If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything,
it is open to everything.
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities,
but in the experts mind there are few.
Preparing food is not just about yourself and others.
It is about everything!
There is also the real secret of the arts:
always be a beginner.
The world is its own magic.
You cannot stop your life.
You are always changing into something else.
Always, incessantly.
Wherever you go you will find your teacher,
as long as you have the eyes to see and ears to hear.
Nothing we see or hear is perfect.
But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.
The true practice of meditation is to sit as if
you were drinking water when you are thirsty.
Treat every moment as your last.
It is not preparation for something else.
Our way is not to sit to acquire something;
it is to express our true nature.
That is our practice.
For the beginner,
practice without effort is not true practice.
Zen is not some fancy, special art of living.
Our teaching is just to live, always in reality,
in its exact sense.
To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way.
We have to study with our warm heart,
not just with our brain.
Hell is not punishment, it's training.
All descriptions of reality are limited expressions
of the world of emptiness.
Yet we attach to the descriptions and think they are
reality. That is a mistake.
An enlightened person does not ignore things
and does not stick to things,
not even to the truth.
Zen practice is to open up our small mind.
Everything is perfect
and there is always room for improvement.
Instead of criticizing
find out how to help.
When you bow, you should just bow;
when you sit, you should just sit;
when you eat, you should just eat.
People who know the state of emptiness
will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.
Wherever you are, you are one with clouds
and one with sun and the stars you see.
You are one with everything.
This is more true than I can say,
and more true than you can hear.
When you do something,
you should burn yourself up completely,
like a good bonfire,
leaving no trace of yourself.
Understand yourself and then
you will understand everything.
Everything changes.
There is nothing to stick to.
That is the Buddha's most important teaching.
As long as you seek for something,
you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.
It is easy to have calmness in inactivity,
it is hard to have calmness in activity,
but calmness in activity is true calmness.
Let your ears hear without trying to hear.
Let the mind think without trying to think
and without trying to stop it.
That is practice.
Our practice should be based on the ideal of selflessness. Selflessness is very difficult to understand. If you try to be selfless, that is already a selfish idea. Selflessness will be there when you do not try anything.
The highest truth is daiji, translated as dai jiki in Chinese scriptures. This is the subject of the question the emperor asked Bodhidharma: “What is the First Principle?” Bodhidharma said, “I don’t know.” “I don’t know” is the First Principle.
So for a period of time each day, try to sit, without moving, without expecting anything, as if you were in your last moment. Moment after moment you feel your last instant. In each inhalation and each exhalation there are countless instants of time. Your intention is to live in each instant.
Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.
Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm. This mind is called big mind.
The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.
The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense. To give your sheep or cow a large spacious meadow is the way to control him. So it is with people: first let them do what they want, and watch them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good. That is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to watch them, just to watch them, without trying to control them.
The point we emphasize is strong confidence in our original nature.
The true purpose [of Zen] is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.
Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
There should not be any particular teaching. Teaching is in each moment.
When something dies is the greatest teaching.
When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves. That is our way, to live fully in each moment of time.
When you sit, everything sits with you.
When you are sad, you should be completely involved in sadness without care for something happy. When you are happy, you should just enjoy the happiness.
For Zen students, a weed is a treasure.
With this attitude, whatever you do,
life becomes an art.
If you want to obtain perfect calmness in your zazen, you should not be bothered by the various images you find in your mind. Let them come, and let them go. Then they will be under control.
Strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
Only when you understand people, they may understand you. So even though you do not say anything, if you understand people there is some communication.
Try not to see something in particular;
try not to achieve anything special.
You already have everything in your own pure quality.
There should be no traces in our activity.
We should not attach to some fancy ideas or to some beautiful things.
We should not seek for something good.
The truth is always near at hand, within your reach.
But if your effort is in the right direction,
then there is no fear of losing anything.
Even if it is in the wrong direction,
if you are aware of that, you will not be deluded.
There is nothing to lose.
There is only the constant pure quality of right practice.
You are living in this world as one individual,
but before you take the form of a human being,
you are already there, always there. We are always here.
You think before you were born you were not here.
But how is it possible for you to appear in this world,
when there is no you?
Because you are already there, you can appear in the world.
Also, it is not possible for something to vanish which does not exist. Because something is there, something can vanish.
You may think that when you die, you disappear, you no longer exist.
But even though you vanish, something which is existent cannot be non-existent. That is the magic.
We ourselves cannot put any magic spells on this world.
The world is its own magic.
The usual translation of the Japanese word nin is "patience,"
but perhaps "constancy" is a better word.
You must force yourself to be patient,
but in constancy there is no particular effort involved—
there is only the unchanging ability to accept things as they are.
For people who have no idea of emptiness,
this ability may appear to be patience,
but patience can actually be non-acceptance.
People who know, even if only intuitively, the state of emptiness
always have open the possibility of accepting things as they are.
They can appreciate everything. In everything they do,
even though it may be very difficult,
they will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.
Nin is the way we cultivate our own spirit.
Dogen-zenji said, "Although everything has Buddha nature, we love flowers,
and we do not care for weeds." This is true of human nature.
But that we are attached to some beauty is itself Buddha's activity.
That we do not care for weeds is also Buddha's activity.
We should know that. If you know that, it is all right to attach to something.
If it is Buddha's attachment, that is non-attachment.
So in love there should be hate, or non-attachment.
And in hate there should be love, or acceptance.
Love and hate are one thing.
We should not attach to love alone. We should accept hate.
Everything as it is - is the way Buddha is.
It means everything is taking Buddha's activity each thing in its own way.
Whatever we do is Buddha's activity.
If you want to understand it, you cannot understand it.
When you give up trying to understand it,
true understanding is always there.
To be a human being is to be a Buddha.
Buddha nature is just another name for human nature,
our true human nature.
Thus even though you do not do anything,
you are actually doing something.
You are expressing yourself.
You are expressing your true nature.
Your eyes will express; your voice will express;
your demeanor will express.
The most important thing is to express your true nature
in the simplest, most adequate way and
to appreciate it in the smallest existence.
By bowing we
are giving up ourselves. To give up ourselves means to give
up our dualistic ideas.
To speak of waves apart from water
or water apart from waves is a delusion.
Water and waves are one.
Big mind and small mind are one.
When you understand your mind in this way,
you have some security in your feeling.
As your mind does not expect anything from outside,
it is always filled.
A mind with waves in it is not a disturbed mind,
but actually an amplified one.
Whatever you experience is an expression of big mind.
it is open to everything.
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities,
but in the experts mind there are few.
Preparing food is not just about yourself and others.
It is about everything!
There is also the real secret of the arts:
always be a beginner.
The world is its own magic.
You cannot stop your life.
You are always changing into something else.
Always, incessantly.
Wherever you go you will find your teacher,
as long as you have the eyes to see and ears to hear.
Nothing we see or hear is perfect.
But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.
The true practice of meditation is to sit as if
you were drinking water when you are thirsty.
Treat every moment as your last.
It is not preparation for something else.
Our way is not to sit to acquire something;
it is to express our true nature.
That is our practice.
For the beginner,
practice without effort is not true practice.
Zen is not some fancy, special art of living.
Our teaching is just to live, always in reality,
in its exact sense.
To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way.
We have to study with our warm heart,
not just with our brain.
Hell is not punishment, it's training.
All descriptions of reality are limited expressions
of the world of emptiness.
Yet we attach to the descriptions and think they are
reality. That is a mistake.
An enlightened person does not ignore things
and does not stick to things,
not even to the truth.
Zen practice is to open up our small mind.
Everything is perfect
and there is always room for improvement.
Instead of criticizing
find out how to help.
When you bow, you should just bow;
when you sit, you should just sit;
when you eat, you should just eat.
People who know the state of emptiness
will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.
Wherever you are, you are one with clouds
and one with sun and the stars you see.
You are one with everything.
This is more true than I can say,
and more true than you can hear.
When you do something,
you should burn yourself up completely,
like a good bonfire,
leaving no trace of yourself.
Understand yourself and then
you will understand everything.
Everything changes.
There is nothing to stick to.
That is the Buddha's most important teaching.
As long as you seek for something,
you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.
It is easy to have calmness in inactivity,
it is hard to have calmness in activity,
but calmness in activity is true calmness.
Let your ears hear without trying to hear.
Let the mind think without trying to think
and without trying to stop it.
That is practice.
Our practice should be based on the ideal of selflessness. Selflessness is very difficult to understand. If you try to be selfless, that is already a selfish idea. Selflessness will be there when you do not try anything.
The highest truth is daiji, translated as dai jiki in Chinese scriptures. This is the subject of the question the emperor asked Bodhidharma: “What is the First Principle?” Bodhidharma said, “I don’t know.” “I don’t know” is the First Principle.
So for a period of time each day, try to sit, without moving, without expecting anything, as if you were in your last moment. Moment after moment you feel your last instant. In each inhalation and each exhalation there are countless instants of time. Your intention is to live in each instant.
Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.
Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm. This mind is called big mind.
The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.
The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense. To give your sheep or cow a large spacious meadow is the way to control him. So it is with people: first let them do what they want, and watch them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good. That is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to watch them, just to watch them, without trying to control them.
The point we emphasize is strong confidence in our original nature.
The true purpose [of Zen] is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.
Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
There should not be any particular teaching. Teaching is in each moment.
When something dies is the greatest teaching.
When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves. That is our way, to live fully in each moment of time.
When you sit, everything sits with you.
When you are sad, you should be completely involved in sadness without care for something happy. When you are happy, you should just enjoy the happiness.
For Zen students, a weed is a treasure.
With this attitude, whatever you do,
life becomes an art.
If you want to obtain perfect calmness in your zazen, you should not be bothered by the various images you find in your mind. Let them come, and let them go. Then they will be under control.
Strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
Only when you understand people, they may understand you. So even though you do not say anything, if you understand people there is some communication.
Try not to see something in particular;
try not to achieve anything special.
You already have everything in your own pure quality.
There should be no traces in our activity.
We should not attach to some fancy ideas or to some beautiful things.
We should not seek for something good.
The truth is always near at hand, within your reach.
But if your effort is in the right direction,
then there is no fear of losing anything.
Even if it is in the wrong direction,
if you are aware of that, you will not be deluded.
There is nothing to lose.
There is only the constant pure quality of right practice.
You are living in this world as one individual,
but before you take the form of a human being,
you are already there, always there. We are always here.
You think before you were born you were not here.
But how is it possible for you to appear in this world,
when there is no you?
Because you are already there, you can appear in the world.
Also, it is not possible for something to vanish which does not exist. Because something is there, something can vanish.
You may think that when you die, you disappear, you no longer exist.
But even though you vanish, something which is existent cannot be non-existent. That is the magic.
We ourselves cannot put any magic spells on this world.
The world is its own magic.
The usual translation of the Japanese word nin is "patience,"
but perhaps "constancy" is a better word.
You must force yourself to be patient,
but in constancy there is no particular effort involved—
there is only the unchanging ability to accept things as they are.
For people who have no idea of emptiness,
this ability may appear to be patience,
but patience can actually be non-acceptance.
People who know, even if only intuitively, the state of emptiness
always have open the possibility of accepting things as they are.
They can appreciate everything. In everything they do,
even though it may be very difficult,
they will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.
Nin is the way we cultivate our own spirit.
Dogen-zenji said, "Although everything has Buddha nature, we love flowers,
and we do not care for weeds." This is true of human nature.
But that we are attached to some beauty is itself Buddha's activity.
That we do not care for weeds is also Buddha's activity.
We should know that. If you know that, it is all right to attach to something.
If it is Buddha's attachment, that is non-attachment.
So in love there should be hate, or non-attachment.
And in hate there should be love, or acceptance.
Love and hate are one thing.
We should not attach to love alone. We should accept hate.
Everything as it is - is the way Buddha is.
It means everything is taking Buddha's activity each thing in its own way.
Whatever we do is Buddha's activity.
If you want to understand it, you cannot understand it.
When you give up trying to understand it,
true understanding is always there.
To be a human being is to be a Buddha.
Buddha nature is just another name for human nature,
our true human nature.
Thus even though you do not do anything,
you are actually doing something.
You are expressing yourself.
You are expressing your true nature.
Your eyes will express; your voice will express;
your demeanor will express.
The most important thing is to express your true nature
in the simplest, most adequate way and
to appreciate it in the smallest existence.
By bowing we
are giving up ourselves. To give up ourselves means to give
up our dualistic ideas.
To speak of waves apart from water
or water apart from waves is a delusion.
Water and waves are one.
Big mind and small mind are one.
When you understand your mind in this way,
you have some security in your feeling.
As your mind does not expect anything from outside,
it is always filled.
A mind with waves in it is not a disturbed mind,
but actually an amplified one.
Whatever you experience is an expression of big mind.
