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translation by Robert Aitken Roshi from Diamond Sangha Sutra Book
The awakened one does not seek truth —
Does not cut off delusion.
Truth and delusion are both vacant and without form,
But this no-form is neither empty nor not empty;
It is the truly real form of the Tathagata.
Nyogen’s Comment from Buddhism and Zen -Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless
To assist you in the interpretation of the stanza above, I shall paraphrase a portion of Shin-jin-mei, a poem written by the Third Patriarch in China.
Truth is like vast space without entrance or exit.
There is nothing more nor nothing less.
Foolish people limit themselves covering their eyes but truth is never hidden.
Some attend lectures trying to grasp truth in the words of others.
Some accumulate books and try to dig truth from them.
They are all wrong.
A few of the wiser ones may learn meditation in their effort to reach an inner void.
They choose the void rather than outer entanglements, but it is still the same old dualistic trick.
Just think non-thinking if you are a true Zen student.
There you do not know anything, but you are with everything.
There is no choice nor preference, and dualism will vanish by itself.
But if you stop moving and hold quietness, that quietness is ever in motion.
If children make a noise, you will scold them loudly so that the situation is worse than before.
Just forget and ignore the noise, and you will attain peace of mind.
When you forget your liking and disliking, you will get a glimpse of oneness.
The serenity of this middle way is quite different from the inner void.
Shin-jin-mei (ch. Hsin Hsin Ming), usually rendered Verses on the Faith Mind, is unpacked by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi to mean “the verbal expression of the fact that the very nature of existence and of all the phenomenal world are no other than the faith mind.”
translation by Robert Aitken Roshi from Diamond Sangha Sutra Book
The form of these expressions is not to be taken lightly;
The treasure-staff of the Tathagata
Has left traces for us to follow.A bowl once calmed dragons
And a staff separated fighting tigers;
The rings on this staff jingle musically.
Nyogen’s Comment from Buddhism and Zen -Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless
Legend says that Buddha Sakyamuni conquered dragons making them so small that they stayed in his begging bowl. With his staff, a Zen master once stopped the fighting of two tigers and so saved them from killing each other. These stories are neither symbols nor miracles. When you attain the mani-gem, you too can perform the same deeds.
Where are the burdens of egoism you have carried for many years?
Where are the dualistic ideas that fight continously in your mind?
Look!
The moon rises above the river of Samsara. The wind plays the melody of Buddha-Dharma in the pines on the shore.
What is the meaning of this serenity? Now you have no burden of egoism nor discord of dualism.
Is this a miracle? Anyone can experience it if he has the courage to break his delusions and face himself as he had always been beyond tine and space.
The old blabber mouth gave away the goods. So much for working hard to catch a glimpse. 26th stanza’s koan solved! Not really. Grandma wasn’t kidding about concealing nothing, but then if you don’t have it for your own you’re still in the dark counting someone else’s money.
translation by Robert Aitken Roshi from Diamond Sangha Sutra Book
The moon shines on the river,
The wind blows through the pines —
Whose providence is this long beautiful evening?
The Buddha-nature jewel of morality
Is impressed on the ground of my mind,
And my robe is the dew, the fog, the cloud, and the mist.
Nyogen’s Comment from Buddhism and Zen -Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless
The preceding stanza is a koan. You must work hard to catch a glimpse of it. If you think that I am hiding something from you, you are the guilty one. I am concealing nothing from you.
Does the Senzaki – McCandless translation reveal anything more?
The moon rises above the river,
The wind plays softly in the pines on the shore.
All night long. What is the meaning of this serenity?
You must see the precepts of Buddha-nature vividly imprinted.
Dew, cloud, and mist clothe the original man in full.
translation by Robert Aitken Roshi from Diamond Sangha Sutra Book
Since I abruptly realized the unborn,
I have had no reason for joy or sorrow
At any honor or disgrace.I have entered the deep mountains to silence and beauty;
In a profound valley beneath high cliffs,
I sit under the old pine trees.
Zazen in my rustic cottage
Is peaceful, lonely, and truly comfortable.When you truly awaken,
You have no formal merit.
In the multiplicity of the relative world,
You cannot find such freedom.
Self-centered merit brings the joy of heaven itself,
But it is like shooting an arrow at the sky;
When the force is exhausted, it falls to the earth,
And then everything goes wrong.
Why should this be better
Than the true way of the absolute,
Directly penetrating the ground of Tathagata?Just take hold of the source
And never mind the branches.
It is like a treasure-moon
Enclosed in a beautiful emerald.
Now I understand this Mani-jewel
And my gain is the gain of everyone endlessly.
Nyogen’s Comment from Buddhism and Zen -Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless
We devote ourselves to meditation in order to reach the root of the teaching. Do not ask me any foolish questions. First of all find out who you really are. The reflection of the moon on the water is beautiful, but the moon itself is ot there nor is its beauty lingering in the sky.
Thich Nhat Hanh unpacks this matter of identity even further. Spewing Zen dust he writes in his commentary on The Record of Master Linji Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go: Waking Up To Who You Are
We have our true person, but we don’t live with our true person, we don’t recognize our true person. We only live with the things we think are our true person. We live our whole life in this ignorance, thinking our feelings and our flesh are the sum total of our true person. Our true person has no position, is not inside or outside, is not tricked by birth and death, by coming and going, by having or not having, by what we do or don’t do. Whether we play chess, stay in bed all day, or meditate all night, this is not our true person.
Our true person can’t be found by means of our intellect, our reasoning. On this pile of red flesh there’s a true person. Anyone who hasn’t seen this person: look carefully. Live mindfully.
Live mindfully? Realized the unborn? Truly awake? True Person . . . True Man of no rank?
The master, taking the high seat in the hall said, “On your lump of red flesh is a true man without rank who is always going in and out of the face of every one of you. Those who have not yet confirmed this, look, look!”
Then a monk came forward and asked, “What about the true man without rank?”
The master got down from his seat, seized the monk, and cried, “Speak, speak!”
The monk faltered.
Shoving him away, the master said, “The true man without rank — what kind of dried piece of shit is he!” Then he returned to his quarters.
The Record of Linji (Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture)
One bag of shit says to another bag of shit, “Speak! Speak!“
translation by Robert Aitken Roshi from Diamond Sangha Sutra Book
Our teacher, Shakyamuni, met Dipankara Buddha
And for many eons he trained as Kshanti, the ascetic.
Many births, many deaths;
I am serene in this cycle, there is no end to it.
Nyogen’s Comment from Buddhism and Zen -Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless
Some people may be interested in past lives, but Zen students see life as an eternal presence. Stories of “incarnation” insinuate the idea of individual personality distorting the vision of truth seekers. When you extend time and narrow space, you will see Buddha Sakyamuni receiving Dhamma from Dipankara Buddha many millions of years ago, but when you extend space and limit time, you will see Ksanti, or perseverance, mastering human affairs. It is the actual business of the present moment. Until students of occultism understand this and come to their senses, spiritual gold-diggers will strike it rich here and abroad.
A clear seeing laywoman once put it to the Buddhist scholar Diamond-Shu like this when he entered her roadside snack shop.
She held out a bun and said, “If you can answer I’ll give you this tasty treat. In the Diamond Sutra it says there is no past, no future and no present, so with what hand do you take this snack?”
Diamond-Shu, the acclaimed authority on the Diamond Sutra, was gap mouthed, unable to answer.
Had he practiced the Way, instead of reading and studying about the Way, he would have been able to get that tasty snack in the same manner it was offered.
She is still holding that tasty treat. What hand will you use?
translation by Robert Aitken Roshi from Diamond Sangha Sutra Book
Walking is Zen, sitting is Zen;
Speaking or silent, active or quiet, the essence is at peace.
Even facing the sword of death, our mind is unmoved;
Even drinking poison, our mind is quiet.
Nyogen’s Comment from Buddhism and Zen -Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless
Meditation is practiced in four ways. First, your mind and body are still. This is the source of all of your Zen actions. Second, your body is still but your mind moves, as in reading or listening to a lecture. Third, your mind is still but your body moves, as in walking. Fourth, your mind and body move as you do your work in daily life. Thus, at each moment a good Zen student experiences the Mind-Essence at ease.
Senzaki renders ‘drinking poison’ as taking drugs. “Nor can drugs alter his calm” Beside the long list of obvious modern chemical and electronic distractions there’s the subtler point – anything can be used as poison. Old Schooll way of saying: samsara is nirvana . . . nirvana ir samsara.
Beside sitting, standing and walking, some old worthies add shitting and pissing to the zen to do list. Some things can not be delegated. For me that includes rolling the trash out on Wednesday eve. Endless practice. Endless trash.
translation by Robert Aitken Roshi from Diamond Sangha Sutra Book
I wandered over rivers and seas, crossing mountains and streams,
Visiting teachers, asking about the Way in personal interviews;
Since I recognized the Sixth Founding Teacher (Hui Neng) at Ts’ao Ch’i,
I know what is beyond the relativity of birth and death.
Nyogen’s Comment from Buddhism and Zen -Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless
Although many of the koans and Zen stories are woven around traveling or secluded monks, nothing will be achieved by our clinging to and imitating these outward circumstances. A Zen student is neither a misanthropist nor a misogynist, so there is no need to shut himself up in some forest cabin or to avoid the opposite sex. He just controls his own environment and masters his situation wherever he stands.
In order to know the author of this poem intimately, we must remember the last line of the stanza, “Now I know my true being has nothing to do with birth and death.” This is your koan. How can you free yourself from birth and death? What is your true being? No, no! Do not think about it! Just gaze at it closely.
Finishing the koan curriculum is a lot like getting a Black Belt. When you start out, you believe you’ll attain mastery. At the end? You realize it’s only now you have the tools to truly begin.
The only koan that matters is you. -Ikkyu
translation by Robert Aitken Roshi from Diamond Sangha Sutra Book
When I consider the virtue of abusive words,
I find the scandal-monger is my good teacher.
If we do not become angry at gossip,
We have no need for powerful endurance and compassion.To be mature in Zen is to be mature in expression,
And full-moon brilliance of dhyana and prajna
Does not stagnate in emptiness.
Not only can I take hold of complete enlightenment by myself,
But all Buddha-bodies, like sands of the Ganges,
Can become awakened in exactly the some way.The incomparable lion-roar of doctrine
Shatters the brains of the one hundred kinds of animals.
Even the king of elephants will run away, forgetting his pride;
Only the heavenly dragon listens calmly, with pure delight.
Nyogen’s Comment from Buddhism and Zen -Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless
When a Zen student comes for Sanzen, he strikes the bell twice without the slightest fear. In that moment he transcends both birth and death; he is beyond space and time. What he says now comes directly from his own Buddha-nature and is called the “roar of the lion.” This does not mean that he shouts. He is not an empty radio turned on at full volume.
Sometimes a student will bring a bag full of answers, trying one after another to fit the question, but he is like a peddler in a vain attempt to please a customer. Instead of reaching the palace of wisdom, he will return to his old alley of blind faith with all the stray cats that symbolize superstition.
translation by Robert Aitken Roshi from Diamond Sangha Sutra Book
The best student goes directly to the ultimate,
The others are very learned but their faith is uncertain.
Remove the dirty garments from your own mind;
Why should you show off your outward striving?Some may slander, some may abuse;
They try to set fire to the heavens with a torch
And end by merely tiring themselves out.
I hear their scandal as though it were ambrosial truth;
Immediately everything melts
And I enter the place beyond thought and words.
Nyogen’s Comment from Buddhism and Zen -Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless
One night many years ago a blind man, visiting a friend, was offered a lantern to carry home with him.
“I do not need a lantern,” he said, “darkness and light are the same to me.”
“I know you do not need a lantern to find your way home,” his friend replied, “but if you do not take it, someone else may run into you. You must take it.”
The blind man took the lantern, but before he had gone very far, someone walked straight into him.
“Look where you’re going,” the blind man exclaimed. “Can’t you see this lantern?”
“Your candle has burned out,” the stranger answered.
Always be sure your candle is burning, both for your own safety and for the sake of others.
“A single spark lights your Dharma candle”, but all the effort to produce that spark is wasted if you do not stay alert. Ever mindful. Even the slights and insults of daily living are Dharma doors. Climbing the mountain of swords every cut reveals that “this very place is the Lotus Land and this very body the buddha”.
All things pass quickly away.
Each of us must be completely alert.
Never indulgent.
Never mind these words and phrases from Rohatsu Dai-Sesshin rattling around in this dogs skull. Find it for yourself.
Zen Stains: drinkin' & headed home 