Appreciate Your Life by Taizan Maezumi Roshi

Author:Taizan Maezumi Roshi
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Shambhala Publications

1. The following koan is adapted from Francis H. Cook, trans., The Record of Transmitting the Light: Zen Master Keizan’s Denkoroku (Los Angeles: Center Publications, 1991), 190.

CLARIFY THE GREAT MATTER

Once while in China, I was reading a collection of sayings by an ancient master. At the time, a monk from Sichuan, a sincere practitioner of the Way, asked me, “What is the use of reading recorded sayings?” I replied, “I want to learn about the deeds of the ancient masters.” The monk asked, “What is the use of that?” I said, “I wish to teach people after I return home.” The monk queried further, “Yes, but ultimately, what is the use?”

Later, I pondered his remarks. Learning the deeds of the ancient masters by reading the recorded sayings or koans in order to explain them to deluded people is ultimately of no use to my own practice or for teaching others. Even if I don’t know a single letter, I will be able to show it to others in inexhaustible ways if I devote myself to just sitting and clarifying the great matter. It was for this reason that the monk pressed me as to the ultimate use [of reading and studying]. I thought what he said was true. Thereupon, I gave up reading the recorded sayings and other texts, concentrated wholeheartedly on sitting, and was able to clarify the great matter.

—Eihei Dogen,

SHOBOGENZO ZUIMONKI

SOME PEOPLE THINK THAT our practice in the Soto tradition is just-sitting. I feel fortunate that I had a chance to study koans. In this passage Dogen Zenji does not say just sit. What is the difference between physically sitting on a cushion and sitting in shikantaza? Shikantaza is often translated as “just sit!” Shikan means “wholeheartedly” or “just,” za is the verb “to sit,” and ta is an emphatic, an exclamation point. Even to concentrate on sitting wholeheartedly is not enough. Dogen Zenji does not say just wholeheartedly sit on a cushion. If you believe in just doing that, place a rock or a piece of wood on a cushion and let it sit. It sits better than we do. Is that enlightened life? We should not fool ourselves.

Some of you ask, “What am I supposed to do during zazen? Should I just be aware of what is going on around me and observe carefully?” Let’s look at shikan once more. Dogen Zenji emphasizes the shi part. What is shi? Stop! Stop the conscious mind from going on and on and on and on, from one subject to another, unceasingly. And kan means seeing, observing, or being aware. These may seem contradictory, but both are important, do you see? If you can stop the conscious mind from going on and on, then you can be aware of what is truly going on, what to do, and how to do it.

In Shobogenzo Bendowa, Dogen Zenji talks about the content of shikantaza and about clarifying this great matter. He uses this expression, “clarifying this great matter,” twice even in this short passage.

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