Menzan and Dainin on Zazenshin

After the first talk in Anchorage last week, a practitioner approached me and said he’d sat with Katagiri Roshi at Southern Dharma in about 1988 and that he had a picture that he’d send me (and he did – above). It’s a deep pleasure for me to run into people who knew Katagiri way back when. And btw, if anybody out there has some old pictures of the old boy that you’d like to share, I’d be delighted to archive them here. 

Here’s a poem on Zazenshin by Menzan Zuiho that Katagiri Roshi translated. Menzan (1683-1769) was an influential Soto Zen monk and scholar during the reforms of the Edo period. Menzan’s interest was in returning to the original spirit of Dogen. A commentary on each of the works of Dogen’s Shobogenzo is attributed to him, although some scholars argue that one of his disciples is responsible for the work. 

Zazen goes beyond holy and profane.
Shin is an instrument to cure sickness.
Here it means to kill the sickness of Zen.
This sickness is chronic and obstinate.
The immediate manifestation 
of dropping off body and mind
removes sickness inside and outside.
This is vigorous and sound wisdom.
Right and wrong views are originally empty.
The sickness of Dharma can be diligently 
cleansed and removed.
A bird flies like a bird, a fish swims like a fish.
Seeing and hearing are much clearer.
Sound and form are as-it-isness.
The intent of Buddha and the intent
of becoming Buddha are going beyond.
Three times and ten directions are hard to separate. 

And here is Roshi’s brief commentary to the poem:

The teaching of just sitting is uplifted by Dogen and all the Buddhas. By plunging into the process of just sitting from moment to moment you can get out of this perpetual wandering. Once attached to the dualistic mind there is no way out. Just switch your attention back to this center, embracing the total picture of just sitting itself including thinking, not thinking and nonthinking without meddling. Then you can directly perceive the nature of the world of perpetual wandering. This awareness is not a mental experience created by your consciousness. Body and mind directly realize it. Sometimes the realization is strong and sometimes it is more subtle and smooth. Some day you can taste it.