2013年11月16日
Quotations from Three Pillars of Zen No. 02
Quotations from Three Pillars of Zen No. 02
----------------------------Zazen illuminates the three characteristics of existence which the Buddha proclaimed: first, that all things (in which are included our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions) are impermanent, arising when particular causes and conditions bring them into being and passing away with the emergence of new causal factors; second, that life is pain; and third, that ultimately nothing is self-subsistent, that all forms in their essential nature are empty, that is, mutually dependent patterns of energy in flux, yet at the same time are possessed of a provisional or limited reality in time and space, in much the same way that the actions in a movie film have a reality in terms of the film but are otherwise insubstantial and unreal. ----------------------------
----------------------------Through zazen the first vital truth – that all component things are ephemeral, never the same from one moment to the next, fleeting manifestations in a stream of ceaseless transformation – becomes a matter of direct personal experience. ----------------------------
----------------------------We come to see the concatenation of our thoughts, emotions, and moods, how much they arise, how they momentarily flourish, and how they pass away. We come to know that this “dying” is the life of every thing, just as the all-consuming flame constitutes the life of a candle. ----------------------------
----------------------------our sufferings are rooted in selfish grasping and in fears and terrors which spring from our ignorance of the true nature of life ----------------------------
----------------------------zazen makes equally plain that what we term “suffering” is our evaluation of pain from which we stand apart, that pain when courageously accepted is a means to liberation in that it frees our natural sympathies and compassion even as it enables us to experience pleasure and joy in a new depth and purity. ----------------------------
----------------------------with enlightenment, zazen brings the realization that the substratum of existence is a Voidness out of which all things ceaselessly arise and into which they endlessly return, that this Emptiness is positive and alive and in fact not other than the vividness of a sunset or the harmonies of a great symphony. ----------------------------
----------------------------this bursting into consciousness of the effulgent Buddha-nature is the “swallowing up” of the universe, the obliteration of every feeling of opposition and separateness. ----------------------------
----------------------------In this state of unconditioned subjectivity I, selfless I, am supreme. So Shakyamuni Buddha could exclaim: “Above the heavens and below the heavens I am the only honored one.” Yet since enlightenment means also an end to being possessed by the idea of an ego-I, this is as much a world of pure objectivity. ----------------------------
----------------------------Therefore, Dogen could write: “To learn the Way of the Buddha is to learn about oneself. To learn about oneself is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to experience the world as pure object. To experience the world as pure object is to let one’s own body and mind and the “self-other” body and mind. ----------------------------
----------------------------To help awaken us to this world of Buddha-nature, Zen masters employ yet another mode of zazen, namely, the chanting of dharani and sutras. Now, a dharani has been described as “a more or less meaningless chain of words or names that is supposed to have a magical power in helping the one who is repeating it at some time of extremity.” ----------------------------
----------------------------as anyone who has recited them for any length of time knows, in their effect on the spirit they are anything but meaningless. When chanted with sincerity and zest they impress upon the heart and mind the names and virtues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas enumerated in them, removing inner hindrance to zazen and fixing the heart in an attitude of reverence and devotion. ----------------------------
----------------------------dharani are also a symbolic expression in sound and rhythm of the essential Truth of the universe lying beyond the realm of the discriminating intellect----------------------------
----------------------------to the degree that the discursive mind is held at bay during the voicing of dharani, they are valuable as another exercise in training the mind to cease clinging to dualistic modes of thought----------------------------
----------------------------Zazen illuminates the three characteristics of existence which the Buddha proclaimed: first, that all things (in which are included our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions) are impermanent, arising when particular causes and conditions bring them into being and passing away with the emergence of new causal factors; second, that life is pain; and third, that ultimately nothing is self-subsistent, that all forms in their essential nature are empty, that is, mutually dependent patterns of energy in flux, yet at the same time are possessed of a provisional or limited reality in time and space, in much the same way that the actions in a movie film have a reality in terms of the film but are otherwise insubstantial and unreal. ----------------------------
----------------------------Through zazen the first vital truth – that all component things are ephemeral, never the same from one moment to the next, fleeting manifestations in a stream of ceaseless transformation – becomes a matter of direct personal experience. ----------------------------
----------------------------We come to see the concatenation of our thoughts, emotions, and moods, how much they arise, how they momentarily flourish, and how they pass away. We come to know that this “dying” is the life of every thing, just as the all-consuming flame constitutes the life of a candle. ----------------------------
----------------------------our sufferings are rooted in selfish grasping and in fears and terrors which spring from our ignorance of the true nature of life ----------------------------
----------------------------zazen makes equally plain that what we term “suffering” is our evaluation of pain from which we stand apart, that pain when courageously accepted is a means to liberation in that it frees our natural sympathies and compassion even as it enables us to experience pleasure and joy in a new depth and purity. ----------------------------
----------------------------with enlightenment, zazen brings the realization that the substratum of existence is a Voidness out of which all things ceaselessly arise and into which they endlessly return, that this Emptiness is positive and alive and in fact not other than the vividness of a sunset or the harmonies of a great symphony. ----------------------------
----------------------------this bursting into consciousness of the effulgent Buddha-nature is the “swallowing up” of the universe, the obliteration of every feeling of opposition and separateness. ----------------------------
----------------------------In this state of unconditioned subjectivity I, selfless I, am supreme. So Shakyamuni Buddha could exclaim: “Above the heavens and below the heavens I am the only honored one.” Yet since enlightenment means also an end to being possessed by the idea of an ego-I, this is as much a world of pure objectivity. ----------------------------
----------------------------Therefore, Dogen could write: “To learn the Way of the Buddha is to learn about oneself. To learn about oneself is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to experience the world as pure object. To experience the world as pure object is to let one’s own body and mind and the “self-other” body and mind. ----------------------------
----------------------------To help awaken us to this world of Buddha-nature, Zen masters employ yet another mode of zazen, namely, the chanting of dharani and sutras. Now, a dharani has been described as “a more or less meaningless chain of words or names that is supposed to have a magical power in helping the one who is repeating it at some time of extremity.” ----------------------------
----------------------------as anyone who has recited them for any length of time knows, in their effect on the spirit they are anything but meaningless. When chanted with sincerity and zest they impress upon the heart and mind the names and virtues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas enumerated in them, removing inner hindrance to zazen and fixing the heart in an attitude of reverence and devotion. ----------------------------
----------------------------dharani are also a symbolic expression in sound and rhythm of the essential Truth of the universe lying beyond the realm of the discriminating intellect----------------------------
----------------------------to the degree that the discursive mind is held at bay during the voicing of dharani, they are valuable as another exercise in training the mind to cease clinging to dualistic modes of thought----------------------------
Posted by Gyokei Yokoyama at 07:08