Zen Tourism Japan

By Mitsuo Hirai, February, 2010, Tokyo, Japan

At a food market in Bhutan

“The Dalai Lama once said, ‘Gotama Buddha was a scientist,’” reports the cover story of TIME magazine (March 31, 2008). 　　　The Dalai Lama dismisses Buddhist teachings if disproved by science, and he values science as the important part of the monastic curriculum in Dharamsala, India where he lives in exile from Tibet, the article says.

Questions arose to me, “How come Gotama was a scientist, a man lived some 2,500 years ago in the Northern India when there was no study of science, nor even the writings? Buddhism that began with the teaching of Gotama, will it ever be compatible with the contemporary world where science and technology dictate? If so, how? Can Buddhism survive?”

If the science is defined as activities to identify the law governing natural phenomena, the reason Gotama was a scientist may be understood in a way that he found the law governing the “human mind” instead of the natural phenomena, that our passion has a tendency to sway to the greed which causes us suffering, and it is the freedom from the greed that brings peace in our mind.

Not only Gotama found the law, but developed a method how to control the greed to bring peace in the human mind, taught it to his followers, and proved it by himself. The method consists of a few simple principles of conducts in our daily lives to live a righteous, and morally clean life. In their practice Zazen (sitting in meditation) played an important part, but Gotama disregarded ascertism. In a sense, he may be called a technologist as well as a scientist in the field of human mind, inasmuch as the technology is defined as a method and activity to apply science to achieve human needs, in this case human happiness.

For example, one of his teachings, the Right View, suggests that, if we want to overcome our suffering, we must start looking at all phenomena relative to the suffering squarely without any prepossession and recognize cause and effect of it. There is no room for God to play here. It is precisely in conformity with the scientific approach. If the word science is construed broadly to include technology, Gotama may be called a “scientist” in the field of human mind, in place of natural phenomena. In that sense I can agree with the Dalai Lama that Gotama was a scientist.

In light of the Right View, if we see our existence in this world, we would come to realize that we are not living alone independently, but interdependently on all environments surrounding us—all living and non-living beings in the universe, which would ultimately lead us to the spontaneous feeling of tolerance and compassion.

Mankind on earth would be able to live peacefully and happily, should this scientific and peaceful teaching of Gotama Buddha prevail globally. Then, the religious institution of Buddhism which began with the teaching of Gotama, how will it be influential globally as a social momentum?

According to H.G.Wells (1866-1946), the great English historian of the last century, in describing the early history of Buddhism in his lifework book, The Outline of History, he attributes the stagnation and fading of the primitive Buddhism in India to the lack of any directive idea, in contrast with Judaism which remained bright and expectant because of its idea of Promise. Outlining the rise and fall of Buddhism in India thereafter, he writes, “It is quite curious to note that while the one great Aryan religion (Buddhism) is now almost exclusively confined to Mongolian peoples, the Aryans themselves are under the sway of two religions, Christianity and Islam, which are essentially Semitic. ” But he writes also somewhat prophetically about Buddhism saying, “It is quite possible that in contact with western science, and inspired by the spirit of history, the original teaching of Gotama, revived and purified, may yet play a large part in the direction of human destiny.”

It may be true, as Wells pointed out, there was no progressive or directive idea in the original teaching of Gotama. The propagating and organizing power of the Buddhist institution may not be as strong as other major religion such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism, as manifested by the fall of Buddhism in India, the birth place of Gotama Buddha. It seems from the very beginning there was no ambition in the mind of Gotama to compel his belief to the entire world in which he lived his life, but he simply pursued freedom from the greed and told his belief only to those who followed him.

What will be the destiny of Buddhism in the future? Will it going to be replaced by other religions which are stronger in propagating power than Buddhism, or by so-called “non-religious” or atheist group of people who don’t believe Buddhism, or any religion, as is prevailing in Japan? Whatever the guise, religious conflicts do exist persistently in the world. In fact, the difference of religion is the deep-rooted cause of most of the major fatal conflicts occurring in various places of the world, citing just a few of them, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, etc., although other factors such as territorial, national, or racial conflicts are entangled. Even within the same religion, there are severe conflicts between different sects, e.g., between the Shiites and Sunnites of Islam. If we are to kill each other for the religious reason, we would even think it better not to have such religion. In reality, the religion is consoling people’s soul on the one hand, but threatening people’s security on the other.

While science and technology have no control over how they are going to be utilized, be it for good or bad, they are utilized for such conflicts as well. In the present world where the weapons of mass destruction, the products of science and technology, are proliferating, what would happen if the human greed should come out of control? Even before bringing up the nuclear disaster, haven’t we just had the global economic disaster triggered by those marketers of Wall Street armed with the state of the art monetary technology whose greed was out of control? Again in the words of Wells from his book, “We (human beings) have tamed and bred the beasts, but we have still to tame and breed ourselves.”

I have no idea to what extent can Buddhism be influential to “tame and breed ourselves,” at the collective and social level, nor if Buddhism can survive in the future, but I wonder if the human beings can survive without the philosophy of Gotama Buddha.

The writer, with his grand daughter

By Zen Master SUIGAN YOGO(1912-1996)

Excerpted from his presentation in June, 1968
Translated in English by Mitsuo Hirai

On the new year’s day at Daiyuzan Saijoji Temple

     “A path to Buddha is not difficult, provided you don’t have likes and dislikes.”  This is the message at the beginning of the book titled “Shinjinmei” which is regarded as one of the oldest classics of Zen sect of Buddhism written by Sosan, a Chinese priest around 7th century.  What does it mean by the likes and dislikes?  We face in our daily lives countless subjects of the likes and dislikes, for example; sweet and sour, pretty and ugly, rich and poor, love and hatred, favor and disfavor, more efficient and less efficient, etc.  In a broader term it means to compare, so another way of saying it will be, “A path to Buddha is wide open, if you don’t make comparisons.”  Then what does Buddha mean?  Philosophically, it has a manifold meaning, but for the sake of simplicity let’s take it here as a person whose mind is controlled in peace.

     We live in the world of comparisons, and we usually take it as a matter of course, but we find also that the comparison is the cause of our sufferings, to put it in another way, our sufferings come from our act to compare. For example in a family, a brother or sister is compared. A younger one is compared with the elder one. If the former feels unfairly treated than the latter by the parents, he or she may suffer from irreparable mental sufferings, although the parents may not realize it so seriously.

     Competition is an example of what we see in the world of comparisons. The winner is compared with the losers. This is obvious in sports, but in the business world as well where most of you here in this audience must be engaging. Always you are rated according to the price tag of competitive ability attached to you. You may accept the competition as the matter of course, and take it even as a challenge. That’s fine. Most of you may take that as an ordinary way of life. But I suspect if you could remain very peaceful in this way. Your mind would be most restful, were you to live in the world where no such price tag is attached to you, just as school children would be most happy, were they not rated by their test results.

     The rich is compared to the poor. You may be comforted by finding the poorer people than you, but at the same time you may not be comforted by finding the richer people than you. So, this way of comparison won’t serve as the final solution for the sufferings. So long as you are in the world of comparisons, your mind won’t be completely peaceful. Only when you live in the world of non-comparison, or non-relativity, your mind would become peaceful.

      But is it ever possible for us to live in such a world of non-comparison? It is difficult, indeed. As yet, it is not impossible either. It depends on which perspective you look at the world you live. For example, if you look at a running race in a straight track, it’s easy to find who is winning and who is losing. But if you look at the running race in a circle track, it won’t be so easy to find out who is running at the top. Why don’t you look at your life as a running race in a circle track with no goal in it? Then you won’t have to worry about whether you are at the top or the bottom. This is one way of looking at the world.

     Actually, however, we cannot be outside of the world of comparison, and in reality we do picking and choosing in our daily lives. There are, nonetheless, ways of effort trying to approach the world of non-comparison. What Dogen(1200-1253), the founder of Soto school of Zen in Japan, brought about, as he calls the gate to the ease and comfort of mind, was the practice of “Zazen,” meaning sitting in meditation. But more specifically and significantly, sitting solely in meditation, called in his words, “Shikan-taza.” In Shikan-taza, you just sit in meditation, attaching no other objective than to sit in meditation.

     It’s like facing a mirror. You see through your eyes in the mirror anything you see, not only what you want to see but what you don’t want to see. There are no likes and dislikes of what you see in the mirror. Likewise, when you sit in meditation, you hear any sounds surrounding you, regardless you like or not. You hear not only the sound you want to hear, but all sounds without exception. So impartially our human body is made. Further on in the nature, you would notice that grasses exist as they grow, independent of which grass you like, flowers exist as they blossom in all colors alike, red, black, white, or yellow, independent of which color you like. You might notice you exist as you are, devoid of the sense of your self or ego. Dogen defined this state “Shinshin-datsuraku,” Iiterally meaning the body and mind dropped off, which touches the heart of Zazen. In fact, it was Dogen who exalted the quality of Zazen to the height of Shikan-taza and Shinshin-datsuraku.

     Thus, a line of thought of Zen flows from Sosan’s message, “A path to Buddha is not difficult, provided you don’t have likes and dislikes,” and settles down at Dogen’s practice of Shikan-taza and Shinshin-datsuraku as the final resort place, that is to say, just sitting in meditation devoid of the sense of your self or ego.

Mr. Suigan Yogo was the head of the Daiyuzan Saijoji, a temple of Soto school of Zen, in Odawara, some 100 km southwest of Tokyo.

By Zen Master Suigan Yogo (1912-1996)
Excerpted from his presentation in January, 1976
Translated in English by Mitsuo Hirai

When people talk about the Buddhism, it means either the truth of Buddhism, or the religious institution of Buddhists (hereinafter collectively the Buddhist institution), or both included. At the present time, we hear many critical arguments about the corruption or fall of the Buddhist institution as if the Buddhism is doomed to extinction.   The proverb says “History repeats itself.” At any age in the history there are on one side those who criticize matters of the current times sternly with the crisis-mind and those who are not so on the other.  

I won’t be sided with that kind of crisis-minded view about the Buddhism, because the truth of Buddhism does exist in this world regardless of the rise and fall of the Buddhist institution, or put it in the extreme term, the truth of Buddhism holds true even though the Buddhist institution no longer exists.

The classic Zen word says “A path to Buddha is not difficult, provided you don’t have likes and dislikes.”   It means “Don’t make picking and choosing on matters you are facing.” This will eventually lead you to view everything in this world affectionately without the sense of comparing, which standpoint may be called the universal love or compassion. Therein lies the truth of the Buddhism.   Hopefully, all arguments on the Buddhism are made without forgetting that standpoint.
[Mr. Suigan Yogo (Photo) was the head of the Daiyuzan Saijoji, a temple of Soto school of Zen, in Odawara, some 100 km. southwest of Tokyo]

Daiyuzan Saijoji, in Kanagawa Pref., Japan

Wonder of the matter of course

By ZEN MASTER SUIGAN YOGO (1912-1996)

Excerpted from his presentation at the Daiyuzan Saijoji temple in 1987
Translated in English, by Mitsuo Hirai,  May 20, 2009, Tokyo, Japan

Do you appreciate that you can hear?   Probably not, unless you have something wrong with your ears.   Because it is so plain and natural that it is taken for granted. But, don’t you think it a kind of wonder that you can hear sounds around you without any effort to do so? Quite often in our daily life, we are not aware of the real wonder of the plain things that are going on so naturally and orderly as the matter of course.

For example, today, you are here in this hall, and you are living just as you are— hearing me without any effort to do so.   You are now living just as you are without any concern to live consciously.   Don’t you think this is a kind of wonder? Without any consciousness, or any effort to do so, your heart keeps beating, your nose breathing, your ears hearing, and your stomach digesting.   When you are sleeping, you don’t feel you are sleeping. If you do, that is a fake sleep! Nothing is more valuable than these natural order of things that you usually take for granted.

Notwithstanding, quite often you are dazzled at something supernatural, extraordinary, or miraculous, and likely to depend on, or may seek source of salvation in such miraculous things.   You are apt to overlook the real wonder of the very miracle that things go naturally as the matter of course, that is to say, the miracle that there is no miracle. It is in the natural, non-supernatural, or non-extraordinary things that the miracle lies.
　
When you sit in meditation in our temple, you will hear sounds surrounding you; streaming of water, singing of birds, breathing of wind, etc., all sounds without exception, regardless you like or not.   You hear not only the sound you want to hear, but all sounds without exception. So impartially our human body is made.   If you realize the wonder of such natural order of things, it would lead you eventually to the restful peace in your mind.   That is where the Buddha lies.

If you don’t understand the truth of it, as it being too natural and orderly as the matter of course, then you must go on a journey of looking for something that would satisfy your spiritual needs, without realizing what you have with you.   It’s like a thief trying to steal something of others.   That’s what I call “thief temperament.”　

One of the Buddhism’s Ten Commandments says, “Don’t steal the property of others.”   Even a little child can understand that the stealing is a bad thing. In essence, it means something deeper than that. Rather than simply forbidding to steal the property of others, it is a warning not to have such a thief temperament to steal something that you have with you.

The other commandments may be understood in the same context.   The Ten Commandments are so constructed that once you understand and observe just one of them in its essence, you may understand and observe the rest of them.   For instance, the other one says, “Don’t kill any living beings.”   Of course, it is a moral warning not to kill any humans. Aside from the humans, however, we can’t literally observe this commandment in so far as we humans can’t live without killing any living beings—animals, plants and microbes; animals such as cattle, poultry, and fish, plants such as vegetables, microbes such as fermented products.   Then, what does it really mean?   It is a warning not to kill the life of the Buddha, taking the cool fact in consideration that our lives are dependent on the living beings on this planet.

If you realize the real wonder of the plain and natural order of things that makes you　existent in the universe, not only yourself but all the living and non-living beings, and feel thankful for your being alive, it will be a path toward the restful peace in your mind.   If you miss the truth of it, you must go on a journey of looking for something that would satisfy you, like a treasure hunt.   It is a troublesome work. Once you come to understand the truth of it, you will find yourself at the starting point where you were before.   Then you might think you had better done nothing. But once you go astray, you can’t help but going on the journey until you come to discover the truth of it.   What is perplexing further is that even though you have returned to the original position feeling awakened and enlightened, you may easily go astray again.   It is like on a perfectly fine weather one may become uneasy rather than just fine. Haven’t you had such an experience? We humans go astray easily like a stray sheep.

What is called the Buddhist practice may be one of the ways of such journey.   While there are varieties of carrying out the Buddhist practice, in the Zen sect it is the sitting in meditation (Japanese: Zazen) that constitutes the central feature of the practice.   The severity of Zazen practice varies, from a brief and easy one of, say 5 min. long or so in a private home in the morning after wake up, to a very intensive and hard one in a monastery, say 40 min.   long with more than ten Zazen per day for the straight period of a week or two.   Is the practice harder, the better or more valuable? Again, the answer is to be found in the plain and natural order of things, rather than supernatural or extraordinary ones.   The practice is something like a prescription for a sick patient.   There can be his or her own way of doing practice, just as there is a prescription fit for each individual of the patient. The same applies to the body position of Zazen.   For example, it is customary to sit on a cushion in cross-legged in a certain standard position (full or half lotus), but if you have difficulty with your leg, you don’t necessarily have to sit cross-legged.   You may sit on a chair.

Once you come to realize the real wonder of the natural order of things and reach the state of restful peace in your mind, that is it. Nothing more, nothing less.   Such is the ultimate religious peace of mind. Then, there should be a way of living plainly and naturally in the wonderland where things go plainly and naturally as the matter of course.

Mr. Suigan Yogo (1912-1996) (left) was the head of the Daiyuzan Saijoji, a temple of Soto school of Zen, in Odawara, some 100 km. southwest of Tokyo.

Daiyuzan Saijoji, a temple of Soto school of Zen, in Odawara, some 100km. southwest of Tokyo

Zen’s comandments

By ZEN MASTER SUIGAN YOGO (1912-1996)
Excerpted from his presentation at the Daiyuzan Saijoji temple in 1987
Translated in English by Mitsuo Hirai, September 15, 2009, Tokyo Japan

     The commandment generally means something that directs with authority, or a precept in a religious sect.    There are Buddhist’s Ten Commandments similar to the biblical Ten Commandments in Christianity. At a ceremony to become Buddhist we swear to observe the Commandments.    But actually in our daily life we are doing many things that violate them.    For example, even though the commandment says, “Do not kill,” we cannot sustain our life without making any killing.    Even though we don’t eat any meat or fish, it does not mean we are not killing anything.    Vegetable has a life, too.    Then, wouldn’t the commandments make any sense?    Are they nothing more than nominal? What is the significance of the Buddhist’s commandment?

     The commandment is not merely a promise between the human beings, but between the human beings and the universe.    It is not merely the matter of precept whether you should or should not do, but concerns more deeply on your existence in this world.

     Is there anyone in the world who was born with his face tailor-made, that is to say, with his face designed before he was born?    No, absolutely not. Only when you grew up at a certain age, you must have realized how your face looks like.    Without your own will your face have been made up as it is. No use arguing about it, regardless you like it or not.    Not only your face, but your existence itself is made up like that This is how the world is made up, what we call “the life of the universe.”

     An old classic Chinese verse depicts a moment when Gotama Buddha got enlightened at the end of his meditation as he saw the sunrise in the morning of December 8th, as his comment, “All creatures in the universe and I are in the one piece all the time.”    In this comment of his, “I” does not simply mean Gotama Buddha alone, but all of us human beings, “the one piece” means there is no room for one’s ego to come in between the creatures and I, and “all the time” means not simply the past instance of Gotama Buddha, but all the way through from the past to the present and future.

     It means you and all of us (including Gotama of course) are living in the life of the universe always.    Can you explain why you are living as you are now?    You may say, “I’ve come here to this temple via train.”    It may be so, but think of why you were born and grown up as you are now.    Can you explain it?    It is inexplicable why you are living as you are now, is it?    Yet, there must be something that makes you living as you are now, because you are here living as you are now.    This inexplicable something that makes you living and keeps the universe moving—which is infinite, undeterminable, deep-rooted to the source of movement of the universe, we call it “the life of the universe.”    This something, we Buddhists call it Buddha,

     If you want to express the spring, for example, what will you do?    Since the word spring is abstract and undeterminable, it is hard to be expressed. But if you express it as a flower, for example, everybody understands how the spring looks like. In other words, a thing like the spring that is infinite and undeterminable can only be exhibited in a non-infinite or determinable form like the flower.    To put it in another way, there is no room for the thing like the spring that is infinite and undeterminable to exhibit itself on surface other than a non-infinite or determinable form like the flower.

     There is a poem by Dogen(1200-1253), the founder of Soto school of Zen in Japan, “Flowers in spring, little cuckoos in summer, the moon in autumn, and the snow in winter, each of them looks refreshed.   ” The poem is entitled “Intrinsic existence.”    It tells us that each of these creatures: the flower, little cuckoo, moon, and snow, exhibits its own existence in its entirety, and in beauty.    The poem depicts an exquisite rhythm of the universe and the same spirit as Gotama’s comment above.    (By the way, this poem became well known when Mr. Yasunari Kawabata, a Japanese novelist, referred it in his speech accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature in Stockholm, Sweden in 1968.)

     Now, the fourth of the Ten Commandments says, “Do not tell a lie.” You won’t have to come all the way to this temple to hear such a common sense matter that telling a lie is no good.    What does it really mean?    Let’s go back again to Dogen’s explanation.    He says, “Where a ring of the law of the universe rotates itself, nothing is deficient, nor left over.    The life of the universe permeates everywhere like the dew moistens gently the grasses and trees.”    What does it imply?    Taken in our daily life, it implies that just as the spring is exhibited on flowers of the field without deception, the life of the universe is exhibited on every act of our conducts in the daily life without deception.    The word “nothing is deficient, nor left over” is not a quantitative expression of neither too little nor too much.    It means we are so made up that we cannot deceive the life of the universe.

     In a legal court, for example, even though a defendant who made a crime might win the innocence by providing false witness, he wouldn’t be free from a twinge of guilt.    He may deceive the legal court, but may not deceive the life of the universe so that he can never become really peaceful in his mind. In such a way he is not exempted from the life of the universe, where “nothing is deficient, nor left over.”

     There is no deceiving of our existence in the universe.    On every act of what we do, and what we say, the life of the universe is exhibited without deception.    That is the message of the commandment, “Do not tell a lie.” When you realize the truth of it and conduct yourself, you are meeting the commandment.    That is the commandment, and that is Zen.

     The first of the Ten Commandments, “Do not kill” must be accepted in the same context.　　The Buddhist’s Ten Commandments are so constructed that once you understand and observe just one of them, you may follow the rest of them the same way.

     You will see in the spring time, the life of the universe is exhibited on flowers in the fields.    Each flower are in full bloom at its entirety, in red, blue, yellow, white, or black, irrelevant which color is better or worse. Listen cicadas singing in the summer time.    They are living and singing at their utmost vigor.    The life of the universe is shining on them in entirety. But they will die soon as the summer goes by.    In the midst of the life of the universe the cicada are living and dying.    So are we. In the midst of the life of the universe we are living and dying.    Nothing stands still in the life of the universe.    In such a changing manner the life of the universe exists, and in that way it is eternal.    That is what we call also the life of Buddha.

     People tend to think that the eternal world lies somewhere far away up in the sky. 　But it exists just close by in the world we live now, where “nothing is deficient, nor left over.   ” People tend to think Buddha is a statue sitting still in an alter.    You may think you would become Buddha when you die. But Buddha is everywhere, and in yourself living vividly.

     The life of the universe cannot be killed.    It is like both parts of an earthworm cut into two can keep alive.    The life of the universe is un-cuttable and un-killable.    There is no life in the universe that can be killed. That is the message of the commandment, “Do not kill.” It is tantamount to a spontaneous feeling of compassion and esteem for the life of the universe. Another way of saying it would be, “Do not kill the life of Buddha.”    Once you realize the essence of it and conduct yourself, you are meeting the commandment. That is the commandment, and that is Zen.

     As I said before, the commandment is not merely a promise between the human beings, but between the human beings and the universe.    It is a promise before any ego of the human being comes in to play.    Thus, the commandment is different from morality and legal laws.    Whereas the morality and legal laws are the promises between the human beings, and the standard for them may vary with time and locality (depending on which period and place of the history you were), that for the commandment does not, since it is dictated by the law of the universe which is set before the human being comes in.    The water flows from high to low by the law of the universe, NOT by the man-made legal law.    That atmosphere where we live in the life of the universe, we call it an “atmosphere of religion.” I am not speaking lightly of the morality and legal laws.    These are certainly important for carrying out our social life.    But I am saying if you live in the “atmosphere of religion,” your soul would be in perfect peace.

Mr. Suigan Yogo (1912-1996) (left) was the head of the Daiyuzan Saijoji, a temple of Soto school of Zen, in Odawara, some 100 km. southwest of Tokyo.

By Mitsuo Hirai, Mr. (76), July 21, 2009, Tokyo, Japan

The Dalai Lama once said, “Gotama Buddha was a scientist,” reports the cover story of TIME magazine (March 31, 2008). According to this article, the Dalai Lama dismisses Buddhist teachings if disproved by science, and he has brought science as the important part of the monastic curriculum in Dharamsala, India where he lives in exile from Tibet.

Questions arose to me, “How come Gotama (Left Gandhara art) was a scientist, a man lived some 2,500 years ago in the Northern India when there was no study of science, nor even the writings? Buddhism that began with the teaching of Gotama, will it ever be compatible with the contemporary world where science and technology dictate? If so, how? Can Buddhism survive?”

It is science that finds the law governing natural phenomena, and it is technology that makes use of the law of science for the human needs. If this definition is correct, and applied to the teaching of Gotama, it was he who discovered the law governing the human mind, instead of the natural phenomena, that freedom from the greed ensures a peaceful mind, because it is the greed, in a broader term “the sway of passion,” that makes the human mind uneasy and leads to the suffering.

Making use of this law and together with his recognition of human nature being easily lured away by the greed, he developed certain moral codes of conduct how to control the sway of passion to overcome the suffering and bring peace in mind. For example, his teaching of the Right View suggests that, if we want to overcome our suffering, we must start looking at all phenomena relative to the suffering squarely without prepossession and recognize cause and effect of it. There is no room for God to play. It is precisely in conformity with the scientific approach. In that context, he was a technologist as well as a scientist, and in a broad sense of the word science (in which technology is included), he can be called a “scientist” in the field of human mind, in place of natural phenomena. In that sense I can understand and agree with what is meant by the Dalai Lama.

In the light of the Right View, if we see our existence in this world, we would come to realize that we are not living alone independently, but interdependently on all environments surrounding us—all living and non-living beings in the universe, which would ultimately lead us spontaneously to the feeling of tolerance and compassion. This scientific and peaceful teaching of Gotama is something that tells certainly to our mind at the individual level. But how is it influential at the collective level as a social momentum?

According to H.G.Wells (1866-1946), the great English historian of the last century, in describing the early history of Buddhism in his lifework book, The Outline of History, he attributes the stagnation and fading of the primitive Buddhism to the lack of any directive idea, in contrast with Judaism which remained bright and expectant because of its idea of Promise. Outlining the rise and fall of Buddhism in India thereafter, he writes, “It is quite curious to note that while the one great Arian religion (Buddhism) is now almost exclusively confined to Mongolian peoples, the Aryans themselves are under the sway of two religions, Christianity and Islam, which are essentially Semitic.” But he writes also somewhat prophetically about Buddhism saying, “It is quite possible that in contact with western science, and inspired by the spirit of history, the original teaching of Gotama, revived and purified, may yet play a large part in the direction of human destiny.”

It may be true, as Wells saw, there was no progressive or directive idea in the original teaching of Gotama. But must it have been that there was no ambition in the mind of Gotama to compel his belief to the entire world in which he lived his life, instead he simply pursued freedom from the greed and told his belief only to those who followed him? In this multinational world I don’t think any religion can compel uniform belief to the entire world.

While science and technology have no control over how they are going to be utilized, whether it be for good or bad, in the present world where the weapons of mass destruction are proliferating, what would happen if the human greed should come out of control? Short of bringing up the nuclear disaster, haven’t we just had the global economic disaster triggered by those marketers of Wall Street armed with the state of the art monetary technology whose greed was out of control? Again in the words of Wells from his book, “We (human beings) have tamed and bred the beasts, but we have still to tame and breed ourselves.”

I have no idea to what extent Buddhism can be influential to “tame and breed ourselves” at the collective and social level, nor if Buddhism can survive in the future, but I wonder if the human beings can survive without the philosophy of Gotama Buddha. 

The writer, chatting with his grand daughter　

Perhaps Buddha can make us better

By Mitsuo HIRAI. Mr. (76)      Dec. 17, 2008,Tokyo, Japan 

What is morality to us? Those who ask that question might be interested in an article of the last year’s issue of the TIME magazine (Dec. 3, 2007) by Jeffrey Kluger titled “What makes us moral.” Its sub-headline reads, “Morality and empathy are writ deep in our genes. Alas, so are savagery and bloodlust. Science is learning what makes us both noble and terrible—and perhaps what can make us better.”

What we learn from this scientific article is that anyone of us humans is potentially a Jekyll and Hyde, and the rule of morality, for example what is good or bad in the human society, is not stable. It not only differs from culture to culture but changes with time (e.g., what was good in the past may not be good in the present, or could be bad even). That makes us realize anew that the human being could be a dangerous animal, and the human society fragile. Morality alone is not sufficient to bring peace in our world. In the world of such unrest, wouldn’t there be any way we can live peacefully, at least rich in peace spiritually, if not necessarily rich materially?

About 2,500 years ago in the northern region of India, Gotama Buddha preached his teaching in which the self-control constitutes the key element. As one of the “amateur” Buddhists, let me see if his teaching could be of any help in the contemporary world as a guiding principle of our life.

If I may dare to put his teaching in a message as short as possible, it will read something like this, “If you control your passions, try to have the right views, and live a morally clean life, you should be able to overcome the sufferings and keep your mind peaceful.”

Why do the sufferings come first? Because the sufferings were Gotama Buddha’s major question that troubled him: “Why we suffer from the sufferings such as bereavement, aging, illness, and death? If these sufferings are unavoidable, wouldn’t there be any way to overcome the sufferings? “ The main theme of the teaching is the recognition of the sufferings of life, and how we may be relieved out of it.

To have the right views means to look at all phenomena of life squarely without prepossession and to recognize the law of cause and effect of them. We see here a scientific approach of Gotama Budda’s teaching. This is why his teaching is taken by some as more of a science of mind than a religion. Take for example, the aging. Even though we do not want to get old and decay, nobody can avoid it. The right views suggests that we must see to it, accept it as it is, consider and conduct how to cope with it.

Why then the passion is targeted? Isn’t the passion necessary for us to have something accomplished? Yes, true, but the word passion has both positive and negative edges, and he focused on the latter which means such greedy desires as arising from craving, love, favor, hatred, anger, vanity, or more specifically one’s ego. The teaching calls for the self-control of our passion, because it is the sway of passion that makes us uneasy, leading to the sufferings. The moment we are free from the sway of passion, a way to happiness is open to us. The ultimate state of our passion being under complete control is called Nibbana (or Nirvana), in Sanskrit language, meaning release from passion.

Nibbana is commonly understood as Gotama Buddha’s dying moment, but originally it means to extinguish fire, and it should be more properly construed as not to add fuel on the flame of passion, that is to say, the state of mind when the passion is under control, rather than it is suppressed to nil or complete abnegation.

When we are at Nibbana, we are not against morality. We are inherently moral. Morality in this case is spontaneous, not as enforcing as the word morality normally imposes. Some intrinsic motivation is involved so that we cannot help but be moral. This is what is meant by “morally clean life.” If we are not moral, our innermost mind won’t be at ease. Such a state is not Nibbana. Complacency is not Nibbana either. In the case of complacency, we are self-absorbed and our ego is dominant, while at Nibbana it is kept under control.

Although the morality of human world changes with location and time as pointed out by the TIME article above, the morality at Nibbana is not changeable, because it is not based on the rule of morality of the human society governed by, for instance, such “isms” as localism, nationalism, and racism, but based on the law of the universe encompassing not only the human beings but all the living beings on earth, which may otherwise be called the universal love or compassions.

The law of the universe may be sensed from some deep-feeling perception of our being unity with the universe. We may get a glimpse of it when we realize our existence in the universe, and feel thankful for being alive, for our lives are dependent on the environment surrounding us, i.e., all living and non-living things on earth that support us. It may be felt when we realize we were born and are alive through millions of inexplicable chains of fate why we are now. (Be born, in English in the passive voice expresses exactly that we have come to this world Not with our will.)

Nibbana is the ultimate ideal goal never easy to reach even for Gotama Buddha. It seems symbolic that Nibbana is commonly thought as the last moment of his life. His effort in his lifetime to try to reach Nibbana is the model of the self-control that constitutes the nucleus of his teaching. Such effort is called the practice in his teaching. The practice means to put our will into some actions or conducts. Without practice the teaching is of little use.

When talking about the practice, one may imagine practicing in a temple like the prayer, Zen meditation (zazen), chanting of sermon, etc. These are certainly some of the typical ones, but it is not necessarily limited to them. Each of us may have his or her own way of practicing. The practice is required in every action of our daily lives, because our ego may come up at anytime.

The practice is to be done not only at sacred places but ordinary places of our daily lives, even in a toilet, for instance. An interesting lesson is learned from a passage of Dogen(1200-1253), one of the most prominent figures of Zen Buddhism in Japan, and the founder of Soto school of Zen. He describes in the chapter titled “Cleaning” of his book, Shobogenzo, the quintessential textbook of Zen, manners how to behave in the toilet in great details and concludes by stating, “The toilet is one of the places where the Buddha deploys.” (Here the word Buddha is no longer the proper noun of Gotama Buddha, but the common noun meaning the enlightened person.)

Then, in our daily lives how should the practice be done? Must we always be serene like a statue of Buddha? Not at all. We may be as vigorous and in high spirits as possible, and no special way of life style is required, provided only that our passion is kept under control. Easier said than done, for in our daily lives our ego, to a greater or lesser degree, shows itself at anytime and tests us. Sure, we do err, but never too late to mend. After all, the practice to control our ego is for the happiness of our own, and if we are to be relieved, it would turn out to be ourselves that relieve us. That is, in my view, the gist of what Gotama Buddha teaches us. So, perhaps, Buddha can make us better, regardless of what religion we may (or may not) believe in.

By Mitsuo Hirai, Mr. (75) , Tokyo, Japan

Gotama Buddha, how did he really look like?    Not as a serene statue sitting in meditation as we often see in the dark altar of the temple,  but as a man vividly living in his every day life?    It won’t be myself alone to imagine such a personal Gotama Buddha.   It happened to me to encounter an opportunity to satisfy such a long-sought curiosity when I saw a few statues of the standing Buddha exhibited at the “Gandhara Art & Bamiyan Site” held recently at the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art in Shizuoka City, Japan.

A picture(left) is the most impressive one among them in the exhibit.   The sculpture, a product of the 2nd  century AD in Gandhara (northwest of today’s Peshawal in Pakistan ) is about 170 cm. high carved out of stone.      Dressed in a simple robe,  the standing Gotama Buddha looks robust and emits an atmosphere of elegance and intelligence.    Casting slightly downward,  his eyes look as if he is thinking deeply of the truth of the universe.    Apparently, the statue shows the Hellenistic influence.     His face shows some of the typical Aryan features,  unlike those of Asians or Mongolians which I have been accustomed to see here in Japan.     According to legend,  he was born somewhen between 500 and 600 BC as a prince of the royal family of Aryan tribe in a village called Lumbini located in the fertile plateau near the border of what is now Nepal and India.     So most likely he must have looked really like this statue,  I imagined.    It was so impressive that it made me feel as if he was a real man standing before me.     It is really the masterpiece.

According to Mr. Akira Miyaji,  the head of the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art and Adjunct Professor of Ryukoku University in Kyoto,   it was not until the 1st and 2nd century AD that statues of Gotama Buddha began to appear for the first time in the world.      Why had it taken so long,  some 5 centuries after his death,  before the Buddha statue made an appearance?      “Because it had been considered for a long time after his death that the awakened and enlightened Gotama Buddha was so precious that he should not be the object of expression in any visible form.     After his death, ”  explains Prof. Miyaji, “ it was the remains of Gotama Buddha that appeared first as the important object of veneration.    Stupa,  a mound-like structure of mud and clay covering the remains of Gotama Buddha began to prevail among the Buddhists as a symbol of worship.   Its big and round structure was enough to attract people’s attention and respect.     The earliest emergence of the statue of Gotama Buddha around the 1st century AD took place in the two regions: Gandhara and Mantura (central part of India).     In particular, the former is said to have the two characteristic features;  the Greek influence and the wish for the Buddha as a real man.”  

It was from the 1st to 3rd century AD that the Gandhara art flourished when that region prospered as one of the centers of the world trade between the West and East.      As the prosperity of that region declined,  the Gandhara art began to fade as well,  and the characteristics of the Buddha statue as a real man disappeared also.      The Buddhist art, nevertheless,  continued to flourish thereafter along with the spread of Buddhism in the two main streams, i.e.,  north and northeastward through today’s Pakistan ,  Afghanistan, Tibet, China , Korea, and Japan , southeastward through Burma and Thailand.     On their ways, the statue of Gotama Buddha was subjected to change along with the development of Buddhism,  including also all kinds of distortion and misconception of the original teaching,  which is not uncommon in any religions,  idolized, localized, and changed into more abstract creatures such as Bodhysattva,  Guanyin, and Vairocana — but never occurred the renaissance of the Buddha statue as a real man like Gandhara art.

Over the two thousand years of Buddhist art history,  no statue seems more akin than that of Gandhara art as shown in the photo to the image of Gotama Buddha as a real man,  at least to my knowledge.     I think one can catch in it a glimpse of “Gotama Buddha not tinted in the color of Buddhism.”     This expression may sound strange since the Buddhism began with the teaching of Gotama Buddha.     But he, Gotama, never called himself the Buddha,  the enlightened man, nor his teaching the Buddhism.      It was his followers after his death who founded by word of mouth the religion of Buddhism.      In that sense Gotama Buddha is the seed rather than the founder of Buddhism,  just as Jesus of Nazareth is the seed rather than the founder of Christianity.      It is Paul (who had never seen Jesus) that is said to have played a large part in founding the religion of Christianity.   In that respect the Buddhism and Cristianity have something in common in its formation.

After all, for the one like me who is interested in pursuing the teaching of Gotama Buddha before he was tinted in the color of Buddhism (Buddhism in Japan),  his standing statue in the Gandhara art was the most impressive one,  and something that arouses me to ponder the historical development of Buddhism.

By Zen Master  Ninho OKUDA

1) A method of making daily activities
    Make Zazen in empty and quiet minds
    Purify your habits and purify your mind, the mind itself is Buddha.
    To enter this world to the source, sit straight and be Buddha.

2)  Zen for 21st century
    Zazen teaches you to know and understand who you really are.
    Zazen teaches you to create your life.
    Zazen teaches you to pray for world peace.

3)  For the practice
    1.　The most important things for our life is a balance
         We have to leave our bad habits behind.
    2.  To Awaken to your “real” self is essential.
    3. Practice is the only way to understand.
    4. Everyday practice will awaken “real” mind.
    5. Practicing Zazen brings you a stong mind and body.
         Through Zazen you will be able to find your real virture.
    6. Apply your own concentrated attention, appy your own eyes and brains;
        develope yourself, stand on your own.
    7. Working practice
       Success in your daily life depends on the balance of action and stillness.
       Practice teaches us to act rightly, to relay rightly and to live rightly.
   8. Sleeping practice
       Before your sleep, purify and quiet the body and mind.
  9. Zen is your original face, there is no sopecial Zen to study other than this.
      From now on you have to stabilize your mind, harmonize with all the things,
      seeing deeply, learning how to live rightly and practice rightly.

4) For a total healthy life
     1. Know the essence of mind
         Know the functions of mind
         Its functions are the source of the treasury of teachings.

     2. Zazen is the process of meditation
          Let your mind be free of the world and worldly things.

    3. The effort of every day practice will give you a healthy mind and body.

    4. Having a mind neither stilled nor disturbed in the presence of all things
        in the environment, neither concentrated nor distracted, passing through
        all sound and form without lingering or obstruction, is called “practice”.

    5. Liberation in all places and at all times is the goal.

    6. The normal mind is the way.

    7. The path of enlightenment is natural.
        In order to get the essential idea, you need to know other peoples minds
        by knowing your own.

    8. Beginning practice
         a) Focus your mind on the practice only.
         b) Make your body right.
         c) Clear your mind and practice.

    9. Meditation objectives
        Know the essence of mind
        Know the functions of the mind
        Constantly be aware, without stopping.
        When the aware mind is present, it senses the formlessness of things.
        Constantly see your body and mind as empty and quiet, inside and out
        side resting in sameness.

 10.  Before meals repeat the verse of hte “three morsels”.
         The first morsel is to “destroy all evils” 
         The second is to “practice all good deeds”
         The thirds is to “save all sentient beings”   
        

Arashiyama on a rainy day

On a day in early April 1918, a young student was standing here in front of the Hozu-river.   He was impressed by the beauties of Arashiyama, a beam of sun light shining cherry blossoms and green leaves refreshed by occasional rains. He composed a poem “Arashiyama in the rain.” The student was Mr. Zhou Enlai (1898-1976), the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China in later years. He was on his way back to China, rounding up his study in Tokyo to join the revolutionary movement in his home country.   In 1978 a stone monument of his poem was erected here in commemoration of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between China and Japan for which he was instrumental.

The Hozu-river and Togetsu-kyo (bridge)

The Hozu-river, an upstream view from Togetsu-kyo