Roshi was quite a stickler for the fundamental, standing up right in the middle of Buddha, as he says. He goes on to talk about the Dr. Seuss book with the world gone completely human and a child appreciating the last flower and the hope for the future in that act. <\/span><\/span>\nMost everybody studying with Katagiri at the time got into that book which was quite cute. We were a bunch of overly serious, short haired Zennists in black, after all, sitting around reading Dr. Seuss like Dogen. I can\u2019t remember the title, though, and dug around on the internet and couldn\u2019t find it either. Maybe you, dear reader, know of which Seuss I speak.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAnyway, Buddha, the fundamental, is not an attachment to shikantaza or non-gaining as doctrinal points that we hoist on a flag and fight for, grimly sinking with the Zen ship. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\nHistorically, other people have had this issue \u2013 hold fast or let go? The teaching of the four reliances are intended as reflections to help work this issue through, imv.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThey are as follows:<\/span><\/span>
rely on the teaching, not the teacher;\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
rely on the meaning, not the letter;\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
rely on the definitive meaning, not the interpretive meaning; rely on nondual wisdom, not discriminating consciousness.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe most relevant of the four for this conversation is the third \u2013 rely on the definitive meaning. Now there has been a lot of quiet reflection on what that is exactly and various opinions. I hold with those who favor the view that the only definitive teaching is boundless openness, a.k.a, emptiness, a.k.a., sunyatta.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nEverything else, from how we bow to how we use the toilet, is interpretive and therefore not essential to the buddhadharma. All of our Zen culture, then, must be about actualizing awakened truth here and now.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAnd that\u2019s one hot potato.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n
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