Juniji-Hogo By Zen Master Daichi Sokei Zenji

Juniji-Hogo By Zen Master Daichi Sokei Zenji

What the buddhas and patriarchs have been properly transmitting is nothing but sitting. When you sit, hold your hands in hokkai join (cosmic mudra), cross your legs, keep your body upright without leaning; do not think of anything, do not be concerned with anything, not even the buddha dharma. This is beyond buddha, much less the cycle of life and death. Once you have thrown yourself into the ocean of the vows of the buddhas, just conduct yourself with the demeanor of the buddhas, and forget the attachment to your own body.

The demeanor of the buddhas means that once you enter a temple, you must not visit the homes of lay people; just practice according to the regulations of the temple. The regulations prescribe the conduct to be followed throughout the day and night, while living at the temple. If you spend a single day and night, practicing fully in accord with the regulations of the buddha patriarchs, one year, two years your whole life will be as the activities of a single day and night.

The day begins at the Hour of the Tiger (3 am). Get up when you hear the sound of the morning bell and drum, put on your kesa (robe), and sit zazen until the middle of the Hour of the Rabbit (6 am). If it is too long for you, ring the bell at the middle of the Hour of the Tiger (4 am), and sit until the middle of the Hour of the Rabbit (6 am). Spend the Hour of the Tiger free from the karma of life and death (samsara).

At the end of the Hour of the Rabbit, have gruel for breakfast. At the point, give up the mind of zazen. Concentrate on eating gruel; reflecting on the six paramitas tasting the six flavors (bitter, sour, sweet, hot, salty, and moderate) and chanting the ten benefits of eating gruel. Do not think of anything good, much less anything evil. When you have breakfast, just attend fully to the gruel, with both body and mind and do not be concerned with zazen or any other activities. This is called clarifying the time of gruel and realizing the mind of gruel. At this very time, you have a pure realization of the mind of the buddha patriarchs.

In the Hour of the Dragon (7 am), if it is still dark, practice as if it were the Hour of the Rabbit. The point of sutra chanting is just to hold the sutra book with both hands and to chant wholeheartedly, forgetting both zazen and the meal. Do not pay attention to anything else. This is called realizing and clarifying the chanting of the sutra. At that very time the karma of life and death is exhausted and you will enter the rank of the buddha patriarchs. After the practice of chanting, rest for a while. When you rest, be careful not to think or speak of meaningless worldly affairs.

From the middle of the Hour of the Dragon to the middle of the Hour of the Snake (8 am to 10 am), burn incense, ring the bell, and sit zazen. When doing zazen, cast off thoughts of both the buddha patriarchs and of good or bad in the secular world. Being free from thought and activity is called zazen. This is also called zanmai ozanmai (the king of samdhi). Sitting zazen for even a little while is the primary practice which goes beyond the pinnacle of buddhahood. The karma of life and death is exhausted enabling entry into the rank of the buddha patriarchs.

After zazen, rest until lunchtime. There are rules for this time of rest. Respect as you respect the Buddha those who are older than you, even if only by one year. Care for the sick as if they were your mother or father. Do not speak loudly, nor chat about meaningless worldly affairs. Do not foget about the impermanence of life and death, that you may die before you take your next breath. Conduct your self in accordance with the buddha dharma when you sit on the floor in the sodo (sangha hall), when you go out of the hall, when you walk, or when you talk quietly with people. These are the rules to follow while resting.

Have lunch at the beginning of the Hour of the Horse (11 a.m.). Remember the same points mentioned earlier in the case of breakfast; for then the karma of life and death will be exhausted and you will join the rank of the buddha patriarchs.

The time from the Hour of the Sheep to the middle of the Monkey (1 pm to 4 pm) is unscheduled. As I cautioned earlier, be careful not to forget that the matter of life and death is great, and things are impermanent and change very swift. You should lament having spent your time wastefully in an situation whatsoever. This is how to use your mind in the Hour of the Sheep. Then there will be no karma of life and death and you will join the rank of the buddha-patriarchs.

From the middle of the Hour of the Monkey to the middle of the Hour of the Chicken (4 pm to 6 pm), sit zazen. Remember my earlier advice on zazen. Then the karma of life and death will be exhausted and your body and mind will join the rank of the buddha patriarchs.

You may skip sutra chanting and have free time from the middle of the Hour of the Chicken (6 pm) to the beginning of the Hour of the Dog (7 pm). Do not worry about things except for the day's swift passing, and see that impermanence delays not even a moment. At that time, your body and mind are those of the buddha patriarchs.

Sit during the Hour of the dog (7 pm to 9 pm). Be alert as mentioned above. Then, the karma of life and death will be exhausted and your body and mind will be those of the buddha patriarchs.

You are free during the Hour of the Wild Boar (9 pm to 11 pm). Although this is free time, act in accordance with your aspiration and sit if you like, lie down if you like, or if you wish, return to the dormitory and take comfort in talking over the buddha dharma with others. These are the best things to do. Needless to say, a quiet atmosphere should be maintained if you sit. Also, if you return to the dormitory and lie down, do so as the Buddha did. Do not think of sleeping as a trifling thing compared to zazen or sutra chanting. The Buddha's sleeping posture is as follows; lie down on your right side and do not untie the belt of your robe. Do not think of the buddha dharma, much less of things having to do with life and death. Just sleep. Then, the karma of life and death is exhausted, and your body and mind are nothing but the buddha patriarchs.

According to Sakyamuni-Buddha, you should go to bed at the beginning of the Hour of the Mouse (11 pm) and get up at the beginning of the Hour of the Tiger (3 am). So the Hour of the Mouse is the time to sleep. It is also fine to sit zazen. When it is quiet in your hermitage at night and the moon is shinning brightly, it is excellent to sit on your sleeping mat. Even when sleeping you should do so as the Buddha did. At that time, the karma of life and death will be exhausted and your body and mind, lying down, will be buddha. In this way, you will not be spending the Hour of the Mouse wastefully.

During the Hour of the Cow (1 am to 3 am), you should deport yourself similarly. Your body and mind are buddha. Do not waste the Hour of the Cow. As I said above, both in sitting and in lying down, do not deviate from the Way of the Buddha. In this manner, you will be alert in the Hour of the Cow, the karma of life and death is exhausted and your body and mind are buddha. Both standing and lying down are nothing but enlightenment. It is a great mistake to think that you have to practice zazen sincerely but need not be sincere the rest of the time.

From the Hour of the Tiger to the end of the Hour of the Cow, one day and night, there is no time when you can deviate from the way of the practice of the Buddha. If you spend one day and night practicing in accordance with the way of the buddha patriarchs, twenty or thirty years, or your whole life will be nothing but this one day and night.

If you do not deviate from the teachings of the buddha patriarchs or your teacher, once you cease to hold your body dear and enter the ocean of the vow of the Three Treasures, your body and mind will be nothing but the buddha. The karma of life and death (samsara) is immediately exhausted and you will repay your debt to your parents. It is said that the Buddha practiced for many lives during immeasurable kalpas; yet it was nothing but the practice of one day and night. Just do not leave the temple and do not stay in the homes of lay people for even one day.

Therefore, practice (gyoji) is the Ozanmai (king of samadhis) of the buddha patriarchs. If you really wish to become buddha in this present life, just practice continuously.

Dojo Cleaning

The teaching of cleaning the dojo is multilayered. Our teaching is based on postures and movements of wholeself. Wholeself includes not just each individual self but everything, yes? This is often the first glimpse many receive, that all is not seperate, all is conjoined. So as we clean a shared space is we actively use ourselves to join with that which is beyond ourself. It is the easier to expand this mindful aciton to include everything.

All postures count. All thoughts and words count too. We call these Gyo(u) usually translated as action or activity. There are 3 kinds,:Good, Bad, and other. Good and bad Gyo plant (tane) or seeds. But those done with wholeself, in harmony with all that is, are other; these 'other' actions need not plant tane or seeds that would sprout later.

There are some Gyo that lend themselves best to being 'other'. In our teaching, zazen or seated meditation is the most condusive.

The teaching says that those who know how to 'listen' will know which are other and which are not; perhaps we really all know, deep down inside; it's just a matter of if we are really willing to take a look.
When we don't know which activities are 'other'. We can rely on the traditions within the teaching. Again zazen is considered an adept skilfull means. In my particular stream we also have yoga, tai Chi like poses and movements. For me particularly is the Japanese Zen archery. All these can be skilfull means to bridge our seated meditation to our daily lives.

In our style of seated meditation we simply sit upright, quiet, and still. When this happens to us we naturally absorb all that is and become absorbed in all that is, so no seperation exists.

It is not so much, however, the sitting upright, quiet and still that is the key. It is the absorbtion. Absorbtion can take place while sitting, standing, walking, or lying down. But Sitting upright, quiet and still, it naturally happens to us, if we allow it to do so.   There are many other meditation methods, and various skilfull means. These are just the ones that our teaching uses, we feel they work best for many. But we have thousands of others at our disposal should one of the others be best for a particualar individual.

The Buddha's Teaching

There is a Koan: 'What is the Buddha's Teaching?'

An answer was: 'Shiki soku ze ku, ku soku ze shiki' - 'Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is form'.

This prhase comes from what is commonly called the Heart Sutra or Hannya Shingyo; in our school we call this sutra 'the wisdom heart teaching' (and this is actually what is says, Hannya is wisdom and Shin is heart/mind and gyo is teaching); for even though this sutra is the heart of the heart or the core teaching (which is why it is also right to call it the heart sutra), the pillars of our school are wisdom and compassion... that wisdom and compassion are not really separated... that when we separate them, we may lean too far one way or the other and can lose the chu-do (middle path); This middle path forms the foundation of our school, and must be kept. But as long as we have chu-do, and both wisdom and compassion together, we can reach safely to infinity in all directions.

Shiki is form
Ku is emptiness.
soku means 'is' but also to be just so, or even here/now.

Thus this phrase as an answer is multilayered, so much so that we cannot really pick it apart in words at all like this. But let's play with it a bit more just the same.

If we relate Shiki to Wisdom and Ku to Compassion or Heart, our wisdom heart sutra is again almost repeated in the answer phrase.

But to also choose the soku is what interested me. When I learned that in some phrases in other sutra the 'soku' for 'is' can be translated as 'here/now'... this place, this moment... This too is a core teaching! The phrase 'Be Here Now' became famous from Guru Ram Dass, and he deserves credit for it's popularity and propagation; The Power of Now is also a book by Eckahart Tolle, who makes this a central theme of his tecahing; but the phrase is ancient, and at the core of many schools including ours. Be Here/Now... Be here/now in the middle path with both wisdom and compassion is core teaching of this sutra, and then just let everything else go, let everything go.

'Shiki soku ze ku, ku soku ze shiki' is truely the heart, compassion, and wisdom of the Buddha's teaching.

Gassho
jyozen

Un-Sui means Clouds-Water

A monks training must be very steady, disciplined, and stable.

We must be upright, but not rigid like a corpse; we need to be alive.

A monk in training we call 'Unsui'. Un means clouds, and sui means water. This name comes from a longer phrase Ko-un Ryu-sui which means, Drifting-Clouds Flowing-Water.

Mosshoseki is a phrase that means to leave no trace. Unsui are like this... Koun mosshoseki... 'A cloud drifts by, it leaves without a trace' comes from an old monk's poem just before he died, as was the custom of the time.

When sailing, I've heard they say, "Steady as she goes". I think monks should be 'steady as we go', too. Drifting like clouds, and flowing like water.

But leaving no trace in our wake...

Zen

There are many paths to Awaken to.

Zen is one of them.

Basic & Simple.
Handed down to us from one generation to the next,
for thousands of years.

Guaranteed to be a True Path.
Guaranteed to lead us nowhere to nothing.

Just a simple daily practice of mindfulness.
Just a simple way of living.

Osho & Tea

I had lunch with Osho-san and mentioned how much I like drinking tea.
He said, 'you know there is a story'.

In temples there is often an Osho with his own little 'an' his own little hut.
The monks would walk by and he would ask, 'Have you been into my hut?'
The monk might answer, 'No, Osho-san, I haven't'
So Osho would invite them in for tea.
Or a monk might say, 'Yes, I have Osho-san'
and Osho would respond, 'Then please come have tea'.
The Abbot was listening to these exchanges and approached the Osho;
'Osho-san,' he said, 'you ask each monk as they pass if they have been inside your hut, whether they answer yes or no, you invite them in for tea?
Osho answered, 'Abbot, please come in for tea'.

Butsu-Do - The Way of the Buddha

Our way is called Butsu-do.

Butsu-Do is the Way of the Buddha...
The way of the Awakened.
To follow the way of all Buddha's (past, present, and future).
To act as Awakened Ones act.
To live in an awakened manner...
This is Butsu-do: The way of the Awakened Ones.

Synopsis of the history of Zen as a Japanese Tradition

Zen is defined in English as Meditation. But Zen is not just any form of meditation. Zen is a Japanese Discipline as devised by Dogen Zenji and his followers. Dogen's followers took what he had set up and mixed and merged it with the existing thoughts and ideas embedded in Japanese Culture of the time. This culture had drawn from indigenous rituals and ideas, plus it was greatly influenced from Buddhism and Confucianism from the mainland.

Dogen Zenji had traveled to China and brought back a Chinese Buddhist practice called Chan. Chan was developed by the followers of Bodai Dharuma who had brought what he felt was the true Buddhism, free from the intellectualization of Buddhism that he found in China, and gave them 'Wall Gazing' as the root practice of Buddhism. Bodai Daruma's followers then expanded on 'Wall Gazing' with myriad other skillful means, mostly devised from the Chinese Taoist thought and practices. Thus Buddhism and Taoism became infused to create Chinese Chan.

This Meditation that Bodai Daruma brought came from the Natural Meditation Shakyamuni Butsu found as a boy, and sat with again as an adult, after his other Hindu practices left him still unclear; this Natural Meditation resulted in his Awakened state. This Natural Meditation was later labeled as absorption style meditation or dhyana (one of many types of meditation that exist, but the one and only that left Shakyamuni Awakened). This is called Absorption Meditation because one is completely absorbed into Reality and the Reality has completely absorbed the individual; Reality exists as it is and it is lived clearly each absorbed in the other... no separation exists, and all distinctions have fallen away to leave us Awakened.

Shakyamuni's followers added many thoughts and ideas, Gods and Goddesses as skillful means to aid some in their awakening. Many forms were created, many ways, and many paths; most drawing on the Hindu practices that existed in their culture already.

This Zen, then, that Dogen brought back was this Natural Absorption Meditation from Shakyamuni, revived by Bodai Daruma as 'Wall Gazing', and brought to Japan as 'Shikantaza' or 'just precisely sitting'. Dogen's follower's, then, when they added Japanese Culture to the mix created Zen. Zen then is a combination of Hindu, Buddhism, Taoism, and Shinto (a term now used to denote indigenous Japanese religions from those that came from the mainland; though Shinto (the way of those who came before, or ancestors, or spirits, or even gods) was also influenced by the incoming mainland practices too.

Zen has taken all these influences mixed and or merged them, then periodically boiled them down to a bare essence. Shakyamuni Butsu did it, Bodai Daruma did it, and Dogen did it. This process of expansion and essence produced Japanese Zen. Shikantaza, plus myriad skillful means to lead us all to awaken in this life time, in this very body, right here and now. This is Japanese Zen.

Today in the U.S. a new American Zen is being born. Boiled down again to just living in Reality as it is. But with some of the Japanese Skillful means added when necessary, but only when necessary. We have yet to see exactly what shape American Zen will ultimately take; but we do know one thing... Zen will always be changing, adapting to the new circumstance, fitting exactly in this Reality as it really is, because this is Zen.

Life's Koan Practice

Life has presented a new Koan to me recently.

Kosaka Sensei gives these wonderful lectures. He often ends them with, 'In Japan it is very impolite to ask questions [of your teacher], but does anyone have any questions?

Because of this ending I rarely ask any of my Japanese Teachers questions, but rely on what 'slips out during conversations' or listen in to their answers to others. But mostly I learn from their behavior.

However in recent private talks with Osho-san he said that as a teacher I should not lecture others, but that we should emulate the Buddha by just answering questions. This is why Osho-san's 'Dharma Talks' are really Question Answer sessions.

So how do I do that on a blog?

Hmmmm?

Well, we'll see. Maybe I'll share the questions people ask me and my answers?

Certainly this fits well with one of the 84,200 rules that says 'only teach those who ask'. I always added in my mind 'to be taught;' but as usual I now see that this teaching is multilayered (as they all are).

Trying to teach people who aren't listening is always an interesting exercise, isn't it? Best to wait till we are asked.

Evolution to Zen

Zen evolved from Hindu teachings and yoga in India. Siddhartha awakened via his practice of meditation he had insight into The Middle Path and The 4 Noble Truths, including the 8 Upright Paths; thus his lineage of The Teaching began... The Buddha Dharma was born.

The Teaching traveled the Silk Road to China where Bodai Daruma revived a simple meditation practice of 'wall gazing'. His disciples created Chan Buddhism from what Bodai Daruma taught and what they knew of the world known as the Tao.

Dogen Zenji brought Chan to Japan as Shikantaza, or 'just precisely sitting'. He taught this as the root of all Buddhism. His disciples too brought in what they knew of the world, now known as Shinto, and created Soto Zen Buddhism.

Shaku Soen Roshi, Matsuoka Roshi, Sasaki Roshi, Harada Roshi, Maesumi Roshi, and others then brought Zen to America boiled it down to just what Americans needed, and American Zen was born.


Yoga + Shoriniji + Tao + Shinto - anything extra = Zen 
Only what's needed to awaken = American Zen

Living Life

In Zen, we are living in this life... In this very body. Not an illusion to escape from, but a reality to be lived in. An illuson only in the sense that it does not exist seperate from us, but in us and through us everything exists, particulary 'nothing' that by definition of everything, must be part of everything.

Zen is living reality as it is, as we find it, or how it finds us. Interlinked... Conjoined... interwoven... or usually we say not seperate. Not two, but not one... both, but neither. Both exist, but not seperate.

Ah, so we see the words again fall short; but words are like that. As anyone reading this already knows, the words can only point the way. All skilful means are just that, skilful means in living this daily life. As humans we sometimes fall short too, but we are still living!

So we live this life, in this body; joined with everyone and everything else. Living mindfully every moment of every day is Zen.

Zazen (seated meditation) is the practice, the main skilful means, for all Zen People. Zen People Walking, walk through this life... in a Zen Way.

Living Zen

Living this very moment, every moment of every day.

"‎,,,only distances are covered by running fast, but not destiny; destiny can only be met by 
walking in the right direction calmly"


Jaishri Krishn

Osho-san (Ryugen Watanabe Roshi of Kanzeonji, my home temple) came to my zendo (meditation hall) today. The zendo we have is just 3 tatami in size (but we can fit 7 people in there if we need to). I originally set it up just as a place for me to do my daily zazen (seated meditation) so 3 tatami was the perfect size. I called it sanjo zendo (sanjo means 3 tatami).

Osho-san came today to bless the zendo, and named us Jizo-an. In Buddhism we often are chosen by a patron saint; in my case this patron saint is Jizo Bosatsu. The 'an' after designates the zendo as a sub or small temple. In my case a sub-temple of Kanzeonji under Osho-san's tutelage.

Osho-san & I chanted, with a dozen or so of my students there, to bless the zendo. He gave me permission to take on my own students to teach Zen, answer questions on Buddhism, and lead the practice at Jizo-an.

After the ceremony we shared some snack's and tea. We are now known as Jizo-an Sanjo Zendo.