A wondrous expression of Shikantaza zazen by Master 'Homeless' Kodo Sawaki, sitting in wholeness beyond and right through all the divisions, disagreement and debate of the world (published in the AZI Journal 'Zen Revue' in the 90s):
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People only grow angry because they think of their five feet eight inches of body as a possession. Yet when the sutras talk about it, all they say is that it is a big bag of stinking skin. When somebody in a rage shouts «Who do you take me for?» or «Who do you think you're talking to?» I think to myself, «To a big bag of stinking skin.»
Human beings tear each other apart because of their opinions, politicians tear each other apart, husband and wife tear each other apart. The whole world is full of tearing. Why? Just because of the vanity of our egos. Even monks and nuns and priests tear each other apart: Is there life after death? Is the soul eternal or not? All of that is nothing but trivial jokes, ego-stories. If we stop paying attention to the ego, such nonsense as eternity or not eternity ceases to exist, [likewise] for the soul.
This degenerate world is the reason why professional liars succeed today. But if we observe impermanence, there are no more lies, and where there are no more lies religion appears.
You can see your image in a mirror, but how do you see the mind that not even a mirror can reflect? It’s possible, in zazen, Nothing reveals the ego like zazen. The purer the zazen, the more transparent. the better you can see the illusions of your ego.
Our corruption is that we are cut off from the universe, ‘and our illusion is that we confuse the cut-off ego with the one that, originally, is not separate from the cosmic system, The roots of that true ego are the same as those of sky and earth, the same body and same mind as all sentient beings.
This true religion, which has no right side or wrong side, no inside or outside, is transparent from sky to earth, is the secret of Zen. Everything must become completely transparent, me and you, past and present and future. In terms of reality this means that our life today, our attitude now, gives life to the past. If our attitude is false
then all those who have fed us and taught us, all those we have met and known, have acted solely in order to produce that falseness. If our attitude is right, whatever they have done they did solely in order to produce that rightness. The limits of the Self are truly beyond any imagining, and fill sky, earth, and the whole universe.
In terms of religious faith, space and time have nothing to do with it. It is only right now that we can use this ordinary human body to practice zazen with Shakyamuni, with the Buddhas of the whole universe in the ten directions, practice zazen with the mountains, rivers and trees. That's why | practice zazen.
Sitting like this is what makes the self become transparent, makes us able to see without any limits, in harmony with sky and earth, and it is what gives the self a total vision of the whole universe. That is the way of silent sitting and the principle of Shikantaza.
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Originally Posted by Shade
