Sit

by Taisen Deshimaru

  39. Nansen (748-834). Disciple of Baso, and master of Joshu.

  One day Nansen's disciples were arguing over a cat. Nansen happened by, heard them arguing and said: "If you can say a word about Zen, I will spare the cat. If you cannot, I will cut it in two I" No one said anything, and Nansen cut the cat in two.

  His disciple Joshu arrived on the scene shortly thereafter and Nansen told him the story. Now, what would you have done?" he asked Joshu.

  Joshu took off his sandal and put it on his head.

  If you had been there," observed the master, "I could have saved the cat."

  40. Known as "Marco Polo" because he is always traveling. It was he who asked the previous question concerning the necessity of hearing kusens.

  41. See, Schloegl, #49, p.69

  42. See, Schloegl, #50, p.69.

  43. Being that we (of Dogen school) have been inculcated with long and glorious stories of Soto tenzos, the brevity by which the Rinzai tenzo is dispatched seems, to us, quite funny. See, Schloegl, #50b, pp. 6970.

  44. See, Scholegl, #5lb, p.70.

  45. Hakuin (1685-1768) founded what is called the modem Rinzai School of Zen, to which the present-day Rinzai masters trace their line of transmission.

  46. Master Hau Howo, A Critic of Rinzai Zen. Tokyo: Pacific Ocean Publishing Company.

  47. This is nothing to what it later became. During the sesshins conducted in China at the turn of the century, "...the monks who found it impossible to make any mental breakthrough either because they were too 'stupid' or because they could not stop thinking about their parents, wives, children and other things they had left behind, would at first be unable to keep their minds on anything. Then they would begin to have hallucinations and 'talk nonsense.' At this point they were usually locked in a room and a Chinese doctor called to examine them. Some recovered, some died... Fatalities were most common during meditation weeks and the bodies were not burned immediately... They were wrapped in quilts and left to be disposed of when the meditation weeks were over." (Hoffman, Yoel The Sound of One Hand Clapping. Great Britain: Paladin, 1977, p. 18.)

  This may not mean that koan-practice, per say, killed the poor fellows, but it does mean that too much zazen, too hard, did it.

  48. "1 trust in Amida Buddha." This repeated invocation is generally practiced in Pure Land Buddhism.

  49. The great kaijo or drum.

  SESSION 3

  1. Everyone is walking one behind the other in kinhin, but instead of walking in straight lines, they are walking in zigzag.

  2. In this passage, and in others to follow, the master first recites the sutra in kanbun.

  3. Levi-Strauss, Claude; French anthropologist.

  4. The rug which covers the concrete in this improvised dojo is thinner than a French pancake.

  5. 420-500. Founded the Yogacara school of Mahayana Buddhism.

  6. i.e., Genjo means, for instance, koan accomplished in the immediate moment.

  7. Like the grace of God!

  8. Those designated to sit facing out; they sit in the four corners of the dojo, motionless like columns or pillars. They are disciples of long standing and their exact postures influence those about them. Also, it is their job to look without looking and to indicate to the kyosakuman if anything is amiss-if someone is sick, asleep or agitated, and if the kyosaku is necessary.

  9. This French monk was the one who had given the American girl the bad haircut a few days before. See, August 13, 7:30 P.M., Satori visits you.

  10. "All men live by truth and stand in need of expression. The man is only half himself, the other half is his expression." (Emerson)

  11. i.e., Expression (doshu) is subjective realization; when this realization (genjo) is expressed objectively (i.e., beyond personal ego), then we have true expression, wisdom or genjo. True expression (as for instance the words of Buddha) is realization of the here and now.

  12. This short sutra, also known as the Heart Sutra, is chanted by everyone after zazen.

  13. After receiving his great satori under the Bodhi tree, Buddha considered with whom he should share it first, and remembering his five friends then residing in the Deer Park in Benares, he went in search of them. At first the friends refused to listen to him as he, Shakyamuni, had given up his fasting and practice of mortification to return to the free use of the necessities of life; nonetheless Buddha quickly succeeded in imparting and in sharing his realization with them (i.e., genjo expressed in the Four Noble Truths), and so began the teaching of Buddhism among companions. This gathering, called the sangha (the good, the holy company), is the oldest monastic order in existence.

  15. Founder of Le Club Mediterranee, and good friend and supporter of master Deshimaru's. He received the Bodhisattva ordination from the master. Blitz's ashes are buried at the Gendronniere.

  16. Shuzen: Stage by stage meditation practice, whereby the adept moves from one level of understanding to the next. "In Rinzai Zen we do it step-by-step," writes the professor and Rinzai adept, Wienpahl. "So it's often called ladder zen." (Wienphal, Paul. Zen Diary. N.Y.: Harper and Row, 1970, p. 187.)

  17. The American girl is now on her second haircutting! This second haircutting incident occurred when another girl, in a fit of jealousy, caught the American by surprise and cut off more of her hair.

  18. Prior to the first haircutting, the American girl had been planning on taking the nun's ordination. Ironically, this ordination, if done according to the tradition, entails shaving the head completely.

  19. For a different translation of this Japanese tanka, see August 25, 8:30 P.M., Man's primitive brain.

  20. Kontin, which is sleepiness, is the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, and sanran, which is excitement and illusion, is the activity of the autosympathetic.

  21. Hugo Lasalle is a German Jesuit priest who teaches Rinzai Zen in Japan, where he lives.

  22. A short, curvetopped staff the master carries with him in the dojo.

  23. A record made by an electroencephalograph, an instrument recording small electrical impulses produced by the brain.

  24. The normal condition: Gen-no-bi-choko (eyes horizontal, nose vertical). See August 15, 7:30 A.M., Eyes Horizontal, nose vertical.

  25. Sensei is again reiterating points he had made earlier, for those who did not assist the previous session.

  26. A monk asked: "How about when the lion growls?" Unmon said: "Never mind about when the lion growls, try it when it roars." The monk did so, but Unmon said: "That's an old rat squeaking."

  27. The master reads these words, which, once translated into "on the spot" French, ring particularly preposterous. English version from: Schloegl, Irmgard, (translator). The Zen Teachings of Rinzai (The Record of Rinzai). Berkeley, CA: Shambhala, 1976, #61, p. 74.

  28. "Hey, Mr. Abbot, dirtiest monk in the world," says master Ikkyu, "give me a kwat!"

  29. See, Schloegl, #62, p. 74.

  30. i.e., Better to leave your home to teach; love (spiritual love) is necessary and harder come by back home.

  31. See Glossary.

  32. Sensei's note to Shin Jin Mei: "As our mind believes in our essential mind, shin and jin are same mind. Not two, only one. Shin jin meithe mind which believes and essential mind which is believed-is not two, only one. The concluding phrase 'shinjin funi' gives the full meaning of the entire poem. Funi means non-two, only one. So it means only one mind which is our believing mind and the object mind which is the essence of mind."

  33. 1173-1264. Great Japanese Buddhist master and founder of the Jodo Shin sect.

  34. Sengtsan in Chinese (d. 606). Author of Shin Jin Mei.

  35. "Nothing much is known of Sosan, and this is as it should be," says Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh during his talks on Sosan's Shin Jin Mei. "Sosan's biography is not at all relevant-because whenever a man becomes enlightened he has no biography." (Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree. Neither This Nor That. Talks on the Sutras of Sosan. Poona, India: Rajneesh Foundation, 1974, p. 3.)

  36. Sensei's no
te: As shin is belief in our essential mind (in true Buddha, true God), we do not need another Buddha, another God-because we can find essential mind itself in zazen or in the kesa."

  37. Sensei's note: "In Japanese, mind is called kokoro, which means conscience, heart, spirit. Kokoro means koro-koro which means always changing.

  38. Fu is the negative and shiki is consciousness.

  39. And older than Dogen himself. Dogen 1200-1253, Ejo 1198-1280. See Glossary.

  40. Imagine referring to God, as certain Zen masters do to Buddha, as a "shitstick." See footnote 16, Session 2.

  41. Master Deshimaru had been invited the year prior to meet with the Pope in the Vatican but he did not go.

  42. It should be remembered that this mondo, like the others, occurred in 1978.

  43. Yasutani, who died in 1973, was the master of Kapleau, Maezumi, Yamada, Aitken, etc, and theirs is the predominent line of transmission now existing in the United States.

  44. It didn't influence the Americans very much, finally. Distribution of The Voice of the Valley (in its original English version) was abruptly stopped one month after publication; and today it (the English version) cannot be found anywhere.

  45. Dokusan: A private, formal, traditional interview with the master in his room. In Rinzai Zen, dokusan is taken very seriously. The disciple arrives at the given time, does sampai (prostrations) before the closed door, opens the door and does sampai before the master; and again, before departing, he does sampai all over again. Philip Kapleau Roshi, a Rinzai master writes that the "...zen koan practice reaches a crescendo of beatings and shouts just before the encounter with the roshi, culminating in the dokusan-rush, better called a stampede. In dokusan, the roshi has a stick, which he is not loathe to apply to the students' backs when they are bowing down before him." (Kraft, K. [editor]. Zen, Tradition and Transition. N.Y.: Grove Press, 1988, p. 282.) With Sensei, however, it was another matter. No sampais, unless of course you wished to do them; no fixed time schedule-you called him up on the telephone and set a rendezvous. Here, dokusan was always free and natural.

  46. Buddhist vegetarians claim, to the contrary, that Buddha died eating a mushroom. The mushroom was simply mistaken for pork by those who wrote about it in the sutras. Theravadan sources point out quite specifically the look-alike between an Indian mushroom and a piece of pork.

  47. "If we could look back on our lives once in the coffin," says master Kodo Sawaki, "we'd probably think: 'it sure would have been nice not to have gotten so serious about things.' "

  48. "Is there any creature on land or sea which does not find its greatest pleasure in other creatures of its own kind? If it were otherwise, why should not a bull take pleasure with a mare, or a stallion with a cow?" (Cicero)

  49. Following this interplay of the wood and the metal, the shusso strikes the small bell, then the kyosakuman hits the big gong, and on the fourth stroke the entire assembly begins to chant Hannya Shingyo. The monotone of the chant is accompanied by two instruments, the big gong and the mokugyo. The gong, which is a thick metal-hammered bowl, is struck at the beginning, at the end and during the breaks with a muffled cloth-bound mallet. The mokugyo, which is made of wood and looks like a bloated fish with its mouth partly open, is also struck with a clothbound mallet. So, while the gong is an indicator or a signal of sorts, the mokugyo, with its measured beat, works as a controller to the pace and to the volume of the chant itself.

  50. A biwa, a kind of Japanese guitar.

  51. i.e., A biwa influences the mind of even the inelegant; a flute without holes even harmonizes with the strong man ("moves": influences; "sleeves": mind; "wooden": inelegant; "iron": strong).

  52. Dogen Keizan Meiho Sotetsu Daichi (1290-1366).

  53. Another name for a dojo is "the place of dry trees," while another name for zazen is "dry trees" (koboku).

  SESSION 4

  1. The master is here primarily addressing the new people who have come for this final ten day session.

  2. Rinzai master. Also known as Yoken Kisei. His exact dates are not known.

  3. Rinzai master. 991-1067.

  4. Soto master. 942-1027.

  5. Laurent and Guy are this dojo's two tenzos.

  6. Only the master is allowed to wear socks in a dojo.

  7. See, Session 2, August 4, 7:30 A.M., The dojo became a battlefield.

  8. The kanji "taigu"means "great fool."

  9. "You must not let everyday experience in its variety force you to permit the eye, which does not see, or the ear, which is full of noise, or the tongue, to rule your thought." (Parmenides, sixth century B.C.).

  10. Looking through the window before him, Sensei sees someone dressed in a monk's robe walking along the river bank.

  11. Like Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher of the sixth century B.C., who went to the East in search of knowledge, and then founded a brotherhood of disciples in Italy. He taught reincarnation and he gave oral teachings on a new way of life inspired by the love of wisdom without goal or purpose (mushotoku).

  12. Deshimaru, Maitre Taisen. Le Sutra De La Grande Sagesse. Editions Retz, 1980. Maka means the highest, the greatest. Hannya is perfect wisdom. Haramitsu means to save all mankind. (The highest most perfect wisdom to save all mankind.)

  13. See endnote 15, Session 3.

  14. Dogen's poem, Zazen. See, Session 3, August 18, 8:30 A.M., The wave strikes and the wave breaks, for a less polished rendition of the same poem.

  15. Maybe, but going by his portrait-fierce scowl, eyes like burning coals under beetle brows-and by his words, you wouldn't know it.

  16. Hypothalamus is the instinctive primitive brain as opposed to the frontal or intellectual brain, and it is located approximately in the center of the head. It is the connecting point of body and mind; it directs the senses, and it controls homeostasis-the tendency for the internal environment of the body to remain constant in spite of varying external conditions.

  17. A dog belonging to the dojo.

  18. Every morning after zazen and before breakfast Sensei leads a procession through the woods at the foot of the mountain behind the dojo.

  19. See Glossary.

  20. Go un are Japanese ideograms which, roughly translated, mean body and mind. Go literally means five (i.e., the five elements). Un means elements, aggregates, the visible, the material. It means a lump, a mass, a group.

  21. Go un (also written as go on) makes up part of the phrase in the sutra Hannya Shingyo which goes: Go on kai ku, and this means "the body and the five skandhas. " Go is five, on or un are the elements, kai is all, and ku is emptiness. The five skandhas or aggregates are: sensation, perception, activity, thought, consciousness. The five elements become emptiness (kai ku)-and at this time we have the perfect wisdom through the hishiryo of zazen.

  22. The first "shiki" in shiki ju so gyo shiki are the five sense organs: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and consciousness. Ju: that which is felt, or registered, through the five sense organs (i.e., "Ah, there is a flower"). So: the image, the imagined caused by the object (i.e., This flower is beautiful"). Gyo: Action, the will to act. Practice (i.e., "I will pick this flower"). Shiki: Here shiki means intellectual consciousness. This shiki controls the mind. Judgment.

  23. Sometimes it is unnecessary, let alone impossible, to translate certain words. Thus we have the Japanese ideograms (all the italicized words, including the book title) above.

  24. Mind (i.e., consciousness, God).

  25. In western thought, reportedly based on a medical viewpoint, there exist only five senses; while in eastern thought, reportedly based on selfknowledge, there exist six.

  Anyway, mu gen ni bi ze shin i is a famous line in Hannya Shingyo we chant every morning, and it means "no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind." Mu, the "prefix," can mean many things but here it pretty much means "no"-"no eye, no ear,...."

  26. These italics are my own. (P.C.)

  27. And yet it is said of Socrates that he taught virtue (or knowledge) to be true only once it reac
hes the stage of expression (i.e., doshu. See August 15, 7:30 A.M. and 9 P.M.)

  28. "The world always looks outward, I turn my gaze inward; there I fix it, and there I keep it busy. Everyone looks before him; I look within. I have no business but with myself. I unceasingly consider, examine, and analyze myself." (Montaigne)

  29. This was the Pope who died shortly thereafter. Nonetheless, the kito is a very powerful incantation, and so surely it has helped him on his way to paradise, as the master would say.

  30. Awakening.

  31. The pure working of no-mind transcending both action and quietude. It denotes a state in which the mind is aborbed in intense, purposeless concentration.

  32. Andre is the master's kyosakumaker.

  33. Manas, not to be confused with mana. While the latter refers to the left hemisphere of the brain, the ego-center, manas here refers more specifically to rational subject-object consciousness. (In Lankavatara Sutra "mana" is defined as intellectual consciousness, as that which sorts out and judges the results of the five kinds of sense-consciousnesses. However, the same sutra also says of manas that it is one with universal mind by reason of its participation in transcendental intelligence, etc. Thus, the word manas has two different meanings, depending upon how it is used.)

  34. Paul Chauchard, French philosopher, well-known in Japan for his writings on mind. He is a friend of Deshimaru's, and they are coauthors of a book entitled, Zen et Cerveau (Zen and Mind). (Paris: le Courrier du Livre, 1976.)

  35. "This is like the vision of a man who observes the manifold forms and colors of a landscape and feels himself different from it (as 'I' and 'here').' (Lama Govinda)

  36. See Glossary.

  37. A long cord wom about the waist. The monks in the temples wear black-colored chukins, while he who has received the shiho wears a brown chukin. The master wears a violet one. Master Deshimaru, however, seldom wears a chukin.