Posts
34We are born anew only when we accept this actual world which is so miserable, imperfect, and rotten as the most perfect, irreplaceable, and infinite one.
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It was onthe fifth night of the intensive training session in December, when I was 25 years old, that I sat in a graveyard behind the temple, uttering "Muh, Muh, Muh," in a very loud voice. As I was engaged in the whole-hearted utterance of "Muh", I discovered that heaven and earth became "Muh" altogether. When I uttered "Muh" I discovered that the whole universe became "Muh". When I uttered "Uhh", the whole universe became "Uhh". All things became settled in that experience. As you are, so is the universe. The whole universe responds to your act. When you go to the bathroom, you have the universe of the bathroom. You have no other universe than this. There is no origin and no occasion for the creation of a new universe other than this place and this occasion. Between heaven and earth there is only this event. We stand at the origin of the creation of the universe. There is nothing less and nothing more than this.
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The realization of life is nothing more than the realization of death. Doing something with all your heart and forgetting yourself in it is the ultimate truth.
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Zazen, running, conversation, reading, considering (and taking responsibility for) the problems of the world, having dinner or taking a bath... whatever you are doing now -that is the daily reality for you: do not try to escape it.Each thing we are doing or facing now is our true reality, our true encounter. This is exactly the point. Whatever you are doing now, do it. Just do it. Don't avoid it. If you escape from this, you are always escaping towards some future, from the cradle to the grave.
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When you have lunch, you should just have lunch. Otherwise you are not living in this world.
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The fixed state is one where there is no new death, no new birth, in other words, just "habit". As long as one is alive, one should be continually dying and being born in every encounter, so that the enlightened life flows forever. Every sitting is the realization of a new world which one is seeing for the very first time
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We often say, "See you again soon", or, "I practise zazen twice a day". But is it the same zazen? Can we repeat anything a second time? Will you be the same "You" tomorrow or next year? Unconsciously we believe that our lives are full of repetitions, but in fact nothing is ever the same: it is impossible to repeat anything. Each time, out of necessity, our practice is utterly new and different.
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63Whatever I may do -such as Zen, yoga, or living my daily life -I do whole-heartedly, by throwing myself away and letting life take its natural course completely. But if my manner becomes habitual or self-righteous, then anything I do will be wrong. It will be good for nothing.This advice is helpful to remind us always to make a fresh start, no matter how many years we have been practising. This is one of the fundamental admonitions we should keep in mind each day,whether we are at the top of the mountain or the bottom of the sea.
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83I am always being supported by you, by air, by water, by the sunlight, by people who live all over the world, by clothes, by soil, by the earth, stars, time, and space. In the end, the whole cosmos is allowing me to exist. You are also being supported by everything else in the universe. Therefore, we cannot consider ourselves to be separate; we cannot exist independently of any other thing.
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Zen is something to be practised in our daily life as air is breathed by anyone at any time. Zen is nothing but the total living of this encounter at each moment by throwing away our preconceived ideas and our plans. In other words, the ego disappears and one is enlivened here, doing totally only one thing at this very moment, with no relation to the self-consciousness of the mind. This can be done and is done by anyone who is willing to do it unconditionally. This is the deepest root and foundation of human life: it has nothing to do with following a religious sect.
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The direct experience of THIS is exactly experienced in me (us) beyond both THIS IS IT and THIS IS NOT! Each Now, THIS should be experienced anew beyond both the habitual, fixed “THIS is IT” and the indispensable negating “THIS is NOT!”. THIS beyond THIS and NOT!
JUST THIS in our daily world is too boring, so nothing special. Everywhere we naturally have THIS, wherever we are, wherever we go . We are usually not even conscious of it at all. We are already in the ocean of THIS without fail, without paying attention. Therefore, everything is habitually going on, even THIS. Once we (cosmos) are ignited by the fire of THIS awareness by/with THIS experience, suddenly the whole Univerself (you, me, our families, all living beings) are
awakening/actualizing/embodying/opening/flowering/laughing as THIS active/mindful/awakening NOW.
As this experience, the new universe is born breath-by-breath in the midst of our muddy world reality. This is our One_Experience. Our daily chaotic busy way need not be boring (and blind) if we discover THIS New habit-less awakening of Now-universe even in the midst of our messy city lives. Depending on ourselves, our sensitivity, each of our daily encounters is ever-habitual, ever-boring, OR This encounter is awakening, wondrous, opening, unknown, New-Life-being-born, New–cosmos.
“All is one, one is all”, my master’s master replied to me once, and his words are only understood when we are JUST THIS.“ When we are JUST THIS” means we discover/experience THIS and also we are discovered/experienced by THIS inseparably at the same time (as one Univerself-function).
THIS is ever-deepening Life as each Now is being born so fresh at/by unknown concrete encounters, for example, This_One_breathing_awareness, being called by someone, meeting with a street cat, or.... We do not need anything else at all!
(Hōgen Yamahata)
- Zen Master Hogen (I sat at a Soto Zen center of his lineage regularly when I was studying in Brisbane)
