(BENDOWA XXIX)
Uchiyama Roshi comments on this section:
Question Three:
Q: Such reasons as correct
transmission by the unexcelled method of the Tathagatas and following in the
footsteps of the patriarchs are beyond common sense. To ordinary people,
reading the sutras and [chanting] the Nembutsu are the natural means to enlightenment.
You just sit cross-legged and do nothing. How is this a means to enlightenment?
A: You look on the meditation
of the Buddhas and the supreme law as just sitting and doing nothing. You
disparage Mahayana Buddhism. Your delusion is deep; you are like someone in the
middle of the ocean crying out for water. Fortunately we are already sitting at
ease in the self-joyous meditation of the Buddhas. Isn't this a great boon?
What a pity that your true-eye remains shut-that your mind remains drunk. The
world of the Buddhas eludes ordinary thinking and consciousness. It cannot be
known by disbelief and inferior knowledge. To enter one must have right belief.
The disbeliever, even if taught, has trouble grasping it. For example, when the
Buddha was preaching at Grdhrakuta, the disbelievers were allowed to go away. To
bring out the right belief in your mind you must train and study. If you cannot
do this, you should quit for awhile, regretting that you lack the influence of
the law from a former beneficial relation. What good are such actions as
reading the sutras and saying the Nembutsu. How futile to think that Buddhist
merits accrue from merely moving the tongue and raising the voice. If you think
this covers Buddhism, you are far from the truth. Your only purpose in reading
the sutras should be to learn thoroughly that the Buddha taught the rules of
gradual and sudden training and that by practicing his teachings you can obtain
enlightenment. You should not read the sutras merely to pretend to wisdom
through vain intellections. To strive for the goal of Buddhism by reading many
sutras is like pointing the hill to the north and heading south. It is like
putting a square peg in a round hole. While you look at words and phrases, the
path of your training remains dark. This is as worthless as a doctor who
forgets his prescription. Constant repetition of the Nembutsu is also
worthless-like a frog in a spring field croaking night and day. Those deluded
by fame and fortune, find it especially difficult to abandon the nembutsu.
Bound by deep roots to a profit-seeking mind, they existed in ages past, and
they exist today. They are to be pitied. Understand only this: if enlightened
Zen masters and their earnest disciples correctly transmit the supreme law of
the seven Buddhas, its essence emerges, and it can be experienced. Those who
merely study the letters of the sutras cannot know this. So put a stop to this
doubt and delusion. Follow the teachings of a real master and, by zazen; attain
to the self-joyous samadhi of the Buddhas.
From: Bendowa - in 'The Soto Approach to Zen' - by Masunaga Reiho
