11. Time, as Existence

An old Buddha says,

There is a time to stand on top of the highest peak.
There is a time to move along the bottom of the deepest ocean.
There is a time of the three heads and eight arms.
There is a time of the sixteen-foot or eight-foot golden body.
There is a time of a staff or a whisk.
There is a time of a veranda pillar or a stone lantern.
There is a time to be the third son of Chang or the fourth son of Lee.
There is a time to be the Earth and space.

In these words “there is” and “time,” time is already just existence, and all existence is time. The sixteen-foot golden body of Gautama is time itself. Because it is time, it has the resplendent brightness of time. We should learn it as the twelve hours of today. The three heads and eight arms of the King of Passion are time itself. Because they are time, they must be completely the same as the twelve hours of today. How long and drawn out or short and pressing the twelve hours are has never been quantified; still, we call it “twelve hours.”

Because the direction in which time travels is clear from the trail it leaves, people do not doubt it. They do not doubt it, but that does not mean they have understood it. The doubting that living beings tend do in regard to every unknown thing and fact, is itself uncertain -- our track record of doubting, and the doubting that we do today, are not always sure to match up. The only thing we can say, for the present, is that doubting is a matter of time.

By first bringing order to the self, we make the world whole. We should glimpse every individual and every object in this whole world as discrete moments of time. Just as object and object do not impede each other, moment and moment do not impede each other. This is why there can be rousings of the mind in the same moment, and there can be moments of rousing the same mind. It is the same also for training practices, and realizations of the way. Through bringing order to the self, the self sees what it is. The truth that the self is time is like this.

We should learn in practice, on the basis of enlightened reasoning like this, that the whole earth includes myriad phenomena and hundreds of things, and each thing and each phenomenon exists in the whole earth. Going and coming like this is a first step on a training trip. When we arrive at a plot of land which is It, it is just single things and single phenomena. It is beyond understanding or not understanding of phenomena. It is beyond understanding or not understanding of things. Because time as existence is only this exact moment, time as existence is invariably the whole of time; and things as existence, and phenomena as existence, each are time. The whole of existence, the whole Universe, exists in individual moments of time. We should reflect for a while, and consider whether or not any of the whole of existence, or any of the whole Universe, has leaked away from now.

In the time of the ordinary bloke who does not learn the Buddha’s now of Sitting, on the contrary, there is the following view -- he interprets the words that time is existence as follows: “I became at one time the three-headed and eight-armed King of Passion, and became at another time the sixteen-foot or eight-foot golden body of Gautama. It was like, for example, crossing a river or crossing a mountain. The mountain and the river still exist, but now that I have crossed them and am dwelling in a jewelled palace with crimson towers, the mountain and river are to me as heaven is to earth.”

Enlightened reasoning, however, is not limited to this one line. Others are as follows:
- When I was climbing a mountain or crossing a river, I was there in time, and there must have been time in me; so, being as I am already, my time must not be up.
- If time is not seen as a process, then the only time of climbing a mountain is the here and now of time as existence.
- If time does allow itself the form of a linear progression, then present here in me, existing in time, is the here and now, which is time as existence.
- How could that time of climbing a mountain and crossing a river fail to gulp down, and fail to puke up, this time of the jewelled palace and crimson towers?
-The three heads and eight arms were time yesterday; the sixteen-foot or eight-foot golden body is time today -- and yet this truth of yesterday and today is nothing but moments of going straight into the mountains and surveying a thousand or ten thousand peaks: it not about what has passed.
- The three heads and eight arms are a passage of my time as existence: though they seem to be in the distance, they are of the present.
- The sixteen-foot or eight-foot golden body also is a passage of my time as existence: though it seems to be yonder, it is of the present.

In sum, pine trees are time, and bamboos are time.

Neither should we understand only that time flies. We should not learn that flying is the only ability of time. If we just left time to fly away, some gaps in it might appear. Those who fail to go through and hear of the truth of time as existence, fail because they understand time only as having passed.

To grasp the nub and express it: all that exists, throughout the whole universe, is both a continuous line, and separate moments, of time. Because it is time as existence, it is time as my own very existence. Time as existence has the virtue of flashing by. That is to say, from today it passes in flashes to tomorrow; from today it passes in flashes to yesterday; from yesterday it passes in flashes to today; from today it passes in flashes to today; and from tomorrow it passes in flashes to tomorrow. Because it is a virtue of time to pass in flashes, moments of the past and present do not run into pile-ups or tail-backs. Rather, Seigen is a time; Obaku is a time; and Baso and Sekito are a time. Because oneness of the self and the other is there already, in time, there is oneness of practice and experience in many times.

Going into the mud and going into the water, similarly, are time.

The view of the ordinary bloke of today, and the grounds from which his view arises, are what the ordinary bloke experiences, but are not the ordinary bloke’s reality. It is just that reality, for the present, has given rise to an ordinary bloke. Because he understands this time, and this existence, as other than the ultimate truth of reality, he thinks “the sixteen-foot golden body has got nothing to do with me!” His trying to let himself off the hook by thinking “I am never the sixteen-foot golden body!” are also just flashes of time as existence. They are glimpses of it by one who has yet to ground himself in experience of it.

What causes the midday hours of the horse and sheep to be ordered as they are in the world today, is the rising and setting of something ineffable that abides in its place in reality. The rat also is time, and the tiger also is time.

Living beings are time, and buddha is time.

This time experiences the whole universe using the three heads and eight arms, and experiences the whole universe using the sixteen-foot golden body. When the universe gets to the bottom of the whole universe using the whole universe, this is what is called getting to the bottom. When use of the sixteen-foot golden body, using the sixteen-foot golden body, is realized as kick-starting of the mind, as training, as the awakening of buddha, and as nirvana, this is just existence, just time. It is simply to get to the bottom of the whole of time, as the whole of existence -- there being nothing left over at all. If there are any leftovers they are just leftovers. Therefore, getting even halfway to the bottom of time as existence is getting to the very bottom of half-time, as existence.

Those phases through which we seem to blunder heedlessly, also, are existence. Because we surrender anew to the other, even while those moments before and after are manifesting our heedless blundering, they are occupying their place in time, as existence. Vigorously occupying one’s own place in reality is time itself, as existence. We should neither disturb it with “absence” nor force it into “existence.”

Striving only to be mindful of how relentlessly time is passing, we do not understand it intellectually as what is yet to come. Intellectual understanding is time, but nothing is contingent on that. There is no bag of skin who, recognizing time as a process, has penetrated it as time as existence, abiding in its place. How much less could any have experienced time passed through the gate? Who, even if he recognizes the abiding-in-place aspect, is able to express the truth that time is maintaining, and leaving be, its prior attainment of the ineffable? There is nobody who, even if he has been asserting it to be like this for a long time, is not still groping for the manifestation before him of its real features.

Left at the mercy of the ordinary bloke’s time as existence, even the awakening of buddha, and nirvana, are still time as existence -- albeit with the faint air about them of only being a process.





Broadly speaking, nets and cages notwithstanding, time, as existence, is realized. Celestial kings appearing to the left of me, and celestial throngs appearing to the right, are time as existence in which, even now, I am using up energy. Time as the existence of mundane beings of land and sea, far removed from those celestial realms, is realized through me now using up energy. The individual beings of many species who in darkness and in daylight are time, as existence, are all the realization of me using up energy. They are continuing flashes of energy expenditure. We should learn in practice that if it were not for the momentary continuance of me using up energy now, not one real thing could be realized, not a single object could continue from one moment to the next. We should never learn that passage from one moment to the next is like movement east and west of the wind and rain. That the whole universe is unmoving and unchanging, is not it. That the whole universe goes neither forward nor backward, is not it. It is passage from one moment to the next. Passage from one moment to the next is like, for example, spring. In spring there is an innumerable variety of momentary signs and situations -- this is the meaning passing from one moment to the next. We should learn in practice that passage from one moment to the next continues without there being any external thing. The momentary passing of spring, for example, inevitably passes, moment by moment, through spring itself. It is not that the momentary passing of time is spring; rather, because spring is the momentary passing of time, passing time has already realized awakening in the here and now of springtime. We should research this in detail, coming back to it and leaving it again and again. If we think, in discussing the momentary passing of time, of a boundary formed by external objects, within which something that can pass from moment to moment moves eastwards through thousands of worlds and through thousands of aeons, then we are not devoting ourselves solely to learning in practice of the Buddha’s way of awakening.




Master Yakusan Igen, the story goes, at the suggestion of his Master Sekito Kisen, goes to interrogate Master Baso Do-itsu: “I am more or less clear about the meaning of the three vehicles and twelve divisions of the teaching, but what was the Ancestral Master’s intention in coming from the west?”

Questioned like this, Baso says:

“There is a time to direct the other to lift an eyebrow or wink an eye.

There is a time not to direct the other to lift an eyebrow or wink an eye.

There is a time when directing the other to lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is the right thing.

There is a time when directing the other to lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is not the right thing.”

Hearing this Yakusan is greatly enlightened and says to Baso, “In Sekito’s order I have been like a mosquito that climbed onto an iron ox.”

What Baso says is not the same as anybody else. His eyebrows and eyes might be the mountains and oceans -- because the mountains and oceans are his eyebrows and eyes. His directing the other to lift might be seen up in the mountains. His directing the other to wink might calm the oceans down. The right thing has become familiar to the other, and the other has been led by the directing. That the not right thing is not to direct the other, is not it; and that not directing the other is not the right thing, is not it -- but both these negations are time, as existence; as the mountains also are time, and the oceans also are time. If they were not time, the mountains and oceans could never be: do not deny the existence of time in the here and now of the mountains and oceans. If time decays, the mountains and oceans decay. If time is not subject to decay, the mountains and the oceans are not subject to decay. In the train of this enlightened reasoning, the bright star appears, the Thus-Come appears, the Eye appears,and a twirling flower appears -- which is time. If it is not for time, then it is not it.




Zen Master Shoken Kisho is a Dharma-descendant of Rinzai, and the direct successor of Shuzan. On one occasion he says before the assembly:

“There is a time when the will is there but the words are not there.

There is a time when the words are there but the will is not there.

There is a time when the will and the words are both present.

There is a time when the will and the words are both absent.”

The will and the words are both time, as existence. Being present and being absent are both time, as existence. Before the time of being there is up, a time of not being there comes in -- the will is the donkey and the words are the horse; the horse has been made into words and the donkey has been made into will. Presence is not about coming, and absence is not about having yet to come. Time, as existence, is like this. Presence is impeded by presence itself; it is not impeded by absence. Absence is impeded by absence itself; it is not impeded by presence. The will restricts the will and meets the will. The words restrict the words and meet the words. Restriction restricts restriction and meets restriction. Restriction restricts restriction. This is time. Restriction is being utilized by things in the external world, but there has never been anything called restriction that restricted things in the external world. I am having an encounter with human being; human being is having an encounter with a human being; I am having an encounter with myself; and getting out is having an encounter with getting out -- all of which, without time, would not be like this. Again, the will is time, as the real law of the universe; the words are time, as the pivotal thing -- going on up; presence is time, as the physical substance, stripped bare; and absence is time, as adhering to this, and letting this go away. We should exercise discernment like this, taking time, as existence. Though venerable veterans hitherto have each expressed it as they have, how could there be nothing further to say? I would like to say:

The will and the words being halfway there IS time, as existence.

The will and the words being half absent IS time, as existence.

There should be going into it and getting to the bottom of it, like this.

Directing the other to lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is time, as being half way there.

Directing the other to lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is time, mixed up with existence.

Not directing the other to lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is time, as being half way there.

Not directing the other to lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is time, mixed up with existence.

When we come back to it and leave it like this, being there in practice and not being there, those are moments of time, as existence.


Treasury of the Eye of True Sitting
Time, as Existence


Written at Kosho-horin-ji temple on the 1st day of winter in the 1st year of Ninji [1240].

Copied during the summer retreat in the 1st year of Kangen [1243] -- Ejo.






Translated again during the last week of June, 2008.


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This translation copyright Mike Cross, 2008.
If you wish to use it, please ask. If you would like clarification of anything, please ask. If you object to anything, speak up. If you notice any typos or other mistakes, please let me know.

77. [Between Stimulus & Response:] .............. The Final Frontier

.







HERE IS WHERE IT IS -- and thus, by really saying so, the buddha-ancestors allow themselves to be. What the buddha-ancestors really say spontaneously communicates itself from direct descendant to direct descendant -- and thus the skin, flesh, bones and marrow, integrated by the whole body, are hanging in space. This space is beyond such categories as the twenty kinds of space. How could space be only twenty kinds of space? There are eighty-four thousand kinds of space, and there may be countless more besides.



Zen Master Shakkyo Ezo asks Zen Master Seido Chizo, "Do you get how to grasp space?"

Seido says, "Yes, I get it."

The Master says, "How?"

Seido clutches at thin air.

The Master says, "You do not get how to grasp space."

Seido says, "How do you grasp it, brother?"

The Master grabs hold of Seido's nostrils and gives them a yank.

Seido whimpers, "You murderous brute, yanking a bloke's nose. You have set me free!"

The Master says, "You should have grasped it like this in the first place."


Shakkyo's words "Do you get how to grasp space" are asking: "Is your whole body, also, totally informed by hands and eyes?" Seido says, "Yes, I get how to grasp it." Space is one immaculate lump. By touching it, they have spoiled it. Having been spoiled, space has fallen to earth. Shakkyo's words "How do you get it?" mean: "Even if you say that it is just as it is, that has already messed it up completely." Still, we muddle through the mess, and leave it at that. Seido's clutching at thin air is only getting how to ride the tiger's head; it is not yet getting how to take the tiger by the tail. Shakkyo says, "You do not get how to grasp space." It is not only that he fails to grasp it: he has never seen space even in a dream! Still, I am not going to try to spell out for him what has endured from the deep and distant past. Seido's words "How do you grasp it, brother?" mean "Say a word or half a word of your own, esteemed superior. Do not leave it all up to me!" Shakkyo grabs hold of Seido's nose and tweaks it. Let us study in practice for a while Shakkyo's putting of his body into Seido's nostrils. Or, in other words, what is happening is realization of the words "nostrils are hauling in Shakkyo." And at the same time space is one unbroken mass, bustling and jostling. Seido whimpers, "You murderous brute, yanking a bloke's nose. You have set me free!" He had been expecting to meet some bloke, but now suddenly he has been able to meet himself. And yet tainting of the self is just what is not allowed. We should realize the oneness of practice-and-self.

Shakkyo says, "You should have grasped it like this in the first place." It is not that there is no grasping it like this in the first place, but what is lacking between Shakkyo and Seido is grasping in which the two extend one hand. What is lacking between space and space is grasping in which the two extend one hand. In that case, there is no reliance yet on energy spontaneously expending itself. In general, although the universe has no gaps in which to accommodate "space," this story has long been reverberating around space like thunder. Since the time of Shakkyo and Seido practitioners proclaiming themselves to be masters of five sects have been many, but those who have looked into space and fathomed it out are few. Before and after Shakkyo and Seido, various mugs have struck poses of playing with space, but few have put their hands on it. Shakkyo has attained some grasp of space. Seido does not glimpse space. I, Daibutsu, must say to Shakkyo: "Before, when you grabbed Seido's nostrils, if you wanted to grasp space you should have grabbed your own nostrils. You should have got what it is to grasp the fingertips with the fingertips." That said, Shakkyo knows a little bit about the majesty of space-grasping. But even a dab hand at space-grasping needs to go on studying the inside and outside of space, studying the inhibition and excitation of space, and knowing the lightness and weight of space. The work of the buddhas and the ancestors -- their striving for awakening, their kick-starting of the mind, their practice-and-experience, and their assertions and questions -- we should allow to be just what they are: the grasping of space.





My late Master Tendo, the old Buddha, says:

The whole body is like a mouth, hanging in space.

Clearly, the whole body of space is suspended in space.






Chief Lecturer Ryo of Seizan mountain goes to practise under Baso. Baso asks him, "You are a reader of what sutra?"

Ryo replies, "The Heart Sutra."

Baso says, "How do you read it?"

Ryo replies, "I read it from the heart."

Baso says, "They say the heart is like the leading man, the will is like a supporting actor, and the six kinds of consciousness are the cast. But how can these read out the Sutra?"

Ryo says, "If the heart cannot do the reading, then it is hardly space that causes the Sutra to be read out, is it?"

Baso says, "It is just space that does the reading."

With a dismissive sweep of his baggy sleeves, Ryo withdraws.

Baso calls out, "Chief!"

Ryo turns his head.

Baso says, "From being born to growing old, just this is it."

At this Ryo has a moment of coming to. By and by he conceals himself on Seizan mountain, and nothing more is heard of him.

Thus, every buddha-ancestor is a Sutra-reader. And every instance of Sutra-reading is space. If it were not for space, it would be impossible for even a single sutra to be read out. Whether we read out the Heart Sutra or read out the Body Sutra, the reading out, in every instance, is done through space. It is through space that thinking has been realized and that not thinking has been realized. What constitutes taught wisdom and untaught wisdom, innate intelligence and learned intelligence, is always space. The making of buddha, or the making of an ancestor, likewise, must be a matter of space.




The seventh ancestor, the Venerable Vasumitra, says: "The mind, being the same as finite space, lets be known as space the real substance of Sitting. When we are able to experience space, there is no such thing as being right, and there is nothing which is not it."

The mind here and now in which the person facing a wall, and the wall facing a person, meet and realize each other -- the mind of fences and walls, the mind of withered trees: this mind is just finite space. To those who can be crossed over by means of this body, just revealing this body and thereby explaining to them the method of Sitting: this is letting space be known as the real substance of Sitting. To those who can be crossed over by means of another body, just revealing that body and thereby explaining to them the method of Sitting: this is letting space be known as the real substance of Sitting. Being used up by the twelve hours, and having the twelve hours at our mercy, are when we are able to experience space. A big stone being big and a small stone being small is no such thing as being right and nothing not being it. For the present there is nothing to do but explore space like this, as the treasury of the eye of true Sitting, and the fine mind of nirvana.




Treasury of the Eye of True Sitting

Space


Delivered to the assembly at Daibutsu-ji temple in Fukui-prefecture on the 6th day of the 3rd lunar month in the 3rd year of Kangen [1245].











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The whole of Space swallowed in one heroic gulp on 24th June 2008.
(Timidly regurgitated the following morning.)

3. The Real Law of Thermodynamics

When everything becomes Buddha-Dharma, then there is delusion and enlightenment, there is training, there is life and there is death, there are buddhas and ordinary beings. When each of the ten thousand things is not about me, then there is no delusion and no realization, there are no buddhas and no ordinary beings, nothing is born and nothing lost. The Buddha's Way of awakening, inherently, has sprung out beyond bounty and thrift, and so there is life and death, there is delusion and enlightenment, there are beings and buddhas. And though it is like this, it is only that flowers, while loved, fall; and weeds, while hated, flourish.

Driving the self to practise and experience the ten thousand things in Sitting is delusion. When the ten thousand things in Sitting are actively practising and experiencing the self, that is enlightenment. Those who greatly enlighten delusion are buddhas. Those who are greatly deluded about enlightenment are ordinary beings. There are blokes who, on the basis of enlightenment, get further enlightenment. There are blokes who, in the midst of delusion, get more and more deluded. When buddhas are really buddhas, they do not need to recognize themselves as buddhas. Still, they are buddha realized in experience, and they go on experiencing the reality of buddha.

When we look at a form with the whole body-mind, and listen to a voice through the whole body-mind, even though we experience an intimate connection, it is not like an image being allowed to shine on a mirror, not like what goes on between water and the moon. It is to experience one side, at which time we are blind to the other side.

To learn the Buddha's Way of awakening means to learn the self. To learn the self means to forget the self. To forget the self means to be experienced by the ten thousand things in Sitting. To be experienced by the ten thousand things in Sitting means to let one's own body and mind, and the body and mind of the other, fall away. There can be a fading of the traces of enlightenment. Over a long, long length of time, we allow the fading traces of enlightenment out.

When people first pursue the truth of Sitting, we are far removed from the outer borders of the truth of Sitting. But as soon as the real truth of Sitting has been truly communicated to us, we are individual human beings, each in our own element. When a man is sailing in a boat and he turns his eyes to the shore, he has the illusion that the shore is coming towards him. But if he keeps his eyes on the boat, he knows it is the boat that is moving forward. Similarly, when we are confused about body and mind and yet try to determine the Buddhist meaning of everything, we are liable to suffer from the illusion that our own mind, or our essential self, might be permanent. But if we get intimately into the groove of our own grafting, and thereby get back to this concrete place, the truth is evident that the ten thousand things in Sitting were never about me. Firewood becomes ash. That it might then go back again to being firewood, is never it at all. Still, do not take the view that ash belongs to after and firewood belongs to before. Remember: when firewood inhabits its place as firewood in the reality of Sitting, it has its before and its after. And although it has its before and after, before and after are cut off. Ash inhabits its place as ash, and it too has its before and its after. In the same way that the firewood, after becoming ash, can never again be firewood, people after they have died are not born again. Even so, not to say that living turns into dying is a convention fixed under the Buddha's Law of Sitting. This is why we call it "not arising." That dying does not turn into living was fixed, by turning of the Wheel of the Law, as a motion that the Buddha moves. This is why we call it "not ceasing." Living is a flash, and dying is also a flash. It is the same, for example, with winter and spring. We do not think that winter becomes spring. We do not say that spring becomes summer.

A person getting enlightenment is like water allowing the moon to float on it. The moon does not get wet, and the water is not broken. Though its light is wide and great, the moon floats on a foot or an inch of water. The whole moon and the whole sky float on a dewdrop on a blade of grass, and float in a single drop of water. That enlightenment does not break the person is like the moon not piercing the water. That the person does not get in the way of enlightenment is like the dewdrop not impinging on the sky and moon. How deep it is, might be measured in terms of how high they are. How long it lasts, might be fathomed in large and small bodies of water, and might be surveyed in the width and narrowness of the sky and the moon.

When the true reality of Sitting has yet to satisfy the body-mind, we feel already replete in our realism. When the true reality of Sitting does fill the body-mind, it feels as if something is missing. For example, sailing out beyond the mountains and into the ocean, when we look around in the four directions, the ocean seems only to be round; it does not seem to have any other form at all. Nevertheless, the great ocean is neither round nor square. Other qualities of the ocean are inexhaustibly many: to fishes it is like a palace and to gods it is like a string of pearls. But as far as our eyes can see, it just seems to be round. That is how it is also for the ten thousand things in Sitting. In the practice itself --whether in the dust or beyond any frame -- a multitude of situations is embraced, but we see and understand only as far as our eyes of learning in practice are able to reach. If we wish to hear how, when they are at home, the ten thousand things in Sitting are, we should remember that the oceans and the mountains have numerous and endless qualities besides looking square or round; and that there are worlds in the four directions. Not only out there is it like this. The ground underfoot, and a single drop of water, are also like this.

When fish go through water, swim as they might, there is no end to the water. When birds fly the sky, fly as they might, there is no end to the sky. At the same time, fish and birds since the ancient past have never left the water or the sky. When they need a lot, they use a lot. When they need a little, they use a little. Functioning like this, none fails to realize its limitations at every moment, and none fails to somersault in freedom at every place. But a bird that left the sky would die at once, and a fish that left the water would die at once. So we can understand that water is life and that the sky is life. Birds are life, and fish are life. It may be that life is birds and that life is fish. And beyond this, there may still be progress to be made. The existence of their practice and experience, the existence of their lifespans and their lives, are like this. That being so, a bird or a fish that aimed to go through the water or the sky, only after getting to the bottom of the water or utterly penetrating the sky, could never find its way or find its place in the water or the sky. When we find this place, here and now, it is in the trail of grafting in this groove that we realize the law of the universe. When we find this way, here and now, grafting in this groove is the arrow-tip of the real law of the universe. That this way and this place are great, is not it; that they are small, is not it. That they are the self, is not it; that they are the other, is not it. That they have existed since before, is not it, and that they appear now, is not it -- and so here they are, like this. When a person who, being like this, is practising and experiencing the Buddha's way of awakening, he gets a thing and he penetrates that thing, she meets a groove and she grafts in that groove. In this, the place exists and the way is mastered, in which case what remains to be known is unclear. The reason it is so is that this process of knowing, and the process of getting to the bottom of the Buddha's method of Sitting, are born together and experienced together. Do not assume that what is attained will inevitably become self-conscious and be recognized by the intellect. Experience of the ultimate is realized at once. But to be in secret possession of it, is not necessarily an unambiguous realization. It is rather that the real is the ambiguous.

Zen Master Hotetsu of Mayoku-zan mountain is using a fan. A monk comes by and asks him, "The essence of the wind is eternal. There is nowhere it does not reach. Why then, Master, do you use a fan?"

The Master says, "You have only understood that the essence of the wind is eternal. You do not yet know the truth of there being no such thing as a place it does not reach."

The monk says, "So what is the truth of there being no place it does not reach?"

The Master simply carries on using the fan. The monk does prostrations. The proof of the Buddha's Pudding, the vigorous path that has been truthfully communicated, is like this. To say that we need not use a fan for what is always there, or that we can still enjoy the breeze even without this using, is not to know what is eternity, and is never to have known what is the essence of the wind. On the basis that the essence of the wind is eternal, Buddhist airs would make the whole Earth golden, and turn the Milky Way into ripened cheese.


Treasury of the Eye of True Sitting
The Real Law of the Universe

This was written in mid-autumn in the 1st year of Tenpuku [1233], and was presented to the lay disciple Yo Koshu, from Kyushu.

Edited in the 4th year of Kencho [1252].







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This translation done June 18th - 22nd 2008, by a jack of two trades, Mike Cross, who turned his back on truthful communication in his mother tongue, in order to pursue an authentic transmission of something Japanese.


In sitting-zen in dappled light,
A frog hopped by, from left to right.
I was wishing, to belong.
The frog was heading, to the pond.
.....>....>....>... Splosh!

2. The Great Wisdom of One Gone to the Far Shore

When the Bodhisattva Spontaneous in Listening gets deeply in the groove of the wisdom of one who has gone, her whole body reflects the five aggregates, as totally empty. The five aggregates, the five constituent elements of being, are: material forms; feelings; ideas; doings; and consciousness. They are the quintessence of the wisdom. BUT THE REFLECTING IS THE WISDOM ITSELF. When this principle is expounded, and made real, it is expressed like this: matter is just emptiness; emptiness is just matter; matter is matter, and emptiness just emptiness -- hundreds of things and myriad phenomena. Wisdom on the far shore, distilled into twelve, is the twelve ways in; or, again, there are eighteen distillations of the wisdom. The twelve are the six senses -- eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and proprioceptive system; and their six objects -- forms, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations, and how the whole thing is. The eighteen are, along with those twelve, the six kinds of sensory consciousness -- looking through the eyes, listening through the ears, smelling through the nose, tasting through the tongue, feeling through the body, and being mindful through the compound sense of proprioception. Again, the wisdom exists in four distillations: suffering, accumulation, inhibition, and the Way. Again, the wisdom exists in six distillations: generosity, discipline, patience, persistence, contemplation, and wisdom. Again, the wisdom of one gone to the far shore, realized here and now, in one go, is the supreme enlightenment of the Buddha -- full, integral awakening. Another three instances of the wisdom gone to the far shore are the past, the present, and the future. Still another six distillations of the wisdom are earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness. Again, four distillations of the wisdom constantly practised in everyday life are walking, standing up, sitting, and lying down.


One of the beggars in the order of Sakyamuni, the Thus-Come, is secretly thinking to himself: "I must bow in veneration of the accomplishment of the profound wisdom, in which nothing arises or vanishes -- notwithstanding all the possible explanations that there are of precepts, stillness, and wisdom, of coming undone, and of views; or explanations of stream-entering, being subject to one return, being beyond return, and arhathood; or explanations of the awakening of the solitary naturalist versus the awakening of Buddha; or explanations of the awakening of Buddha as supreme, full and integrated; or explanations of the treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; or explanations of turning the wonderful wheel of Dharma in order to deliver sentient beings to the far shore...." The Buddha, knowing what he is thinking, tells this beggar: "That's it! That's it! The profound wisdom gone to the far shore is too subtle to fathom."

What one beggar is secretly thinking here and now, in his reverence for everything in Sitting, is the wisdom -- notwithstanding no arising or vanishing. This is true reverence. Just at this very moment of bowing in reverence, the wisdom has been realized as explanation being possible -- that is, as explanations from precepts, stillness, and wisdom through to delivering sentient beings, and the rest -- and it is called nothing. Explaining as nothing is possible like this. Such is the profound, subtle, and unfathomable wisdom gone to the far shore.


The god Indra asks the Buddha's disciple Subhuti: "Great do-gooder! When a bodhisattva wishes to learn the profound wisdom of one gone to the far shore, how should he go about it?" Subhuti answers: "Son of the Kusika clan! If a bodhisattva wishes to learn the profound wisdom of one gone to the far shore, he should learn it as space."

So learning the wisdom is space, and space is learning the wisdom.


The god Indra subsequently addresses the Buddha: "One honored by the world! When your good sons and good daughters receive this profound wisdom which you expound, and make it their own accomplishment, when they read and recite it, think it out according to reason, and expound it for others, how then am I to guard it? I ask only, World-honored One, that out of compassion you will teach me this."

Then Subhuti says to the god Indra, "Son of the Kusika clan! Do you see something that you might guard, or not?"

The god Indra says, "No, great do-gooder, I do not see anything here that I might guard."

Subhuti says, "Son of the Kusika clan! When good sons and good daughters inhabit the profound wisdom, as thus expounded, they are just guarding it. As long as they inhabit the profound wisdom, as thus expounded, of one gone to the far shore, they never go astray. You should know that even if all human and nonhuman beings were out to harm them, that would be impossible. Son of the Kusika clan! If you want to guard bodhisattvas who inhabit the profound wisdom, as thus expounded, of one gone to the far shore, that is no different from wanting to guard space."

Remember, to receive it and make it our own, to read and recite it, and to think it out according to reason, is just to guard the wisdom. And really to want to guard it, is to receive it and make it our own, to read and recite it, and so on.


My late Master, the old Buddha, says:

Its whole body is like a mouth, hanging in space.
Not asking the wind east, west, south or north,
For all others equally it chatters the wisdom:
(The sound of a windbell...) tinkling.

This is the wisdom chattered between direct successors of the buddha-ancestors. It is the wisdom of the whole body, it is the wisdom of the whole other, it is the wisdom of the whole self, and it is the wisdom of the whole east, west, south and north.


Sakyamuni Buddha says: "Sariputra! These many sentient beings should inhabit this wisdom gone to the far shore, just as buddha inhabits it. In serving offerings and bowing in reverence to this wisdom gone to the far shore, and in thinking it out for themselves, they should be as if serving offerings and bowing in reverence to the buddha-beautiful itself. Why? Because the wisdom gone to the far shore is no different from the buddha-beautiful, and the buddha-beautiful is no different from the wisdom gone to the far shore. The wisdom is the buddha-beautiful itself, and the buddha-beautiful is the wisdom itself. Why? Because, Sariputra, the apt, fully integrated awakening of all the thus-come, is able to emerge, in every case, out of that wisdom gone to the far shore. Because, Sariputra, the attainments of all bodhisattvas and all great beings -- such as the independently awakened, the arhat, those beyond returning, those who will return once, those received into the stream, and so on -- all are able to emerge, in every case, out of that wisdom gone to the far shore. Because, Sariputra, the ten paths of wholesome conduct in the world, the four stages of contemplation, the four kinds of formless stillness, the five mystical powers, are all able to emerge, in every case, out of that wisdom gone to the far shore."

So the buddha-beautiful is the wisdom gone to the far shore, and the wisdom gone to the far shore is these real things in Sitting. Everything in Sitting, here and now, is an empty form -- a manifestation that is raw, bare, naked, as it is, devoid of me -- neither arising nor vanishing, neither soiled nor pure, neither expanding nor contracting. That this wisdom has been realized means that the buddha-beautiful has been realized. We should inquire into it, and we should get into it. To serve offerings and bow in reverence to it, is to serve and wait upon the buddha-beautiful itself, and it is the buddha-beautiful doing the serving and waiting.

Treasury of the Eye of True Sitting;
The Great Wisdom of One Gone to the Far Shore

Delivered to the assembly at Kannon-dori-in temple on a day of the summer retreat in the 1st year of Tenpuku [1233].

Copied in the attendant monk's quarters at Kippo temple in Fukui prefecture on the 21st day of the 3rd lunar month in spring of the 2nd year of Kangen [1243].

Translated into careless English in the front room of an old council house in Stone, near Aylesbury, on the 16th, 17th and 18th of the 6th month in the 56th year of Elizabeth II [2008].







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This translation copyright Mike Cross, 2008.
If you wish to use it, please ask. If you would like clarification of anything, please ask. If you object to anything, speak up. If you notice any typos or other mistakes, please let me know.

8. Bowing to Attainment of the Marrow

When it comes to getting oneself into the groove of the supreme truth of full integrated awakening, the hardest thing is to find a guiding teacher. That guiding teacher is beyond appearances such as those of a man or a woman. She should be a big broad bloke. She should be somebody who is it. Not a person of the past or the present, she might be a good mate, with the glint in her eye of a wild fox. These are the features of one who got the marrow. She may be a guide and supporter. She is never unclear about cause and effect. She could be you, me, or him.

Having met the guiding teacher already we should, chucking all involvements and not wasting a moment, strive in pursuit of awakening. We should work on ourselves mindfully, we should work on ourselves mindlessly, and we should work on ourselves being half-mindful and half-mindless. Thus we should learn to go on tiptoes, as if to put out a fire, on our head.

32. Imparting the Message

The great Way communicated one-to-one by the buddha-ancestors is imparting of the message. Those who lack the learning in practice of the buddha-ancestors have never seen it even in a dream. With respect to its timing, the message is imparted even to those who have yet to rouse the bodhi-mind. The message is imparted to those without the buddha-nature and to those who possess the buddha-nature. The message is imparted to those with bodies and to those without bodies. The message is imparted to buddhas. The buddhas maintain, and leave be, the message imparted by the buddhas. Do not learn that buddha becomes buddha after getting the message, and do not learn that buddha gets the message after becoming buddha. During the very imparting of the message it is possible to become buddha. During the very imparting of the message it is possible to practise. On this basis, imparting of the message happens in those who are buddhas, and imparting of the message happens in that which is buddha going on up. The message is imparted through the self, through the body-mind. When we are well versed and greatly skilled in imparting the message, we are well versed and greatly skilled in the Buddha-Way. Imparting of the message happens before we have come back to our back, and it happens after we have come back to our back. There is imparting of messages that the self knows about, and there is imparting of messages that the self knows nothing about. There is imparting of messages about which others are made aware, and there is imparting of messages about which others are left in the dark. Remember, it is imparting of messages that has realized the self, and imparting of messages is the self that has been realized. Thus, what the buddhas and the ancestors have got from each other, direct successor from direct successor, is nothing but imparting of messages. Not a single thing in Sitting exists that is not imparting the message. How much less could mountains and rivers, the Earth, Sumeru, or the vast oceans, exist? No third son of Chang or fourth son of Lee exists at all -- not a single one, nor even half of one. Imparting of the message, investigated like this, is being able to speak one phrase that expresses the Buddha's enlightenment and is being able to listen to that one phrase. It is not understanding that one phrase and is grasping what that one phrase really means. It is going in the groove. It is laying it on the line. It directs the backward step and it directs forward steps. Our being able to sit now wearing the robe could never have happened without traditional getting of the message. It is because we join hands and receive it on our head that what is realized is imparting of the message. The Buddha said, There are many kinds of situation in which the message is imparted, but in brief there are eight kinds, namely:

1) the subject knows, others do not know;
2) everybody else knows, the subject does not know;
3) both the subject and everybody else knows;
4) neither the subject nor everybody else knows;
5) those who are close to it wake up to it, those who are far do not;
6) those who keep a distance from it wake up to it; those who are close do not;
7) both groups wake up to it;
8) neither group wakes up.

Another sutra says, "Sometimes the near know, sometimes the far know, sometimes both far and near know, sometimes neither near nor far know."

Imparting of the message happens like this. So do not jump to the conclusion that, just because it is beyond the recognition of our present soul in a stinking bag of skin, we cannot impart the message. And do not say that the message cannot easily be imparted to an individual who is not yet enlightened. What has usually been studied, in accordance with common sense, is that a prophecy may be imparted at a time when the merit of practice is fulfilled and becoming buddha is assured. But the Buddha-Way is not that. To have heard one phrase, whether from a good mate or from a scroll of the sutras, is just to have got the message.

50. Everything in Sitting is Reality Itself

What the buddha-ancestors realize is reality itself, got to the bottom. Reality itself is everything in Sitting. Everything in Sitting means what is as it is -- form as it is, essence as it is, the body as it is, the mind as it is, the world as it is, cloud and rain as it is; walking, standing up, sitting, and lying down, as it is; grief and joy, movement and stillness, as it is; Zen paraphernalia, stick and whisk, as it is; twirling flower and smiling face, as it is; succeeding to the Method of Sitting and imparting the message, as it is; learning in practice and pursuing awakening, as it is; constancy of pine and integrity of bamboo, as it is.

Sakyamuni Buddha says, "Buddha alone, together with buddha, is directly able to get to the bottom of this: Everything in Sitting is reality itself. Everything in sitting means, in other words, form as it is, essence as it is, the physical as it is, energy as it is, doing as it is, causation as it is, connection as it is, fruition as it is, consequence as it is, and ultimate unity of means and end, as it is."

These words of the Thus-Come, "the ultimate unity of means and end," are the teaching spontaneously expressing itself that everything in Sitting is reality. They are the governor spontaneously expressing himself. They are the study of unity.

27. A Needle for Sitting-Zen

While the Great Master Yakusan is sitting, a monk asks him: "What, in the stillness, are you thinking?" The Master says, "I am thinking into the no thinking zone." The monk says, "How can the no thinking zone be entered by thinking?" The Master says: "Non-thinking."

Bearing witness to the fact that the words of the Great Master are like this, we should learn what it is to sit still, and should truly communicate what it is to sit still. It is investigation that has been transmitted via the way of buddha, as sitting still itself. There is more than one way of thinking in stillness, but Yakusan's way is one. It is, namely, "Thinking into the no thinking zone" -- which contains thinking as skin, flesh, bones, and marrow and contains no thinking as skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. The monk says, "How can the no thinking zone be entered by thinking?" Even though the no thinking zone is truly an ancient site, here we have the question afresh: "How can thinking enter?" How, in the stillness, could thinking be ruled out? And why should reaching up to the level of stillness be beyond communication? Those who were not the despicable dimwits of a degenerate age might have the energy, and might have the thinking power, to ask what stillness is. The Great Master says, "Non-thinking." This use of the phrase "non-thinking" is particularly brilliant; at the same time, any instance of thinking into the no thinking zone invariably makes use of non-thinking. In non-thinking, whoever it is exists; and whoever that is, is letting me be me. Stillness, while it is a function of me, is not only a function of thinking: stillness takes by the head stillness itself. How could it be necessary, when stillness is stillness, for stillness to think itself into stillness? Stillness, then, is not what buddha can fathom, is not what Sitting can fathom, is not what enlightenment can fathom, and is not what understanding can fathom. Yakusan's one-to-one transmission like this is the thirty-sixth in a line of direct descent from Sakyamuni Buddha. When we look the other way, going up from Yakusan, there is after thirty-six generations the Buddha Sakyamuni. And, having been truly communicated like this, there is actual practice of thinking into the no thinking zone. The stupid and the slipshod of recent years, however, say, "Through the effort of seated meditation, we are able to experience nothing going on within, which is just peace itself." This opinion is beneath even scholars of the small vehicle. It is inferior even to the vehicles of men and gods. How can those with views like that be called students of the Buddha's Method of Sitting? In Sung China today people of such effort are many. It is lamentable that the way of the ancestors has gone to ruin. There is another group who see pursuing the truth through sitting-zen as essential for beginners and late-learners, but as not necessarily a practice for those in the groove of the buddha-ancestors -- whereby "walking also is Zen, and sitting also is Zen, so that in talking and in silence, in movement and in stillness, the body is at ease." Many who call themselves followers of Rinzai are of this opinion, cautioning against getting stuck in only one practice. It is because the true life of the Buddha's Sitting-Method has been communicated to them only sparsely that they speak like this. When they talk of beginner's mind, what do they mean? What kind of mind is other than beginner's mind? Beginner's mind should be ranked where? Remember, the established method of investigation, for learning the way, is to pursue the way through sitting-zen. The fundamental point, to spell it out, is that there is such a thing as buddha getting in the groove -- just acting, without expectation of becoming buddha. Because acting buddha is utterly beyond becoming buddha, the universal law is realized. The bodily awakening of buddha is utterly beyond becoming buddha, so that, when nets and cages are broken, Sitting buddha imposes no restrictions on becoming buddha. In that very moment, we possess the original power -- a thousand ages or ten thousand ages old -- to get into buddha or to get into a demon. We possess the capacity to fill up ditches or to fill up valleys, with a forward step, or with a backward step.

Zen Master Baso Do-itsu, after secretly receiving the mind-seal while learning in practice under Zen Master Nangaku Ejo, is forever practising sitting-zen. One day Nangaku goes to Baso's place and asks him: "Great do-gooder! What is the aim of your sitting-zen?" We should work on and work out this question, quietly investigating it. That is, we should work out in detail whether Nangaku is asking: In reaching up beyond sitting-zen, is there, on that level, an aim that might be found? Outside of the framework of sitting-zen, has there never been any kind of awakening worth aiming at? Should we not aim at anything at all? In the very moment of sitting-zen, what kind of aim is being realized just then? More than we love a carved dragon, we should love the real dragon. We should learn that the carved dragon and the real dragon both possess the potency of clouds and rain. Neither put on a pedestal nor despise what is not close to home. Get used to it, as what is not close to home. Neither despise nor prize what is under your nose. Get used to it, as what is under your nose. Neither make light of the eyes nor make a big deal of the eyes. Neither make a big deal of the ears nor make light of the ears. Let the ears and the eyes be open and clear.

Baso says: "Aiming at becoming buddha." We should clarify this utterance and learn it inside out. When he speaks of becoming buddha, where on earth is he coming from? When he speaks of becoming buddha, does he mean becoming buddha being done by buddha? Does he mean becoming buddha being done to buddha? When he speaks of becoming buddha, is he describing buddha showing its face, for a moment or two? Is it that aiming at becoming buddha, as practice of dropping off, is aiming in a spirit of dropping off at becoming buddha? When he speaks of aiming at becoming buddha, is he describing the becoming of buddha, multifarious though it is, getting deeper and deeper entangled in this aiming? Remember, what Baso is saying is that sitting-zen, in every instance, is aiming at becoming buddha. Sitting-zen, in every instance, is aiming -- it is the aiming of a becoming buddha. The aiming may be before the becoming buddha, may be after the becoming buddha, and may be just the very moment of the becoming buddha. Let us ask: How uncountably many instances of the becoming of buddha are entangled in this integral act of aiming? This entanglement is further entwining with entanglement. At this time, entanglements as fragmented bits of the whole of becoming buddha, or entanglement as the pure honest-to-goodness wholeness of becoming buddha, are all individual instances of aiming at the aim. We cannot get away from aiming at the one aim. When we flee from aiming at the one aim, we lose body and life. But even when we lose body and life, that is just getting tangled up in aiming at the one aim.

Nangaku then takes a tile and polishes it on a stone. Baso eventually asks: "Master, what are you doing?" Truly, who could fail to see that he is polishing a tile? But who is ready to see it as polishing a tile? Rather, polishing a tile has always been questioned like this: "What are you doing!" The doing of what is always the polishing of a tile. In this land and in other worlds, different though they are, there may be real meaning that has never died in the polishing of a tile. Not fixedly deciding that our own view is our own view: this alone is not it. Rather, we fixate totally on the fact that there is real meaning, which we should learn in practice, in the doing of all kinds of work. Remember, we witness buddha without knowing or understanding buddha just as we see waters without knowing them and see mountains without knowing them. If we jump to the conclusion that there is no way for the Sitting-Method before our very eyes to be communicated, what buddha studies is not that.

Nangaku says: "Polishing to make a mirror." We must clarify this assertion. Polishing makes a mirror. The principle of enlightenment is definitely here. The universal law, made real, is here. This can never be empty wiseacring. Though a tile is a tile, and a mirror is a mirror, we should remember that when all our energy is given over to the truth of polishing, limitlessly many angles of attack come into play. It may be that even Seppo's ancient mirror and Gensa's clear mirror were able to become mirrors through the means of polishing a tile. If we do not know that all mirrors have come about through the means of polishing a tile, then there is nothing in us that speaks the truth of a buddha-ancestor. Opening the mouth of a buddha-ancestor is absent from us. We have neither come across nor even heard about a buddha-ancestor's out-breaths.

Baso says: "How can polishing a tile turn it into a mirror?" Truly, a bloke of iron polishing a tile is not one who sponges off others. Even so, that his polishing a tile is turning it into a mirror, is not it. Turning into a mirror -- notwithstanding the fact that it is what it is -- might be called quick.

Nangaku says: "How can sitting-zen make you into buddha?" Clearly, that sitting-zen is waiting to become buddha, is not it -- enlightened reasoning is present here. The fundamental point is not hidden: becoming buddha does not intrude on sitting-zen.

Baso says: "What is it, this just being?" This utterance looks like a question only about this place here, but it is also asking about just being at that place there. Remember, for example, what happens when a close friend meets a close friend: his being my close friend is my being his close friend. What it is, this just being, is the real manifestation of all at once.

Nangaku says, "If, when somebody is riding a cart, the cart is not moving, is thumping the cart just it, or is thumping the ox just it?" Now, as to the meaning of "the cart is not moving," what is a cart moving, and what is a cart not moving? For example, is water flowing a cart moving? Is water not flowing a cart moving? We might say that flowing is water not moving. It may also be that water moving is beyond flowing. So, when we go deeply into the words "the cart is not moving," we may find that not moving is present, and also that not moving is absent -- the basis of this being time. Nangaku's words have not expressed only the one side of not moving. He speaks of thumping the cart being just it, and of thumping the ox being just it: can there be both thumping the cart and thumping the ox? Can thumping the cart and thumping the ox be identified, or must they be opposed? Men of the world do not have the Sitting-Method by which we thump the cart. Though the common man has no method for thumping the cart, we have seen that on the way of Buddha we have the Sitting-Method by which we thump the cart: it is the very eyes of learning in practice. We should work out in detail why, although we learn that we have a Sitting-Method by which we thump the cart, thumping the cart can never be the same thing as thumping the ox. Methods for thumping oxen exist in the ordinary world, but we should investigate further and learn in practice how an ox is thumped on the way of Buddha. Is it to thump a castrated water buffalo? Is it to thump an iron ox? Is it to thump a muddy bull? Should it be a whipping? Should the whole Universe do the whipping? Should it be a beating with the whole heart-and-mind? Should the marrow be beaten flat? Should it be a thumping with a fist? What there should be is a fist thumping a fist. What there should be is an ox thumping an ox.

Baso has no comeback -- a bit of nothing that we should not idly pass over. It has the detachment by which we chuck away a tile and get back a jewel. It has the freedom to turn the head and change expression. Nothing at all can rob us of the emptiness of having no comeback.

Nangaku continues: "When you learn sitting-zen, you learn sitting buddha." Getting to the bottom of this assertion, we should pick out the vital pivot of the ancestors. If we were not aware before of exactly what was meant by the practice of sitting-zen, now we know already: it is study of sitting buddha. How could anybody other than the child and grandchild of true successors assert that learning sitting-zen is learning sitting buddha? Remember: the sitting-zen of a beginner with beginner's mind is the first sitting-zen, and the first sitting-zen is the first sitting buddha.

Voicing what sitting-zen is, Nangaku says: "When you learn sitting-zen, Zen is not sitting and lying down." What he is saying now is that sitting-zen is sitting-zen, not sitting down or lying down. After it has been communicated to us, in the one-to-one transmission, that sitting down and lying down are not it, then unlimited instances of sitting and lying down are our own self. Why should we delve into the fullness or otherwise of the lifeblood? Why should we get drawn into discussing delusion and enlightenment? Who could want an intellectual conclusion?

Nangaku says, "When you learn sitting buddha, buddha is not a posture." When we want to state what this statement states, it is like this. Sitting buddha appears in the form of one individual buddha or two individual buddhas, because it is adorned by the negation of posture. To express now that buddha is negation of posture, is to express the very form of buddha; and because negation of posture is buddha, it cannot help but be sitting buddha. In sum, because buddha is made beautiful by the negation of posture it is, when it learns sitting-zen, just sitting buddha.

Who, when the Sitting-Method itself is without permanence, would pick and choose about who is not buddha and who is buddha? By the time of picking and choosing, sitting buddha has already given up caring, and that is why she is sitting buddha.

Nangaku says, "When you are sitting buddha, that is just killing buddha." In other words, when we look deeper into sitting buddha, it includes the good work of killing buddha. To be just in the moment of sitting buddha, is to kill buddha. If we want to inspect the good looks and golden lustre of killing buddha, they are all to be found in sitting buddha. The word "killing" is as used by the common man, but we should not naively equate its usage here with that of the common man. Rather, we should investigate the process by which sitting buddha brings about killing buddha, asking what shape it takes and what levels there are. Among the assets of buddha there is killing buddha, taking account of which we should study our own balance of killing a person versus not yet killing a person.

"To attach to the sitting form is not to get the point." This attaching to the sitting form is to ditch the sitting form, is to make a mess of the sitting form. The enlightened reasoning here is that when sitting buddha is already happening, it is impossible for sitting buddha to be anything other than attached to its sitting form. Because sitting buddha cannot be anything other than attached to its sitting form, this attachment to the sitting form, while its affirmation rings out like golden bells, might also be negation of getting the point. Effort like this is called dropping off body and mind. In those who have never sat, no such awakening exists. It exists in the moment of Sitting; it exists in the person who is Sitting; it exists in buddha, which is Sitting itself; and it is exists in the buddha who is learning Sitting. The sitting that a person does in sitting down and lying down, is not this Sitting buddha. A person sitting down may happen to have the semblance of a sitting buddha, or a buddha sitting, but there is buddha that is manufactured by men, just as there are craftsmen who manufacture buddhas. Although there are people who do become buddha, that all people are becoming buddha is not it. That buddha is all people, is not it. The simple proposition that all buddhas are all humanity, is not it. Therefore, that a person is necessarily buddha, is not it; and that buddha is necessarily a person, is not it. As it is with becoming buddha, so it is also with sitting buddha. So it is with Nangaku and Baso, excellent master and stout disciple. Sitting buddha verifies the meaning of becoming buddha: this is Baso's case. For the sake of becoming buddha, the meaning of sitting buddha is spelled out: this is Nangaku's case. In Nangaku's order there is effort like this. In Yakusan's order there are the assertions quoted previously. Remember, what has been called "the vital pivot of the buddhas and the ancestors," is just sitting buddha. Those who are already the buddhas and the ancestors made use of this vital pivot. Those who have never used it have simply never seen it, even in a dream.

In general, in the western heavens of India and in the eastern lands, that the Buddha-Dharma has been transmitted has meant, in every instance, that sitting buddha has been transmitted. That is because sitting buddha is the vital pivot upon which all else hinges. When the Buddha-Dharma has failed to be communicated, sitting-zen has failed to be communicated. What has been transmitted and received from legitimate successor to legitimate successor, is nothing but the real meaning of this sitting-zen.







-- to be continued