Kosho Uchiyama (1912-1998)

The world we live in is not something that exists independently of our thoughts and ideas.  Our world and these thoughts and ideas appear to us as a unified whole.  Depending on what our thoughts and ideas are, our world may appear to us in completely different ways. 

These thoughts and feelings constitute our psychological condition.  Moreover, our psychological condition is at the same time our physiological condition.  When something breaks down inside of us physically, our minds no longer remain clear.

And if our minds are not clear, then the eyes with which we see the whole world take on a gloomy appearance.  On the other hand, when we feel healthy our minds brighten, and so consequently our outlook on everything becomes brighter.

Furthermore, our physiological conditions are tremendously influenced by the environment in which we live.  The changes and conditions of climate and weather both affect us.  This cause and effect relationship is particularly easy to see when you lead a life as unvaried and devoid of distractions as the sesshins at Antaiji.

The essential matter here is the attitude of just striving to wake up regardless of the conditions you are in.  It is not about arriving at some state where all thoughts have disappeared. To calmly sit amidst these cause and effect relationships without being carried away by them is shikantaza.

Like the weather, there are all sorts of conditions in our personal lives: clear days, cloudy days, rainy ones, and stormy ones.  These are all waves produced by the power of nature and are not things over which we have control. 

No matter how much we fight against these waves, there is no way we can make a cloudy day clear up.  Cloudy days are cloudy; clear days are clear.  It is only natural that thoughts come and go, and that psychological and physiological conditions fluctuate accordingly. 

All of this is the very reality and manifestation of life.  Seeing all of this as the scenery of life, without being pulled apart by it—this is the stability of human life, this is settling down in our life.

In The Record of Linji, Linji Yixuan (Rinzai) says:

“The true practitioner of the Way completely transcends all things. Even if heaven and earth were to tumble down, I would have no misgivings. Even if all the Buddhas in the ten directions were to appear before me, I would not rejoice.  Even if the three hells were to appear before me, I would have no fear. Why is this so?  Because there is nothing I dislike.“

For Rinzai, the appearance of all the buddhas in the past, present, and future was not something to rejoice over, nor was the appearance of the three hells something of which to be afraid.   Of course, not being afraid of the appearance of some hell doesn’t mean that for Rinzai hell had no existence. 

For him, hell was a kind of scenery that was different from the scenery of the Buddhas.  The point is that whether some hell, all the buddhas, or anything appeared before him, Rinzai saw all of these as the scenery of his life.  For us this is nothing but the scenery of our zazen.

I hope that people who practice zazen will continue regular sesshins and daily zazen for at least ten years.  It’s a tremendous thing to be able to give oneself to this kind of practice and not be caught up in distractions.  Our deepest mental suffering will come up during these years of zazen, and we will be able to continue our practice only if we have the stability to see this suffering as the scenery of our life and not be carried away by it.  Working through these ten years, we develop a posture of living out the reality of our true self.

If we lead this sort of life and sit zazen, at whatever age, there is no doubt that we will come to have a commanding view of who we are.  When we live this way, not only zazen, but daily life itself, is such that we cannot find the value of our existence in what other people say or in things that we want.  It is a life that is unbearable unless we discover the value of our existence within ourselves.

What is essential is for us to live out the reality of our true self whether we are doing one period of zazen, a five-day sesshin, or practicing for ten years or more.

Kosho Uchiyama (1912-1998)

Excerpted from Opening the Hand of Thought – Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice-Kosho Uchiyama

Uchiyama Roshi begins with a powerful line that stops us right at the very beginning of this reading.  To live the reality of true fluidity existing between ourselves and the world is a profound existence in anyone’s life and practice.  Our practice starts right where we are each day; acknowledging the impact of internal and external weather, we begin each day with the material of daily life that changes with each day.  Breaking through the bubble of limitation, our small sense of self, is available to us in each moment.

This awareness begins to subtly influence our actions in daily life.  Even if this awareness comes without the big enlightenment experience some people have felt, living the reality of our self being the expression of Universal Self starts to change how we see ourselves and “others” here.  We feel the joy and suffering of all beings around us as our own joy and suffering.  Our actions naturally trend towards alleviating suffering and having compassion for all living beings.

             To study the way is to study the self.

             To study the self is to forget the self.

             To forget the self is to be 
             enlightened by all things.

             To be enlightened by all 
             things is to remove the barriers

             between one's self and others.

                            Dogen

From self to self,

Elana