司空禪庵

An Introduction to Zen

Isobe Taiseki

(The following text is a translation of a transcript of a live lecture)

When you hear the words “Zen” or “zazen,” what kind of image comes into your mind? For example, you go practice meditation at a temple. A monk with a stern expression holds a stick called  keisaku, and if you fall asleep, you get hit. There are also many famous Zen proverbs, but they are mostly written in classical Chinese. There is also the word “Kōan.” Most people don’t know the real meaning, but it seems to be something very profound. However, when asked directly what Zen is, there may be very few people who can give a clear answer. Usually, what we think of as Zen is the cultural aspect of it, which can be found in traditional Japanese culture, especially after the Muromachi period (1336–1573). I think that most people when they come into contact with Zen culture, they somehow feel they got a taste of the Zen atmosphere, and think that this is the way to learn about Zen itself.

Firstly, I would like to start by talking about the basics without using the traditional Zen terminology. If you truly understand the principles of Zen, you will then be able to read and understand any Zen texts, Buddhist scriptures, or sutras.

Are you familiar with Zen master Dōgen? He is a very famous and popular monk in Japan. He is sometimes considered to be the founder of the Sōtō school, but to be precise, he is the one who introduced Sōtō Zen from China. Dōgen himself did not like the name “Sōtō school.” In fact, he did not like the word Zen school either. He did not want his lineage to be called Zen school. So how should it be called? “Buddha Way”. Or “Buddha’s Heart School”, which conveys the heart of Buddha. He argued that schools and sects should not be discussed in the first place. Nowadays, when we talk about the Zen lineage in Japan, on the surface, there are various schools such as Rinzai, Sōtō, or Ōbaku. In terms of Buddhist schools, there are many schools other than Zen, such as Jōdo, Jōdo Shinshū, or Nichiren. We can say that Japanese Buddhism is sectarian Buddhism.

Yet, in the first place, Buddhism originated from Shakyamuni Buddha. Even if there seem to be many different schools, if you trace them back, it is hard to call a certain teaching Buddhism unless it goes all the way back to the teachings of the historical Buddha. I think it is fair to say that Zen was a movement which tried to return to the original teachings of the Buddha. Zen was introduced to China by an Indian monk named Bōdhidharma. Bōdhidharma is considered to be the 28th patriarch, counting from the historical Buddha. The Dharma teaching embodied by the Buddha was passed down by his disciples, and then the 28th master, Bōdhidharma, traveled from India to China and passed the teachings on to Master Huike, who became the second patriarch of Zen Buddhism in China. After that, Zen developed explosively in China, and various lineages were formed, such as the Rinzai school and the Sōtō school, all with their own distinct teaching style and so on. In Japan, Zen Master Eisai (Yōsai), the founder of Kenninji Temple, and Zen Master Dōgen, the founder of Eiheiji Temple, introduced Zen Buddhism in the Kamakura period, and since then it has been passed down to the present. Therefore, when Master Dōgen said that he disliked the name “Zen school,” what he meant was that his teaching did not convey superficial things, instead he conveyed the enlightenment and liberation embodied by Shakyamuni, so it is the Buddha’s heart, the school of the Buddha’s heart, or the Buddha’s way itself.
So what exactly is the Buddha’s way? To borrow the words of Dōgen whom I just introduced, “To study the Buddha’s way is to study oneself.” He is saying that studying Buddhism is to study oneself. Therefore, when I call this lecture an “Introduction to Zen,” at the same time it is an “Introduction to Buddhism” and an “Introduction to learning about oneself.”

Our Dharma predecessors have tried to convey the truth, or Dharma, through different scriptures, Zen sayings, or various words, but what is it exactly that they are conveying? They are conveying the true nature of each of you. The true nature of yourself, of who you are. If you were asked, “Who are you?”, how would you answer? Most people would probably answer with their name. Or perhaps with various other characteristics such as their occupation, age, gender, what kind of person they think they are, their likes, tastes, etc. However, when you study Buddhism, that is, when you wish to truly study yourself, I would like you to look at things a little more carefully. Let us go a little deeper.

When you are asked “Who are you?,” is your answer really absolute? Is it a universal answer? I want you to think a little deeper about such things. For example, what about your name? If you are a woman, your surname changes when you get married. A name is something that your parents or relatives gave you at some point. It may have been given to you while you were in the womb, or maybe when you were born, but you were given a name at some point. That means it is not entirely yours. Age is also a provisional number. It keeps increasing. Of course, some of the characteristics that you have now, such as your personality or character, may have been there from your childhood, but they also change through various encounters and learning. Even the characteristics of yourself that you think have been there since childhood are also formed by various conditions. That means we cannot say that your character is unchangeable. It cannot be said that it is completely you in itself.

Of course, this also applies to occupations and positions. A person who was a company president yesterday can become homeless the next day. And vice versa, of course. These too are constantly changing. At home, you may be a housewife, but when you go to work, you may be acting as a section manager or a part-time worker, or something along those lines. Among friends, you play, or fulfill, a role within that relationship. So, these social positions and roles cannot be said to be absolute. You cannot take them as your true essence.

So what about your body? You use your body thinking, “This is mine, this is my body.” When you’re hungry, you eat. When you’re tired, you rest. You use it thinking it’s yours. But your body was given to you by your parents, and it is a phenomenon which changes year after year, moment after moment. For example, your hair and nails grow on their own. They grow regardless of your will. Your heart moves on its own and you cannot do anything about it. In yoga, you do breathing exercises. These practices aim to achieve certain effects by controlling your breath, but you cannot keep exhaling forever, and you cannot keep inhaling forever either. Even if you try to stop your breathing, there is a limit. When you reach your limit, you start inhaling again. Even if you use your body thinking it’s yours, can you really say it’s yours?

Do you know that about 30,000 people commit suicide every year in Japan? If we do a rough calculation, that means about 100 people choose to end their life every day. Those who have no choice but to make the decision to stop the activity of their own body, and they use forceful means to do so. They hang themselves, jump in front of a train, etc. The reason I am telling you this is because if your body truly was your own, then when you come to a point where you feel like “I want to die,” you should be able to stop your bodily functions with your own will. But because you cannot do that, some people resort to forceful means.

So why do people suffer so much that they want to die? Of course, there may be some physical illness, pain, or disability. There may also be many other factors, such as the difficulty of actually making ends meet, but that is only one of the factors. I think the root cause is the pain in one’s mind. They reach the point where their mind is in so much pain they want to die. But is that mind really their own? Where is that thing that you think is your mind, and if it is there, is it really your own? I think it is possible to explain why people suffer, for example, having endless negative thoughts and the painful emotions that come with them, but are those thoughts really your own?

I sometimes do this kind of experiment. I ask people to “try to stop thinking for one minute,” and then I say, “OK, start.” I wait for a minute and then ask everyone for their impressions. For example, if I ask a group of about 60 people, “Who was able to stop thinking?”, occasionally one person will raise their hand, but it is practically impossible. In fact, I am asking them to do something impossible from the beginning.

People say things like “you will be free from thoughts when you do zazen,” “no mind,” or “no thoughts.” You know about these ideas and sit hoping for them to happen, but when you actually try to sit, your thoughts do not stop, they just keep coming. You wish you could sit in a more relaxing state, but you cannot. The fact is, the activity of your thoughts, the activity of your mind, is a phenomenon that occurs on its own. If it’s raining outside, the wind is blowing, or the birds are singing, you can hear them while you’re sitting. Even if you wish to sit in complete silence right now, the sounds won’t stop just because you want them to stop, because they are not yours.

In fact, our thoughts and brain activity cannot be stopped just for our own convenience. Even when we feel pain or dislike, there is no way to stop it. So, people who commit suicide were, in a sense, overcome by it, or had no way to do anything about it. They could not bear something that they could not do anything about. It is not that they could not bear it because they are weak. They were faced with complete helplessness, and had no choice but to face it, so in a sense, they had a sharp sensitivity and a delicate heart. I think that is the reason. Sometimes I think that if a person who suffers that much had encountered Buddhism a little earlier, it might have been different, but sometimes things just cannot be helped. 

As for the activities which we think of as the mind, even those are not ours. If it is not for our convenience, if it is not something that we can change, then what is the self? Let us examine this carefully.

In Buddhism, there is an expression “no self.” Those who study Buddhism or yoga are probably familiar with these words. The Buddha used the term “anātman” to deny the idea of an image of absolute self, which was a common idea in India at the time. He preached the Dharma using the word anātman, which denies Ātman. Anātman is usually translated as “no self”, but a Buddhist scholar Hajime Nakamura theorized that translating it as “that, which is not self” would be closer and more appropriate than just “no self.” When I try to examine who I am, I look at my name, personality, body, mental processes, and so on, one by one, but there is nothing that I can point to and say with confidence that “this is me.” That, which is not self, that is anātman. 

However, if the term “anātman” (no self) takes on a life of its own, it can have the detrimental effect of leading to nihilistic thinking. Some people might think, if there is nothing, then surely it’s okay to do whatever you want. Or, if there is nothing, then surely there’s no point in doing anything. There’s no me, and there’s nothing more lonely than that. That is why Buddhism was initially perceived as a kind of nihilism in the West. If the term “no self” takes on a life of its own, then things like this will happen. I think that this is the precise reason why Professor Hajime Nakamura argued that it would be more appropriate to use the term “that, which is not self.”

The Buddha said, “Be a light unto yourself; Let Dharma be your light” These words appear in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. It is said that these were the words Buddha left behind for his disciples right before he entered Nirvāṇa. “Be a light unto yourself” means to live with yourself as a light. And “Let Dharma be your light” means to live and act with Dharma itself as a light. A direct translation from Sanskrit would be “to use yourself as an island and rely on it.” So, in the end, it means that there indeed is a Self that you should rely on. There is a “Self without self.” In other words, the phrase means to rely on your true Self, which is identical with Dharma. So, what is this Self in Dōgen’s phrase “To study the Buddha’s way is to study oneself”? This self is the Self which is identical with the truth, the true Self, the true mind. It is not the uncontrollable thoughts or unstoppable movements of the mind that I mentioned earlier, but the essential consciousness that goes beyond those. In Zen, this is called “honrai no menmoku” (original face) and is expressed in various other ways. However, it can also be expressed as a single character, “mu” – “emptiness.” This “emptiness” is not the nothingness of the dualistic opposition between existence and non-existence. It is not the emptiness of not existing. It is an absolute emptiness that transcends existence and non-existence. I will introduce this concept later, but “Buddha’s heart,” the heart of a Buddha, the heart as a Buddha, what Zen Master Dōgen called “Buddha’s Heart School,” is our essential being. There is an essential mind that is not swayed by any conditions or such. Awakening to this is the path of Buddhism and Zen.

In Zen tradition, we have the so-called Bōdhidharma’s four sacred phrases. They are “Furyūmonji” (not relying on words), “Kyōgebetsuden” (transmission outside the teachings), “Jikishinninshin” (pointing directly at the human heart), and “Kenshōjōbutsu” (seeing the true nature and becoming a Buddha). These succinct phrases express what Zen and Zen Buddhism have been advocating since ancient times. “Furyūmonji” (not relying on words) means that the truth cannot be expressed in words. “Kyōgebetsuden” (transmission outside the teachings) – teachings means sacred scriptures or words. The essence, however, is something that is transmitted outside of scriptures and teachings. “Jikishinshin” (pointing directly at the human heart), grasping the heart, which is the essence itself, and “Kenshōjōbutsu” (seeing the true nature and becoming a Buddha). “True nature” is also called Buddha nature, and by seeing it, one becomes a Buddha. In Zen, seeing one’s true nature is called kenshō. The tricky part is that when you hear the word “see,” it makes you imagine a dualistic world of something that sees and something that is seen. Perhaps it is better to say, you see things through the eyes of true nature itself, or nature itself appears, becomes manifest. Another expression would be that Buddha nature itself becomes manifest. Chinese Zen has used the word kenshō for this since ancient times. And finally, becoming a Buddha. “Jōbutsu.” In other words, “becoming the Way.”

There are many words such as the Way, Buddha, Dharma, or the Law of Buddhism, but please think of them as all the same thing. These all point to your original form. You meet that very thing, and appear as that very thing. It is also called “Dharmakāya.” It means appearing in this world as the body of Dharma itself. In traditional Buddhist terms, there is also the word “enlightenment.” Please think of it as the same thing as Nirvāna. Master Dōgen uses the expression “dropping off the body and mind.” The body and mind drop off. They fall. What you thought was your body, your consciousness, and what you thought was your mind falls away. So what is left? Everything that you thought was yourself falls off. In Zen, we often use the word “fall.” My master explained the term “dropping off the body and mind” in this way: “The chrysalis sheds off what it thought was its own body, and emerges as a butterfly.” That is “dropping off the body and mind.” Throw off everything, throw it away. The body and mind are falling away, but the butterfly is rising. 

Historically speaking, we say that the Zen scriptures, the lineage of Zen teachings, and the Dharma have been passed down from generation to generation since the Buddha, but in fact, nothing has been passed down. The word “pass down” is an expression which means to hand over from one person to another. Passing down something important from generation to generation, or passing on something from one person to another. People usually think that this is what it means to transmit the Dharma, but in fact, in Zen, we say “nothing has really been transmitted,” or “fuden no den” – ” transmission without transmission.” The Dharma has been transmitted without transmitting anything. In other words, a single individual has dropped off their body and mind. It is said that Shakyamuni first transmitted the Dharma to his fellow ascetics, but it is not that he taught them something and it was transmitted to them. He may have shared a certain method, such as, “If I do it this way, this will happen to me.” Or he may have conveyed some sort of practice. Traditionally, it is said that he had taught the way of observing the breath. It is called Anapanasati and is also passed down in the scriptures, so it may be that this specific method was passed down. But what was really passed down was that through this method, the person to whom it was passed down achieved enlightenment when they put it into practice. Their body and mind dropped off. And therefore, we can say that the truth was passed down. The Zen lineage, the lineage of Dharma, is a way of passing down liberation, or proving that the master was correct. Usually, if you are learning something, when you reach a certain standard, the teacher says, “You passed,” or “You now have a black belt,” and gives you a certificate, but Zen and Buddhism are actually a little different. The disciple recognizes the master by saying to the Buddha and the master, “You were telling the truth,” “You weren’t a liar,” and “When I did as you said, the same thing really happened to me as it happened to you.” The disciple confirms that the master was right, the same way I did with my master. “You passed. You weren’t a liar.” That’s how it has been done through generations.

But perhaps that is exactly the reason why the truth has been passed down unaltered through generations. If it were something like a telephone game, or something like a sacred scripture, it would change little by little over time. Because that is what usually happens with verbal teachings. For example the Japanese tea ceremony – what started with master Sen no Rikyū split into various schools with different teachings, the form and superficial explanation changed little by little. On the other hand, the Zen idea of non-reliance on words means that Zen is not something that is passed down as a form. As I said, each enlightened person has proven the Buddha was correct by putting the teachings into practice. That is what we call Zen Buddhism.

Now, I have said that there is an essential consciousness apart from what we usually think of as our mind or consciousness. As an easy-to-understand example, I sometimes use the analogy of a building. Think of it as a two-story building. Our essential consciousness, the Buddha mind which is never born and never dies, is the first floor. The second floor is where human identity is formed. That is what we call becoming conscious. 

When you look at a newborn baby, it is full of life, and it seems like it has no guard, or rather, it has no sense of self, so it is very soothing to look at. It feels like a manifestation of life itself. 

For now, I will call the first floor the floor of existence. As an existence and as consciousness itself, a baby is a Buddha, so to speak. It appears as Buddha itself. And then, the second floor is formed. A baby is given a name by its parents, becomes conscious, gradually learns various words, installs various ways of thinking and concepts, and from that a seemingly solid thing which says, “I am this kind of person” is formed. I think that as human beings, it is a process that we have to go through at least once in our lives. That’s the kind of creature I think humans are. So this state of consciousness, which is created in order to live, is what I call the floor of living. It’s created for the sake of living a human life. Let’s say for the moment that human consciousness is this two-story building. And that’s fine, because honestly, it would be a nuisance if people continued to act like babies even after they become adults. They would cry hoping that somebody will change their diapers. That’s why it’s necessary to use our skills as adults.

But the problem is that humans completely forget about the first floor. What happens then? It would be fine to live in a two-story building, moving freely between the two floors, but what if you think there is only the second floor? If you completely forget the existence of the first floor, you will be cut off from everything and will not be able to leave. The first floor is connected to the ground. So if there is another person next to you, you are connected. Although you are originally one with all other beings, your foundation is the state of consciousness that is one with everything, if you forget about the foundation, you will be cut off from everything and will just be in a state of floating in the air. You will become something which is separate from the world, a separate existence, a separate consciousness. Then you will lose sight of your true nature. In Buddhism, this state of losing sight of your true nature is called ignorance. It means not seeing things clearly.

However, although we have forgotten about the first floor, it has not disappeared. It never disappears. It was there from the very beginning. Rather, it was the second floor, which was built later, and is constantly changing. Zen is about remembering this first floor. It is a journey of realizing that we are the first floor itself. Although I used the word journey, in reality there is no distance. It is not something that is lost, nor is it something that we must obtain by doing something from now on. The consciousness of all of you listening to this lecture has always been this. It is this very thing itself.

There is a series of paintings called “The Ten Oxherding Pictures” which depicts the process of Zen training in ten stages. A person goes on a journey in search of a cow. In essence, it is a journey to find one’s true self. The painting depicts the stages of gradually catching the cow and learning how to ride it. The first floor is the original self, the cow. The self that is searching for the cow is actually the upper floor. The self is searching for itself. The cow and the person searching for it gradually become one, and the person gradually remembers this, they arrive at a stage where they come to understand that they were a part of this consciousness from the beginning. In the end, the person and the cow disappear at the same time. In other words, the division between “original” and “not original” had only been temporary.

In Buddhism, we say that “form is emptiness.” For the time being, let’s say that the top floor is “form.” And the bottom floor is “emptiness,” the world of truth, the real world. For the time being, we make a distinction between the true Self and the smaller self, because without that we could not begin to learn, but in the end, these two things are not separate. In reality, there is not even this boundary. The world of the ego, which we thought of as the second floor and which is created as an idea, is also an extension of the expression of life itself. That is the reason why we can say  “form is emptiness”. 

There was a Chinese Zen monk named Shitou Xiqian, an author of the text titled “Sandō Kai” (Cantongqi, “Merging of Difference and Unity”).” “San” in “Sandō Kai” means “form.” “Dō” means “emptiness,” and these two are becoming one, being harmonious. So ultimately, even the opposing concepts of what is truth and what is delusion, delusion and truth, and enlightenment, all of these must actually be dropped. And finally, you will understand that you were already liberated from the beginning. People, animals, mountains, rivers, buildings, everything was a Buddha from the beginning, and everything was perfect as it was.

The title of today’s lecture is  “Words left by Zen monks who do not rely on words.” “Not relying on words” means that the essential truth cannot be expressed in words. Zen monks throughout history have repeatedly asserted that this is one of the characteristics of Zen. However, if we look at Tripitaka, the collection of all the Buddhist canons in the world, and we classify the texts by the various schools, it is said that Zen texts are the most numerous. Zen monks talk the most. So in a sense, it feels a bit contradictory to the phrase “not relying on words,” but I prepared various texts left by famous Zen monks and divided them into several categories. In this lecture, I will not look carefully at one particular text, but rather would like to examine the sayings of monks from different eras, both in Japan and China, throughout the long history of Zen, and see what is the essential teaching behind them.

First, what is Zen? “Zen is the buddha mind. The precepts are its outer marks; the teachings are its explanation; chanting is its device. These three spiritual practices have all come from the buddha mind. Therefore, this school represents the root.” These are the words of Shōichi Kokushi, the founder of the Tōfukuji Temple. In the very first sentence, he says, “Zen is the buddha mind.” As I just explained, the buddha mind is the ground floor of consciousness, our original consciousness. It is the Buddha’s heart of the Buddha’s heart school as described by Zen Master Dōgen. (The character “shin” can be translated into English as both heart and mind.) Zen was just another name for the Buddha’s heart itself, not a practice of zazen, nor is it a name of a sect, but it is another name for our original self, our original consciousness.

There are various theories about the origin of the word “Zen”, one states that the Indian word “Dhyana” became “Zenna” in China and was shortened to Zen, or that Dhyana was pronounced “Jian” in a certain Indian dialect, eventually becoming Zen. There is also the word Samadhi. In yoga, Dhyana and Samadhi may be used differently, but in Zen and Buddhism, they are often used as synonyms. So it is possible to say that the Chinese translation of Samadhi and Zen have the same meaning. They can also be used to describe a state of deep meditation. A tricky part about studying Buddhism is that one word can be used in various meanings, so you need to look closely at the context.

The second sentence by Shōichi Kokushi is “The precepts are its outer marks.” This points to the monastic precepts or rules. They are the outer appearance, therefore only temporary. When a monk dresses in his robes, it is also an outer appearance. “The teachings are its explanation,” that’s quite straightforward. “Chanting is its device” means various chantings and also reading sutras. “These three spiritual practices have all come from the buddha mind.” – In Buddhism, there are various rules concerning reading certain sutras, or rules for daily life, but all of these are means to enter samadhi. Or they are performed as a manifestation of that samadhi itself. “These three spiritual practices have all come from the buddha mind. Therefore, this school represents the root.” 

So what exactly is this root? In contemporary Japanese, the word “religion” (shūkyō – a word consisting of two Chinese characters meaning “origin” and “teaching”) is often used as a synonym for religious faith, but it seems that it has actually come to have that meaning only since the Meiji period (1868-1912). A man named Nishi Amane used the word “shūkyō” to translate the foreign word “religion” into Japanese. However, the term “shūkyō” was originally a term used by the Zen school. Although there are many different Buddhist sects, it can be that Zen represents the very core of Buddhism, and so the word “shūkyō” (“origin teaching”) was used as a synonym for Zen in the past.

Next is “All beings by nature are Buddha, as ice by nature is water; Apart from water there is no ice, apart from beings no Buddha.” I think most people will understand this quote, and many of you may already know it. “All beings” means all living beings, and in the narrowest sense, I think it can also mean us humans. We are all originally Buddha, not only Shakyamuni or the Zen masters, or other great monks of the past. The very fact that we exist here as humans, means that we are manifesting ourselves as Buddhas. To be a human being means that there is the second floor, which I mentioned earlier. And the fact that we have a second floor means that we also have a first floor. “Like water and ice, apart from water there is no ice, apart from beings no Buddha.” Here, we see an analogy of water and ice, the latter describing the state of being and consciousness of a person who has lost sight of their true self, in other words, a state in which their ego is rigidly frozen. They are in a state of separation from other people, a state of separation which cannot blend with water. When the ice melts, it can blend with the original water. The Japanese word “hotoke” – “Buddha” seems to come from the word “hodokeru” (to dissolve). When the mass that is the ego-self dissolves, there is no mass anymore. That is Buddha.

Now, let us dive a little bit deeper. “Zen is the Buddha’s heart.” The Buddha’s heart can be expressed in many different terms, such as Buddha nature, law, Dharma, no mind, or nothingness. First of all, the question is, “What is intrinsic Buddha nature?” What is the original, essential Buddha nature, the essence of what we are? “The answer is, all living beings have an intrinsic nature, and this nature is never born and never dies, everlasting and unchanging. Therefore, it is called intrinsic self-nature. The Buddhas of the three existences and all living beings have this nature as their original Dharmakāya.” “All living beings have an intrinsic nature.” – All living beings have an essential nature. It is a nature that manifests itself. “This nature is never born and never dies.” – It is neither born nor can it be destroyed. “It is everlasting and unchanging,” – it is eternal. “Therefore, it is called intrinsic self-nature.” – That is why it is called our essential nature. “The Buddhas of the three ages” – the three ages meaning the past, present and future. We say that there have been Buddhas since the beginning that never began, long ago, long ago, all the way into the eternal future. And all living beings, even those who are not awakened, so-called ordinary people, “have this nature”, the Buddha nature itself “the original Dharma body”, their true form. The word “dharma” can be translated in various ways, depending on the context, we can simply understand it as “teaching” or “truth”. It can also be translated as “existence”, “event”, “phenomenon”, and so on. In this context, let us use the word “truth”. Think of it as the “true form”, our true nature, the first floor of the building.

If you have studied Buddhism before, you probably know that the Buddha spoke of “no self”. If he denied the existence of Ātman (self), some people may wonder if this contradicts the idea of eternity. Then, there are also the terms “no self” and “true self”. In some religions, the true self may be called God. You may wonder, doesn’t the Buddhist teaching about no self clash with such ideas? As I said before, the Buddha said “Be a light unto yourself; Let Dharma be your light,” meaning that the original self should be your light, so we can see that Buddha never denied the existence of the original self. However, our essential consciousness is not something that can be pointed at. It cannot be seen, grasped, or smelled. Why? If you see something and think, “This is my true nature”, you can only do so if there is a distance from that “true nature”. You can see something only if there is distance between the observer and that which is being seen – that is what seeing is.

For example, suppose you find something that you can see and say, “This is my true nature.” Then, who is the person that found it? The one who is looking at that true nature is your true nature, right? This is getting complicated, but to use a simple example, can you see your own eyes? No, you cannot. It is impossible to “see your own eyes with your own eyes”, because there is no distance. Because it is itself. So when essential consciousness truly appears, there will be no one looking at that true nature. The observer looking at that nature itself will fall off. We often explain enlightenment as “the falling off of the ego.” There is no person, so the term “no-self” is an expression from that perspective. There will no longer be anyone looking at yourself. The consciousness of looking at your consciousness will disappear. 

Let us move on. “Great indeed is the Heart! Heaven’s height is immeasurable, but the Heart rises above Heaven. The earth’s depth is also unfathomable, but the Heart reaches below the Earth.” So what exactly is the Buddha heart? What does Dharmakāya mean? This is a quote from Zen Master Eisai (Yōsai), the founder of Kenninji Temple. “Great indeed is the heart.” It is something of infinite size. Think of this “great” in a way that there is no limit. There is no comparison. For example, the Chinese character “dai” (big) can be expanded as much as you want if you keep stretching out the lines, but the Buddha heart is so large that it cannot be expressed by this character even if we expanded it to the maximum. It is bigger than the height of the heavens or the sky, which cannot be measured. It is also larger than the depth of the earth, which cannot be measured. 

Let us look at one more quote. It is from Zen Master Dōgen. “And just what is this wondrously pure, bright mind? It is the great earth with its mountains and rivers, along with the sun, the moon, and all the stars.” The Buddha mind is pure and bright. It is the mountains, the rivers, this earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars that shine in the night sky. So is the concept of mind that appears in these quotes left by ancient Zen masters the same as the “mind” that we normally think of? Or is it something different? 

Our true nature, our consciousness, our mind, is limitless. It is incredibly large. Usually, when we talk about size, when we say something is big or this is small, we compare it to something else and say “this is bigger than that.” That is the relative size in comparison to something else. However, the Buddha mind, that is being referred to as the “great mind,” is something so vast that it even swallows up the sun, moon, and stars. The size of that mind is impossible to compare to anything else. In other words, it means that there actually is no mind, that it is zero. That is why Zen sometimes uses the word “no mind.” It means that when everything that we think of as the mind has fallen off, there is no object which can be pointed to and called the mind. That is the meaning of “no self”. Nothing is bigger than emptiness. Nothing is bigger than zero. The so-called “true self” or “no self” are actually just two ways to describe the same thing. An Indian saint might call it love, or bliss. Some people might express it as light. The term light is also commonly used in Zen and Buddhism, as light has no form.

Let us look at another quote, this one is by the Chinese master Huangbo Xiyun: “All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists.” It is similar to the previous quote, however, here, the word “one mind” is used instead of the term Buddha mind. There is nothing else, only this consciousness. “This Mind, which is without beginning, is unborn and indestructible. It is not green nor yellow, and has neither form nor appearance. It does not belong to the categories of things which exist or do not exist, nor can it be thought of in terms of new or old. It is neither long nor short, big nor small, for it transcends all limits, measures, names, traces and comparisons. It is that which you see before you—begin to reason about it and you at once fall into error. It is like the boundless void which cannot be fathomed or measured. The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between the Buddha and sentient beings.” A lengthy passage like this may seem a little confusing, but it is essentially the same as what I have been talking about so far. This one mind, the Buddha mind, is neither born nor destroyed, and has no color – blue or yellow. It has no form or shape. It does not belong to existence or nonexistence, it is neither existing nor nonexistent. Therefore, not viewing the Ātman as an object means that if there is such a thing as an Ātman, and at the same time if there is nothing outside that is looking at the Ātman, that is, if you are not divided, you cannot point to it. If the true self really appeared, you would not be able to point to it and say “this is it.” Therefore, there is no such thing as “is”. It is beyond existence and nonexistence. ” It cannot be thought of in terms of new or old” – it is neither new nor old. It is neither long nor short, neither big nor small. “It transcends all limits, measures, names, traces and comparisons” – it is not limited by anything and leaves no footprints. “Begin to reason about it and you at once fall into error” – if you think “this must be it,” it actually means you are wrong. It is something that you cannot point to. Therefore, it cannot be found by searching. Sometimes it is compared to a game of hide-and-seek. It is a journey of self-exploration in which you search for your true self. You search hard for who you truly are, but all you find is that which is not the true you. You play hide-and-seek with your friends, and you find them. But all you find is not you, the one searching. So, “if you begin to reason about it, you at once fall into error.” It is not something that appears as an extension of your thoughts, or something that you can acquire by thinking about this and that. “It is like the boundless void which cannot be fathomed or measured.” This void can also represent the universe itself or nothingness without limits. In Zen, the true self, the Buddha heart, or the Buddha nature is sometimes expressed as void. The void has no form, so it is not limited. It is infinitely large. That is where the phrase “Great indeed is the Heart!” comes from. “It cannot be fathomed or measured. The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between the Buddha and sentient beings.” It is something that cannot be measured, and “this one mind” is what we call the Buddha, and it transcends things like enlightened masters or saints of the past, all beings enlightened or not. It is something which does not change at all. 

Zazen is said to be the core of all Zen practices. “The school of seated Zen is the way of the great liberation. All the various dharmas flow out from this gate; all the myriad practices are mastered from this way. The mystic functions of wisdom and psychic powers are born from within it; the life of men and gods have opened forth from within it.” Zazen is the path which is directly connected to the Buddha’s enlightenment. “All the various dharmas flow out from this gate.” – I think here, the word “dharma” should be understood in the meaning of “existence” rather than “truth” or “teaching.” All dharmas, all existence, “flow out from this gate,” the gate meaning the gate of the origin, in other words, Zen. They all emerge from there. “All the myriad practices,” meaning all the practices of various religions, also emerge from there. “The mystic functions of wisdom and psychic powers” also emerge from there. The “life of men and gods,” the inhabitants of the heavenly world and the human world, as well as all other living things, are manifestations of this. Therefore, the essential consciousness does not exist within humans. The body and mind that we think of as ourselves, as well as all other people, beings, and phenomena, exist within the essential consciousness. Therefore, no matter how much we search within this body, we cannot find the true self.

“If you abandon delusion and return to the truth,” are the words of Bōdhidharma. “If you sit still as the manifestation of the Truth (“hekikan”), abiding in a state of oneness, where self and other, common and holy are equal, and furthermore, if you remain unmoved even by (sacred) scriptures, you will be directly integrated with the Truth, every discrimination will stop, and you will enter a calm and unconditioned state. This is what we call entrance by principle.” I will explain this using the example of the first and second floor from earlier. “Abandon delusion and return to the truth,” – throw away what is deceiving you and what is blinding you, “return to the truth,” and return to your original self. Let us abandon the second floor and go back to the first floor. “Sit still as the manifestation of the Truth (“hekikan”)” – here, Bōdhidharma uses the characters for “wall” and “contemplation,” which basically means the practice of zazen. In the Sōtō school of Zen, it is customary to sit facing the wall, and in the contemporary Rinzai school, the monks sit facing the middle of the room, but in fact, the Rinzai school also used the practice of sitting face to the wall until around the 18th century. However, Bōdhidharma’s “hekikan” does not refer to the physical posture facing the wall. In fact, the wall itself is the observer, it is just an analogy which refers to your true self. The wall itself doesn’t make a sound, does it? It is just there, without any planning. This wall doesn’t try to do anything. So I say, sit as you are, sit as your true nature. Your true nature has no planning or anything. It isn’t even trying to do anything. There is an expression “mui jinen” (non-action nature). It is non-action itself. Your true nature is not doing anything. So please abide in your true nature. Sit in peace with your true self. That means to observe the world as it is, as your true self.

Let us get past the difficult words. “Abide in a state of oneness, where self and other, common and holy are equal.” Here, “self, others, common and holy” means going beyond self and others, enlightened and unenlightened. Just continue to abide there. Continue to abide at the first floor itself. Simply remain there, as life itself, as consciousness itself. “Remain unmoved even by scriptures,” do not cling to scriptures or words or such, instead “be directly integrated with the Truth,” meaning to become one with Dharma, the truth itself, a mysterious union, a quiet oneness with your original self. Please think of “entering a calm and unconditioned state” as the nature of the wall itself. Many people may think that “entering a calm and unconditioned state” means that your thoughts become quiet, but that is just thinking from the human ego perspective. In reality, it goes beyond that. It has already been quiet from the beginning. It is a wall, so it does nothing. 

This is the oldest Zen text still in existence in the world. Although it contains the teachings of  Bōdhidharma, it was only discovered some 100 years ago, so quite recently. Although we did have some sayings attributed to Bōdhidharma in the past, actual Bōdhidharma’s teachings have only been studied quite recently. It is interesting, isn’t it, that the teachings of the original founder of Zen used to be unknown. “This is what we call entrance by principle.” means the fundamental way of reaching the truth. The title of this text is the “Discourse on the Two Entrances and Four Practices.” Originally, it did not have a title, but when the text was summarized in later stages, this became the official title. “Entrance by principle” is the fundamental principle of practice. It is like a principle, or a method of reaching the truth. The second entrance mentioned in this text is “Entrance by practice”, in other words, entering the truth through action. It is about putting the principles of “Entrance by principle” into practice in daily life, and it is divided into four parts, the Four Practices. That’s why it’s called the “Discourse on the Two Entrances and Four Practices.” Entrance by practice is directly connected to daily life itself, and it says that you should live your daily life as meditation, as zazen. I think it is very close to the concept of karma yoga.

Next, “Externally, stop all karmic involvements; internally, have no mental agitation; and make your mind like a wall. By doing this, you can enter the way.” These are the words attributed to Bōdhidharma which were written down by a Chinese monk named Guifeng Zongmi. Because Guifeng Zongmi was not Bōdhidharma’s contemporary, I think these are probably words that were passed down among Bōdhidharma’s disciples. Here too, the analogy of “mind like a wall” is used, so I think this expression was probably often used in the early days of Zen.

Next, “Mind exists as fences and walls; it never gets muddy or wet, and it is never artificially constructed.” This is a quote from Zen Master Dōgen, who also likens the mind to a wall. It has never been tainted by muddy water, and has never been constructed or manipulated. It is something that has never done anything, simply exists there and continues to exist. 

In Zen, there are many other analogies, which describe the mind, besides a wall. Sometimes it is likened to a mirror. A mirror does not create anything, but if you put something in front of it, it is reflected, and if you put something else, then that is reflected. And if you move the reflected object away, it leaves no trace. Our essential consciousness is the same, it does not grasp anything. There is a consciousness which cannot be attached to anything from the beginning, and does not grasp anything. While not grasping anything, it accepts everything that is reflected as it is. It accepts everything.

Now please think carefully. You are all listening to my talk right now, but your ears are also picking up sounds other than my voice. If a car is driving outside, you can hear the car. If the air conditioner is on, you can hear the air conditioner. In fact, our consciousness, the world of the five senses, which is called the “six roots” in Buddhism, also accepts everything. The same goes for the eyes. If you focus your consciousness and turn your attention to the monk in front of you, who is opening and closing his mouth, you will have the recognition that “there is a person there.” The recognition that “someone is talking,” “a monk is talking,” and “this person seems to be called Taiseki Isobe” are the basis for a story, but before that is born, that is, before you recognize that “Ah, there is a person here,” your eyes have already taken everything in. In fact, the function of the six roots of a human being, the six roots being the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, as mentioned for example in the Heart Sutra, the five senses plus consciousness, are considered the gateway to reaching your true self. Therefore, we use these as a tool in our practice. The ordinary human activities and actions, such as seeing things with your eyes and hearing sounds with your ears, are actually directly connected to enlightenment. This essential mind can be likened to a wall, a mirror, the void, and many other things. A mirror never looks into itself. It just reflects something outside of itself, so it can also be used as an analogy. In Yogācāra philosophy, it is called “great round mirror wisdom,” the wisdom of a large, round mirror. I think that is also a good analogy.

“Think the bottom state of not thinking. How can the state of not thinking be thought? It is non-thinking” – Contemplate the bottom of no thought. How do you contemplate the bottom of no thought? By non-contemplation. You don’t understand, do you? It’s fine, it’s normal to not understand. Think of this as a wall, too. The wall is not thinking about anything. It just continues to be there without any intention. So, I want you to think of your thoughts as something that is happening outside. They are not yours. You try talking to the wall. “Hey!” and so on. But the wall doesn’t reply at all, it doesn’t even budge. So even if your thoughts are chattering away in your head, just let them be and sit. That is the essential technique of zazen.

“Externally, for the mind to refrain from forming thoughts with regard to all the good and bad realms is called ‘sitting’. Internally, to see the motionlessness of the self-nature is called ‘Zen’.” Although the author made a tentative distinction between outside and inside, ultimately speaking, there is really no inside or outside. In other words, everything is outside, and conversely, everything is inside, so please take this as a mere explanation for practitioners. Do not decide for yourself that “this is good” or “this is bad” regarding the outside, external things, and phenomena. Do not think anything of it. The same goes for your own zazen. Regarding the state of zazen, know that there is no good zazen or bad zazen. Just leave your zazen there as if it were someone else’s. Just leave it alone. That is what we call zazen. In that way, consciousness itself is sitting. Sitting is not a form. And “to see the motionlessness of the self-nature is called ‘Zen’” This may sound like an expression which separates the self-nature from the moving mind, but the truth is that there is nothing to be moved because you have already become your true self. The true self is being manifested, and this is called Zen. In other words, the Buddha mind itself is called Zen. Zazen is not about sitting in a certain posture, or breathing in a specific way, it is the Buddha mind itself always sitting there, Zen is always sitting there. Zazen is sitting there as Zen itself, as your true self. So, while we usually think of zazen as a way of practice, it is actually the result itself. In the words of Zen Master Dōgen, “Zazen is Zazen.” Zazen is not a method, a technique, or a way of practice. It is the manifestation of the Dharma itself, the result itself. That’s what it means. So, whether you are doing zazen for the first time today or have been doing it for ten or twenty years, zazen is already Dharma at the very moment. It is the truth. To put it more simply, Zen is always sitting, even if you are not doing zazen physically.

Finally, let us take a quick look at some famous Zen sayings, words of monks who have actually realized the Dharma. These are the words of people who have reached the goal of the Zen path. So far, I think we have been talking about the principles of Buddhism, what Zen is, and how to do Zazen, but now let us look at what it means to be a person who embodies the Dharma.

“Every day is a good day,” is a phrase by Yunmen Wenyan. People who practice the tea ceremony know these words well, as it is a commonly used phrase on hanging scrolls which decorate the tea rooms. Even if you do not practice the tea ceremony, it is a famous phrase in Japan. “Every day is a good day.” I want you to feel the greatness of the phrase. Not only Buddhist monks, many people would like to think that there is no good or bad in life, but I think it is very difficult to fully believe in this. Even if you learn this way of positive thinking and try to incorporate it into your life, try to act in such a way, it is not easy to do so, and even if you are able to master such a way of thinking, you end up always having to remind yourself of that. For example, you keep telling yourself, “It’s good no matter what, everything is all right.” In other words, you need to continue confirming that it is good no matter what, and this actually ends up limiting you. If you truly live in a state where everything is good no matter what, then surely there would be no need to keep checking whether things are good. In Zen, we say, “It’s better if there’s not even the good things.” No one is normally conscious of the existence of air, and no one is constantly conscious of the fact that they will eat dinner when they get home today. No one is constantly thinking about the sun rising in the morning. It’s just a given. So ultimately, we have to become free even from things like Buddhism, Dharma, and the ultimate truth. We have to be free from things like Zen and zazen. I think that only when we get to that point can we truly say, “Every day is a good day.”

“Followers of the Way, as to Buddha Dharma, no effort is necessary. You have only to be ordinary, with nothing to do—defecating, urinating, wearing clothes, eating food, and lying down when tired. Fools laugh at me, but the wise understand.” There is nothing special about Dharma. Just be present within your true self. Go to the toilet, put on clothes, eat food, and when you feel sleepy, lie down. These are obvious things, that is Dharma. Foolish people might laugh, but if you are truly enlightened, you will know that these are truly noble things. These are the words of Linji Yixuan.

Linji also said, “Just make yourself master of every situation, then every place you stand is the truth.” Here, the word master signifies the true self, and if you realize it, then everywhere you stand is true, everything is a place of truth. There is no need to go deep into the mountains of India. There is no need to go to the Himalayas. There is no need to go deep into the mountains of China, or to a monastery. Your everyday life itself is a place of truth.

“Realize that the eyes are horizontal and the nose is straight, and you will not be deceived by others.” Zen master Dōgen said that he realized that the eyes are horizontal and the nose is vertical. What exactly did he realize through practice? The eyes are horizontal, the nose is vertical. Flowers are red, willows are green. It’s a very obvious thing, but when you realize the true meaning of these words, you will not be deceived by anyone.

“The comings and goings / Of the waterfowl / Leave no trace, / Yet the paths it follows / Are never forgotten.” Birds fly through the sky, leaving no trace behind. This is an expression of a state of consciousness that embodies the Dharma. I gave the example of a mirror earlier. If you reflect one thing and then the other, nothing is left behind. It is the same thing. Once you become one with the Dharma itself, you stop leaving any traces behind. In this poem, it is expressed as a waterfowl. But it doesn’t mean that you forget the way. It’s not that enlightened people become useless. They live a proper human life. While embodying the consciousness of a Buddha, they can also live as a human being. They are both human and Buddha. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Shakyamuni Buddha also said something similar.

“Knowest thou that leisurely person of the Way who has gone beyond learning and is not exerting himself in anything? He neither endeavours to avoid idle thoughts, nor seeks after the Truth.” These are the words of Master Yongjia. “Have you met him?” The person who has stopped learning, who has stopped searching for the Truth. A person who has returned to Zen, which is not doing itself, and to the true Self, which is identical with Zen itself. “Leisurely person of the Way” – a truly free person. A person on the path of freedom, a person on the path of quietness. “He neither endeavours to avoid idle thoughts nor seeks after the Truth” – for example, when doing zazen and thoughts start to appear, this person doesn’t even think that this is not good and that they need to stop thinking. Even the actions which they had previously thought were delusional or discernible, are actually part of the expression of the truth. There is nothing to throw away. And the person does not even feel the need to look for the truth again. That is the true meaning of these words.

“A person who sees, hears, and perceives without a subject is called a living Buddha.” There is no subject, there is no self, and one sees, hears, and knows without the presence of ego. There is no center called “I.” There is no center anywhere. However, as you probably figured out by now, this absence does not belong to the dualistic world view of existence and non-existence. This is called Buddha. 

“Die while alive, and be completely dead, then do whatever you will, all is good.” Someone who has attained enlightenment through Zen is also called a “person at the bottom of the great death.” A person who has completely annihilated their ego consciousness, who has completely annihilated the consciousness of their self, is called a “person at the bottom of the great death.” In the old days, Zen masters would probably only give their students this kind of instruction – “Go and die, die on the meditation cushion” – that would be their whole teaching. All they had to do was make you sit. Nowadays, with the times we live in, there are fewer people who are able to sit patiently, so I think teaching the way to live is also necessary. “Die while alive, and be completely dead” sounds a bit scary, doesn’t it?

The next quote starts off on a more bright note: “Oh, how easy it is to live in the void as my home, I will sleep alone with mt. Sumeru as my pillow.” Returning to one’s original self is sometimes called “returning home and sitting peacefully.” I sometimes say that this is a journey to return to oneself. When you return to yourself, there is no need to search for home any more. Ah, I’m finally home. I think everyone enjoys traveling, but when you come back from a trip and take a break at home, you feel relieved, don’t you? That’s it. Relief, “Oh, how easy it is to live in the void as my home,” These words by Zen master Ikkyū mean that there is no need to search for home any more.

Now that you have been showered with so many Zen texts at once, please forget everything that just happened. Let us sit down and meditate. The truth is not dependent on words. This is where the real action begins. If you have a flat cushion, place it under your buttocks, and fold it in half. If you are used to sitting on a flat surface, you don’t need to fold it, but it may be easier to sit if you fold it. Now cross your legs. You can choose either your right or left leg, choose the leg that is easiest to lift and place it on the base of the opposite thigh. If you can cross your legs deeply, lift them up high. If you can’t cross your legs, it’s fine to do it shallowly. You can then cross your opposite leg and sit in full lotus position. You can cross both legs or one leg. If that feels too difficult, you can sit in a simple cross-legged position. You can also sit in seiza position on your knees. Once you have decided how to cross your legs, sit up, stretch your back straight up, and stretch the back of your neck as if you are lifting the ceiling with the top of your head. You can imagine that you are being lifted on a thread from above. Or feel as if you are stretching comfortably upwards. Then, relax. Place your hands on your knees and sway your body from side to side. Gradually reduce the movement and stop at a comfortable point. Then, breathe in once through your nose, stop at a comfortable point, and exhale through your mouth. Inhale again and exhale. Once more. Inhale and exhale. Now close your mouth, place your tongue at the base of your upper front teeth, and breathe quietly through your nose. Next, your hands. In front of your stomach, roughly in front of your belly button, place your right hand down and your left hand up, then join your thumbs to make a ring. This is called the Hokkaijō-in. Put this over your crossed legs or around your lower belly. There is no place better than the other, so just find a place that feels right. Do not put unnecessary tension in your shoulders, elbows, or fingers. Close your eyes halfway, then open them slightly. Gently look down at an angle. You will probably see the person in front of you, but just look at them without looking. Remember the analogy of the wall – just sit without doing anything, as if you were a wall. Then just feel your breathing, first focus your attention on your breathing. The breath during Zazen meditation is not a breathing technique. Just the breathing which occurs as a result of this zazen posture, just as your body wants to breathe, just as you want to breathe. Focus on your breathing as if you are entrusting yourself to it. Even if various thoughts, images, or emotions arise, do not pay any attention to them. The wall doesn’t pay any attention to such things. No matter how much you talk to yourself in your head, the wall won’t say a word. Sit like that for a while. If your attention strays from your breathing, bring it back to your breathing again. Don’t judge your zazen. The body and the breath are part of this nature, part of the activity of nature. They are not yours.

Today, you have listened to me for about two and a half hours, but there is nothing better than a single session of zazen. Zazen itself can guide you. The words I have shared with you today were spoken by our predecessors who have walked this path, so if you practice zazen, you will naturally come to understand the meaning of their words. In short, I would like you to prove the teachings of our past masters by practicing zazen yourself. What is written here is not something that only happens to other people. It is about you. Everyone, without exception. I hope that those who practice yoga, zazen, or other religions or practices will have an opportunity to use this as reference, so I hope that you will keep today’s talk somewhere in your mind.

Finally, if you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them. 

Earlier, someone asked about the difference between zazen and meditation. Well, I could say that they are the same thing, but meditation is a broader term, isn’t it? There are various kinds of meditation, some have specific names and so on. And there are also various purposes of meditation. Like contemplating the Buddha and doing something until the Buddha really appears, or working with energy and trying to achieve something with that energy. Zazen refers to the methodology that has been passed down in the Zen lineage, and at the same time, it tries to embody the enlightenment of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha. I think the term Zazen is used when we want to point out the essence of Buddhist meditation. So, if that is the purpose of a particular meditation technique, if returning to one’s true self is the goal, then I think it is safe to say that such a kind of meditation is synonymous with zazen. But, if the purpose is different, for example, you are sitting to simply feel relaxed, or contemplating the image of Buddha, I think that would be a different kind of meditation from zazen. So there is a difference in the meaning, yes.

(Question) Earlier you mentioned that the six senses lead to meditation and enlightenment. Could you explain this in more detail?

The six roots in Buddhism are the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. Although these are functions that we use on a daily basis, in fact, seeing with the eyes and hearing with the ears are all illusions. To put it simply. Now that I’ve said that we see with our eyes and hear with our ears, some of you may have become conscious of your eyes and ears, right? I don’t think you were conscious of seeing with your eyes or hearing with your ears until now. No eyes, no ears, no nose. In fact, all of this is done by the human brain, which is responsible for the recognition, and it creates the idea that “I see with my eyes.” But the fact is that you have already experienced it before confirming it. Right now, there is a cushion under your buttocks. I just said that there is a cushion under your buttocks, and I have just confirmed the sensation. But you must have been experiencing it all the time before that. There was no touch and there was no cushion. So, in reality, we are always one with the world, in oneness with it. That consciousness, which we may call the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, that is, the second floor part which is built later, creates the world of ideas such as “I am seeing something with my eyes”. Zazen is about returning to a place where you are in constant contact with things which existed before such recognition occurred. When you are sitting, if there is just a sound, it passes as soon as the sound ends. But if you start to think about the sound, the sound is still there, and an explanation or story about that sound is born. But in reality, everything flows as a phenomenon, as data. Zazen is like returning to that place. There is no recognition that you are seeing with your eyes or hearing with your ears. It is the original state of consciousness before recognition occurred. I think that babies probably see the world in that way. What should we do to reach that kind of state? Just don’t do anything. That’s what it means to sit like a wall, just don’t think about it in this way or that. Don’t make any judgments about your zazen. It’s something that just emerges naturally.

Let me give you an example. Suppose there is water and sand in a plastic bottle, and you stir it and then put it down. What is the best way to make the clouded water in the bottle turn into clear water again? Not moving it. That is zazen. The clear water is always there, but you cannot see it. By doing nothing, your essential consciousness will emerge. That essential consciousness is what you would have if you had no eyes, no ears, no nose. This might be a bit hard to understand at first, but practice and experience will teach you. Become one with things. 

There is also the expression “become one with sound.” When you hear a sound or see something, you might become one with it. The Buddha reached enlightenment when he saw the morning star at dawn and became one with the star. His consciousness dropped, his body and mind dropped away. How can we make that happen? Do nothing. Just sit. Sit like a wall.

What should I do to achieve that? Please don’t ask. People are constantly doing something during zazen. They think, if I do this, this thing might happen, or if I do more of that, this kind of result will appear, or this way is no good, this isn’t zazen. And where exactly is the truth, is it somewhere around here? I think you will begin to see the various states of your own mind. That is true self-exploration. So, what is your true self? Well, you need to practice zazen and find it.