![](\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-3XxEmG3IDfg\/TdFDeI30v4I\/AAAAAAAABVo\/j-2UP8D-gNk\/s1600\/strong-weak-man.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nToday I\u2019m offering a question for reflection and discussion, so if you\u2019d like to post a comment, go for it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the question(s): For practicing and verifying the buddhadharma, what is the role of zazen and daily life? Which is more important? In your practice now, which is stronger \u2013 zazen or daily life?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The framing of this issue comes from <\/span><\/span>Lectures on the Ten Oxherding Pictures<\/i>, by Yamada Mumon, one of the most important Rinzai teachers of the 1900s. It\u2019s a delightful book and I\u2019ll soon be writing more about the Ten Oxen.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In Yamada\u2019s view (quoted more fully below), after becoming Mu <\/i>in zazen, daily life is more important both because <\/span><\/span>\u201c\u2026kensho <\/i>achieved while sitting on a zazen cushion is weak\u201d and because <\/span><\/span>it is in daily life where this samadhi<\/i> is smashed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Then, Yamada writes, <\/span><\/span>\u201c\u2026our buddha-nature reveals itself clearly in our daily work.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Simply put, Yamada seems to see daily life as strong and zazen as weak (at least after a certain point in our process). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, quite a different view is presented by Soto teacher Shohaku Okumuru in Realizing Genjokoan.<\/i><\/span><\/span> \u201cThis just sitting in <\/span>zazen is itself the practice of nirvana.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This is also quoted more fully below.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Okumura sees daily life as a succession of roles (husband, father, teacher) that are based on I and thou, subject and object. It is in zazen, he says, where we become nothing and are free from our karmic life.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span> Pretty different, eh?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Setting aside Yamada and Okumura, how is it really for you? <\/span><\/span>In your practice now, which is stronger \u2013 zazen or daily life?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the passages cited above:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have been able to achieve the samadhi<\/i> of Mu <\/i>in zazen and have got some understanding of Joshu\u2019s <\/span><\/span>Mu, <\/i>we provisionally call this kensho. <\/i>But kensho <\/i>achieved while sitting on a zazen cushion is weak in action. Through contact with the outside world, you must also grasp the life that throbs there. The power that you\u2019ve built up through samadhi <\/i>in zazen is smashed to pieces by the sounds of the outside world; it is shattered by the sights of the outside world. At that point, suddenly our self-nature externalizes and throbs into life. Is the sound me? Or am I the sound? The sound and I are one; the sound and I go \u201cGong!\u201d when subject and object are one, there the ox comes trotting along. Buddha-nature is not a precious antique to be wrapped in brocade and packed away in a wooden box. Our buddha-nature reveals itself clearly in our daily work. That is because buddha-nature is act, activity (from Lectures on the Ten Oxherding Pictures<\/i>, by Yamada Mumon, p. 39).\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span>
Simply put, zazen is strong and daily life is weak.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n