticizes too much the sutras.

  There exist more than five thousand sutras and very few people have ever read them. Rinzai people haven't read the sutras, and yet they criticize them.

  Rinzai went himself to the high seat, called himself a true master and opened a dojo. He is not a true master, and so Rinzai followers are more and more in error and in obscurity and in darkness. This is a great pity.

  If someone asks a question all he receives is a kwat! Or a display of the thumb.... Certainly this technique is all right sometimes, if you can understand it.

  Dogen always says that there is only shikantaza. That you must concentrate only on zazen. But reading sutras is also important. A balance is necessary.

  Rinzai himself understood. But his disciples and his school only imitate Rinzai, and imitation is not so good. These masters do not at all understand. Just kwat!, the showing of the thumb, the waving of a fly swatter, the hit of the stick.

  Soto Master Tozan's Goi method (or Five Stages method) of education was not so accurate either. Because Tozan's disciple Sozan over developed it. Sozan was too attached to this method.... Balance is

  You must not criticize the sutras. In the sutras you can find the true Bodhisattva, you can find the true Buddha teaching. The sutras are the furniture of the great way.

  When we protect the sutras and when we read them deeply, then we are true Buddhists.

  Dogen studied Rinzai carefully, and in the end he called Rinzai's way the "crazy way."

  Now we will have a mondo.

  MONDO

  (Everyone turns around to assist in the mondo-questions and answersbetween the master and the disciples.)

  Tobacco, not so good not so bad

  QUESTION: Many people here smoke. Is tobacco good or bad?

  Master: Not so good, not so bad. Tobacco calms you. And for those who think too much tobacco is good. Whisky too is not so bad. But too much of anything is not good. Balance is important.

  But with drugs I don't agree. With drugs the brain becomes sick: and then afterward it is difficult to come back to the normal condition.

  Many who first came to the Paris dojo were on drugs. So I educated them slowly, slowly.... Stephan was completely crazy when he first came to the dojo. He is still crazy but less so. Now he has become clever.... Before he took all kinds of drugs, so I told him to change to whisky: whisky is better. So he changed to whisky and he drank and drank, and he forgot drugs. Then I told him to drink less, and he followed my education and he drank very little. A good education. Now he drinks not at all.

  He is a good monk now-no sex, no whisky, no drugs. A great monk unconsciously, automatically and naturally.

  Understand? About tobacco?

  A dojo is a holy place, not a hospital

  QUESTION: In reference to what happened this morning concerning the sick woman...

  Master: Yes, madame?

  Madame (excitedly): She was asking for help! She was asking for love! Yet she was quickly removed from the dojo. Does the Zen community here reject such people?

  Master: If one person disturbs two hundred others, necessary out. She must go to the hospital.

  (There is a sudden turmoil in the dojo and several people are standing and they are all trying to ask questions at the same time.)

  Madame: I understand! It is the manner, I mean, the manner!

  Master (taps his temple): You are a bit like her, too.

  Second person (standing and interrupting): Why didn't the nuns remove her then, and not the monks?

  Master (taps his temple): You too, madame, are a bit crazy. The nuns would not have been strong enough.

  Third person (interrupting): She needed love and kindness!

  Madame: You did nothing for her!

  Master: We consulted her father. We consulted her doctor. We consulted the hospital. I must d
eal first with my normal disciples. Not with mad people. A dojo is a holy place, not a hospital.... When Madame's son (the master points to his disciple Stephan, then to the mother who has asked the question in the first place)-when Stephane first came to the Paris dojo, the mother would always come to shout at me and to criticize. But then she became impressed with her son and how he has changed, and now she has come here, too. Finally, even she was impressed; but not completely. When she saw the mad woman she became influenced by her, and now she too is a little mad.

  I could have helped the crazy girl. As I did at the other camp in Lodeve in southern France. This time in Lodeve I told her to look at my face. "Look at my face." But she wouldn't. She looked everywhere but at my face.

  I could help her, of course, but it would take a long time, and if I spend a long time on her, then I cannot teach you. Today I could not give you the kusen! There was no kusen this morning! Why?

  Bon appet?t! (says the master closing the mondo and rising to his feet.)

  JULY27/4 P. M.

  THE QUACKING DUCK THEATER

  During zazen if you cannot concentrate completely on your posture, concentrate on your breathing, on your exhalation. It should be long. Push down under your navel, and the kikai tanden will expand. Then inhale, and concentrate again on your exhalation. There should be no sound to your breathing.

  Master Rinzai said from the high seat: "Upon the lump of red flesh there is a true man of no status"-this is very famous in Rinzai-"who ceaselessly goes out and in through the gates of your face. Those who have not yet recognized him, look! look!" A monk came forward and asked: "What is the true man of no status?" The master came down from his high seat, grabbed the monk and said: "Speak! Speak!" The monk hesitated. The master let him go and said: "What a shitstick this true man of no status is!" Then he withdrew to his quarters.

  Very funny.

  "Upon the lump of red flesh" means our body, or the five aggregates.' Mui shin jin: the man of no status-this means the man of no class, of no grade, of non-status, the true man.

  This mondo of Rinzai's is very interesting. But Master Dogen criticized it. In the Shobogenzo Sesshin Sessho (The Exposition of Mind, of Nature), Dogen wrote that Rinzai only knew mui shin jin. Why didn't Rinzai also study wui shin jin, wrote Dogen. (Wui is the affirmation of grade while mui is the negation of grade.) Why? Because Rinzai does not know the man of status. He only knows the man of no status.'°

  Rinzai would not have understood Dogen's Genjo Koan, and in the end he does not arrive to the deep bottom. He goes only halfway down.

  When Master Tozan was traveling with master Shinzan Somitsu, Tozan pointed to a hermitage near the road and said: "In this hermitage someone lives. And this 'someone' expounds on mind and on nature."

  Master Somistu: "Who is he?"

  Master Tozan: "You asked, so he died" (because of the question).

  "Who is he?" Somitsu asked again. "Who expounds on mind, on nature? Who expounds?"

  Tozan: "He is dead, but he can live in death.""

  This is a difficult mondo. It cannot be understood by logic, by common sense. But Dogen, using this mondo, explains on mind, on nature. It is the great source of the way of Buddha; Dogen explains this very deeply for his mind is very deep. It is a wonderful conference.

  Without explaining mind, without explaining nature, there would be no wonderful conference, there would be no decision to become a monk, to practice zazen, and there would be no Buddha's satori. This is how Dogen explains it, more and more deeply.

  Rinzai could not get to the very bottom. By the true man of no status he cannot get satori. This is only half. By the man of status he must get satori too.

  While on the high seat a monk approached the master and did gassho. Rinzai pronounced a katsu. The monk, surprised, said: "Old Venerable, it would be better not to test me."

  Rinzai: "Then you say it-where did it fall, the kwat?"

  In the end the monk too gave a kwat!

  Dogen makes an interesting point on this mondo: Why at this moment, didn't Master Rinzai give the stick to the monk?

  Even the famous Japanese Rinzai monk, Daito Kokushi, wrote in his commentaries of this mondo: "At this moment Rinzai should have given the kyosaku to the monk, but he forgot."

  (Reading from Rinzai Roku:)'Z

  Another monk asked: "What is the essence of Buddhism?" Rinzai replied with a katsu. The monk replied with a gassho.

  Rinzai: "Was that a good kwat?"

  Monk: "The highway robber had a big defeat."

  Rinzai: "Who, then, is at fault?"

  Monk: "It is not permitted to do it a second time."

  Rinzai gave a katsu.

  Rinzai Roku: "The chief monks met each other and both did katsu together."

  Interesting theater. Dogen's Shobogenzo is not like this.

  A monk asked: "What is the essence of Buddhism?"

  Rinzai raised his hossu (fly whisk). The monk went kwat! The master hit him.

  Very interesting.

  Another monk: "What is the nature of Buddha?"

  Rinzai raised his hossu. The monk katsus, Rinzai katsus. Like dogs, like ducks. To understand this by common sense is impossible.

  The monk hesitated and Rinzai hit him.

  In Rinzai Roku the katsu is always repeated. And later Rinzai masters simply imitated Rinzai, like ducks quacking.

  In Shobogenzo Dogen writes that his own master Nyojo always laughed and made good fun of these Rinzai methods, as well as of the stick of Unmon.

  This is not the real, the true way to study the Buddha. The way which has been transmitted from Buddha to the patriarchs, says Dogen, is not like this.

  Understand deeply by body and mind. If we want to understand deeply there is no theater. True, we must create our own method. But it is not necessary to have discussions and mondos. Continue shikantaza and we can understand; continue theater and we cannot understand.

  We must not make this mistake. In a true mondo we must question our true mind. There's no time to understand others; think of others and you forget about yourself. No need to think about mad people. You, here in this dojo, are studying your own true mind. You are studying yourselves. The way of Buddha means to understand oneself; to continue zazen. Know yourself, said Socrates. No need to think of mad people, or of your family, or of other people here during sesshin.

  To study ourselves is to forget ourselves. In the end you must forget yourself. Zazen is true shikantaza. But people like to think of others and so they completely forget their own minds.

  Now we will have a mondo. Mondo for idiots. Mondo for fools. Messieurs, mesdames, tournez-vous.

  MONDO

  Sex and the zen monk

  QUESTION: What is your opinion about sex?

  Master (surprised): Sex?... Necessary. People need it. Especially the young. But balance is also necessary. Too much sex is not good. Always changing partners, always thinking of sex. Balance is necessary, but if you cannot be balanced, then it is better that you stop.

  During sesshin it is not necessary to think of sex. Do you have a husband?

  Answer: Yes. (ponders question) Yes, several.

  Master: Ah, so you change men a lot?

  Everyone is different. Some have strong karma for sex and some have no need for it. For each person sex and love is different.

  QUESTION: And what about sex for Zen monks?

  Master: It is not necessary for you to think of the monks.

  Answer: No, no. All I want is to compare Zen monks with Christian priests.

  Master: In the past Zen monks did not marry. In modem times everyone marries. My master, however, was not married. Better not to be married. But if you are and you have peace and quiet and continue to progress in your zazen, then that is fine. Not an important problem. What is important is to do zazen; what is important is to become a true Zen monk. Zen is not a mortification, nor is it asceticism.

  If, in the monastery, you are always thinking about sex, then it becomes a problem.
Alone, without a woman and always thinking of sex and always masturbating is not good.

  When I visited the Trappists the first thing the Christian monks there asked me was how I handled the sex problem: "How do you solve sex for the young that are with you?"

  "Oh, no problem," I said. In the Trappist monastery sex was forbidden. Masturbation too.

  The Trappists told me that their religion is very strict on this account. So I replied that it is natural that all their monks escape.... It is a delicate problem and it cannot be cut or solved.

  Anyway, sex is not an important problem. Time resolves it.

  The ceremony

  QUESTION: What is the use of the ceremony?

  Master: A little ceremony is necessary.

  QUESTION: Every day?

  Master: Yes, every day. It must become a habit. Good manners, good behavior. Repeat it every day and your manner becomes beautiful.

  Ceremony is very good for the concentration. When you sing the Sutra of the Hannya Shingyo you can concentrate on the exhalation. It is difficult to always concentrate on the exhalation during zazen, but when you do it during the chant, it becomes unconscious, automatic and natural. Same with the mokugyo (the wooden fish which is beat during the chanting), the same with sampai.

  You must repeat. This is very important. Repeat the good things and your karma can become better. Repeat sex and you just become tired. Sex is neither good nor bad, but repeat the good things and your karma can change. Your face can change. Repeat the bad things and your face changes, too.

  When we sing the Bussho Kapila before we eat, we are saying that the first spoonful means that we practice the good. The second means we cut the bad. The third is to help all beings.

  What does it mean to help others? It is not what Stephane's mother thinks. If we do good things and if we cut bad things, then we can truly help others. If we do zazen we can help people-by influencing them unconsciously. To help others does not mean to forget oneself.