Friday, August 1, 1969
Tassajara
As a Buddhist, of course, the most important precept is to believe in Buddha
and his teaching and his disciples. Buddha for us is someone who attained
enlightenment—not only historical Buddha but also Buddha's disciples who
attained enlightenment is buddha. And still this is in its narrow sense. In its
wider sense, whether we attain enlightenment or not, we are buddha—not only
human beings but also various beings, animate and inanimate. Even something
like stone is buddha, in its wide sense. So everything is buddha in its wide
sense.
But, the religion is mostly for human beings who when we say “buddha,” usually
mean someone who attains liberation is buddha. It may be better to understand
in this way to avoid conflicts. And “his teaching,” we say, but when we say
“his teaching,” we do not mean something which is written in scriptures.
Mostly, even though you read the so-called king of the scriptures, the Lotus
Sutra, it may be difficult for you to understand because it was written in
pretty ancient times.
And, we know that it is not directly told by Buddha, so this point makes it more
difficult to have faith in that scripture. Nowadays, or from ancient times,
when we say dhamma,1 dhamma is truth in its wide sense. So that which
is written in scripture is not all the dhamma we mean. It is a part of dhamma,
or it is dhamma in its narrow sense. In its wide sense, truth is the dhamma,
especially in Zen. We believe in no teaching [laughs].
It is also up to our
attitude of living. If we attach to some teaching, or if we are bound by a
teaching, even though it is good, if we think, “This is the best teaching,”
then that is not a Buddhist teaching anymore. When we read it, we should be
completely free from and appreciate the meaning of the teaching. That is how we
understand dhamma. And sangha is, of course, Buddha's disciples, and those who
practice Buddha's teaching are sangha.
I think tonight I want to explain mostly what is dhamma, especially, and what
is the fundamental teaching of Buddhism.
Teaching will be classified in two ways: pure teaching and teaching for human
beings. For instance, science is also teaching for us, but science is not
directly related to our human life. Of course it is related, but not directly.
You may think science is more helpful than Buddha's teaching [laughs], but it
is not so. For instance, Buddha said, “When you are shot by a poisonous arrow, do
you discuss the nature of poison? What poison is it? Is it acid or some other
poison?” No one discusses the poison. To discuss what kind of chemical it is,
is science, and to pull out the arrow is [laughs] Buddha's teaching. So,
teaching how to pull out the poisonous arrow is another teaching. And, to know
what kind of poison it is, is another teaching. Both scientific true pure
teaching, which is always true whether a human being studies it or not, may be
teaching Number 1. And, teaching Number 2 is how to attain liberation for human
beings.
I think why mostly young people become interested in Buddhism is because you
are tired of teaching Number 1. And, the teaching you study as Number 2
teaching is very old. And, especially teaching Number 2 is based on the value
over life, like: Which do we like, money or spiritual attainment? Which is more
important, the person who is learned in the sense of science, or who attains
liberation in the spiritual world? This is a kind of value.
The way you evaluate things is a basic standard of teaching Number 2. Nowadays,
your standard of life, your understanding of life, changes. It's changing
little by little. You are not interested in the old standard of life, which is
mostly based on comparative value. For maybe ten or twelve years or more, young
people in Japan have been interested in Communism because the viewpoint or
standard of evaluating things is different.
So, people started to be interested in it, but when we study more and more, we find
that this kind of standard is not much different from our standard which we
have of pride in our human life. And, the Buddhist way of evaluating things is
quite different from the usual viewpoint. But this evening, I'm not talking
about this kind of thing because it is necessary to discuss our life from
various viewpoints, including politics [laughs], and social science.
Tonight I want to explain Buddha's teaching as a Number 1—as a philosophy or as
a more scientific viewpoint. As you know, the fundamental teaching of Buddhism
is that everything changes. This is the fundamental teaching, which is always
true and which is true wherever you go. Even if you go to heaven, this is true.
Even if you go to hell [laughs], this is true. Wherever you go, there is
nothing which does not change. We say Buddha is a teacher of all the teachers,
or a teacher of the three worlds.2 It means that his teaching is
always true, wherever you go. It is true in the past, present and future. Even if
you go to the moon, everything changes [laughs]. Even if you go to Mars,
everything changes. So wherever we go, his teaching is always true.
Why this teaching is so important is because—actually we do not accept this
teaching completely. So for us, it is necessary to make this teaching sure. And
it is necessary to accept this teaching. When you want to accept this teaching,
it is necessary for you to have teaching Number 2. When you just talk about
Buddha's teaching, like me [laughs], whether you accept it or not, or whether I
completely accept it or not, just to talk about it like a scientist or
philosopher, this is teaching Number 1. But, most religions put more emphasis
on teaching Number 2, the teaching just for human beings.
Of course, we Buddhists put emphasis on teaching Number 1. But, we Buddhists
for a long time, studied our teaching as a teaching Number 1, from a historical
viewpoint, or from a scientific viewpoint, or from a philosophical viewpoint.
Not only special teachings for human beings, but also teaching for every being.
So when we say “sentient beings,” it includes everything, not only human beings.
A dog, or a cat, or a worm—everyone—everything—every animate being—not only
animate beings but also inanimate beings—are included. So accordingly, Buddhism
looks like a very cold teaching, but on the other hand, it is more universal
and a more scientific teaching.
Now, the teaching “everything changes” could be extended to the teaching of
selflessness. Selflessness, you know, in its usual sense, means don't be
selfish. It looks like some rules. But when we say, “Don't be selfish,” it
means you cannot be selfish. Even though you try to be selfish, you cannot be
selfish because everything is changing. Even though you try to be selfish, who
is you, when everything is changing?
We should not understand we exist in the same way always, in relation to
others. For instance, if I know I am [not] always like me in this moment, if I
know that, I cannot be angry with you so much because tomorrow I shall be some
other person. When I think I am always like me, I become angry with you. But
that is not true. I cannot be angry with you. There is no reason to be angry
with you. Or there is no reason why I should try to convince you in some
special way because I cannot always be this way. I don't know, I may change my
mind tomorrow. No one knows [laughs] what will happen to me. But, when I am
trying to convince you of something, it means that I am always like this, and
what I think is right is always right. But actually it is not so.
Even though I think it is right at this moment, tomorrow I don't know what I will
say. That is very true. If we know that everything is changing, even though I
think, here is a cup like this [moves cup across table and takes a sip of
water], but this cup cannot always be like this. Moment after moment, the cup
is changing. If someone breaks it, I shall be disappointed. But, if I know that
this is always changing, I shall not be discouraged so much because I know
someday it will be broken.
We expect something to be always the same, but that is not true because
everything is changing. So, even though we expect something to always be the same,
to expect something always the same is not possible. And, if you expect
something to always be the same, it will cause suffering because even though
you expect something to be the same, it changes. When you see something
changed, you will be discouraged. So, to expect something always to be the same
is a cause of trouble for you.
The same truth—“things are always changing”—in one way is truth itself, and it
is the truth—something to do with you. And, Buddhists do not ignore teaching as
a teaching Number 1. Even though we say, “Don't be like this,” it means that
the foundation of the teaching is Number 1 teaching always. This is one of the
characteristics of Buddha's teaching.
Even though we say, “Don't be selfish,” the meaning is quite different. What we
mean is it is not possible for us to be selfish. And, if you try to be selfish,
it will create some trouble for you. And, you should know that. So, even if no
one asks you to be unselfish, you should know whether it is possible to be
selfish or not. What we mean is not prophetary [?]3 teaching, but
some teaching which you should know by yourself and which you should study by
yourself. So, our teaching is not, in this sense, that which was told by
Buddha. Our teaching is something which you should realize by yourself.
The sangha, or Buddha's disciples, or the relationship between Buddha and
Buddha's disciples—both are independent. A disciple should not always be dependent
on his teacher. We should try to study our way by ourselves. Teachers can help
you in some ways. But a teacher cannot help you completely because our teaching
is not that which you can study literally. And teaching itself should always be
changing. Today's teaching cannot be applied for tomorrow. Day after day, you
should continue to study our teaching according to the circumstances.
A famous Zen master Hyakujo4 was a disciple of Nansen.5 He said, “If I am like my teacher Nansen, even if I have the same power as my
teacher, I shall lose half the value of my teacher. So disciples should be better
than our teacher.”6 That is what Hyakujo said. It means that why we
have disciples is because teaching should be changing always and should be
extended always. And, we cannot apply the same teaching all the time. That is
why you study Buddhism and you study our teaching. The teaching itself should
be changing as everything changes. The teaching that everything changes is a
very important teaching for Buddhists.
Nowadays people are very much interested in the statement, “everything changes”
just to ignore old ways of life, but we should know the depth of the teaching
that everything changes. And, we should try to understand this teaching
directly. As Dogen Zenji said, “The teaching ‘everything changes' is not some
teaching which you realize after many years' practice. It is teaching you
should directly know.”
When we say, “to have direct experience of it,” what we mean is to appreciate
things not because something is useful or not, not because something is
favorable for us or not. At Eiheiji there is a bridge named Hanshaku-kyo.7 Hanshaku-kyo means Half-Dipper Bridge, because Dogen Zenji, after using half of
the water from the dipper, always returned the rest of it to the river.
Half-Dipper Bridge. At Eiheiji there is a valley like Tassajara, and the stream
is full of pure water. There was no need to return water to the river after he
used half of it. But he always returned it to the river.
Usually water is valuable only when you don't use so much water as we do in a sip.
But at Eiheiji monastery we cannot wash our face with a bucketful of water. We
always use 70% of the water.8 Usually we evaluate things depending
on whether we have a lot of it or not. If we haven't so much, the water becomes
valuable. And, our economic principles are based on our labor and the things we
have. And, if we don't have some particular things— [Sentence not finished.
Tape turned over.]
—this is, you know—whether you think some other principle and evaluating things
or not is the point.
Things are valuable usually because the things are produced by labor. We should
count labor, but more important is the place we stand up with earth.9 So labor or something which we have plenty of or not, is not counted so much if
we know how we exist in this moment. This is a very elaborate intellectual
explanation.
But what I want to say is when you sit, you should not think whether this
practice is necessary or not [laughs]. Anyway, what I mean is you should sit.
That is what I wanted to say, in short. [Laughs, laughter] I go round and
round. This is direct experience: to accept yourself as you are. If you always
look around like a hungry dog, you will not gain anything. When you are ready
to be there, and to accept things which are given to you, then you will find everything
valuable. This point is missing in our life.
What we are always trying is to find some measurement, and we are trying to
measure ourselves or measure our life. And, if you don't feel good, you try to
change your measurement. That is what we are doing. Now, most of our young
generation is trying to change all measurements to a new one [laughs]. But don't
try to measure things by your eyes. You don't have to depend on measurement.
You can measure it by your body, not because someone said this is valuable or
this is not so valuable, not because someone said this is old or this is new.
You must accept what’s before you. You don't have to think so much. Mostly you
can depend on your intuition. But, you depend on something always. And [tape
defective and unclear for 8-12 words] —to accept things as it is and try first
by your intuition.
So whether we have plenty of water or not, you should make the best use of it.
Whether you can complete your practice or not, you should try first, and when
you return to do it, you can do it. When you hesitate, you cannot do it. When you
are completely [free?] from everything and try to open your mind, then you will
find your own way. And your behavior will change, and your face will change.
Everything will change—not only you, but whatever you see. Things will change.
Then, sometime, you can enjoy your measure to explain [laughs] various ways.
But you shouldn't depend on measurement.
This is pretty difficult practice, but you will see it [?]—try. This is how we
accept the teaching that things change. Because things change, we should be
concentrated on each moment.
Thank you very much.
_______________
Source: City Center original tape. Verbatim transcript by Sara Hunsaker.
Checked by Bill Redican (3/1/01). Lightly edited for readability by Wendy
Pirsig and Peter Ford (12/2020).
1 Suzuki used the Pali pronunciation, so that spelling is used.
2 Possibly triloka (Sanskrit), the three worlds or spheres that make
up samsāra.
3 Suzuki pronounced it “pra-FEET-a-ree,” and had difficulty with the
word. The transcriber's best guess is “prophetary,” as in pertaining to a
prophet. Another possibility is “profitary,” as in pertaining to profit.
4 Baizhang Huaihai (Hyakujō Ekai): 720–814. Dharma successor of Mazu
Daoyi (Baso Dōitsu), as was Nansen. Suzuki-rōshi may have meant to say
"Jōshū" instead of "Hyakujō."
5 Nanquan Puyuan (Nansen Fugan): 748–835. Dharma successor of Mazu
Daoyi and master of Jōshū Jūshin (778–897).
6 See also SR-70-06-17.
7 Hanshaku-kyo: a bridge beyond the entrance gate of Eihei-ji. (See
also "Nirvana, the Waterfall," in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind,
p. 92.)
8 That is, the monks fill their washbasins only 70%.
9 Possibly an allusion to Dōgen's statement, "Those who fall to
the earth should stand up by the earth," in Shōbōgenzō "Inmo." Dōgen in turn was quoting the fourth Indian patriarch
Upagupta in Keitoku Dentōroku (Keitoku Era Record of the Transmission of the
Light), Chapter 1. (See also lectures SR-69-09-00-B, SR-69-09-00-C, and
SR-71-08-21.)
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