 |
Fukanzazengi:
How Everyone Can Sit
by
Eihei Dogen zenji
translated by Yasuda Joshu roshi
and Anzan Hoshin roshi
(published in Progress Into the Ordinary, Great
Matter Publications, 1986
and
Chanting Breath and Sound, Great Matter Publications, 2001
and
will appear in the forthcoming book
Dogen:
Zen Writings on the Practice of Realization)
P rimordial Awareness is in essence perfect and pervades everywhere. How could it
be dependent upon what anyone does to practice or realize it? The movement of Reality does
not need us to give it a push. Do I need to say that it is free from delusion? The vast
expanse of Reality can never be darkened by the dust of presumptions. Who then could
believe that it needs to cleaned of such dust to be what it is? It is never separate from
where you are, so why scramble around in search of it?
The thing is, if there is the slightest gap, sky and earth are ripped apart. If you give
rise to even a flicker of like and dislike, you lose your mind in delusion. Just suppose
you become puffed up about your understanding and inflate your little experiences: You
think you have seen the truth, attained the Way, recognized the luminosity of mind and can
grasp at heaven. You might think that these initial jaunts about the borders are entering
the realm of enlightenment but you've lost the Way of complete liberation.
May I point out the one from Jetavana, the Buddha, who was himself Primordial Awareness
and still sat for six years? And how about Bodhidharma transmitting the seal of Awareness
through doing wall-gazing at Shaolin temple for nine years? The echo of those is heard
even now. If this is how it was with the great ones and their diligence, then how about
you in your own practice? You should stop chasing understanding through juggling words,
allow the external seeking of your mind to collapse upon itself and light up your own
nature. Doing this, the bodymind will drop through itself spontaneously revealing your
Original Nature. If you wish to be realized in Suchness, immediately practice Suchness.
A quiet room is good for zazen. Eat and drink moderately, don't entangle yourself in
delusive relationships. Just leave such things to themselves. Don't think about good or
bad, right or wrong. Don't give rise to the mind's common concepts, the judging of
thoughts and observations. Don't sit to become an Awakened One because you can't
fabricate a Buddha out of sitting or lying down.
In the place where you practice spread out some thick matting and place a round cushion on
top of them. Sit on the cushion with your legs crossed in either the full lotus posture or
the half-lotus. This means place your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on
your right thigh, loosen your clothes and belt keeping them neat. Then put your right hand
palm up on your left foot and put your left hand in the palm of your right, the tips of
the thumbs touching lightly. Find your posture, leaning neither to right nor left, forward
or back. Your ears should be aligned with your shoulders, and from the front, your nose in
a direct line with your navel. Place your tongue against the roof of your mouth keeping
mouth and lips closed. Your eyes should be open and you should breathe gently through your
nose.
Once you have found your posture, breathe in and out deeply, sway left and right and then
settle firmly and steadily. Think of not-thinking. How do you think of not-thinking? Be
Before Thinking. These are the basics of zazen.
What I call zazen is not developing concentration by stages and so on. It is simply the
Awakened One's own easy and joyful practice, it is realized-practice within already
manifest enlightenment. It is the display of complete reality. Traps and cages spring
open. Grasping the heart of this, you are the dragon who has reached his waters, the tiger
resting in her mountains. Understand that right here is the display of Vast Reality and
then dullness and mental wandering have no place to arise.
Getting up from zazen move slowly and quietly. Don't just jump up. Looking at the past, we
see that transcending common and sacred, or being able to die while in zazen or standing
are all rooted in the power of this practice. It is impossible for words or thinking to
grasp how the old masters could seize the moment for disciples with a finger, pole, needle
or mallet, display Actuality with a whisk, a fist, a staff or a shout. Practising mystical
powers or thinking dualistically about practice and realization don't help in this either.
Practice and realization are the deportment of this very bodymind, beyond sight and sound,
before thinking and analyzing.
Since this is as it is, it doesn't matter if you're clever or stupid; the distinctions
distinguish nothing. Whole-hearted practice is the Way. Since realized-practice cannot be
stained, progress into the ordinary.
In this and all other worlds, in India or in China, every place is marked by the seal of
Awake Awareness. Upholding the essence of this Way, devote yourself to zazen, completely
do zazen. You might hear about ten thousand ways to practice but just be complete and sit.
What's the point of giving up your seat to go wandering around in dusty lands and
countries? Take a wrong step and you'll miss what's there.
You've got what you need, the treasure of this body and birth, so don't waste your time.
Keep to this as the basis of the Way of Awake Awareness. Don't be attracted by just a
spark from the flint. Anyway, your body is like dew on the grass, your life a flash of
lightning; vain for a moment and then vanished in an instant.
You who are in this excellent lineage of Zen, don't blindly grope only a part of the
elephant or fear the true dragon. Put all of yourself into this Way which directly
presents your own nature. Be grateful to those who have come before and have done what was
to be done. Align yourself with the enlightenment of the Awakened Ones and take your place
in this samadhi-lineage. Practice in this way and you'll be what they are. The doors of
the treasure house will fall open for you to do with as you will.
(1227
C.E.)
 
©
1999-2004 White Wind Zen Community. All rights reserved.
|
|