{"id":3795,"date":"2017-11-06T12:35:29","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T18:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?p=3795"},"modified":"2022-01-25T20:05:41","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T02:05:41","slug":"birth-death-intimate-self-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2017\/11\/birth-death-intimate-self-knowledge.html","title":{"rendered":"Birth, Death and Intimate Self Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

At the end of the day in most Zen practice centers, a student rises from zazen, goes to the han and before a series of roll downs, recites this verse (or some other version):<\/p>\n

I beg to urge you everyone,
\nLife and death is the great matter.
\nAll things pass quickly away.
\nAwaken, awaken, take heed.
\nMake use of this precious life.<\/p>\n

The great matter of life and death is a focus for our Zen work. This goes against the cultural current of denial of death where we put it in a box in the ground asap.<\/p>\n

Further, in our koan Zen way, resolving the great matter of life and death is not a matter of belief in rebirth or a benevolent deity that will take us to a better place. Instead, what we\u2019re invited to believe and<\/span> then verify for ourselves, is that through intimate self knowledge, the issues of death and what happens after death can be resolved.<\/p>\n

In this post and my next post (probably later in the week), I\u2019ll be poking around in this issue of birth and death, first with some details about this verse, \u201cThe Evening Message,\u201d and the next post about \u201cD\u014dushu\u00e0i\u2019s Three Barriers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One inspiration for addressing this issue now is a recent study about life after clinical death. Here\u2019s a summary from the Independent:<\/p>\n

\u201cDeath just became even more scary: scientists say people are aware they\u2019re dead\u00a0because their consciousness continues to work after the body has stopped showing signs of life. That means that, theoretically, someone may even hear their own death being announced by medics. The claim was made by Dr Sam Parnia, director of critical care and resuscitation research at NYU Langone School of Medicine in New York City.\u201d Click here for full article.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, scary! You might hear your time of death \u2013 or the sound of the zipper on the body bagged being zipped up. Ready for that? If you answer this question, \u201cno,\u201d that\u2019s good \u2013 there\u2019s still time to practice. If \u201cyes,\u201d I\u2019d say \u201cYeah, right, you better get serious and cut the b.s.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, for starters, let\u2019s take a look at the above verse in some detail. The first line, \u201cI beg to urge you everyone,\u201d conveys the spirit of the sinographs but not the letter. \u201cSpoken to the great assembly,\u201d is a more literal, although, a less poetic rendering.<\/p>\n

The next line, \u201cLife and death is the great matter\u201d is spot on. Simple and direct. \u201cLife\u201d (\u751f, Japanese \u201cd\u014d\u201d as in\u00a0D\u014dsh\u014d) could also be translated \u201cbirth,\u201d suggesting the continuum of birth- death (\u6b7b). In English, it\u2019s also customary to add an \u201cand\u201d \u2013 birth and death \u2013 which makes it seem like it\u2019s two things. The sinographs\u00a0\u751f\u6b7b are just birth death or perhaps as a compound birthdeath. So the second line could be said like this: \u201cThe great matter is birthdeath.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third line, \u201cAll things pass quickly away,\u201d again, is a nice poetic expression in the spirit of the line which, is more simple and direct: \u201cImpermanence is swift.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are a few points to be made about fourth line, \u201cAwaken, awaken, take heed.\u201d\u00a0 First, there are a couple sinographs that are seldom translated,\u00a0\u5404\u5b9c, which\u00a0I\u2019d say\u00a0like this: \u201cfitting for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second, the two \u201cawakens\u201d have different sinographs with slightly different meanings.\u00a0 The sense with the first, \u9192, is waking up or sobering up from intoxication so \u201csober up\u201d would be closer. Then, \u899a, the second \u201cawaken\u201d has the nuance of awakening from a dream, so \u201cawaken\u201d works fine. Thirdly, the sinograph translated as \u201ctake heed\u201d (or \u201ccareful\u201d) is actually part of the fifth line so we will leave that for now. So the fourth line could be said like this: \u201cIt is fitting for everyone to sober up! Wake up!\u201d<\/p>\n

And, finally, the fifth line, \u201cMake use of this precious life,\u201d or the more common \u201cDo not squander your life.\u201d Although I like the positive focus of\u00a0\u201cMake use of this precious life,\u201d the sinographs are making a negative statement and don\u2019t say \u201cprecious\u201d or \u201clife\u201d or \u201cmake use\u201d either, so this line is the most interpretive line in this translation of the verse.<\/p>\n

The more common,\u00a0\u201cDo not squander your life,\u201d seems a bit shaming, as in, \u201cHey, dumb shit, damn, you sure are making a sense of your life.\u201d And that doesn\u2019t seem to be the spirit.<\/p>\n

A bare-bones rendering would be more like \u201cCareful! Do not let pass by.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet what pass by?\u201d you might ask. Good question. As is often the case, the subject is suggested but not stated. The line seems to be addressing this opportunity for practice, so\u00a0\u201cCareful! Do not let [this opportunity] pass by.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pulling it all together:<\/p>\n

Spoken to the great assembly:
\nThe great matter is birthdeath.
\nImpermanence is swift!
\nIt is fitting for everyone to sober up! Wake up!
\nCareful! Do not let [this opportunity] pass by.<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1047\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of the day in most Zen practice centers, a student rises from zazen, goes to the han and before a series of roll downs, recites this verse (or some other version): I beg to urge you everyone, Life and death is the great matter. All things pass quickly away. Awaken, awaken, take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":3799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBirth, Death and Intimate Self Knowledge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At the end of the day in most Zen practice centers, a student rises from zazen, goes to the han and before a series of roll downs, recites this verse (or\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2017\/11\/birth-death-intimate-self-knowledge.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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