Newsletter 79 February 2009

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New Year's Newsletter 2009

Everyone from the Sangha of One Drop Zendo who are every day holding zazen precious for each of your minds and aligning, seeing how humans should be in the best way [the roshi] would like to give you some good words for the new year.

Right now in the world it is a difficult economic time the worst in a hundred years, it s even said. Many people without work, people who are weak begin tossed aside, very complex and challenging political situations are everywhere. But no matter what era we re in, the patriarchs of Zen, including Rinzai-zenji especially, kept teaching this Path of Zen in the most difficult times. The patriarchs had even more formidable times in their eras in their countries but they continued giving their whole lives to the liberation of humankind. It is as the Buddha said, In all these three worlds it is like a house on fire, with no place to rest, and there may be no rest for us, working with this.

The Buddha told in the Lotus Sutra the story of the rich man s large house that was just about to burn down. In that house there were children who were absorbed in playing with their toys; even though the house was on fire they didn t notice it. The old man used expedient means to help get the children out of the house before it fell. He told them that outside there were wonderful carts, pulled by deer, pulled by sheep, pulled by horses, pulled by cows full of toys and flowers! And he said he would give them all to the children. Come see them! In this way he used expedient means to get the children out of the burning house, and they went outside, the house burned down and none of them were burned with it. They were all liberated. But all the wonderful carts pulled by sheep and deer and cows were nowhere to be found. Then the old man said that he would give them an even greater cart a huge vehicle! This was the vehicle of the Mahayana, a true, sturdy, great, vehicle, and this was what he actually gave to them the Buddha s Way of the Mahayana, in which all people can ride, through which everyone can bring their efforts to liberate all beings in this world and give birth to a new era, a true crystallization of power. With everybody s efforts, with everybody s wisdom, this world will be revitalized, and one of the great sources of this will be Mahayana Buddhism, the Great Vehicle for liberating in accordance with this Buddha-nature. This is a teaching of the Buddha.

This year in China and Japan it is the Year of the Ox. About this ox we have a story a very simple story. It is often said that oxen or cows are not fast, but they are very patient. They continue constantly with their efforts, without hesitating. So people who are born in the Year of the Ox are thought to be very patient, very sturdy. Hakuin-zenji was born in the Year of the Ox. A true representative of these ox characteristics, he was also born in the Month of the Ox and the Day of the Ox, and the Hour of the Ox. People who have a hard time believing these characteristics of people born at these times are reminded of the patience of Hakuin. We also have the words of the poem which said that the practice of Zen is like the ox who continues walking without stopping until it realizes its goal. In that way one can meet the true Source of Zen. Mumon Ekai said the same thing, writing about Nangaku Ejo. The National Teacher Bukko was finishing his teaching practice when he finally realized it completely, and there was also Kyorin Master Kyorin who finally after twenty years broke through. It took Master Seppo forty years! To their straightforward patience and efforts we have to bow our heads. They are all like this patient ox.

Oxen are also very well-behaved in their character, plowing the fields and giving a very important amount of labor and help to the world of humans. In the time of the Buddha, and even now, especially in the Third World, cows and oxen are held precious by farming families. Many families would give the cow the best place to sleep in the house because their work was so precious for the well-being of the whole family and everyone depended on what they did. There are many things that humans can learn from the way of being of the ox. Today we have tractors and so we don t see so many oxen around with their patient behavior these days.

The patriarchs of Zen often used oxen as examples in their teaching, as in the koan of the cow passing through the window, whose head went through, his body went through, his legs went through but why didn t his tail go through? Goso Hoen-zenji challenges us with this question. And we have that koan of Isan and his water buffalo Master Isan, who said to his disciples, There is a farmer s house at the bottom of the hill and I ll be reborn as an ox in that garden. This is what he said to his disciples this way of giving everything that you are. Master Nansen as well has a koan about a water buffalo. He said to his disciples, All the Buddhas of the three worlds don t know this, but the animals even the raccoons and the bearcats they all know it. This true nature of all beings the patriarchs don t even know about this, but the bearcats and foxes and cows and other animals they all know this true nature very well. This is the way that Master Nansen taught his disciples. And we also have the koan of Enkan and the rhinoceros horn fan. This master told his attendant disciple to bring the fan that was made out of the rhinoceros horn, and the attendant said, Oh, that fan has been broken completely and you can t use it anymore. To this, his teacher, Master Enkan, said, Well, then, bring the rhinoceros!

Among the teachings with this theme, the most commonly referred to is that of Master Kakuan and his Ten Oxherding Pictures, and this is the one that makes the most sense to all of us. We all can relate to it the most. First we are looking for this lost cow, and at the end, returning to the Origin and being able to see directly our true nature there. This is all about the way of all people of training, feeding food to the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty. Master Rinzai said, In this five-foot lump of red flesh there is a True Person of No Rank which is always coming in and going out of all the orifices a person who is not awakened but also is not ignorant. Using our eyes and our ears and our nose and our mouth, it can become anything in this whole world. It can become all the 10,000 things. In this way it manifests. When it goes inside it becomes our subjective way of being sad and happy and emotional. Everybody has this Original Face; this is a mind and activities we all have. And this is called Buddha-nature, which unites everyone. When it goes outside it becomes the objective, but from the origin these are one and the same. This awareness, we can deeply analyze this. We don t need to go to a psychologist, we can analyze ourselves in this way to see our own mind clearly and directly. When we look at it from the outside, it s objectivity, and if we look at it from the inside, it s subjectivity. Today I did this good thing; today I did this mistaken thing we can see it from within ourselves. When we re criticizing ourselves we are object. The place where we re different from animals is that we have this mirror. We can look in this mirror and say, Oh, this bad face I m making today! We can look at this in this mirror, and everything we see in that mirror is objective. Our subjective is this mirror as it is.

A mirror cannot reflect itself, in the same way as our basic awareness cannot see our basic awareness. This basic awareness is the Buddha. This is the Source where there is not even the tiniest speck of clutter the source of all Buddhas! And this source of all Buddhas is within our own mind; this is our Pure Mind, our Clear Mind. This is the absolute subjective. Everyone is endowed with this; it is the true, clear, wisdom of the Buddha. But why, with this, would we go into an ignorant body and behave in an ignorant way? This is what Daito Kokushi asked his disciples. Our state of mind is, from the origin, the same as the Buddha. So why do we act in such an ignorant way, when within us we have the source of all the Buddhas? It seems that we have two different versions of ourselves, and when these become one and the same we can live in the best possible way. We do training to realize and clarify this.

So first, we have written in the sutras that our clear nature our Buddha-nature is compassion. It has the feeling of wanting to make all beings happy and joyful. To first awaken it in ourselves, and then to give it to all people. To have this deep intention! And to work for all beings without stopping until everyone, without exception, knows this clear state of mind is within them. This deep vow, along with compassion, is the nature of the Buddha-nature. If we give rise to this Buddha-nature, then we can realize this goal, move through our desires and attachments, and with strong patience and effort, manifest this. There are some who quickly realize this goal and some who take more patience, more effort. But if we can continue without fail we can put to rest this blindly active mind and realize our pure, clear, state of mind. This is called kensho, seeing true nature directly. All beings, if they become clear and pure, can awaken to this. That is why zazen is truly the source of peace for all beings.

This is not something which can be written in phrases. Even without studying, without knowing words, without understanding phrases, we can realize this deep Mind.

The Buddha studied all of the teachings of the ninety heretics, and all the different words that were spoken by the Buddha as well these are called directions for the Way. But, as it is said about the sutras, they are fingers pointing to the moon; they are not the moon itself. The Sixth Patriarch encountered the Diamond Sutra and heard the words, abiding nowhere, awakened Mind arises and was awakened. The Buddha was awakened at seeing the morning star.

This Buddha-nature is functioning. In our hands it is holding, in our feet it is walking. We can t use an ox just by finding it. We have to then actually make use of it. We have to become this state of mind of harnessing the ox and using it, or else our mind will be wandering about forever. We must grasp hold of that ox in our mind and not let go of it, keep it in hand. This is the way of being in samadhi in everything we do. Whether it s working or sitting or chanting, to not let go of this, to keep our efforts and our patience going, giving it focused attention all the time. In all the twenty-four hours of the day we continue, from night to morning and from morning to night, ongoingly we let go of all past information, conditioning, knowledge, realizing this deep samadhi! We have to take this to the very base of it! People who are living in the world are constantly encountering all this extraneous thinking and we re looking at the shadows of these extraneous thoughts as well. If we don t realize this and clarify it we will not find a resolution to the question of life and death. But if we do zazen and know what our mind actually is, then we can really see how many unnecessary things human beings are always thinking about. We can know this very well. If we break through our extraneous thinking and pierce through the bottom of it all, we can see brightly and clearly in eight directions everywhere! This is the continuous clear mind-moment, and we work on this creatively, with ongoing samadhi. This is tending to the ox.

The Buddha entered the mountain to do his training. He then returned to that world of form, having deeply awakened. And when he returned he taught ceaslessly to all beings every one how nothing is permanent, everything is transient. There is no fixed ego. And by realizing our true Mind, letting go of everything, our mind becomes like a mirror. He taught this his entire life. When we realize this true Mind and return to the world, in the moving world of life we still remain in that serenity of samadhi in every activity. Piercing through with that complete negation, we are then able to realize this total confirmation of all things, receiving everything, accepting it all. The state of mind behind this is that of becoming empty-minded completely. There s no more need for a body of a cow or a body of a person at all. It becomes empty and we are living in our empty-minded state. With this empty-minded body in this empty-minded state of mind, we entrust. The cow eats freely of the grasses by the roadside. We realize the point of our life. There s no more delusion or confusion in our mind. We are a bright, clear, state of mind, and then everything that comes out of our mouth is bright and clear.