Results 1 to 13 of 13

Thread: KOMYOZO ZANMAI (Samadhi of the Treasury of Light)

  1. #1

    KOMYOZO ZANMAI (Samadhi of the Treasury of Light)

    Koun Ejo Zenji (1198-1282) is Master Dogen's great Dharma Heir and Successor, next Abbot of Eiheiji, 'Ol Dogen's friend and secretary, the long time scribe and editor of Shobogenzo. Perhaps there was nobody closer to Dogen Zenji during his life. The following is Ejo's own work, written some 25 years after the death of Dogen.

    I may offer a talk on this during our upcoming Rohatsu Retreat. For now, I felt just to post sections in which Ejo is expressing the attitude of Zazen. Ejo riffs on the "Treasury of Light" which shines through and as both "enlightenment" and "delusion", and we might say that such is just the Clear, Boundless, Bright and Illuminated Sky and Mirror, clear yet never apart from the clouds. A Light which shines through and as all life's dark and like, rainy and sunny ... illuminating all. He speaks both of how marvelous and ordinary such is, and how foolish we are to search for this Light over distant hills or as some wowwy light show. I have boldfaced some passages most clearly about our way of sitting Shikantaza.

    Anyway, I just felt to drop Ejo's music here ... kinda long perhaps (the below is just a small bit of the essay) but worth the trip ...

    ** The following is a combination of translations by Deshimaru Roshi, Anzan Hoshin and Yasuda Joshu, and Thomas Cleary I have sometimes put wordings by various translators side by side in [ ], as it is good to see how the wisdom is expressed in various ways.

    ------------------------------------------------

    KOMYOZO ZANMAI by KOUN EJO


    So, fools who hear some talk about "luminosity" might think that this is like the light of fireflies, like the light of lanterns, like the light of the sun or moon, the gleaming of gold or jewels. They look around for something that they already know. Looking for the blaze of radiance, they concentrate on their little minds and try to figure it out, trying to turn it into the realm of emptiness and silence. So they freeze and hide in motionlessness. They are unable to give up looking for some kind of thing that they can acquire. Or they think mystical thoughts and go on and on about how special it is. [ ... For this reason they stop movement and take refuge in stillness, or they are unable to relinquish ideas of an actual entity or false ideas of the existence of something to obtain, or their thoughts of inconceivable mystic wonder go on and on unceasingly and they think too deeply only of its rarity.] There are only too many people like this, sleeping with open eyes, just bags of borrowed rice.



    The Way is not a matter of thinking or of not-thinking. It cannot be attained through words or silence. As soon as you get involved in deliberation, you are ten million stages away.

    Monks, do not all of the strategies of cultivating something or of mystical principles or subtle states all fall within either thinking or not-thinking? Since it is not a matter of thinking or not-thinking, right now, give up on deluded views of attaining or rejecting.



    You do not release yourself into Totality or yield into freedom and ease. Instead you mutter that you are missing some essential trick or skill, or that you are just a beginner, or that you've started to practice too late in life. And so you remain usual people who have not shed a single deluded view. You do not release your assumptions of self-image. Although you dwell always in the Great Treasury of Luminosity, you sell yourself out for hard labour, wander in misery, always poor. Although born into wealth and ease, through your own views of poverty, you turn the body of clear radiance into a carrier of buckets of night soil, a shit hole cleaner. The view of a self should just be released right now.



    The Buddha has said, Mind, Buddha, and living beings are not three different things. He also said, There is only one truth. Even though you encounter such teachings, you still fall into delusions about self and other, noble and common, sacred and profane. Viewing objects laid out before you, you consider forms and sounds as poverty and wealth, loss and gain. And by holding on to these views, your practice is infected by hope and fear.



    From the very beginning, seeking concentration states and viewing practice and realization as two different things is different from the realised-practice of the harmonies and vast activity of the Transmission of luminosity.



    Unentangled by sensory objectification, real and unchanging, the essential manifests. This is the practice of alignment with radiance. Just aligning with the Luminosity of Awareness, dwelling at ease in it, is the supreme samadhi of shikantaza, just sitting.



    Putting aside brush and ink, avoiding others, and sitting alone in an empty valley, eating bark and fruit, dressed in hemp robes, sitting ceaselessly without lying down... If you are doing this to try to stop the mind and return to some motionless condition, to try to cut away your confusion and dwell in some absolute truth, to avoid samsaric conditions and attain nirvanic ones, then this is just hope and fear arising from grasping. [In your mind you are trying to stop movement and return it to stillness, cut off illusion completely, dwell only on absolute truth, reject samsara and grasp nirvana, despising the one and loving the other, all of this is clutching after.]



    However, looking around at monks these days, because they base everything on their own narrow views although they polish it day and night, they are just trying to rub through to get to something. Others try to swat away wandering thoughts, hoping to clear things up by beating out the flames, so that some mysteriously silent light will shine. If you think it is just a matter of stopping thoughts then don't wood, stones, and mud already do it better than you can?



    I feel a great respect from the depths of my compassion for you who continue the practice of zazen in the state of mind that I will now describe: without grasping anything [without being pulled around by states or objects] or having any goal, without being influenced by your personal understanding [or intellectual knowledge], without letting the experience that you have acquired in the dojo make you arrogant. Just with all the energy of your body and mind, throw them totally into Komyozo [the Great Treasury of Light] without looking back. Do not seek satori enlightenment. Do not try to hide or be rid of illusion. Do not hate the thoughts that arise, do not love them either and above all, do not nourish them [without aversion to the rising of thoughts, and yet without fondly continuing them]. In every way, you must practice the great sitting, here and now [Stably, calmly, practice shikantaza, just sitting]. If you do not nourish a thought, it will not come back by itself. If you abandon yourself to the exhalation and let your inhalation fill you in a harmonious coming and going, nothing remains but a zafu beneath the empty sky, the weight of a flame [Like an empty space like a mass of fire, letting your breathing flow naturally out and in, sit decisively without getting involved in anything at all]. If you have no expectations about what you are doing and refuse to consider anything, you can cut everything off through zazen alone. Even if the eighty-four thousand bonno [delusions and harmful thoughts] come and go, if you attach no importance to them, then, right then and there, from each one of them, one after the other and all together, the marvelous mystery of the storehouse of great wisdom can arise [Even if eighty-four thousand thoughts come and go, each will display itself as the luminosity of perfect knowing itself if you do not hold to them and allow them to just go on their own way].

    There is not only the Komyo of the time of zazen. There is also the Komyo that, step after step, action after action [throughout life], gradually shows you that each phenomenon can be realized immediately, automatically, independently of your own understanding and your personal thoughts [This display of light must not just be something you experience only in sitting but in each step. This step, this step, of all of life are all the walking of luminosity. All through the day be dead to personal views or fragmented thoughts.]. Such is the true and authentic certification that exists without disturbing the expression of Komyo. [Breathing in, breathing out, hearing, touching, without thoughts of separation, is just the silent illumination of luminosity in which body and mind are single. Thus, when someone calls, you immediately answer.

    In this luminosity usual people and sages, deluded and enlightened are one. In the midst of impermanence, this luminosity is unobstructed. Forests, flowers, grasses, leaves; humans and animals; large or small, long or short, square or round: all display themselves simultaneously, free of discriminating thoughts or intention. This is luminosity unobstructed in impermanence. Luminosity is its own open brilliance; it does not depend on your mind.] It is the spiritual power of non-acting in the light that illuminates itself [this Light has never had any place of abode]. This komyo is originally non-substance, non-existence. This is why, even if many buddhas realize it in this world, they are still not of this world [When Buddhas appear in this universe, it does not arise with them.]. And being in nirvana, they are however not there either [When Buddhas cease, luminosity does not cease]. At the hour of your birth, komyo was not in existence [When you are born, luminosity is not born]. At the hour of your death, it will not disappear. From the point of view of the buddha-state, it does not increase. From the point of view of the senses, it does not diminish [Buddhas do not have more of it; sentient beings do not have less. It is not more in Buddhas and not less in ordinary beings]. If you are deluded, it is not [It is not lost in confusion, not awakened by enlightenment]. Just as when you have illusions or doubts, you cannot ask the right question, when you have satori you cannot say so.[It has no rank, no form, and no name. This is the Body of Totality of all things.

    You cannot grasp it; you cannot throw it away. It is unattainable. Although it is unattainable, it penetrates this whole body. From the highest heaven to the deepest hell, all realms are illuminated perfectly. This is wondrous and inconceivably subtle luminosity.]

    Moment by moment, do not consider anything according to your [subjective thoughts]. Twenty-four hours a day, you should be as calm and supremely tranquil as the dead. Do not think of anything by yourselves [caught in subjective thoughts]. Thus, from breath to breath, your profound nature, like your sensory nature, will unconsciously, naturally become non-knowing, non-understanding. From that point, everything can naturally become calm, the radiance of komyo in the unity of body and mind. That is why when we call it, it has to reply quickly. It is the one and only komyo that harmonizes the people of satori and the people of illusion in one whole. So even if you start moving, the movement should not disturb you. And the forest, the flowers, the blades of grass, animals, human beings, all phenomena - be they long, short, square or round - can be realized immediately, automatically, independently of your personal understanding and the personal activity of your thoughts. Do not become attached to clothes, nor to food, nor to your home. Do not succumb to sensual desire or to the attachment of [lustful cravings], which are like the activity of animals. There is no point asking others about komyo because their komyo cannot be of any use to you. At its origin this samadhi is the holy dojo, the ocean of all the buddhas. It is therefore the greatest and most holy, of all the seats transmitted directly from buddha to buddha through the holy universal practice. Being disciples of Buddha now yourselves, you should do zazen peacefully on his seat.[ From beginninglessness, this samadhi is the seat of Awakening, the Ocean of Awake Awareness. This zazen is the Buddha's own practice, the sitting as Awake Awareness which is transmitted from Buddha to Buddha. You are a child of the Awakened Ones, so sit calmly in his own seat.][ Do not sit in the sitting of hells, the sitting of hungry ghosts, the sitting of beasts, the sitting of antigods, humans, or celestial beings; those with only hearsay knowledge or those who fabricate enlightenment experiences] And do not practice anything but shikantaza. Do not waste your time. This is what is known as the authentic spirit of the dojo and the true komyozo samadhi, the marvelous and splendid satori.[ This is the practice place of Ordinary Mind. This is the complete practice of the Treasury of Luminosity. This is inconceivable freedom.]

    This text should only be read by true disciples of Dogen,those who have permission to enter his room. I have written it for my companions in zazen so that they will not hold mistaken points of view, as much to improve myself as to educate others.
    Last edited by Jundo; 10-18-2014 at 10:10 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  2. #2
    Yugen
    Guest

    KOMYOZO ZANMAI (Samadhi of the Treasury of Light)

    This is amazing. To be read and savored - there is nothing here and there is everything - in its totality and wholeness. Beautiful - thank you Jundo

    Still I grasp
    Sand through fingers

    Deep bows
    Yugen


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Last edited by Yugen; 10-17-2014 at 07:10 PM.

  3. #3
    Hello,

    " . . . as much to improve myself as to educate others."

    Amen

    Thanks to all.


    Gassho,
    Myosha
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  4. #4
    Deep bows,
    Raf

  5. #5
    Thank you, Jundo

    Gassho
    John

  6. #6

  7. #7
    Mp
    Guest
    This is wonderful Jundo, thank you. =)

    Gassho
    Shingen

  8. #8


    Gassho,
    Matt J

  9. #9
    "Monks, do not all of the strategies of cultivating something or of mystical principles or subtle states all fall within either thinking or not-thinking? Since it is not a matter of thinking or not-thinking, right now, give up on deluded views of attaining or rejecting.

    "
    The "better-me" project can be so subtle, ie, the original error that there is a me that needs to be saved, and needs to be better in order to be saved. And yet.... I constantly change, sometimes for the better. Hummm?.
    Shinzan

  10. #10
    Thank you.
    Gassho.~ Hogo.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Shinzan View Post
    "Monks, do not all of the strategies of cultivating something or of mystical principles or subtle states all fall within either thinking or not-thinking? Since it is not a matter of thinking or not-thinking, right now, give up on deluded views of attaining or rejecting.

    "
    The "better-me" project can be so subtle, ie, the original error that there is a me that needs to be saved, and needs to be better in order to be saved. And yet.... I constantly change, sometimes for the better. Hummm?.
    Shinzan
    Yes, precisely. Nothing about us in need of change ... yet we best be freer of excess desire, anger and divisive thoughts of ignorance in order to see and live so.

    No place to get or "other" place we can get, and we are already Buddha ... yet we constantly move forward, getting better at this Practice and better at manifesting Buddha in the pivot point of each step by step.

    Gassho, J
    Last edited by Jundo; 10-23-2014 at 05:15 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  12. #12
    Thank you Jundo. There is true compassion in these words. Beautiful. Gassho Heisoku.
    Heisoku 平 息
    Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. (Basho)

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    You do not release yourself into Totality or yield into freedom and ease. Instead you mutter that you are missing some essential trick or skill, or that you are just a beginner, or that you've started to practice too late in life. And so you remain usual people who have not shed a single deluded view. You do not release your assumptions of self-image. Although you dwell always in the Great Treasury of Luminosity, you sell yourself out for hard labour, wander in misery, always poor. Although born into wealth and ease, through your own views of poverty, you turn the body of clear radiance into a carrier of buckets of night soil, a shit hole cleaner. The view of a self should just be released right now.
    Oh, my.

    Was he talking to me?



    Gassho,
    Walter
    Gassho,Walter

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •