The Voice of Nothingness

I don't normally advertise anything or anybody, but here is a man - Thomas Roth -  a German film maker - who is trying to raise money to make a film about the Japanese Kyoto School of thought. I like his project, and I would like to help him.

Members of  the Kyoto School were professors and scholars teaching various materials at the University of Kyoto, Japan, before WWII. Although all of them had been deeply marked by their practice of Zen, they were people of different backgrounds, did not always share the same views and did not hesitate to criticise each others' work.

One common point of their work was the investigation of "nothingness" and its influence and importance in the history of philosophy.

The title of the film is "The Voice of Nothingness".

If you have a moment, click on this link and watch the short video to present the project. It is well done, and to the point. If you like it, please contribute by sending any amount you can afford, and share the page with your friends on Facebook or other social media.

Thank you

Writings of Suzuki Shosan - II

A warrior asked Suzuki Shosan, "They say the law of Buddha and the law of the world are like the two wheels of a chariot. But nothing would be lacking in the world even without Buddhism. Why liken them to two wheels of a chariot?”

Shosan replied, ‘The law of Buddha and the law of the world are not two separate things. According to a saying of Buddha, if you can enter the world successfully there is nothing more to leaving the world.

“Whether Buddhism or worldly law, there is nothing more than reasoning correctly, acting justly, and practicing honesty.

“There are differences in depth of honesty. Not twisting reason, preserving justice, correctness in social relations, not crossing people, not being egotistical - these constitute honesty in the worldly sense. This is a way into the deep via the shallow.

“Honesty in the context of Buddhism means realizing that all conditioned phenomena are illusions, and using the original reality-body in its natural state. This is true honesty.

“The fact is that the ordinary people are very sick patients, while the Buddha is a very great physician. Ordinary people ought to recognize sickness first. In the ignorant mind that fluctuates, there is the sickness of delusion, there are sicknesses of greed and false views, there are sicknesses of weakness and injustice. Based on the mind infected by the three poisons, there are diseases of eighty-four thousand afflictions. Getting rid of this mind is called Buddhism. How is this any different from worldly law?

“People who attain the Way know the principle of fundamental emptiness, use principle and duty as a forge to temper this mind day and night, get rid of the residue of impurities, make it a pure unhindered mind-sword, cut through the root of selfish and obsessive thoughts, overcome all thoughts, surmount everything, and are unfazed by anything, unborn and undying. These are called people of the Way.

“Now, then, ordinary people are those who take the falsehood of illusions to be true, produce a selfish mind attached to what has form, develop greedy, angry, and ignorant thoughts, create all sorts of afflictions and lose their basic mind, always distracted, overcome by thoughts as they occur, racking their brains and belaboring their bodies, without buoyancy of mind, vainly passing the time benighted, alienated from themselves and fixated on things. This is called the mind of ordinary people.

‘That being so, you should know the different terms for the original mind. It is called the adamantine actuality, the indestructible body of reality, This mind is not hung up on things; it is unafraid, unshakable, undismayed, unfazed, undisturbed, and unchanged, master of all. Those who realize this and use it effectively are called great; they are said to have iron guts, and to have attained the Way. People like this are not obstructed by myriad thoughts; able to let go of all things, they are very independent.

“However, people who would practice the Way of Buddha will be unable to succeed unless they have an intrepid mind first. It is impossible to gain access to the Way of Buddha with a weak mind. If you are not rigorously observant and do not practice vigorously, you will experience misery along with those afflictions.

“One who overcomes all things with a firm mind is called a wayfarer. One who has thoughts fixated on appearances, is burdened by everything, and so suffers misery is called an ordinary person.

“So people who work up the courage of violence with an afflicted mind may have the force to’ break through iron walls for the moment, but violence ‘eventually comes to an end. The mind of a strong person, being immovable, does not change. If men who are warriors cultivate this, why would they not attain a strong mind?

“Even people of outstanding heroism, when the killing demon of impermanence comes lose their usual power, their ferocity, and ability to exert any effort. When they try to open their eyes they cannot see anything; their ears can't hear, their tongues shrivel and can't speak. When the killing demon enters the heart and destroys the internal organs, breathing becomes difficult, pain invades their bodies, and under it they become unable to overcome and kill the demon of impermanence, unable to bear the great hardships of the mountain of death, drowning in the river between here and the afterlife, shamed at the court of the king of death, falling forever into the three evils and four dispositions, disgraced generation to generation, lifetime after lifetime, as self and as other, unable to escape. 

Would you say this disgrace is insignificant because shallow people don’t know of it ? Even in the illusory human society disgrace is nothing to take lightly; how much the more so is eternal disgrace ?

“Can someone ignorant of this logic be called someone who knows principle or embodies justice? Think ahead before you act.

If you know the principle, you should fear it. If you embody justice, use the fierce and firm mind-sword to cut down the enemy of birth and death and live in great peace.”

Somehow, this story reminds me of the - probably apocryphal - episode of the viper coming upon Takuan Soho and Miyamoto Musashi meditating together.

How about that ?

In the beginning there was nothing

In the beginning there was nothing
And God said : "Let there be Light"
And there still was nothing.
But you could see it.
Genesis - revisited by Groucho Marx

The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three;
Three produced All things.
All things leave behind them the Obscurity (out of which they have come),
and go forward to embrace the Brightness (into which they have emerged),
while they are harmonized by the Breath of Vacancy.
Tao Te Ching Chap 42

Shariputra,
Form does not differ from emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form.
Form itself is emptiness; emptiness itself is form.
Heart Sutra

The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin

Here is a quote from the book Boddhisatva of Compassion by John Blofeld. 

It strikes me as exceptionally rich, and worth our consideration...

'You must realize first of all that our minds are not separate from Mind, which, if you have read any Ch'an (Zen) works, you will know is the sole reality. Known in its quiescent state as the Great Void or what you English people call Ultimate Reality, it is simultaneously the realm of form,"the matrix of the myriad objects", as Lao Tzu puts it. By no means must they be thought of as separate. The Great Void and the realm of form are not two ! There is no going from the one to the other, only a transmutation of your mode of perception. 

Mind is like a boundless ocean of light, or infinite space, from which streams forth Bodhi, a marvelous energy that produces in us an urge towards Enlightenment. But to attain Enlightenment, you need vast stores of wisdom and compassion in perfect union. 


Wisdom includes full and direct perception of your own egolessness and of the non existence of anything like "own-self" in any object. 

Compassion is the prime means of destroying all clinging to delusory selfhood. From Bodhi emanate particularized streams of liberating energy - the energies of wisdom, compassion, of the pure activity needed to combine them, and so forth...'