http://www.dailyzen.com/zen/zen_reading0611.asp
From the Record of Things Heard
Dogen (1200-1253)
One day a student asked: I have spent months and years in earnest
study, but I have yet to gain enlightenment. Many of the old
masters say that the Way does not depend on intelligence and
cleverness, and that there is no need for knowledge and talent. As
I understand it, even though my capacity is inferior, I need not
feel badly for myself. Are there not any old sayings or cautionary
words that I should know about?
Dogen replied: Yes, there are. True study of the Way does not rely
on knowledge and genius or cleverness and brilliance. Because study
has no use for wide learning and high intelligence, even those with
inferior capacities can participate. True study of the Way is an
easy thing.
Even in the monasteries of China, only one or two out of several
hundred, or even a thousand, disciples under a great Chan master
actually gained true enlightenment. Therefore, old sayings and
cautionary words are needed. As I see it now, it is a matter of
gaining the desire to practice. A person who gives rise to a real
desire and puts his utmost efforts into study will surely gain
enlightenment. Essentially, one must devote all attention to this
effort and enter into practice with all due speed. More
specifically, the following points must be kept in mind:
In the first place, there must be a keen and sincere desire to
seek the Way. For example, someone who wishes to steal a precious
jewel, to attack a formidable enemy, or to make the acquaintance of
a beautiful woman must, at all times, watch intently for the
opportunity, adjusting to changing events and shifting
circumstances. Anything sought for with such intensity will surely
be gained. If the desire to search for the Way becomes as intense
as this, whether you concentrate on doing zazen alone, investigate
a koan by an old master, interview a Zen teacher, or practice with
sincere devotion, you will succeed no matter how high you must
shoot or no matter how deep you must plumb.
Without arousing this wholehearted will for the Buddha Way, how
can anyone succeed in this most important task of cutting the
endless round of birth and death? Those who have this drive, even
if they have little knowledge or are of inferior capacity, even if
they are stupid or evil, will without fail gain
enlightenment.
Next, to arouse such a mind, one must be deeply aware of the
impermanence of the world. This realization is not achieved by some
temporary method of contemplation. It is not creating something out
of nothing and then thinking about it. Impermanence is a fact
before our eyes. Do not wait for the teachings from others, the
words of the scriptures, and for the principles of enlightenment.
We are born in the morning and die in the evening; the person we
saw yesterday is no longer with us today. These facts we see with
our own eyes and hear with our own ears. You see and hear
impermanence in terms of another person, but try weighing it with
your own body.
Even though you live to be seventy or eighty, you die in
accordance with the inevitability of death. How will you ever come
to terms with the worries, joys, intimacies, and conflicts that
concern you in this life? With faith in Buddhism, seek the true
happiness of nirvana. How can those who are old or who have passed
the halfway mark in their lives relax in their studies when there
is no way of telling how many years are left?
Think of those who gained enlightenment upon hearing the sound of
bamboo when struck by a tile or seeing blossoms in bloom. Does the
bamboo distinguish the clever or dull, the deluded or enlightened;
does the flower differentiate between shallow and deep, the wise
and stupid? Though flowers bloom year after year, not everyone who
sees them gains enlightenment. Bamboo always gives off sounds, but
not all who hear them become enlightened. It is only by virtue of
long study and much practice that we gain an affinity with what we
have labored for and gain enlightenment and clarity of mind.
The most important point in the study of the Way is zazen. Many
people in China gained enlightenment solely through the strength of
zazen. Some who were so ignorant that they could not answer a
single question exceeded the learned who had studied many years
solely through the efficacy of their single-minded devotion to
zazen. Therefore, students must concentrate on zazen alone and not
bother about other things. The Way of the Buddhas and Ancestors is
zazen alone. Follow nothing else.
At that time Ejo asked: When we combine zazen with the reading of
the texts, we can understand about one point in a hundred or a
thousand upon examining the Zen sayings and koans. But in zazen
alone there is no indication of even this much. Must we devote
ourselves to zazen even then?
Dogen answered: Although a slight understanding seems to emerge
from examining a koan, it causes the Way of the Buddhas and
Ancestors to become even more distant. If you devote your time to
doing zazen without wanting to know anything and without seeking
enlightenment, this is itself the Ancestral Way. Although the old
Masters urged both the reading of the scriptures and the practice
of zazen, they clearly emphasized zazen. Some gained enlightenment
through the koan, but the merit that brought enlightenment came
from the zazen. Truly the merit is in the zazen.
The basic point to understand in the study of the Way is that you
must cast aside your deep-rooted attachments. If you rectify the
body in terms of the four attitudes of dignity, the mind rectifies
itself. Students, even if you gain enlightenment, do not stop
practicing, thinking that you have attained the ultimate. The
Buddha Way is endless. Once enlightened you must practice all the
more.
Dogen (1200-1253)
Excerpted from The Roaring Stream - A New Zen Reader
Edited by Nelson Foster and Jack Shoemaker 1996
*
One of the challenges to a life of practice is to protect and
nourish the Mind that seeks the Way. In the beginning it is easy to
have the intensity of Beginners Mind; everything is so fresh, so
vital, so exotic sounding. Here, though, a student is questioning
Dogen about his lack of attaining enlightenment, a feeling many in
practice experience from time to time.
Dogen answers by assuring him that anything you devote your energy
to with intensity and sincere desire will over time bear fruits for
your labor. Later on he answers more directly by stating: If you
devote your time to doing zazen without wanting to know anything
and without seeking enlightenment, this is itself the Ancestral
Way.
At some point in training sitting is just enough in and of itself;
the goals of practice take more of a back seat. Meditation is
just sitting in the lap of the universe and expressing your
nature.
All of us have our own genjo koans, or life questions that help to
keep practice vital. To settle for answers to unanswerable
questions dulls the mind and practice. To live with our questions
each day, to see them in our lives, and to see them evolve into new
questions keeps the practice keen and sincere.
May your Way Be Clear,
Elana, Monkess for Daily Zen
