Don’t Poke Your Head Into Zen

The next Genjokoan post will move from “studying the self” and “the nose inadvertently in the hand of the self” to “studying the self is to forget the self.” Practice period participants, please begin reading, reflecting, and manifesting this passage and the commentary, p. 10-11, especially the Sen’ne line, “To forget means to know without touching things.” I’m going into sesshin tonight so I’ll be posting some comments and points of inquiry for this late Sunday or Monday.

For today I have an edited portion of a Katagiri Roshi talk about the suffering of practicing Zen:

When I was at Eiheiji monastery the circumstances were perfect for the practice because there was lots of encouragement.

From the beginning to end, Zen practice was very simple. When you stand up, just stand up. When you sleep, just sleep.

But unfortunately we cannot do this always because we have lots of consciousness, already we have a big head. Consciousness is not always quiet. Even though you are happy under a certain circumstances, immediately you don’t satisfy when circumstances change. Finally, you face a certain problem.

When I left Eiheiji and went back to my master’s temple, circumstances were completely different, just two funny guys, and I suffered a lot.

Finally, I ask myself, “What is the purpose of life?” “Why did you become monk?” “What is the purpose of Buddhist monk?” “What are you doing here just washing the clothes and picking up weeds everyday? Ridiculous.”

Very naturally, our consciousness start to work, always thinking “Why? What is it? What is human suffering? Should you be always in human suffering? What is human suffering? Can I be free from human suffering?”

Always we think. So we need an explanation of the structure of human life.

Of course, there are some individuals who don’t need this structure of study. They just believe, happy and etc. That’s fine. If you can spend your whole life like this, that’s fine.

But more or less you have to think because you have consciousness. That’s why there is a huge system of Buddhist philosophy and Buddhist psychology.

The other day I talked at a college and gave a very simple explanation of a verse from Madhyamika. Then I asked them, “Do you understand my explanation?”

Someone said, “Yeah, a little bit.”

I asked him, “How do you like Buddhism?”

He said, “I don’t like it.”

(laughs)

That’s why I told them, “Don’t poke your head into Zen Buddhism.”

If you want to take care of human life, please have a simple religion. Buddhism is finally very simple but in order to reach this simple way of life you have to go through the complicated aspect of human life. That’s pretty hard.

I suffered a lot so I don’t want to recommend to American students to poke your head into Zen. Usually ministers always explain their own religion and say “Believe, believe….”

But I don’t want to do that.

For all of you, it’s not too late to stop poking your head. Any time you can stop.

I don’t care if you hate Buddhism or you like it. You should choose your life. If you leave Buddhism, that’s fine. If you stay in Buddhism, that’s fine. Wherever you may go, I pray for you.