Wild Fox Zen
Here’s another section of the talk by Katagiri Roshi that I posted recently. It brings together several themes that we’ve been working with here abouts – compassion as salvation, the significance of Soto forms, daily life practice, enlightenment, wholeheartedness, and the meaning of Genjo. He didn’t leave much out!
Salvation is described by regulation of the monastery – how to wash your face, how to use the bathroom, how to cook up the kitchen, how you deal with toilet paper, and how you deal with your cloths, hair, etc. Then it seems to everyone that Dogen’s teaching could suffocated us death.
Form of gassho is do this like this, and not like this, not like this. Always Dogen Zenji put you in some kind of form and then you don’t like it because you like freedom. However, the freedom you like is not freedom. It is confusion. In terms of Buddha’s eyes your freedom is missed. That’s why Buddha is always expresses compassion and puts you in a certain frame, so called Buddha land. Salvation is there. Where is salvation? Right now right here. That’s it.
How can you manifest salvation backed by wisdom? Salvation and enlightenment work together. But usually we love wisdom so much, understanding the teaching very deeply. Salvation we don’t like. We love it emotionally, but we don’ like it intellectually. Because you don’t feel freedom. We are always try to live our way. Particularly when you get into spiritual life.
Intellectually you want to have freedom but when you get into you don’t like it. When you don’t do it how can you create productive life in the process of action, so called jumping into ocean? Spiritual life is touching the revelation of freedom directly.
The point that I want to tell is merging of enlightenment and salvation. Without everyday life religion is ridiculous. It is exactly the same as philosophy, psychology if you don’t make it alive in every day life. When you do gassho there is spiritual life there. Otherwise, how can you express gratitude for your life to everything?
We need a path. That’s what I want to tell you in Buddha’s teaching. Two crucial points in Buddha’s teaching. One is egolessness. Egolessness is being liberated, being liberated from the self. That is the meaning of Mu. It’s not to destroy but to be liberated, be free from self or ego.
Second crucial point is the quality of Buddha’s experience. Buddha’s teaching is wisdom and compassion. Wisdom and compassion or enlightenment and salvation should work together from moment to moment. That is called spiritual life. You understand it and you should live it, live in it. This is our practice.
The problem is you have never experienced before. That’s why I always tell you when you do Zen, do Zen with wholeheartedness. It is salvation backed by whole universe. You don’t believe it because it’s too simple. Too simple to know. Something you directly have to touch is too close, too close to know. Very delicate.
Do you understand? Too close means when your stomach is functioning smoothly and you don’t pay attention to it. When your stomach is growling, something is making trouble. At that time you pay attention to the existence of stomach. That stomach you pay attention to is something different from you. But before you understand or know stomach, stomach and your whole body and everything is working exactly in the same and one ground.
You are perfectly peaceful and harmonious – saved. That is not something to know. All you can do is just to manifest.
That is called Genjo. Gen is manifestation or present. Jo is becoming, or to become, or complete. Genjo means what has been completed and is completing and is being completed and will be completed.
From day to day, from moment to moment that is what? Reality. Reality is something more than you understand. That is called Genjo, present is as it truly is.
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