2013年11月30日
Saijo Zen & Aims of Zazen
Highest Vehicle Saijo Zen
Saijo Zen was practiced by all the Buddhas of the past –viz., Shyakyamuni and Amida – and is the expression of Absolute Life, life in its purest form.
It is the zazen which Dogen zenji chiefly advocated and it involves no struggle for satori or any other object. We call it shikan-taza.
In this highest practice, means and end coalesce. When rightly practiced, you sit in the firm conviction that zazen is the actualization of your undefiled True-nature, and at the same time you sit in complete faith that the day will come when, exclaiming, “Oh, this is it!” you will unmistakably realize this True-nature.
The aims of zazen
i) development of the power of concentration (joriki)
ii) satori-awakening (kensho-godo)
iii) actualization of the Supreme Way in our daily lives (mujodo no taigen)
Joriki is the power or strength which arises when the mind has been unified and brought to one-pointedness through concentration. This is more than the ability to concentrate in the usual sense of the word. It is a dynamic power which, once mobilized, enables us even in the most sudden and unexpected situation to act instantly, without pausing to collect our wits, and in a manner wholly appropriate to the circumstances.
One who has developed joriki is no longer a slave to his passions, neither is he at the mercy of his environment. Always in command of both himself and the circumstances of his life, he is able to move with perfect freedom and equanimity.
The cultivation of certain supranormal power is also made possible by joriki, as is the state in which the mind becomes like perfectly still water – the state of blankness in which the conscious functioning of the mind has been stopped.
Although the power of joriki can be endlessly enlarged through regular practice, it will recede and eventually vanish if we neglect zazen.
While it is true that many extraordinary powers flow from joriki, nevertheless through it alone we cannot cut the roots of our illusory view of the world.
The second of these aims is kensho-godo, seeing into your True-nature and at the same time seeing into the ultimate nature of the universe and “all the ten thousand things” in it.
It is a sudden realization that “I have been complete and perfect from the very beginning. How wonderful, how miraculous!”
If it is true kensho, its substance will always be the same for whoever experiences it.
But this does not mean that we call all experience kensho to the same degree, for in the clarity, the depth, and the completeness of the experience there are great differences.
At each stages the phenomenal world he is seeing is the same, but the differences in the clarity and accuracy of his views of that world are as great as those between snow and charcoal. So it is with the difference in clarity and depth of our experiences of kensho.
The last of the three objectives is mujo no taigen, the actualization of the Supreme Way throughout our entire being and our daily activities. At this point we do not distinguish the end from the means. Saijo Zen corresponds to this stage.
When you sit earnestly and egolessly with your mind, though fully conscious, as free of thought as a pure white sheet of paper is unmarred by a blemish, there is an unfoldment of your intrinsically pure Buddha-nature whether you have had satori or not.
Kensho is “the wisdom naturally associated with joriki,” which is the power arising from concentration.
Many people may never be able to reach kensho unless they have first cultivated a certain amount of joriki, for otherwise they may find themselves too restless, too nervous and uneasy to persevere with their zazen.
Unless fortified by joriki, a single experience of kensho will have no appreciable effect on your life, and will fade away into a mere memory.
For although through the experience of kensho you have apprehended the underlying unity of the cosmos with your Mind’s eye, without joriki you are unable to act with the total force of your being on what your inner vision has revealed to you.
Kensho when manifested in all your actions is mujodo no taigen. With perfect enlightenment (anuttara samyak-sambodhi) we apprehend that our conception of the world as dual and antithetical is false, and upon this realization the world of Oneness, of true harmony and peace, is revealed.
While the practice of the Soto sect today stresses mujodo no taigen, in effect it amounts to little more than the accumulation of joriki, which “leaks” or recedes and ultimately disappears unless zazen is carried on regularly. The contention of the Soto sect nowadays that kensho is unnecessary and that one need to no more than carry on his daily activities with the Mind of the Buddha is specious, for without kensho you can never really know what this Buddha-mind is.
Posted by Gyokei Yokoyama at 10:02