Sit

by Taisen Deshimaru

Even Buddha and the Patriarchs cannot explain it (doshu),

  Neither in conference (kusen), nor through silence.

  In the realm, arrived at through deep study:

  All the day long you look,

  Yet there are no eyes with which to see it;

  All the night long you listen,

  Yet there are no ears with which to hear it.

  Keizan's poem is beautiful; I like this poem. What is zazen? It is this.

  The music of a stringed instrument without

  It moves the sleeves of even the wooden people.

  A flute without holes even harmonizes with the iron man.51

  Shinpo kyochi. Shin is mind and po is object. So the subject and the object vanish together. Kyo is the surroundings, the objects, and chi is wisdom. Kyochi tomoni minzu: surrounding wisdom together vanish. So together, without arrangement (there is no planning, no comparison, no thinking) the wind stops blowing, the waves have disappeared and the ocean is again calm. The flower falls and the mountain grows more peaceful.

  The flower falls and the people have gone away. After the flower has fallen and the people have left, then the mountain is more peaceful. This is the aspect of mind during zazen. This is how it should be understood. It is not only a landscape, but also zazen-mind.

  It is a Val d'Isere landscape. The landscape and the last zazen are the same. Do zazen and you do not have to go to the mountain. Zazen and the mountain are the same. The real mountain is inside mind. Please, look at the mountain in your mind.

  This is the relationship between life and death, and it can be experienced during zazen.

  The flower falls means that all finishes, the good and the bad.

  Some here are always criticizing: about the food, about other people. And even during the sesshin they are saying: "It's cold today and we must have some heat." Or they think of how to win money on the stock market. All this is bad karma.

  But when the wind comes, the flower falls. All falls. There is no darkness, there is no light, there is no running after, no escape from. There is no anxiety, no fear. The mountain becomes completely peaceful. This is zazen.

  Kyosaku!

  This is the last present. The kusen is soft, the kyosaku is strong.

  Zazen is dry wood without thinking. The deep wisdom arises.

  The blue mountain stands alone. There are many mountains, and their soaring is finished. There is only one: the highest, the one which stretches into heaven. This is zazen mind.

  You must become a dry tree during zazen. This is from a poem by master Daichi:12

  Dry Tree

  This poem not only speaks of a dry tree, it expresses zazen.s'

  The wind has stopped, the flower has fallen and the mountain is tranquil-this is the last kusen.

  THE HARD KISSES OF MASTER KISS

  Kinhin is the same as zazen. It is standing zazen, it is moving zazen. (Everyone is now in kinhin.) Kinhin is harder than zazen. (Someone collapses.)

  Kinhin and zazen produce a strong reaction. Those who are weak, who have bad nervous systems, quickly fall down. But afterwards they will become strong.

  (Zazen:) Don't move, don't move. When you move you must do gassho first. Those who have not the patience, or who are sick, or who are about to faint, they must do gassho first. And then the columns must accompany them outside. (Someone else is being carried outside.)

  A sesshin means to touch, to make contact with our true mind. We must look towards the inside. We must do this in the calm, in the silence.

  But a sesshin also means to decrease desires.

  People in modern civilization have too many desires. Complicated desires which they cannot realize. So they fall sick. People have too many desires and therefore they cannot be satisfied. So all they can do is use their imagination. If their desires cannot be realized, they become sick or they become mad or they commit suicide.

  True peace is not to have too many desires inside. In this way realizing one's desires becomes very easy; and there's no anxiety. Inside is quiet.

  It is difficult to decrease desires. But continue zazen and it will happen unconsciously and automatically.

  The atmosphere is very quiet, the others are calm. If you follow the rules of the dojo, of the sesshin, you will receive the influence of the others. From the atmosphere you will become quiet and your inside desires will decrease.'

  In ancient times in Japan traditional sesshins lasted one, two and three months. In modern times only ten days or a month.

  In those times sesshins were only for monks. When a monk came for the first time, he would not be allowed to enter the dojo. He had to wait in the waiting room. To be trained and tested. Some waited a week before they were allowed into the dojo. In the history of Zen many great masters had first been tested in the waiting room. (Here there is no waiting room, only a garage.) In the waiting room there was no sleeping. The food was reduced.

  In the history of Rinzai Zen there was a monk, coming in the direct line from Nangaku (the great Chinese patriarch), who was called Sekken Kiss.2 (Sekken in Japanese means soap; but it also signifies a mountain in China.) And his first disciple was named Fusan Ho-on.' (Fusan is the name of another mountain in China.)

  Ho-on had once gone to a Soto dojo under Taiyo Kyogen,4 a famous patriarch of the Soto line, and Kyogen had later wanted to give the shiho (transmission) to Ho-on; but Ho-on had refused it because he had already received the Rinzai ordination.

  So Ho-on, who had also received the Soto education, returned to the Rinzai master Kiss. Kiss was very strong.

  There were many people in Kiss' waiting room during the preparation for a sesshin, and every morning Kiss brought a bucket of water along-one bucket for each person. Kiss then threw the bucket of water over each of their heads, completely soaking them. It was during the winter and it was cold and everyone was angry. This master was mad.

  (I am very kind. I welcome you. You are all very welcome. I embrace you, even though my name is not "Kiss." Master Kiss never gave soft kisses.)

  So Kiss was testing their ability to pursue the sesshin. And everyone escaped. Except Ho-on. Ho-on alone was patient. "I come from the Soto dojo of Taiyo Kyogen and I want to stay here. Even if every morning you throw water on me. Because I have come to seek the way."

  To seek is not so easy, it is not so hard.

  So Kiss was impressed. Most people only come to eat, or to dance, or to find a sexual partner. "But this is not the Mediterranean Club here," said Kiss.

  Ho-on became the tenzo.... Kiss was very strict. He had only one hundred monks in his dojo but they were all strong monks. Because only the strong ones stayed.

  There was never enough food. There was only genmai soup in the morning and genmai soup at lunch. There was nothing for dinner, and, besides, the genmai soup was mostly water. So the desires of each deminished: their only desire was for food. They were very very hungry. (This is good for zazen; eat too much and zazen becomes difficult.)

  Then one day master Kiss went away (he went for a walk), and the tenzo Ho-on, who had compassion for the monks, wished to give them more to eat than just genmai. So he looked for the key to the storeroom in the master's quarters, and he fetched out some noodles which he gave to everyone.

  Kiss returned at this time, and he called in the tenzo. Laurent, Guy, comely Kiss was completely angry. "In my absence you stole! You stole the key!"

  "The monks said they were starving, so we stole the key."

  "You are the same as a thief! You can no longer live in this dojo. Get out, out...."

  Ho-on went off traveling. But sometimes he would return to the dojo to sleep in front of the gate. Kiss became angry again: "You must go away. A thief cannot sleep here."

  Ho-on went off begging. He begged around the temple. And during Kiss' absence he would do zazen in the garden under the trees. When Kiss saw this he said: "This is a temple garden. You must pay for the place you take up." (Kiss was very economical.) So Ho-on gave him the money and the rice he had received
from begging; and so he continued to do zazen in the temple garden, in the place he was paying for.

  Then one day Kiss came across Ho-on on the road begging, and he said to him: "You are doing this for the way. You are seeking the way. Very good."... And in the end he gave Ho-on the shiho.

  This story is famous because Ho-on had first received the Soto training. Soto Zen is not so negligent. Patience is necessary... and Ho-on had already decreased his desires.

  Kaijo!

  Don't move, don't move. The last moments of zazen are very important. You must have patience.... Stephan! Socks are no You are negligent, you dress negligently. This is why you have caught a cold. Everyone must take care not to catch colds during this sesshin.

  AUG. 23 / 8.30 P.M.

  UNDERSTANDING RINZAI

  (The darkening sky beyond the open window, the blue mountains, the sounds, the wind in the pines and the river below; with everyone engaged in mutual listening, hearing the world talk, never repeating itself, always the same, fading down the mountain side, off in the silence....)

  When we hear the sound of the valley, of the river, true religious mind arises.

  The American boy Philippe Coupey wrote in English The Voice of the Valley now being published in New York. The book had to do with my talks last year in Val d'Isere, when I spoke about the karma in man, of concentration and of observation. And now this year I am comparing Rinzai and Dogen Zen: Shobogenzo and Rinzai Roku.

  Each religion is different and each religious mind is different. Why did Rinzai arrive? Why did his sect arrive?

  I have already talked about Rinzai's visit to the Obaku dojo. And how for three years Rinzai did nothing but zazen and never even had a mondo with the master.

  I have studied many books on this and at last I have understood the true story. It is not explained in other books, nor in Rinzai Roku. And no masters have ever written profoundly on this matter.

  In his younger days Rinzai had studied deeply the psychology of Buddhism. He had studied the Yui-Shiki, the Visryana of Mahayana Buddhism. Yui-Shiki is more complicated and much deeper than modern psychology.... So Rinzai only read books. He did not do zazen, and he became too intelligent, too academic.

  Then he became a monk and went to visit Obaku's dojo. (Rinzai found Buddhism very complicated, and this is why he went to Obaku.)

  But what he underwent was the complete opposite to Buddhist psychology. Everyday was just the kyosaku. Everyday it was the big voice of master Obaku. So he asked himself many questions. But since questions are not possible, he had no questions. So the shusso told him to ask one. "What question should I ask?" Rinzai said. "Ask the master what is the essence of Buddhism," replied the shusso.

  Rinzai was scared. Yet he went and asked the question anyway. He did not get the answer. He got the kyosaku and escaped. The shusso sent him back and this time he received the rensaku- and not on the acupuncture points, but on the top of the head.... (Like myself; when I visited the Rinzai master Asahina at Engakuji in my younger days, I too got hit on the head, and I too escaped; but I didn't return.')... Rinzai, though, was very patient and he went back. He went back twice and he got ninety blows.

  Anyway, he was filled with doubt. "I want to go for a walk," he told the shusso. "Not to escape, just for a walk."

  "In that case," said the shusso, "I will introduce you to a great master, and you can go there. Master Taigu, master Great Fool. This great master is a great fool."8

  Rinzai found this very interesting. So within a few days he arrived at the Taigu temple and there he met the Great Fool. "Why have you come?".... Rinzai told him: "When I ask Obaku a question on the essence of Buddhism, I only get the rensaku. Have I made a mistake?" He was full of doubt.

  "You have not at all made a mistake. But why can't you understand? Because you are foolish."

  "Why am I foolish?"

  "Because Obaku gave you the exact answer; and, too, he taught you with kindness."

  At this moment Rinzai got satori. "Oh, the essence of Buddhism is very simple," he said.

  When Rinzai returned, Obaku asked him: "You understand now the essence of Buddhism?"

  "Yes, I understand," he replied getting up and hitting Obaku in the face.

  Obaku told him not to come too close. "My mustache is very strong. You must not touch the mustache (whiskers) of the tiger."

  In his youth, before he had become a monk, Rinzai was very intelligent he had read many books. So Obaku cut it. Obaku's stick was very effective.... For the very intelligent, cries and the rensaku are very effective.

  For everyone it is different, but for Rinzai it was effective. So he always used this method on his disciples. And this is why Dogen criticized Rinzai Zen: too negligent.

  (Two people have fainted and are being carried out by the kyosakuman and by one of the columns.) In the beginning many people fall. Four or five have already fallen today. This is because they are returning to their original condition of mind and body. So for those who have a weak nervous system, this is very good: just before they commit suicide or before they die, they fall down.... (But for people who are intrinsically mad, this is not so. To cure the truly sick is difficult.)

  Still, for people who are too nervous, who think too much, who take too many drugs, and for those who are spoiled by their parents, their education and their surroundings, Rinzai Zen is sometimes effective. But Rinzai education is not a normal education. So Dogen criticized Rinzai Zen, saying that it was zusan; that it was rough and barbaric.

  About this non-thinking, please, think from the bottom of non-thinking-this is how you must think. Don't think from the bottom of non-thinking, said Dogen. Don't think about thinking. Think don't think. Both. This is hishiryo. This is the secret of Zen.

  What is hishiryo? During zazen everyone practices hishiryo. The influence which comes from the posture is necessary. If the posture is wrong, you cannot create the state of hishiryo.

  For Blaise Pascal, it is the roseau pensant (thinking reed)this is religious thinking. I don't know Pascal's mind. But if Dogen were living, he would say that Pascal was very delicate, very fine, and not negligent.

  Our life is very limited, just like the wind. Just like the river. It passes very quickly. Time passes and the flowing stream is not at all permanent. It is always changing. The river remains, but the water is never the same. The river and the earth are always the same, but the water is always changing.... In a stagnant pool the bubbles sometimes appear and sometimes disappear. The roseau in the moonlight: the autumn wind comes, and it is always thinking, and then before the winter it dies. He (the roseau) is very weak. But he thinks. (The true roseau, though, does not think; man thinks.) This is religious consciousness.

  What is the religious mind?

  Mind returns, it sinks, to the root of birth. This is thinking: thinking about our roots, our source, our birth.

  Man is born out of one hole and he finishes in another hole. He goes from hole to hole. This is man's life. C'est la vie.... The salmon returns to its source, to the source of its birth. And there she deposits her eggs; she fertilizes them, and then she quickly dies. Anyway, all sentient beings wish to return to the source of their birth.

  But for man it is not necessary that he return to his source (to his mother's orifice) because man has developed his frontal brain, his intellect, and he has a memory. So he thinks about it.

  Sometimes this can become animism. Like people who want to go to nature, who want to go into the mountains, to hear the sound of the valley.

  Man seeks the cause. Why? Why? From source to source. Why? Why?

  Logical, mathematical-thinking people discover infinite progression. It is the law of series. People who realize that the cosmos is infinite, but that the ego is not, understand. Life is short. Life passes by, passes by, like a river, like an arrow. We must proceed quickly to the coffin and quickly we enter into it. This is the true religious mind.

  So people want to create a reasonable request (that which would put them) beyo
nd their limited lives.

  THE GREAT WISDOM OF PREHISTORY

  Ceremonies of simple morals and manners

  In prehistoric and in ancient times people were not like animals, but different, and they created simple morals and simple manners. This is the root of civilization; it was primitive but very simple. This was the great wisdom of humanity of prehistoric times.

  The ceremony: the prostrations (sampai) and the chanting of Hannya Shingyo are very simple. Simple morals, simple manners. This is the root of our civilization.

  Why do we do sampai? It is written in the great sutra Hannya Haramitsu that we do sampai for Buddha. This is Maka Hannya Haramitsu, the Great Wisdom.

  This is prajna, wisdom. We do sampai together every morning after breakfast, the master and the disciples together, on the concrete (terrace in front of Sensei's quarters). Everyone knocks his forehead on the concrete. A deep meaning. It means creating wisdom. Knock your frontal brain on the concrete and without question wisdom will arise.

  Do sampai for Buddha, as respect to Buddha; offer flowers, offer a candle, offer incense, read the sutras-all this is ceremony.

  Why do we do sampai? To create wisdom.

  Kyosaku! Give the kyosaku to those who want it.

  And for those who are too intelligent.

  Chukai!

  AUG. 24 / 7.30 A.M.

  THE FIVE REVOLUTIONS OF HUMANITY

  During zazen: no hearing, no looking, no thinking. No looking with the eyes, but looking. Thinking, no-thinking.9

  This morning there is no curtain over the window, and people are looking out at the landscape. Or they are looking at the woman's hips before them.

  Hear the sound of the valley. Hear but not hear.

  Someone in a black kolomo is wandering about outside.'° He cannot follow the system. He is a cancerous cell.

  Normal cells become abnormal. They become mad and so they affect the other normal cells.