ROHATSU

 

You are invited by the Wiregrass Soto Zen and Long Leaf Zen Centers...

 

Rōhatsu (臘八) literally means 8th Day of the 12th Month. It is the Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day that the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautauma (Shakyamuni) experienced enlightenment.

Traditions agree that during that night, as the morning star rose in the sky in the early morning, Siddhartha finally found the answers he sought and became Enlightened, and experienced Nirvana. 

In Zen monasteries, Rohatsu is the last day of a week-long sesshin - an intensive meditation retreat dedicated to meditation. Typically, Monks and Laymen stay awake all night sitting in Zazen during the last night before Rohatsu.

I would like to invite you all to meet next Saturday December 10 at 9:30 a.m. in Headland to celebrate Rohatsu by practicing meditation together. 

Our Program will be :

9:30 to 10:00 : Arrival 10:00 to 10:30 : Breathing exercises for Meditation 10:30 to 12:30 : 4 Sitting (Zazen) and Walking (Kinhin) meditation periods (25 minutes Zazen, 5 minutes Kinhin) 12:30 to 12:45 : Break and Tea 12:45 to 1:30 : Dharma talk - Discussion 1:30 to 2:00 : Zazen 2:00 : Heart Sutra Chanting 2:15 : Lunch Attendance : Everyone is welcome to attend. You don't have to have already practiced Meditation to join. Lunch : bring a vegetarian dish to share with other participants. Late arrival : if you cannot make it on time, no problem. If meditation is going on (people inside are sitting on their funny black cushions) and you don't really know what to do, wait on the bench outside the dojo until they start walking and join inside right then. If you know how to sit in Zazen, enter the dojo and sit. Fee : there is no fee – donations are welcome to help us support our instructor Michael Elliston Roshi, Abbot of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center, and founder of the Silent Thunder Order.

The Dojo is located behind my home at 610 Mitchell Street, Headland, AL 36345. Tel (334) 798 1639

Satsujinken - Katsujinken

The sword that kills is the sword that gives life

剣                           Ken, also pronounced To, is the sword.

殺人剣                   Satsu Jin Ken : the sword that kills

活人剣                   Katsu Jin Ken : the sword that gives life.

殺人剣 活人剣      The sword that kills is the sword that gives life.

The formula applies to various situations opposing two parties, from a conflict between two groups of people : a war or a battle, to an inner battle within the individual.

Originally there is no rule.  A sword is designed to kill. Winning is good, losing is bad. "Vae Victis" - "Woe to the conquered" exclaimed Brenus in 387 BC, throwing his sword into the balance used to weigh the ransom of Rome, forcing the Romans to bring even more gold.

The sword that kills is the sword that kills...

Zen Buddhism was re-introduced in Japan by Eisai in 1191 and Dogen in 1227 and it played a great part in bringing a spiritual element into the traditional training of the Samurai. At about the same time something similar was happening in Europe with the romanticisation of Arthurian legend which partially succeeded in refining and ennobling people who were originally little more than gangsters to transform them into knights.(Chretien de Troyes was writing about the Grail around 1185)

The proponents of Chivalry in Europe and Bushido in Japan claimed a proper use for the sword : That it should only kill to protect the innocent

There are people today who are killing defenseless people. The use of a sword (or of any other weapon) to kill them is legitimate. Killing the bad guys to protect the good guys makes sense. And so the sword that kills the bad guys gives life to the good ones.

At times it seems that violence can only and should be stopped by violence.

• But when 100 bad guys threaten to kill 10 innocents, should we kill the 100 to save the 10 ? 
• And then, what if in order to save 100 innocents, one has to sacrifice 10 innocents, is this acceptable ? (such a situation is described in the movie “Swordfish”).

This again brings back the question of using violence to stop violence. Violence cannot end violence; it will always generate more violence. Later. Always. It will...

The sword that kills may momentarily give life, but eventually, killings will resume.

When only 2 individuals are involved in a conflictual situation (The swords are already drawn), if one is sufficiently trained, he might be able to neutralize an opponent without injuring or killing him. This is the philosophy of my Ju Jitsu Master Rolland Hernaez: Train enough so you can disarm your opponent without harming him (too much). Such an attitude is less likely to generate later violence. There is however no guarantee of that.

At a more personal level, literally practicing the way of the sword (Ken-Do 剣道 ) to help us cut illusions and ego may actually help us develop equanimity and prevent us from using violence to solve a situation that could be taken care otherwise, if we were able to not be angry. No sword is drawn. 

The sword that kills is the sword that gives life .

Deeper inside, the practice of Zazen... 

In the Zazenron, when he is asked  how quietly meditating and doing nothing might well help anyone acquire merit, Daikoku answers : "To practice all the dharmas without looking for any profit, this is the profound Prajna. Prajna is wisdom, and it is the sharp sword to cut the roots of life-and-death..."

Prajna is the sword that gives light and life. By cutting (killing) the root of life-and-death, that sword gives us back to life.

The sword that kills is the sword that gives life .

the thickness of a hair.

In “ The essence of Okinawan Karate-do, Page 14, Shoshin Nagamine writes :

"Karate is self training in perfection, a means whereby a man may obtain that expertise in which there is not the thickness of a hair between a man and his deed. It is a training in efficiency, It is a training in self reliance."

In his Fukanzazengi (Eihei Koroku translation by Leighton and Okumura) Master Dogen writes

"And yet, if there is a hairbreadth of deviation, it is like the gap between Heaven and Earth, if the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion"

In the "Hsin Hsin Ming" ("Trust in Mind") a poem from the 6th century China when Zen or Ch’an was beginning to emerge as a separate tradition, the Chinese Ancestor Seng-ts’an, or Kanshi Sosan writes :

"The Great Way is not difficult, for those who have no preferences. When freed from grasping and aversion, it reveals itself clearly and undisguised. A hair’s breadth difference, and heaven and earth are set apart. If you want it to appear, have no opinions for or against. The duality of like and dislike is the disease of the mind."

Coincidence ? I doubt it. At the end of his book, Shoshin Nagamine writes again :

I have pursued the study of Karate in an attempt to bring karate and Zen together as one.This has been a life-long effort, and one that can never be fully realized by anyone person.

Zen Masters often have written about or for Martial Arts, but less Martial Art Masters wrote about Zen.

One thing that attracted me so much to Zen is its Practical aspect. Zen is something you TRAIN in. There is nothing wrong about trying to understand some aspects of it, however, if this is your only practice, you might as well go home, you won't do anything good for yourself. But this is not clear from the outside. I believe most people consider Zen as a very intellectual and possibly bizarre philosophical or religious system. This is at least how they look at it in France.

The records we have from Martial Art Masters seldom go back more than 150 years. These masters were not living in the dark ages, but in a preindustrial age and their world was not too different from ours.

For this reason, I believe their words are easier to understand than those of people writing from 800 years or more ago. In any case, they will be easier to understand for students of Martial Arts. I know of no anthology of what Budo Masters had to say about Zen. I believe such a collection could be helpful.

So I decided to devote some time to research what Budo masters wrote about Zen. If you have information to share on this subject, or on a methodology I could follow, your help will be welcomed.

ZEN Sitting

We had our first Zen meditation session yesterday at the Yoshukai Karate Dojo.

Zen meditation is not easy - It is however, the only way into Buddhism. 8 centuries ago, Master DOGEN, founder of Soto Zen, describe in his FUKAN ZAZENGI the basics of Zazen :

For practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Do not think "good" or "bad." Do not judge true or false. Give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness; stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. How could that be limited to sitting or lying down?

At your sitting place, spread out a thick mat and put a cushion on it. Sit either in the full-lotus or half-lotus position. In the full-lotus position, first place your right foot on your left thigh, then your left foot on your right thigh. In the half-lotus, simply place your left foot on your right thigh. Tie your robes loosely and arrange them neatly. Then place your right hand on your left leg and your left hand on your right palm, thumb-tips lightly touching. Straighten your body and sit upright, leaning neither left nor right, neither forward nor backward. Align your ears with your shoulders and your nose with your navel. Rest the tip of your tongue against the front of the roof of your mouth, with teeth together and lips shut. Always keep your eyes open, and breathe softly through your nose.

Once you have adjusted your posture, take a breath and exhale fully, rock your body right and left, and settle into steady, immovable sitting. Think of not thinking. Not thinking — what kind of thinking is that? Nonthinking. This is the essential art of zazen.

This text was written in the 13th century for Japanese people used to sit on the ground and had probably never sat on a chair; the Lotus or half Lotus position were familiar to them.
Most people in the West get interested in Zen after the age of 40. Our bodies may not let us practice in positions (repeated injuries have damaged my knees, and they will absolutely NOT cooperate...). My interest in Martial Arts and Taoist meditation taught me that the most important thing is to keep the Spine erect and as straight as possible - to sit like a tower or pillar.

It is perfectly possible to do so when kneeling in Seiza or sitting on a bench or chair.

Read the full version of FUKAN ZAZENGI