The Secret of Kendo

Once upon a time, a very proud young samurai visited a famous Kendo Master and asked him : 

"What is the secret of your Art?"

The Master quietly grabbed his shinai, twirled it above his head and strongly whacked the young man on the top of his head. 

Surely he received satori!

 In "Zen and Martial Arts" by Taisen Desshimaru

Don't you love these old Masters...

Horse Medicine

The following is a quote from Horse Medicine, a very interesting and controversial book about Zen Practice in Paris in the 70's under the guidance of the late Zen Master Taisen Deshimaru. 

     "Mountains, rivers, sun, moon, stars, the big land, mind-land, treasure land and the heatless pond (i.e. nirvana) are actualization of mind," says the master. 

 

"All these lands are based on the experience of satori and are therefore manifestations of shiki soku ze shiki.

Mountains, rivers etc... are seen differently by heaven people and by earth people, when you attain satori the viewpoint of mind becomes universal and all existences become one mind..."

"Is it outer phenomena actualized from our inner mind or is the actualization of our inner mind coming from the outside? And when we are born is another mind added, and when we die does this mind escape?...

"All the cosmos is one-mind. All existences are the actualization of self-mind. So how should we think when we study mind ? Usually we think of natural phenomena: Mountains rivers sun moon etc... as outside our mind. But these are mind itself."

"Do not deduce from this that everything is only inside your mind. Abandon notions of outside or inside, coming or going. Undivided mind is not outside or inside. It comes and goes freely without attachment. Every thought is independent, newly created, vital and instantaneous. So please," the master enjoins us, "repeat this method of thinking, and form it, build it into your daily life with only the one mind of the Three Worlds."

        This is deep stuff and we could discuss and argue about it for a very long time. But it really is not the point, because discussion and argument can never take us very far. The point is the last sentence : "Repeat this method of thinking, form it, build it into your daily life,,,"

In other words : Train

In Zen and Budo, Discussion and Argumentation are  a waste of time and energy. Only action matters. 

We can train our minds in the same way we train our  bodies. Actually, it is the only way we can change anything. 

And training is based on repetition. If we want to get better at  Karate, Piano, Kendo or Math, we train, we practice, we repeat, times and times sequences of moves, of notes, of reasonning.  It is boring at times, but it works, and actually there is no other way. Same with the mind.

Practice...

Note :

If you believe there is much more to Life and Zen than making people happy and comfortable around you, then read "Horse Medicine". If you believe that leading  a morally, socially and politically correct life is of the highest  importance, you probably won't like this book. Zen is not comfortable.

How can we change Humankind ?

Below is my own translation from French of an extract of “Zen and daily life” (Zen et vie quotidienne) by Master Taisen Deshimaru. I do not know that this book exists in English.

It provides an explanation of Karma, a concept I have been struggling with for quite a while... Karma as the flame that burns the wood. The wood burns and turns into ashes, but the Wood does not see the ashes, or knows nothing about them, and the ashes know nothing about the wood. What stays its the fire...

This is also an obvious reference to Genjokoan of Master Dogen.

One of the most simple explanation I heard of Yin and Yang is the analogy to a burning candle : the wax is Yin, the flame is Yang. Without wax, there can be no flame; without a flame, the wax is useless.

When the whole wax is burnt, the flame dies, but it might have set another candle in fire. Is this the same flame, or another flame ?

…

To believe in reincarnation and wish it, or not to believe in it and fear it, these are two erroneous attitudes. In Buddihsm, the 2 aspects are correlated. On one hand, the Buddha repelled all idea of transmigration, and on the other hand, certain texts affirm its reality. In fact, if we want to go beyond the world of transmigration, and beyond ethics, we need to understand the reason for this transmigration. During Zazen, we can understand the cause that provokes transmigration, reach the state of satori and realize this through our whole body and our spirit.

If one cuts all attachment, the substance of transmigration all of a sudden vanishes. And if there is no numen, there is nothing left to cut ! No more fear of death, no attachment to life, no attachment to the ego, no desire to keep on living: the subject is not attached to the ego anymore and the thought of transmigration is not necessary anymore. The burnt wood turns into ashes : it is a progressive transformation of the wood, while the fire keeps going. Karma is perpetuated through the prolongation of our thoughts, our words, our acts.

It is the flame of karma, while the ego is transformed like the wood is burnt. Wood turns into ashes, but wood cannot see the ashes, and the ashes neither can see the wood. There is no numen. By the practice of Zazen and Hishiryo consciousness, you can understand this difficult philosophy. But it is useless to try to get an intellectual understanding of it.