Shin\u2019ichi Hisamatsu<\/a><\/strong>[1]<\/p>\ntranslated by Jeff Shore\u00a0in collaboration with Nobumichi Takahashi and Gishin Tokiwa[2]<\/p>\n
Hisamatsu: During a sesshin-retreat, various doubts or problems are bound to arise. For your practice it is essential to raise them and have them resolved, so today I will speak in response to your questions. Anyone should feel free to speak up and, by discussing together, we\u2019ll find a solution.<\/p>\n
That said, I\u2019m sure there are many questions you want to ask, but let\u2019s begin with those regarding sitting in zazen.<\/p>\n
Ishii: Sitting and trying to focus on what the formless self is, I find that even though I\u2019m trying not to think, a kind of thinking remains nonetheless. Thus, a tremendous conflict occurs between concentrating on the koan and sitting in zazen. Doesn\u2019t everyone more or less have this problem? I\u2019d like to ask you about this.<\/p>\n
Hisamatsu: The koan, after all, is to awaken to the formless self. That is why I say sitting and koan are one, different though the terms may be. There\u2019s a tendency to think of sitting and koan as two separate and distinct methods of practice \u2014 after all, there is \u201cjust sitting\u201d in Soutou Zen, and koan practice to attain satori in Rinzai Zen. At bottom, though, these are none other than awakening to the formless self.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a passage expressing the spirit of true sitting attributed to Bodhidharma, though it\u2019s certainly not limited to him since many later Zen masters have expressed the same sentiment:<\/p>\n
Outside all externals put to rest,
\nInside let not your mind stir.
\nMake yourself as a wall,
\nAnd thus enter the Way.<\/p>\n
\u201cOutside all externals put to rest\u201d means to be unconcerned with things outside, not to be caught by or drawn to externals. \u201cInside let not your mind stir\u201d means not to be preoccupied with mental phenomena, or internals. In short, don\u2019t let yourself be caught up by anything, internal or external. \u201cMake yourself as a wall\u201d is a metaphor for no-mind (mushin); be empty and free of discrimination like this, \u201cAnd thus you enter the Way.\u201d In other words, \u201cOutside all externals put to rest, Inside let not your mind stir. Make yourself as a wall\u201d is to \u201center the Way.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Fukan-zazengi, [Dougen] says much the same thing when he speaks of sitting as \u201cputting an end to all dualistic discrimination,\u201d but it all comes down to this freeing yourself of all inner and outer entanglements. When you succeed in \u201cOutside all externals put to rest, Inside let not your mind stir,\u201d that is achieving no-mind, that is true sitting.<\/p>\n
Sitting usually connotes physical sitting or mental composure; either way it\u2019s assumed that the body or the mind is sitting. Such sitting, however, is not the sitting of [Dougen\u2019s] \u201cbody-mind fallen away.\u201d Sitting mind and body engaged, thinking, for instance, \u201cHere I am sitting at Senbutsuji Temple,\u201d cannot be called true sitting. And sitting with the intention to become no-mind only exposes a restlessness in yourself: It amounts to \u201cInside, letting your mind stir.\u201d Of course without a mind intent on sitting you\u2019ll not be able to sit at all; you have to be intent on sitting, yet being conscious of sitting is not it. Being physically engaged in sitting is not it either. This might be a difficult problem for everyone.<\/p>\n
At the outset though, you must have the determination to sit through, no matter what: Even though your legs throb or your entire body is racked with pain. In the beginning, such great resolve is crucial. As it\u2019s said, \u201cZen practice has three essentials\u201d: The first is called great faith; you must have this great root of faith to give yourself over to truly sitting, a great conviction to sit through anything. The second is great determination; you must have great tenacity of purpose. The third essential is great doubt, which I\u2019ll talk about later in connection with the koan, but you need great faith and great determination too.<\/p>\n
When you sit through to the very end then you\u2019ll know, but obstacles will assail you within and without. So you need unwavering determination to sit through it all, stolidly, like a rock. Throwing your whole self into it like this is extremely effective preparation to begin true sitting. Discouraged or distracted by little things, you won\u2019t be able to go on. Interrupted, you\u2019re unable to \u201cOutside all externals put to rest, Inside let not your mind stir.\u201d A mind constantly distracted cannot see out the practice to the very end.<\/p>\n
I think this is true with our ordinary affairs as well.[3] We need great faith and great determination to do anything thoroughly. But how much more so with sitting! Throw yourself into sitting through those hindrances, and \u201cOutside all externals put to rest, Inside let not your mind stir.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the beginning you try to push away external hindrances, strive to remain undisturbed by them, and try to suppress the waves of thought that arise within. Such attempts to suppress reveal a restlessness, that \u201cInside your mind still stirs.\u201d Pursue further though, and you\u2019ll come to where you won\u2019t have to try and suppress anything: Externals are naturally put to rest, inside your mind naturally does not stir. Having realized this myself, for me it\u2019s an actual fact; proceed in this way and I have no doubt that all of you will realize it as well. And with that, the formless self will be clearly awakened.<\/p>\n
Then, sitting as formless self is no longer restricted to a specific time or place \u2014 there is no place to sit at, no time to sit in. Ordinarily one sits on a certain cushion in a certain place, but now one is no longer tied to such sitting. You awaken to the self that is utterly unrestricted. Thus, awakening doesn\u2019t obtain only when sitting in full-lotus, or whatever; you come to be that way all the time.<\/p>\n
For instance, when you rise from sitting, the standing itself becomes sitting at work. Sitting does not end when you rise to your feet; on the contrary, it\u2019s ongoing. This sitting is the subject, and this subject stands, so it\u2019s not that one rises from sitting to standing; rather the sitting itself stands.<\/p>\n
[Dougen\u2019s above-mentioned Fukan-]zazengi states that when one goes from the seated posture to stand, one should rise quietly and slowly. If that is so, it is like moving from sitting to standing: Sitting becomes a state separate from and prior to standing. I would say that is not true sitting. There\u2019s no shift from sitting to standing; the sitting itself must stand. It is not a specific state. If it is, then there would be a shift from sitting to standing, and then to walking, and so on. True sitting is not like that: It\u2019s the subject, the self, so it is this very sitting which stands. Otherwise it can\u2019t be called true sitting.<\/p>\n
When you\u2019ve truly sat through, it will certainly be like this. Then it\u2019s no longer necessary to rise quietly. Jump up or even leap out of your sitting and it\u2019s still just the working of your sitting. If you must rise quietly so as not to lose it, that\u2019s merely one particular state. Such sitting is not yet oneself, not the subject itself.<\/p>\n
What we call formless self is thus precisely what is spoken of [in Yongjia\u2019s Poem on Actualizing the Way] as:<\/p>\n
Walking is Zen,
\nSitting is Zen,
\nTalking or silent,
\nWorking or at rest,
\nThe subject is composed.<\/p>\n
This true sitting is nothing but Zen. The word zazen (\u5750\u7985) consists of the characters for \u201cseated\u201d (\u5750) and \u201czen\u201d (\u7985). But from the standpoint of true sitting, the sitting must itself be Zen, Zen must itself be sitting. If not, it\u2019s not real zazen.<\/p>\n
A particular posture or state of mind is not true sitting. When everything you do \u2014 walking, sitting, silence, speaking, thinking \u2014 is itself sitting, then for the first time your sitting will be authentic. If you sit thinking about this or trying to become like this, then you\u2019re sitting with a goal in mind and that\u2019s not it. Once again, true sitting is \u201cOutside all externals put to rest, Inside let not your mind stir.\u201d It\u2019s not a matter of sitting trying to become like this; the way of sitting in which one is like this is crucial.<\/p>\n
The koan also finally comes down to this \u201cOutside all externals put to rest, Inside let not your mind stir.\u201d For instance, with the koan \u201cYour original face before your parents gave birth to you,\u201d this original face refers to what we now call the true self. And that is \u201cbefore your parents gave birth to you,\u201d in other words, it\u2019s the self of body-mind fallen away. And this self in which body-mind has fallen away is your original face before your parents gave birth to you.<\/p>\n
Being born is, of course, a physical and psychological fact. So, to speak of something prior to that does not mean prior in the temporal sense; it\u2019s what is actually present here and now. In other words, the self in which body-mind have fallen away is what is prior to the arising of body-mind. Again, \u201cbefore birth\u201d is not meant in the usual sense; rather it is prior to anything arising right here. There is no time, no before or after, for it is right here and now, prior to anything arising. This is where the true self is. It\u2019s the original self in which body-mind have fallen away, prior to all physical and mental phenomena. Conceived temporally, one might think that this \u201cfalling away\u201d occurs after we\u2019ve acquired body and mind. But returning to what is prior to one\u2019s birth means that the very body-mind born and alive at present falls away; thus, it truly is prior to anything arising.<\/p>\n
Koans like this \u201c[Your original face] before your parents gave birth to you\u201d are the same as true sitting: They amount to \u201cOutside all externals put to rest, Inside let not your mind stir.\u201d This is the point of the koan as well, so any koan-samadhi that is not like this is not genuine. With any koan, whether it is \u201c[Your original face] before your parents gave birth to you,\u201d \u201cNot thinking good, not thinking evil,\u201d \u201cGoing beyond the four propositions [is, is not, both is and is not, neither is nor is not] and the hundred negations [of logic],\u201d or \u201cNeither speech nor silence, thinking nor not-thinking, standing nor sitting will do\u201d \u2014 when you get free from all such relative states and penetrate the self that is free, then it\u2019s a real, living koan. Otherwise the koan is turned into something relative, with a specific, delimited form. That is what usually happens with it. But the koans I just mentioned were devised to lead one from the relative and delimited to that which is unlimited.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, commonly-used koans such as Joushuu\u2019s \u201cMu\u201d [Zhaozhou\u2019s \u201cWu\u201d] or Hakuin\u2019s \u201cSound of the single hand\u201d have become things that practicers cling to, although such was not their original purpose. They have been reduced to particular Mu-samadhi or single hand-samadhi. At some places practicers are even made to yell \u201cMu! Mu! Mu!\u201d in order to enter samadhi. Granted this is not \u201cMu\u201d or \u2018Nonbeing\u2019 as the negation of \u2018being,\u2019 but Mu as the \u2018Not-being-Nonbeing-either.\u2019 Thus, everyone nowadays knows what Mu is, and thinks that simply yelling \u201cMu\u201d\u2013!\u201d will do. That\u2019s what it\u2019s turned into.<\/p>\n
The real standard by which to judge whether it is the ultimate Mu of body-mind fallen away is to examine whether it is the formless self or not. If Mu is really the formless self, then it must be free from the very voicing of \u201cMu, Mu, Mu.\u201d Mu is nothing like a voiced samadhi. Being formless self, it is free from any limitation. In this way true sitting also must be free and unrestricted. Standing, sitting, whatever one\u2019s doing, must be such sitting. And we call this sitting the formless self: The fundamental subject or root source of all, and it\u2019s active without being delimited.<\/p>\n
Here there is no such thing as body-mind, nor is there life-death, good-evil. This is complete emancipation: Genuine, root-source freedom and unhindered independence. No obstruction whatever \u2014 everything is unhindered!<\/p>\n
The Heart Sutra says, \u201cNo hindrance, free from all fear.\u201d Fear is only one small part of it though, so there really isn\u2019t even such a thing as freedom from fear: Free even of freedom from fear. Simply not having fears will not do. \u201cFree from all fear\u201d is actually freedom from pleasure-pain, fear-fearlessness \u2014 being the self which is not limited or determined by any such thing. Even if there\u2019s something good, if it\u2019s determined, then fear cannot be avoided. \u201cNo hindrance, free from all fear\u201d can only be realized when we are active without form. Be the formless self, and whatever you do is unhindered.<\/p>\n
The same is true of koan practice: As long as it\u2019s some kind of a special experience or specific problem-question, it\u2019s not a real koan. For a koan to be genuine, it must be universal. Take Joushuu\u2019s Mu: Shouting \u201cMu!\u201d \u2014 with all of your might and becoming this Mu \u2014 is said to be it, but it\u2019s not . Practicing like that, let me say, would never do. Nowadays real koan Zen is lost in such practice, which only adds more shackles and chains.<\/p>\n
Genuine Mu must be without form. Only by being the formless self can one really break through the koan. Breaking through a particular problem-question, resolving a specific matter, even having a very unusual experience \u2014 for example, you weren\u2019t able to become Mu, but now your self, your body, and the whole world have become Mu \u2014 these are all nothing but particular experiences. Whatever koan you\u2019re working on at present \u2014 Mu, the single hand, the cypress tree in the garden, or whatever \u2014 if you merely fall into becoming one with that koan, you actually end up losing your freedom.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why I insist that breaking through a koan actually be awakening to the formless self. Unless you\u2019ve gotten there, you haven\u2019t broken through. Once you have, though, you are truly without form and can express it independently.<\/p>\n
Preparing to sit, it might be good to keep this in mind rather than sitting with some preposterous misconception. But if you remain preoccupied with such knowledge when sitting, then all for naught. Everyone, how is it when you\u2019re sitting?<\/p>\n
Ishii: That\u2019s why I\u2019d like to ask about the dualistic mental composure that I have \u2014 not the kind in which sitting itself stands, but the kind that gets disturbed when I rise\u2026.<\/p>\n
Hisamatsu: There is a way. If you gain composure when you sit, but start to lose it when you rise then lose it completely when you run, that won\u2019t do. Authentic composure is not lost even when you\u2019re turned head over heels. That\u2019s the way it is: Even in death you are composed. Not composure because you\u2019re resigned to die, but composure even unto death. Otherwise, it\u2019s not authentic.<\/p>\n
People sometimes say things like they are free from life and death, or there is no living and dying. But right now if you were on the brink of death and you were able to remain undisturbed, that\u2019s not freedom from life and death at all, though it\u2019s often misconstrued that way. If you were terminally ill, yet able to remain calm and unshaken in your last moments, wouldn\u2019t that be just a matter of your mental or psychological state?<\/p>\n
On the contrary, death itself must be composed. It\u2019s not to be calm though you face death[4]; death itself is \u201cfree from all fear\u201d [as mentioned above]. Saying \u201cI\u2019m not afraid, I\u2019m not afraid\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s not real freedom from all fear. Truly be the formless self, and you are totally free of fear.<\/p>\n
Dougen stated that this very life and death is the true self; dying is also the self, living is also the self: \u201cThe coming and going of life and death is itself the true human body.\u201d Unless you\u2019ve penetrated to that depth, you can\u2019t say you\u2019ve really passed a koan or sat all the way through. That\u2019s why I advocate the formless self rather than things like passing koans or so-called sitting. Now with the formless self as the koan, does someone have a question about that?<\/p>\n
Abe: I think Mr. Ishii was asking if concentrating on a koan is a form of thought; so, when concentrating on the formless self as a koan, does that concentrating itself have some kind of form?<\/p>\n
Hisamatsu: When you really concentrate on or struggle with a koan, it\u2019s prior to anything arising, body-mind fallen away, returning to the source. That\u2019s why in Zen one is often asked who or what is it that thinks, that feels, for there is a source prior to thought that does the thinking. That\u2019s also why I speak of \u201ccollecting thoughts,\u201d having them return to their source, prior to the arising of anything at all, before body and mind. It\u2019s the same as \u201cbefore your parents gave birth to you,\u201d and, when it comes down to it, it\u2019s none other than \u201cOutside all externals put to rest, Inside let not your mind stir.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hikosaka: I can understand that working with a koan such as the sound of the single hand or Mu is not just becoming that particular koan. But do you first become that particular koan and then break through the form of the koan, or is there some other way? I\u2019m asking because I don\u2019t understand how to concentrate on the koan.<\/p>\n
Hisamatsu: I have proposed the FAS Society\u2019s fundamental koan to avoid those kinds of problems and abuses. In a word, it\u2019s penetrating to the freedom of being nothing whatever; if you want to call it a koan, it\u2019s the koan to realize that. It\u2019s the basic and essential koan, it\u2019s breaking through to what we now call the free and formless self. For example, in the formulation \u201cneither speech nor silence will do,\u201d what will not do tends to be limited to the words: speech-silence. The point, however, is the self that is nothing whatever. The way opens up when you are utterly trapped in a corner,at wit\u2019s end with back against the wall: You can neither be this nor that \u2014 you are nothing whatever. Thereby there you penetrate \u2026 (striking the table), where it is \u201cprior to anything arising; \u201cnot just prior to something like good and evil, but prior to the arising of anything at all.<\/p>\n
As far as I\u2019m concerned, good and evil, or not thinking good, not thinking evil \u2014 they\u2019re still something particular. But if it\u2019s genuinely \u201cWithout thinking good, without thinking evil, right now show me your original face,\u201d everything is included in this formulation. It\u2019s not just a matter of good and evil, it includes everything; nor is it merely a matter of thinking, but includes all our activities in their totality: Not using your hands, or feet, even your sense of touch. To formulate it: None of that will do; now what? That\u2019s what we call the fundamental koan.<\/p>\n
Hikosaka: I try to hold the koan, \u201cNeither standing nor sitting will do: Now what do I do?\u201d in mind during zazen, but it\u2019s like I\u2019m chasing after something.<\/p>\n
Hisamatsu: If you\u2019re chasing after something objectively, that won\u2019t do. You must drive yourself to the ultimate dilemma in a fundamentally subjective manner. In short, you must be hopelessly cornered, driven to the last extremity, where you \u201cDie the one great death, then you are revived.\u201d This fundamentally subjective, absolute negation is also called the great doubt block, for it\u2019s the ultimate, fundamentally subjective doubt.<\/p>\n
Abe: About the koan of Joushuu\u2019s \u201cMu,\u201d it\u2019s clear: Being made to repeat \u201cMu! Mu!\u201d and concentrate on this voiced form or idea of Mu is not the true Mu koan. It\u2019s not a voiced Mu, or any form, concept, or idea of it. It\u2019s Mu itself. And because one can\u2019t deal with this in any form whatever, we cannot but completely discard such a way of dealing with it. We can only be forced back to Mu as Mu, that is, to \u201cprior to anything arising.\u201d Thus, even when struggling with this Mu koan, if we just work that way, we will also return to the source\u2026.<\/p>\n
Hisamatsu: After all, rather than use some specific form of mediation \u2014 in this case Mu \u2014 it\u2019s better not to use any form at all. That\u2019s the most appropriate way in this situation, isn\u2019t it?: Drive yourself up against the wall without having anything to hold onto. As the method for penetrating the true body-mind fallen away, to the true self, isn\u2019t this the most ingenious way?<\/p>\n
As a matter of fact, such a way did appear early in the history of Zen, assuming particular forms such as \u201cGoing beyond the four propositions [is, is not, both is and is not, neither is nor is not] and the hundred negations [of logic], say what the meaning of the founding patriarch\u2019s coming from the west is.\u201d With \u201cGo beyond the four propositions and the hundred negations,\u201d it can\u2019t be negated, it can\u2019t be affirmed. If you say something it won\u2019t do, if you don\u2019t say anything it won\u2019t do, either. Now, \u201cWhat is the meaning of the founding patriarch\u2019s coming from the west?\u201d This refers to Bodhidharma\u2019s crossing from India to China and has been used often in mondou [a question-answer] exchanges, which have come to be called koan. Put simply, it is the same thing as Zen, or the self for that matter.<\/p>\n
As to \u201cthe meaning of the founding patriarch\u2019s coming from the west,\u201d once I wrote on the exchange Kanran had with his teacher Laoan, one of the disciples of the fifth patriarch. Kanran asked \u201cthe meaning of the founding patriarch\u2019s coming from the west,\u201d and was told, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you ask the meaning of your self?\u201d The meaning of your self, not the meaning of the founding patriarch\u2019s coming! Why don\u2019t you just ask directly about the meaning of your self?<\/p>\n
At any rate, the meaning of the founding patriarch\u2019s coming from the west is, in the words we use, nothing but the true self. When you can neither negate nor affirm, neither be silent nor speak, how do you answer about your true self? That is what is meant by asking the meaning of the founding patriarch\u2019s coming. How do you answer when neither silence nor speech will do? When you come to this point, that is the meaning of the founding patriarch\u2019s coming from the west. It won\u2019t do just to addle your brains thinking what possible meaning his coming could have. Instead, right where you can neither keep silent nor talk, you find your way through and get free. That (striking the table) is the meaning of the founding patriarch\u2019s coming from the west.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a matter of reflecting on the meaning of the founding patriarch\u2019s coming from the west; it\u2019s penetrating to where neither silence nor speech will do. Reach that point and you realize the meaning: Where neither silence nor speech will do you penetrate your self (striking the table). Then and there you grasp the meaning of the founding patriarch\u2019s coming from the west. There is no other meaning than this!<\/p>\n
Here I would like you all to ask of yourselves, in terms of a koan: \u201cWhatever I am, whatever I do, will not do; now what do I do?\u201d In terms of life and death, \u201cNeither living nor dying will do; what do I do?\u201d This \u201cWhat do I do?\u201d is extremely important, it demands action. If it\u2019s just the self in which neither living nor dying will do, that\u2019s only the negative side of its own way, and no activity will emerge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever I do will not do; what do I do?\u201d This \u201cWhat do I do?\u201d creates positive activity. I consider this the root, the source, of all koans. You can always ask this of yourself. When walking: Walking won\u2019t do, what do I do? Bending over the toilet: Bending over won\u2019t do, what do I do? We are always something, but if being something \u2014 anything \u2014 won\u2019t do, what will we do? I say such things because the true self is what truly is, the genuinely formless self. Normally we abide only in what has already taken on form; but our true abode is at the source, at the root of it all.<\/p>\n
Since small children don\u2019t yet possess the discriminating mind, they are thought to be at the source. Sayings such as \u201cBe like a child,\u201d or, going further, \u201cBe like wood and stone,\u201d suggests our original abode. But we all come to abide in the world of discriminated forms, so even when we try to become one we cannot do so. Thus, everything must be absorbed into the source, returned to one. As long as you remain with what has already taken on form, however hard you try you can only go outside yourself but cannot return to one. Thinking is also a matter of going outside yourself. You\u2019ll never become one that way, it\u2019s impossible. Becoming one is found in returning to the origin. But this is not a matter of becoming a child again \u2014 it\u2019s right here and now, wherever you are. Because it\u2019s you yourself \u2014 that\u2019s where the \u201cone\u201d is.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s not just something to work on in zazen, it\u2019s going on always and everywhere. That\u2019s why it\u2019s spoken of as \u201cimmediate.\u201d Realizing that our sitting in zazen here and now like this won\u2019t do, and that more than just sitting, everything is included, then our being one ceases to be anything particular. If it\u2019s just a matter of your sitting won\u2019t do, then you can just stand up. But you\u2019ll never realize the source that way. If your sitting won\u2019t do, immediately then and there nothing whatever will do. Though it would seem to assume some particular form, it\u2019s not. It\u2019s all one whole.<\/p>\n
I often use the analogy of the water and the waves. Take one wave as an example. It\u2019s a particular wave, but directly below it is connected with the whole sea. As a wave it assumes different shapes, but no matter what the shape, it\u2019s water, and all water is one. Instead of going horizontally in the direction of the waves, if the individual wave \u2014 though not just an individual wave \u2014 goes vertically, straight down, it finds itself leading to the whole. We could say the particular or individual is that into which the whole is drawn; the particular penetrates the whole, the individual itself mediates the whole.<\/p>\n
Likewise with koans such as Joushuu\u2019s \u201cMu\u201d or the single hand: They cannot be limited just to that particular form. Even if Mu is voiced, it\u2019s not limited to that voiced Mu; it is the single hand and yet it\u2019s not the single hand. If in becoming the single hand one gets stuck in that form so that everything is not included, well then that\u2019s still something particular, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
In terms of samadhi, there are particular samadhis and then there is the sovereign samadhi. Sovereign samadhi is total, hence its name. Thus, (striking the table) it\u2019s completely one, universal and total; in a word, it\u2019s what we\u2019ve been referring to as formless. Sovereign samadhi is total, and yet if that totality isn\u2019t the root source of the individual, then it\u2019s no more than an abstract universal. Sovereign samadhi must be the root source of all particularity, the root source of all activity, a freely working root source. Body-mind fallen away refers to nothing other than this sovereign samadhi. Conversely, it becomes \u201cfallen away body-mind\u201d as positive-active time.
\nHow do you respond to this?<\/p>\n
[1] The discussion took place at an FAS meeting on January 25, 1964 at the Senbutsuji Temple in Kyoto. First made public in the journal FAS no. 57, issued in May 1965; then in Hisamatsu Shin\u2019ichi Chosakushuu vol. 3, pp. 649~665. The three questioners\u2019 names are: Masao ABE, Teiichi (Soukyuu) HIKOSAKA, and Seishi ISHII.
\n[2] First translation by Jeff Shore in collaboration with Fusako Nagasawa appeared in the FAS Society Journal, Autumn 1984; then in the Eastern Buddhist<\/a> vol. 31, no. 1, 1998, translated by Jeff Shore in collaboration with Nobumichi Takahashi, Gishin Tokiwa, and Fusako Shore. A revised version was prepared by the translator through help from Takahashi and Tokiwa in spring 2000. What follows is this version with corrections offered by Tokiwa and accepted by the translator (November 2007).
\n[3] Two lines, 12th and 13th, in the upper column of the Japanese text, Chosakushuu p. 652, which precede this sentence, are left untranslated for the sake of consistency.
\n[4] This rendering follows the corrected Japanese expression: \u201cshinu nowa osoroshikunai to iunja nashini,\u201d corrected upon translation according to the context of the author\u2019s utterance, where the Chosakushuu text (p. 659, the lower column line 9) goes: \u201cshinu nowa osoroshii to iunja nashini\u201d (\u201cIt\u2019s not a matter of fearing death\u201d ).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 True Sitting & the Fundamental Koan: A Discussion with Shin\u2019ichi Hisamatsu[1] translated by Jeff Shore\u00a0in collaboration with Nobumichi Takahashi and Gishin Tokiwa[2] Hisamatsu: During a sesshin-retreat, various doubts or problems are bound to arise. For your practice it is essential to raise them and have them resolved, so today I will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1787],"tags":[2025,2028,2022],"class_list":["post-20907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zen","category-zen-meditation","tag-fundamental-koan","tag-shinichi-hisamatsu","tag-true-sitting"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n