Idealism and Materialism are not the whole Reality

The Realized Universe (Genjo kôan, Part 2)

The first paragraph of this chapter is as follows

1.     “When all dharmas are (seen as) the Buddha Dharma, then there is delusion and realization, there is practice, there is life and there is death, there are Buddhas and there are ordinary beings.”

2.     “When the myriad dharmas are each not of the self, there is no delusion and no realization, no Buddhas and no ordinary beings, no life and no death.”

3.     “The Buddha’s truth is originally transcendent over abundance and scarcity. So there is life and death, there is delusion and realization, there are beings and Buddhas.”

4.     “And though it is like this, it is only that flowers, while loved, fall; and weeds while hated, flourish.”

What does Master Dôgen want to tell us with such important sentences which are not easy to understand? Without question they are altogether the essence of Zen Buddhist teaching, but often they are misunderstood and people are not aware of their true meaning and do not concentrate on it.

If we read this chapter of the Shôbôgenzô and especially these sentences very carefully, we understand that there are four different views or, more precisely, four philosophies of our life and of the world in general. The first sentence explains that a distinction can be made between delusion and realization, between practice and acting and life and death and between Buddha and ordinary beings. This philosophy is based on ideas and thinking, for example on the basis of theory and teaching. even the sutras in Buddhism. It is the idealistic method. But normally this philosophy expressed in sentence one is based on the belief in a separate ego or I: the thinking I has ideas and theories.

The dimension of the second sentence is completely different and represents  another method of thinking: It is the materialistic view, focused on the outside of the person. In this case the thinking I is not important. It can be characterized by “when the myriad Dharmas are each not of the self.”

It is not the subject who is thinking ideas and theories; on the contrary, it is the view and belief that there is an objective world outside us. In this case we cannot speak of delusion and realization, Buddhas and ordinary human beings, life and death. In other words the meaning of these words and ideas cannot be understood because the materialistic philosophy is not aware of the delusion and realization of Buddhas and ordinary people. The materialistic view has no understanding of the Buddhist teachings. This view sees only the outside and form and has no understanding of spiritual or mental contents. It is clear that this philosophy is very close to the understanding of the natural sciences and technology in the western world.

But as we know, the scholar Albert Einstein, who might be considered the greatest physicist of the last century, was a religious and spiritual person and he was quite aware of the limitations of our scientific understanding of the world. In the same way, the great physicists Max Planck and Werner Heisenberg are quite clear about the areas that can be understood by the thinking human brain and what cannot be understood.

Therefore we can assume that a one-sided materialistic view is not sufficient for us to understand ourselves and the world; these brilliant scholars in the  natural sciences were already aware of these limitations, more than one century ago. Another scholar, a social scientist, Niklas Luhmann, teaches us very clearly that the world is of infinite complexity. In this way science tells us to be humble and not to over-estimate what we can understand with intellectual thinking. A philosophy of life, which is just materialistic, is indeed naive and superficial.

The Realized Universe (Genjo kôan), Part 1)

The literal translation of the Japanese word Genjo kôan is the realized law of the world or of the universe and our life. That means Buddha´s teaching or the Dharma, the truth. Through this realization there is a unity of the law and true life in our world and in this way the whole of reality becomes true. This chapter is without doubt one of the most important ones in the Shôbôgenzô and in Zen Buddhism. It was the first in the edition of 75 chapters and this underlines its great importance. It is short but extremely meaningful.

On the Buddha Way it is important that we experience and trust both the teaching of the Dharma and the many things? objects? and phenomena in the world. And it is not beneficial, if we are too busy to realize enlightenment, pushing ourselves and feeling stressed as a result of our own activities and the goal of having a spiritually egoistical and maybe exotic adventure.

But if we do not pursue and practise the Buddha Way, it is impossible to reach the path of liberation. And we should be aware of our delusions, which are quoted in the following words of the Shôbôgenzô. We should see our delusions very clearly and try to refrain from making such errors or worse ones. If we don’t, it will be rather impossible to overcome these delusions. And we will distance ourselves  more and more from the Dharma, that means from the true law of the world.

Even if we have a very keen intellect and trained powers of observation and try hard with all our physical and mental faculties, it will be impossible to realize the truth of this world. Why? If we rely just on these areas, every kind of understanding and action will be one-sided and we will be blind to broader, true dimensions.

The following paragraph should be studied very precisely and I will follow the interpretation that was developed by Dôgen and Nishijima Roshi, the reliable practice and teaching of Gautama Buddha. This is necessary if we are not to be  trapped by contradictions and lost in its logical complexity. And Master Dôgen clearly underlines that Zen is logical and not irrational, but it needs a wholly intuitive mind. Normal western intelligence is not sufficient.

The teaching of Buddhism, especially in Zen, is never against reading the Sutras and if somebody claims they are useless, he has really not understood Zen Buddhism.

Video Zen Moments in Berlin

Dear Dharma Friends,

my friend Beatrice made a video for Youtube: Zen Moments in Berlin with english subtitles. We met on a ferry boat to La Gomera, Canarian Islands, and were talking about the power od meditation. I was looking for a place to build a small dojo there. The climate of the Canarian Islands is similar to Hawaii: Summer till December, spring from January to March and then summer again. Not too bad for a dojo.

Zen moments are nature energy, meditation and archery. Feel the flowing with the musik of the Japanese bamboo flute. To find the true Self is to forget the former small and stressed ego, said Master Dogen.

Here the link:

With best wishes

Yudo

Whole body like a mouth, hanging in space. Heart Sûtra (Makahannya haramitsu, Part 3)

 Dôgen says: “Reflection is prajnyâ itself.” And Nishijima adds that this occurs “when the autonomic nervous system is balanced“ and this is just clear, comprehensive intuition. Nishijima Roshi thinks in this regard that western civilization does not revere human intuition very much and that people think “that is sometimes very dangerous for human beings to decide important decisions relying upon intuition”.

But Buddhism is different and has the unique principle of this clear and trained intuition. It is much more powerful for decision-making than sequential logic and mathematic models.

By the way, modern neuroscience has proved beyond doubt that this balance is of the utmost importance for our lives and that it is stupid to separate the brain from the body and call it “mind”. And it has been proved that this ability can be trained and developed especially with meditation such as Zen.

Especially in the modern world with its stress, anxiety and excess of unimportant, useless information it is necessary for us to have instruments to train so that we can experience balance and the true self. We have to come back to our center to know what is essential for our lives and what is not.

Dôgen has not developed a complicated and hairsplitting philosophy about prajnyâ and emptiness. He quotes a monk from Buddha´s order who bows in veneration to the profound prajnyâ pâramitâ. By doing this and being exactly in the present moment, he experiences intimately the great wisdom. Nishijima Roshi says:

“The monk's secretly working concrete mind at this moment is, in the state of bowing in veneration of real dharmas, prajnyâ itself – whether or not (real dharmas) are without appearance and disappearance – and this is a venerative bow itself”

So he has a sincere attitude and is acting secretly for himself without anybody looking at him, and in this prostration lies the exact manifestation of prajnyâ.

Just perform this prostration: in the reality of veneration the truth of the world and the universe itself are to be found.

In most Buddhist texts and especially in Zen Buddhism the wording for emptiness is: “being without”. This means without ideology, for example ideology which is religious or controlled by greed. Nishijima Roshi says: “The translation ´being without´ seems to be very difficult, but I think that it is better for me to replace it with ´as it is.´”

That means without ideology and not controlled by greed and without delusions, that is the balanced state and the Middle Way.

Dôgen speaks about emptiness and prajnyâ calling it space: “So researching prajnyâ is space itself, space is the research of prajnyâ.” Because space is everywhere in the universe, it is a good symbol for prajnyâ and it exists in the present moment. Nishijima explains,

“Therefore if we like to know what prajnyâ is, it is better for us to suppose the space and we can think that when we have the balance state of the autonomic nervous system we can always use our own prajnyâ everywhere at the present moment.”

So we do not experience prajnyâ in an exotic situation, in a specific mystic meditation, but it is everywhere if we are open to it and trained to experience it. And Zen meditation is a powerful tool enabling us to enter the reality of this great wisdom. It’s impossible to experience it just by reading intelligent books and having nice dialogs with Buddhist teachers; it must be learned and practiced with body and mind. Nishijima says:

“Therefore a person, who is always keeping the balanced state, can be always called Buddha.”

That means that the person who is not able to keep the balanced state can never be called Buddha and will be ruled by sophisticated ideas and deluded emotions

Dôgen quotes his own Master, the eternal Buddha, on the subject of prajnyâ with a wonderful poem of a windbell:

“Whole body like a mouth, hanging in space;

Not asking if the wind is east, west, south, or north,

For all others equally, it speaks prajnā.

Chin ten ton ryan chin ten ton.“

And at the end of this chapter, “These real Dharmas are bare manifestations…Neither dirty nor pure”; they are just reality and the truth.

The Power of Emptiness is the Power of Freedom, Heart Sûtra (Makahannya haramitsu, Part 2)

Dôgen starts with an important chapter,

“When Bodhidsattva Avalokiteshvara practices the profound prajnyâ paramitâ, the whole body reflects that the five aggregates are totally empty. The five aggregates (skandas) are matter, feeling, thinking, enaction and consciousness.”

Empty means that these five components of a human being and the world (skandas) are in the balanced state, they are not deluded, not lost in emotional dreams and not dependant on greed, anger or stupidity. They are free and empty of blockages.

In this state of Zazen we experience existentially both truth and reality: “the whole universe is as it is.” This means that we have not added anything unrealistic or any one-sided idea, that we have not taken away or reduced anything or any idea concerning the universe or ourselves.

This seems to be easy, but it must be practiced, and the effective way to do this is to practice Zazen. In the balanced state of Zazen we transcend conventional thinking and perception. And we are open to the here and now, without tension and stress and with no nervous emotions. In this state there is no fear, no anger and no exaggerated emotions. We are rid of the usual thoughts and emotions. And we are especially empty and free of social ideologies and political hate: that is the basis of creativity and an open mind.

Nishijima Roshi stresses that this balanced state is the balance of our autonomic nervous system; this means that the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, which are in interaction in the autonomic nervous system, are in a state of tranquility. This is a state of calmness and stability and with this it is possible to experience the universe exactly as it is and there is nothing which disturbs us. He says,

“Therefore if we, human beings, want to have always the true decision, it is necessary for human beings to keep the balance of the autonomic nervous system at every moment.”

Because great wisdom is not one-sided, Master Dôgen says that “matter is just immaterial and the immaterial is just matter.” But he says in addition to that that everything is as it is

, “matter is matter and the immaterial is the immaterial. There are hundreds of things and million phenomena.”

So with this explanation I think it is not difficult to understand the words “form - emptiness and emptiness – form”. This means that we do not discriminate between matter, feeling and mind, and that we experience a unity, without separation of subject and object.

Master Dôgen explains in this chapter that prajnyâ, the six ways of acting of the Bodhidsattva, is essential for all Buddhist teachings and the Four Noble Truths; there are six instances of prajnyâ: freely giving, pure (observance of) precepts, patience, diligence, meditation and prajnyâ itself.

Master Dôgen emphasizes that the great wisdom of prajnyâ pâramitâ is realized in the present moment and it is also important for the truth of the three times: past, present and future. In Zen Buddhism it is essential to be clear about the material aspects of this universe, which is described by the elements of earth, water, fire, wind and space. The great wisdom should be integrated into our actions, such as walking, standing, sitting and lying down.

I think it might be helpful to explain the Sanskrit word shûnyatâ. In ancient times Indian mathematics scholars invented the zero of the algebraic system of positive and negative figures. They called this zero shûnyatâ. The zero is the middle of the whole system of figures and the center for the functioning of all positive and negative figures.

It has no value of its own; it is in the middle and guarantees the balance. This shûnyatâ was very significant for Indian scholars and Masters at the time of Mahâyâna. Master Nâgârjuna developed his philosophy of the Middle Way in the golden age of Mahâyâna. It is thus very clear that shûnyatâ doesn’t represent a nihilist philosophy and nothingness in the sense that no thing and no body really exist. The opposite is the case. It is a powerful truth concerning the whole system of mathematics; it is the middle and the balance.

The Heart Sûtra (Makahannya haramitsu, Part 1)

The great intuitive wisdom which transcends thinking

Master Dôgen describes in this chapter of the Shôbôgenzô the prajnya paramita of the great wisdom, which is also known as Heart Sutra. It is the second chapter in this great work. This most important Sûtra is associated with the words “form and emptiness”. Master Dôgen quotes these words at the beginning of his comprehensive teaching on Buddhism.

Prajnyâ is a wisdom that transcends conventional thinking, even when it is logical, clear and not unreasonable. But in conventional thinking there are processes of sequential thought which are not capable of providing comprehensive and clear solutions in complex situations. This fact is proved exactly by research in the field of the neurosciences.

For this reason conventional thinking maybe a good tool for scientific research and technical jobs, but it has little effect in the realm of the existential and the spiritual, and not even in the domain of psychology. It is said that the Heart Sûtra is the contents of about forty large Sûtras from Mahâyâna Buddhism. Even today Buddhist groups recite the Heart Sûtra both in East Asia and in the West.

Paramitâ means “to have arrived at the opposite shore”. That is, to have reached the truth. So paramitâ is the central teaching of Gautama Buddha, transcending conventional thinking and perception and free of suffering. Both of the latter are closely associated with emotions which are more or less strong and which change our information process. This means that it is different from reality.

Prajnyâ is very often combined with the word shûnyatâ, which was used by Master Nâgârjuna and extensively interpreted in his main work “Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way”. But the word emptiness is very often misunderstood and some people equate it with nihilism, which rejects logic and realism. But this understanding is completely wrong.

Prajnyâ is a kind of wisdom which constitutes a great ability of our mind, and it transcends the linear thinking in which we distinguish between subject and object. The Heart Sûtra cannot be understood easily because of its wording, and I myself have recited it very often but have in fact had considerable difficulty in understanding its true meaning. At the end of the Sûtra it says that it has the power to transcend all sufferings. But how can its words “form is emptiness and emptiness is form” transcend our suffering?

Before I studied Master Dôgen and Nagarjuna under Nishijima Roshi it was more or less impossible for me to understand the full  meaning of these words. Nishijima/Cross say,

“What is pajnyâ? Prajnyâ or real wisdom is a kind of intuitive ability that  occurs in our body and mind, when our body and mind are in the state of balance and harmony.”

And they continue,

“The right decision (in our life) comes from the right state of body and mind. And the right state of body and mind comes when our body and mind are balanced and harmonized.”

And this is the great wisdom of Prajnya.

For Nishijima Roshi the meaning of emptiness is the same as the balanced state of body and mind, especially in Zen meditation. This is a state of the whole human being and is not only a question of thinking and considerations. With this definition the meaning of emptiness becomes clearer und free of mysticism.

New Movie of Zen

Dear Zen friends,

a young movie maker, Beatrice, was very motivated to make a movie about Zen in the modern society. I met her on the ferry to La Gomera, Canarian Island, were I intend to build a small dojo in the mountain, not far from the coast. 

As you know wintertime is not very convenient in middle and north Europe, so we were thinking it might be a good idea to have a center for Zazen in that wonderful nature and climate of La Gomera: only Spring and Summer.

In the short movie I am speaking about:

- Stress, fear, insecurity, looser situation in the modern culture

- Nature like Dogen´s famous chapters in the Shobogenzo

- Shakuhachi flute is for flow and deep relaxing, no fear about changing

- Archery for action in the moment: past, present and future as one unit in the very moment, exactly the situation of body-and-mind.

I am sorry it is not in English.

We are thinking of crowd funding.

Here the link

With best wishes

Yudo