Omori Quotes

Dupa ce iti omori demonii, daca ai curajul sa o faci, e musai sa te intorci pe acelasi drum.

Every morning, the Omori POWs were assembled and ordered to call out their number in Japanese. After November 1, 1944, the man assigned number twenty-nine would sing out “Niju ku!” at the top of his lungs.

The eternity of "anytime" shines in this moment "now" while the unlimitedness of "anyplace" is manifested in the limits of "here." When the universality of "anyone" dances out in the individual "I," for the first time you have the world of Zen.

Pe urmă, tot ce ai de făcut este să dai la o parte uşa, să o loveşti de perete, să ieşi în lume cu zâmbetul pe buze, să calci cu bocancii zimţaţi peste capete goale şi inimi pustii. Peste mormanele de carne putredă şi inutilă. Şi să-i omori pe toţi care se chinuie să existe, fiindcă nu pot să trăiască.

…Doctorul mă avertizase că odată ce îmi voi folosi puterile dobândite împotriva oamenilor, nu mai există cale de întoarcere. Ori îi cucereşti, ori îi omori, pentru că umanitatea nu tolerează lucrurile pe care nu le înţelege. Şi atunci devin distrugători şi răi

Omori

Sometimes when we hide things from ourselves, we create different truths and eventually forget our way. Have you found yours yet, or are you still lost?

Just because you've done something bad... doesn't make you bad.

Our society of scholars,' Haga stands up, 'debates natural philosophy--' '- and not matters of state,' agrees an Edo metallurgist, 'so--' 'Nothing is outside philosophy,' claims Omori, 'unless fear says it is.

The act of correctly seeing this world from this state of concentration (jyo) and the world of samadhi is called “wisdom.” In other words, wisdom is the act of perceiving things of this world as they truly are.

To be in white space is to be nothing. white space is emptiness, a home without warmth. A place to survive, but not to live. Even still, your conscience cannot be erased. It will always find a way in. Even in white space, it will take the form... and if one wills it, something will be formed to subdue it.

I had taken the Bird’s daily beatings at Omori, and then at Naoetsu. I had to. I never complained. I just got knocked down, bled, got up, got knocked down, bled, got up. I expected it. I wouldn’t let it get me down. Sometimes it took me two days to recover, but I always had a positive attitude. Steely, but positive. No way would he break me.

With time, what is important will change. You must choose what you will keep and what you will cast away. Not everyone has that choice.

An unhallowed burden has been placed upon you. You have the power to change the future. What will you do, dreamer? What will you do?

No bandage can stifle an eternal wound... and there will always be a time where its influence will bleed through

Unele au auzit spunandu-se ca este un lagar de munca si ca nu are nimic de-a face cu Auschwitz sau cu Mauthausen, unde singura industrie este aceea de a omori oameni. Deci, nu sunt duse la un abator. Par vesti linistitoare, dar cele mai multe tac, pentru ca speranta a devenitla fel de subtire ca o lama de ras. Si de fiecare data cand pui mana pe ea, te tai. - Eu vin de la Auschwitz, afirma una. Deja nimic nu poate sa fie mai rau.

Nu înţelegeţi ce vreau să spun? Trebuie să vă mărturisesc că mă simt obosit. Pierd şirul vorbei şi nu mai am acea minte limpede atât de mult lăudată de prietenii mei. Spun prietenii mei, din principiu. Căci nu mai am prieteni, ci numai complici. În schimb, aceştia sunt mai numeroşi şi reprezintă întreaga omenire. Şi, printre ei, primul sunteţi dumneavoastră. Cel de lângă tine e totdeauna primul. Cum ştiu că n-am prieteni? E cât se poate de simplu: am descoperit că n-am prieteni în ziua în care m-am gândit să mă omor, spre a le juca o farsă zdravănă, spre a-i pedepsi, într-un anume sens. Dar m-am pomenit că n-aveam pe cine pedepsi. Câţiva ar fi fost surprinşi; dar nimeni nu s-ar fi simţit pedepsit. De altminteri, chiar dacă aş fi vrut, tot nu mi-ar fi folosit la nimic. Dacă aş fi putut să mă sinucid şi apoi să-i văd ce mutră fac, atunci, da, ar fi meritat. Dar pământul e negru, iubite prieten, lemnul e gros, giulgiul des. I-aş fi văzut cu ochii sufletului, e adevărat, dar numai dacă există un suflet şi dacă acest suflet are ochi. De asta însă nu suntem siguri, nu suntem niciodată siguri de nimic! Altminteri, ar exista o ieşire, am izbuti să fim luaţi în serios. Numai propria-ţi moarte îi convinge pe oameni de temeinicia motivelor tale, de sinceritatea ta, de adâncimea suferinţei tale. Atâta vreme cât trăieşti, cazul tău e îndoielnic, n-ai dreptul decât la scepticismul lor. De aceea, dacă ar exista fie şi numai o şansă de a te bucura de spectacol, ar merita să le dovedeşti ceea ce nu vor să creadă, uimindu-i. Dar aşa, te omori şi ce însemnătate mai poate avea dacă ei cred sau nu, de vreme ce tu nu mai eşti de faţă spre a te desfăta cu mirarea sau cu căinţa lor, de altminteri atât de scurtă, spre a asista, aşa cum îşi visează fiecare om, la propria-ţi înmormântare. Ca să nu mai fii îndoielnic, trebuie să nu mai fii, pur şi simplu. Şi oare nu-i mai bine aşa? Nepăsarea lor ne-ar face să suferim mai mult. "O să mi-o plăteşti!" îi spunea o fată tatălui ei, care n-o lăsase să se mărite cu un adorator, prea fercheş după gustul lui. După care s-a omorât. Dar tatăl n-a plătit nimic. Îi plăcea la nebunie pescuitul. După trei duminici, s-a întors la râu, ca să uite, zicea el. Şi nu se înşela: a uitat. La drept vorbind, de mirare ar fi fost dacă s-ar fi întâmplat altminteri. Crezi că mori spre a-ţi pedepsi nevasta şi de fapt îi redai libertatea. De aceea e mai bine să nu vezi. Ca să nu mai vorbim ce rişti să-i auzi vorbind despre ceea ce socotesc ei a fi fost pricina sinuciderii tale. Parcă-i aud: "S-a omorât fiindcă n-a mai putut îndura să..." Ah! dragă prietene, ce puţină imaginaţie au oamenii! Ei cred întotdeauna că te sinucizi pentru un motiv oarecare. Dar poţi să te sinucizi foarte bine pentru două motive. Lor nu le dă însă prin cap una ca asta. Şi atunci, la ce bun să mori de bună voie, să te sacrifici pentru ideea pe care vrei să şi-o facă despre tine? Căci, o dată mort, vor profita de asta spre a explica gestul tău prin tot felul de motive idioate sau vulgare. Martirii, dragă prietene, trebuie să aleagă între a fi uitaţi, batjocoriţi sau folosiţi. Căci înţeleşi nu vor fi niciodată.

The concrete methods of adjusting the mind are called susoku-kan and koan kufu21 in Japanese.

Therefore, kufu alludes to the earnest way each artisan applies himself to the art of his own choice.

it is important to take care to adjust our breathing to our koan as we inhale and exhale properly, saying to ourselves, “Mu.” This method is what is called “nentei.

Our body then is no longer a mere physical body but the body of Buddha and the True Body of the individual. It embodies and concretely expresses the spiritual nature and inexhaustible wisdom of various Buddhas. It is as if the body is the whole universe.

Kawajiri Hogin classifies those who sit for wrong reasons as: 1) those who sit in order to tranquilize their minds; 2) those who sit to be empty in their minds; 3) those who solve koan as if they were guessing games; 4) those who start sitting, motivated by their wish for escape from this disturbing world.

The publication Koan Kaito Shu15 (The Collection of Answers to Koan)

In Takeuchi’s opinion, the word “spirit” is derived from the Latin word “spiro” (to breathe).

Hearing this, Master Eno scolded Shisei, “To calm the mind and contemplate is a Zen disease and not Zen. To what avail is it in principle to sit for a long time and suffer physical pain?

The lay Zen Master Kawajiri Hogin also warns against this empty type of sitting: To begin with, most people who practice zazen consciously try to make themselves empty. This is a grave mistake because you have thoughts about becoming empty, and it is futile to sit however long you may try to do so.

As long as you are conscious of your wish to be empty, you will never succeed in becoming empty.

Hogin further writes that by doing so “such a man practices zazen in the wrong way.” Here lies the mistake of the believers of “no-thought and no-thinking.” These people forget that the true meaning of the phrase comes alive when they become one with susoku and koan.

As for those of us who breathe with the tanden, the frequency of our breathing ranges from two or three to five or six times per minute.

In short, all this should emphasize the concentration of power in the whole body by simultaneously placing strength in the tanden and by infusing the whole body with energy moving away from the tanden. Thus, by means of the equilibrium of the centrifugal and the centripetal force, the whole body is brought to a state of zero and spiritual power will pervade the whole body intensely.

We should remember that by being well integrated with any matter or thing, we will naturally come to be liberated from our attachment to them.

by trying to become “no-thought and no-thinking,” we create the idea of “no-thought and no-thinking.” This is one example of the wrong direction of zazen.

those who are inclined to tranquil meditation are apt to think that they have sat long enough as soon as disturbing thoughts within them subside during meditation. But thinking that they have sat long enough in itself is dualistic. As long as they are captured by such a thought, they cannot be liberated from dualism however long they may wait.

We are apt to instantaneously come out of samadhi as soon as we are on our feet for a few moments. This is because we are lacking in the full power of Zen concentration. By getting to our feet and walking in kinhin while we are one with susoku or koan, we discipline ourselves to realize the oneness of tranquility and movement so that we may not be controlled and upset by our environment in our everyday life.

Apart from nembutsu, we can cure our fatigue by sitting truly well in meditation, even if we shorten the time of our sleep. This has been proved by many who have experienced zazen. Ten minutes of zazen before reading and the momentary immersion in samadhi before work—how well they help us enjoy our work and reading, and to what a great extent they enhance our efficiency!

mosquito pupils.” I do not know the exact meaning of the term, but it seems to mean those people who practice their arts only during the season when mosquitoes are plentiful.

Thinking that a koan is something to be thought about and solved objectively is out of keeping with Zen teachings.

Master Daie (Ta-hui) says this about kufu: In training ourselves to solve koan, we should neither make guesses or comments nor try to understand them. It is unnecessary to know the meanings of the words or justify our attitudes toward the koan presented to us. On the contrary, we should neither be empty and tranquil nor expect to be enlightened. It is still worse to be absent-minded. Whether we walk, dwell, sit, or lie down, we should always be one with the koan and try to keep in touch with them all the time.17 In the Mumonkan, Master Mumon Ekai (Wu-men Hui-k’ai) states, Arouse your entire body with its three hundred and sixty bones and joints and its eighty-four thousand pores of the skin. Summon up a spirit of great doubt and concentrate on this word “mu.” In order to do so, hold to the problem from morning to night without letting it go even for one second, and become one with the word “mu” (void) with all your strength.

Master Harada Sogaku writes, “For beginners it is adequate to sit for about thirty minutes at a time.

kufu means, as I have already explained, being without any suki (opening or flaw in terms of swordsmanship) or yudan (carelessness) and to become the thing itself.

Kinhin means walking in the Zen hall after sitting in Zen meditation for some time. We walk meditatively with our hands held against our chests. The closed right hand held lightly against the chest is covered with the left hand, and both of the arms are held up horizontally.

If possible, we should sit as often as we can every day. In case it is impossible for us to sit many times a day, we must find ways to sit in the intervals of our work or while riding buses and trains on our way to and from work in addition to sitting once a day before going to bed.

My teacher Bokuo Roshi, Abbot of Tenryu-ji at present, once said in reminiscence of his painful discipline in his bygone years, “The way to be liberated from suffering is to be quickly absorbed into it.

Some of you may practice zazen all alone at home with this book of mine as a guide. If you do, you must be well prepared for suffering. If there is no suffering, your sitting will be futile and you will find it difficult to continue zazen.

Teachers of old went to these extremes in revering the transmission of Dharma through the right masters. This means nothing other than valuing the Dharma more than anything else. In this sense, the question to be settled first of all for anyone is to select the right teacher who has clearly inherited Dharma through authentic masters.

However authentic the master may be, it will not be to the advantage of the student to remain with him for a long time if they are incompatible in personality and temperament like water and fire. It is, therefore, desirable for the student to love his master so much that he would dedicate his whole life to his teacher.

An ancient saying goes, “Spend three years without learning before you choose your teacher.” We should select our teacher carefully enough before we become his disciple. Once we choose our teacher, we should follow him faithfully until we attain enlightenment.

Makyo is, in short, our attachment to favorable conditions that we ourselves approve of. It is possible to subdue them by ignoring them and eliminating them, as testified by the words of ancients.

According to the psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Jung, there is an unconscious life that is out of the reach of consciousness and that lies in the depth of the visible and tangible life of consciousness. It is there that all the records of life stemming from time immemorial are kept. This unconscious life is responsible for the formation of our personalities. For instance, if we compare the life of consciousness to the waves moving on the surface of water, the life of unconsciousness is comparable to the current below the surface. Jung calls the central point of our consciousness the ego. But far below it there is the stratum called individual unconsciousness which is the element indispensable to the formation of our personalities. Even further below this stratum, there is the limitless and boundless stratum of unconsciousness called collective unconsciousness, in which the traces of the whole development of human beings, ranging from the very beginning of human life in general to the present circumstances, are registered.

The eighth consciousness is called Alaya-vijnana, which is translated into Japanese as “zo-shiki.” It alludes to the storehouse of life, where all of our past experiences are imprinted and where the possible motivations of all of our conduct are also said to be stored. Thus, we may safely regard Alaya-vijnana as equivalent to what Jung calls “collective unconsciousness.

The original cause of all our actions is stored in the eighth consciousness which is called Alaya-vijnana, but the seed of that original cause is by nature neither good nor bad. It is indeed deemed to be the operation of the seventh consciousness called Mana-vijnana that tinges the originally pure Alaya-vijnana with evil by involving it in the life of egocentric desires and passions.

Now, when we go into samadhi through meditation, our thoughts become pacified. This means that the first five kinds of consciousnesses and the sixth consciousness have stopped their operations. When the operation of the conscious mind stops, that of the seventh consciousness called Mana-vijnana prevails to create makyo. Therefore, makyo may be regarded as something resulting from the power of concentration.

Excuse my lengthy exposition, but in short what I mean to say is that we should regard everything that appears to us during our meditation as makyo. Even if Buddha appears, even if glorious light shines, even if the ash of the incense stick is heard as it falls six feet away, and even if the absolute nothingness reveals itself, they all belong to makyo regardless of whether they are good or bad, as long as they occur to us during our meditation. When we come face to face with makyo, we should brace up mind and body and become courageous so that we may smash them all into pieces paying no attention to them. We find the following passage in Kaian Kokugo,37 “If you want to maintain your life, cut the thoughts of protecting your life. It is only when you cut everything that you will be secure for the first time.” HOW TO GET TO YOUR FEET AFTER SITTING When we sit for the duration of one incense stick, that is for thirty or forty minutes at a time, it is not necessary to pay any attention to the problem of getting to our feet after meditation. However,

Excuse my lengthy exposition, but in short what I mean to say is that we should regard everything that appears to us during our meditation as makyo. Even if Buddha appears, even if glorious light shines, even if the ash of the incense stick is heard as it falls six feet away, and even if the absolute nothingness reveals itself, they all belong to makyo regardless of whether they are good or bad, as long as they occur to us during our meditation. When we come face to face with makyo, we should brace up mind and body and become courageous so that we may smash them all into pieces paying no attention to them. We find the following passage in Kaian Kokugo,37 “If you want to maintain your life, cut the thoughts of protecting your life. It is only when you cut everything that you will be secure for the first time.

As we become advanced in meditation, sometimes phenomena appear during our meditation. Some of them are favorable while others are not. As a whole, they have always been called makyo (disturbing conditions). For

However, as we sit in meditation, to be authentically aware of our selflessness and realize our true selves at the same time we should not let ourselves be agitated by the operation of Mana-vijnana. Hence, it is said, “If you meet the Buddha, kill him; if you meet your ancestor, kill him.” We must stir up our courage to be free from all the phenomena which arise to disturb our meditation. Makyo will then unconditionally surrender and perish and we will be admitted to the state of mind comparable to that layer of ice 25 million miles thick as described by Hakuin.

The state of tranquility and nothingness, which at first sight seems to be the right awareness of the selfless self, is nothing other than the depth of unconsciousness called Alaya-vijnana, which has come to prevail over Mana-vijnana. This is suggested by the following Zen verse composed by the famous Master Chosha Keijin (Ch’ang-sha Ching-ts’en):36 Students of the Way do not comprehend the Truth Because they only recognize the existing Eighth Consciousness. Fools identify with the original man, The boundless origin of birth and death.

Collective unconsciousness corresponding to Alaya-vijnana is regarded as the “Eighth Consciousness” embracing all possibilities, and yet it is not proper to identify it with the true self.

Master Hakuin emphasizes kufu in movement or practical training in Zen. He says, “To practice Zen in movement is superior to doing so in the stillness of meditation.

In disciplining ourselves to practice Zen in movement, we never cease to become mu with all our might or count the frequency of our respiration at all times and in all places just as we do when we are in meditation. Therefore, it is our ideal to train ourselves to attain immovability in movement. As I have been saying, however, even professional Zen monks cannot always practice Zen in movement except those endowed with the greatest capacities.

Kawajiri Hogin writes in his Zazen no Shokei, “When you are engaged in some work or other, you become one with it. In the intervals of your work, you immediately resume your contemplation on the koan. For instance, when you are smoking by the fireside or doing something like that, you are considered to be in the intervals of your work. At such a time you are absorbed in the contemplation on the koan free from dualistic thoughts and imaginations. This is one example of kufu in movement.

By emptying ourselves we become one with objects, deeply absorbed in our work. To be thus thoroughly one with everything with which we are confronted is the true essence of mu. It is the state of both physical and spiritual liberation, to which kufu in movement should point.

In Tendai’s Shoshikan,38 the way to get out of samadhi is discussed in detail. According to it, we must harmonize mind, breath and body in getting out of samadhi, just as we do in getting into it. When we start sitting, we should move the upper body back and forth and from side to side to balance it, and then put breath and mind in order. When we are going to get out of the state of samadhi, on the other hand, we should carefully relax the mind, and then exhale, and last of all move the body. Before we stand up after sitting for a certain duration of time, we should move the body in the above manner.

Contrary to what we do when we are going to enter into samadhi, we start moving the upper body from side to side a little at first and then gradually increase the degree of movement, which becomes larger and larger with the hips as the pivot. Next move the shoulders to ease stiffness, and then massage the face, the head, and the neck with both hands. Last of all, we should unlock the crossed legs to alleviate numbness and any other discomfort. When we sit alone, it is effective to do some exercises. What is important is to “stand up calmly.

It is especially desirable to let the concentrated state of mind, samadhi, operate in our everyday activities.

Zazen-gi cautions us to come out of samadhi calmly and to move the body naturally. It further teaches us how to get to our feet with dignity and what to do after doing so. It writes, “Even after getting out of samadhi, you should always be on the alert to act responsively and protect your power of concentration as you protect a baby. Then, it will be easy for you to cultivate your power of concentration until it comes to maturity.

At first the power of concentration nurtured during sitting for thirty minutes may be lost in an instant as soon as we stop sitting. But later we will be able to retain it for five or ten minutes by means of hoben and kufu.

If we negate ourselves and completely plunge into the objective world around us, all oppositions cease. The phrase goes, “The holy man has no self; and, therefore, everything becomes the holy man.” By making ourselves empty and plunging deep into the surrounding world to be integrated with things, the surrounding world will in turn become ourselves. We and the world thus will be one, and we will be masters everywhere.

This operating power of our minds is called joriki. It is, in short, the operation of no-self. Master Sogaku writes about it as follows, “The right mind operates at each time and in each place to make you take the right attitude and act properly without deviating from the Way.

think that what Master Hakuin means by his words “beyond dualism” is that it is not only we, who transcend such playful dualism, but also all other things in their own no self-nature that are in operation according to their selfless essence.

The Fourfold Wisdom consists of the Wisdom of a Big Round Mirror, the Wisdom of Equality, the Wisdom of True Perceiving, and the Wisdom of True Working. These may be thought of as the four aspects of the workings of wisdom. The first, Wisdom of a Big Round Mirror, pertains to the primal wisdom which is bright and clear all over like a big round mirror. It may be deemed as the essence of the mind, in which Heaven and Earth are one with us as in the phrase “the light of the great, round mirror brimming with black.” It alludes to the oneness of myriads of things. The second, Wisdom of Equality, is the wisdom in which it can be seen that all things in existence possess a nature that is equal. This kind of wisdom alludes to the mountains, rivers, grasses, trees, and all things as equally embodying the wisdom and virtues of Tathagata. The third, Wisdom of True Perceiving, is said to be the wisdom which makes one observe the delicate operations of all beings by means of the analysis of their ways of existence, their structures, their forms, their actions, and so forth. The fourth is the Wisdom of True Working. It is the wisdom capable of making our sense perception function properly, as in the case of the eyes seeing and the nose smelling. The operation of this kind of wisdom for universal salvation points to the integration of enlightenment and action, namely, the oneness of knowledge and conduct.

This Fourfold Wisdom corresponds to the eight consciousnesses with which we are originally one. The samadhi of Mahayana Buddhism is considered to be the only way of turning the eight consciousnesses into the Fourfold Wisdom and presenting it to us fully and clearly.

Nirvana is not pessimistic or negative like going to one’s death the way most people think of it. Rather, it means gaining eternal life and entering the state of absolute security.

However, this Land of Lotus Blossoms does not exist outside us.

nirvana, which is another name for samadhi.

It seems to me, however, that there are two different types of loss of humanity. The rightist type can be seen in a certain phase of the so-called American lifestyle. Those who become full of despair while chasing their insatiable desire for pleasure belong to this type. The nihilistic trend evident in the popularity of not only mahjong and pinball games but also in dances like “the monkey” and “go-go” dancing should be regarded as typical symptoms of this rightist type of loss of humanity.

Modern world history began with the discovery of the Self and attained its summit in the eventual awareness of the Absolute Self.

Where were you facing yesterday?” “Well, my nose doesn’t hurt a bit today.” This answer must have highly pleased Baso. He praised Hyakujo, saying, “Now you understand. You know about today very well.” He meant that Hyakujo truly realized the whereabouts of life.

Soku is the most suitable kind of breathing for those of us who sit in meditation. What kind of breathing is it? It is described as the breath coming in and going out without any break, as if existent and yet non-existent. This description of soku is not complete, but I am sure it corresponds to the lower abdominal breathing (tanden-soku) discussed earlier.

In his Japanese translation of Hsiao Chih-kuan (Shoshikan),22 Ito Nobujiro describes the “six wondrous entrances” to Nirvana: counting, following, retaining, perceiving, returning, and purifying. As excessive explanations of all six ways to enter into Nirvana may only confuse the reader, I am going to restrict myself to the interpretation of shusu (mastering the way of counting the frequency of breathing). According to the Shoshikan, shusu means that we should regulate our breathing—not allowing it to be too shallow, too rough, or too smooth—by counting the breaths calmly from one to ten. In this way the mind becomes concentrated. Then we should repeat counting all over again starting from one. If we repeat counting in this way a number of times with all of our effort, our disturbed minds will come to be concentrated and unified naturally.

In the Jiki-shinkage-ryu (the Straight-Mind-Shadow school of swordsmanship) there is a basic set of movements called Hojo which is indeed the most magnificent I have ever known. It is accompanied by deep breathing marked by the sound “Ah” when inhaling and “Um” when exhaling.

We should sit so that our energy increases of itself and brims over instead of putting physical pressure on the lower abdomen by force.

in the true sense of the word, “no-thought and no-thinking” means flowing steadily and endlessly in the pure experience of the oneness of self and other.

I consider the following words of Master Takeda Mokurai11 from Zen no Katsatsu to be quite significant: They say that if you practice Zen, you will be calm. Some misunderstand these words because they are attached to the literal sense of the word “calm.” They think they will be completely unaffected even when struck by a thunderbolt. But this is not true. The subtle meaning of Zen lies in spontaneous response. If thunder peals, we peal, too; if an earthquake comes to shake us, we ourselves shake with it. It is childish to say that those who practice Zen will never care nor fuss about anything.

Kawajiri Hogin writes, They take trouble to create something called “emptiness” which they regard as separate from their own being. They aspire to this idea of emptiness, and in addition, they try to be empty of mental activity again and again. Thus, their deluded knowledge will keep on increasing so much that it will impede their becoming empty even if they wait for one hundred years. Even if they succeed in becoming empty in this way, it will be to no avail. It is mistaken to believe that to become empty is satori. If to become empty meant satori (enlightenment), human beings would be enlightened every time they wake up in the morning because they become empty every night during their sleep.13

We are white dew drops; If we lay ourselves just as we are On the maple leaves, We are red beads.

You cannot become a Buddha unless you kill the Buddha which is dualistically conceived as an object.

The next thing to be discussed is the misunderstanding that doing zazen is the same as entering the psychological condition called “no-thought” (munen muso). Two scientists at Tokyo University, Dr. Hirai Tomio and Dr. Kasamatsu, have made great progress in showing that the brain waves of Zen monks in samadhi resemble those of people in very light sleep.

True “no-thought, no-mind” zazen is just one thing—to have a dauntless mind.

In the distinguished book Zazen no Shokei by the lay Zen Master Kawajiri Hogin, he writes, “Because zazen is training to realize the One Mind of yourself, it is a mistake to set up an aim outside of yourself … Not setting up an aim is the true aim.

Further, you should see whether or not self and other—that is, self and strangers, self and family, self and society—are unified in the place called “here.” In this place Self and object fuse and become one body in an experience known in Zen as “the boundless realm of time and space where not even the width of a hair separates self and other.

When I speak about zazen, what comes to mind first is the following passage from the Dan-gyo, a record of the life and sayings of the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism, Eno Daikan (Hui-neng Ta-chien):30 Za (sitting) means to not give rise to thoughts (no dualism) under any circumstance. Zen (meditation) means to see your original nature and not become confused.

Zen Outside the Way (Gedo Zen) Common Zen (Bompu Zen) Small Vehicle Zen (Shojo Zen) Great Vehicle Zen (Daijo Zen) Supreme Vehicle Zen (Saijojo Zen)

Gedo Zen as religious discipline following teachings based on a perspective outside of Buddhism.

The second type of Zen is Bompu Zen (Common Zen). According to Shumitsu, it entails “correctly understanding cause and effect though still training with the dualism of joy and loathing.” In general, though expounding a belief that good causes bring good effects and bad causes bring bad effects, it is a type of training which does not embody any penetrating truth. Those who practice Zen to cure an illness or for the sake of their health should probably look at this type of Zen. In general, though, Gedo Zen and Bompu Zen are called “Zen in the midst of delusion.

describes training in which you think about the existence of truth or Buddha and then become trapped by your thoughts. There are various interpretations of Shojo Zen, but here I think it would suffice to simply interpret it as believing in the truth of Dharma but lacking in the altruistic spirit of sharing your understanding of Buddhist Truth with others. You are too intent on your own gain and think only of your desire for the perfection of your own personality. As for the fourth kind of Zen, Daijo Zen (Great Vehicle Zen), Master Shumitsu called it training in which you are enlightened by the realization that the ego and the Dharma are both empty.

The fifth kind of Zen, Saijojo Zen (Supreme Vehicle Zen), can also be called Nyorai Shojo Zen. Master Shumitsu said that it is training through which one has a sudden realization that one’s mind is originally pure, that from the beginning there is no suffering which arises from our attachment to desire.

Accordingly, if we put it in extreme terms, all types of Zen other than Patriarchal Zen are inauthentic. However, in a positive sense, it may be said that Zen Outside the Way (Gedo Zen), Common Zen (Bompu Zen), Zen of the Mouth and Head (Koto Zen), Literary Zen (Moji Zen), Zen for Health (Kenko Zen), Zen for Medical Treatment (Ryoyo Zen), and all the rest exist within the realm of Patriarchal Zen.

When people with only a shallow experience define Zen simply as a way to promote health or a way for human development, it is an embarrassment for Zen even though Zen has these aspects.

But when we break through that delusion, the illusion caused by selfish desires and doubt, and come into contact with the Absolute for a fraction of a second, we realize our original True Self. This experience is called satori or kensho.12 In short, this is awakening to one’s True Self. It may be said that the aim of Zen is to have that kind of experience.