On a bridge at Uji, Kyoto

Can Buddhism survive? (Part 2)

By Mitsuo Hirai, Tokyo Japan, November, 2011

Buddhism is a religion that began with the teaching of Gotama Buddha who lived in the northern part of India some 2,500 years ago.   There were certain centuries in the history of India when Buddhism was the most popular and prevalent religion as in the days of King Asoka (264 to 227 B.C.).　　But in the present India, it is Hindu that prevails over the majority of people, and Buddhism is no more than the minor religion.   In China, Buddhism and its culture flourished from the 7^th to the 13^th century during the period of Tang and Sun dynasty.  But nowadays it has been languishing under the restricted communist rule.  In Japan, Buddhism has a long history ever since introduced from Korea in the 6^th century, but in the present secular society, in general it cannot be said as the religion deep rooted in the people’s spiritual life.  It is becoming more of the ceremonial religion and often remarked cynically as “the funeral Buddhism.”  Worldwide, it seems that Islam and Christianity are expanding the religious and political realms, while Buddhism is losing its thrust.  Can Buddhism survive?

Although Buddhism is a religion based on the teaching of Gotama Buddha, there is no historical evidence whatsoever  he really said.  All legends of what he said were transmitted orally by his followers. Even about his lifetime there is a difference of about one hundred years in the estimate: B.C. 566-486 vs. B.C. 463-383.   According to a historian of the ancient India, Genichi Yamazaki (History of Ancient India, Chuo Koron-sha Inc., 1997),　there is a characteristic difference between the ancient history of India and China.   In China there exist a number of trustworthy documents recorded in the ancient time about historical facts, one of the typical examples being Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian).  This was because in the ancient China there was a distinct enthusiasm to record in letters things that occurred in the real world.    In India on the contrary, although its history is as old as China, there are very few documents recorded in the ancient time about the history and geography (despite the facts that there weren’t no letters).  This was because, in the ancient India the idea of Samsara—the transmigration of the soul after death and perpetual recurrence of world—was so taken for granted that people’s interest was more focused on the affairs after death than keeping in letters what happened in the real world, such as who did what, when and where, since the life was regarded as nothing more than an interim passage of the immortal soul.

H.G.Wells describes vividly in his book, The Outline of History, the process how easily Gotama Buddha’s new teaching of self-abnegation was lead to be misconceived by his followers not only after his death but when he was alive.  That kind of situation is quite understandable in the days when everything was transmitted orally without any means of confirmation by writing in letters.

A few centuries after his death, his teachings began to appear in writings in the form of sutra, sermon, hymn, or the like.   Many of them begin with a phrase, “I hear Gotama Buddha said as follows….”     Could it be possible that he said so many things during his lifetime?  Could he returned to earth and read those sermons, he might say in many points, “No, I didn’t say that.”

At any rate, after his death, Shiddhartha Gotama as a real person, was de-personaized and idolized by the followers as the divine Buddha (awakened being).  The legends of what he said were interpreted in a variety of ways, leading to establish various Buddhist branches and sects.   Buddhism was thus spread and formed.  Thoughts of Buddhism scripturally may be like a tree the cross section of which is such that annual rings around the periphery are clear but the core is hollow.

If Buddhism is a religion based on the teaching of Gotama Buddha devoid of any historical evidence, a question may arise, “What is it that  Buddhists believe?   Is it really the teaching of Gotama Buddha?”     Perhaps the best answer to this question would be the one given by my spiritual teacher, Zen Master Suigan Yogo (1912-1996).   He said, “No one knows what Gotama Buddha really said, since he was alive in the days when there were no written records.  Much are told about the teachings of Gotama Buddha that are pretended to be his words, on the premise nobody would oppose if they were the words of Gotama Buddha.  You must discern by yourself what is true or what is not true in them.  However, even though all of the so called teaching of Gotama Buddha were totally fictitious, if you think there is a truth in them, you may believe in it.”

From this perspective, Buddhism may be taken as anyone’s own view of life and death.  Starting from perception that the life is a suffering coming out of the four inevitables in human life: birth, aging, desease and death, it leads us to ponder how we could  overcome the suffering.  Based on the law of the human mind that it is our own passion which is likely to sway to the greed that causes the suffering, Buddhism teaches us how to control our greed to bring peace in our mind.

It won’t be exaggeration to say that each person has its own Buddhism inasmuch as each has his own view of life and death.  There is such versatility and lenience in Buddhism.  As discussed in my previous paper, “Can Buddhism survive?”(Part 1), Buddhism is based on the scientific approach far from revelatory thinking.  In a sense it may be viewed that the teaching of Gotama Buddha, though archaeologically unprovable, has been refined into such scientific way of thinking in the lengthy process of succession from generation to generation by his followers, since that way of approach was most reasonably acceptable.

Back to the title in point, when we consider if Buddhism can survive, we must differentiate the truth of Buddhism from the religious institution of Buddhists (Buddhist institution).  For the latter, Buddhist institution, there is a rise and fall, and it may die out.  But the former, the truth of Buddhism, won’t die out, because it concerns the view of life and death of each individual, and its truth is not something that can be changed artificially.  Just as the law of nature that water flows from high to low is unchangeable, so is unchangeable the truth of Buddhism, no matter how strongly suppressed and restricted by artificial means:  communist rule, militant force, religious struggles, or whatever.  Buddhism can and will survive, even though its name were replaced by something else than Buddhism, because its truth is unkillable.

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.

Daiyuzan Saijyoji, in Kanagawa Pref.

Selling water at river front

By Zen Master Suigan Yogo (1912-1996)
Excerpted from his essay in September, 1979
Translated in English by Mitsuo Hirai, Tokyo,
Japan

Titled is one of the old sayings which I write　at times in calligraphy. (photo)  The scene　is not of today where a bottle of clean water is on sale at the front of the　polluted river.  It is of the olden days when the river water was not　polluted.   Nobody would pay a penny for a bottle of water at the　river front where water is in abundance.   Such a business is futile.  The saying is　an expression of the futileness.

Selling and buying the water at the river　front is a nonsense.  But the human being is not an animal wise enough not　to do such nonsense.    We go on a journey of treasure hunt　without realizing the treasure is within ourselves.   Despite affluence　of goods in the market, we never feel sufficient.  Not infrequently we see those instances among　us, don’t we?

I know a man who once said, “When you describe　violet flowers in blossom in springtime, you are free to say they are　pretty or useful, but it has nothing to do with the violet flowers themselves.”

What did he mean?   What he meant is this, in my view.　The violets are living their life in the field, irrelevant of whether they are　pretty or useful, the expression of which is nothing more than a sense of value　of the human being.   In other words, the violets are soiled by the　dirt of the human being of the expression, “pretty or useful.”

A man like him would not try to get the water　at the river front, because he is in recognition of the existence of the violets　free from the sense of value of the human being.    His mind is in a　playground of complete　freedom free from the sense of value of the human being.  The name of that man, by the way, was Prof.　Kiyoshi Oka, the world-famed scholar in mathematics.  He made that comment　in response to a question addressed to him why he was interested in　mathematics.

We human beings exist in the universe just as　the violets do.  It may be described that　we are living in the life of universe, the same way as each flower is in full　bloom at its entirety either in purple, red, blue, or yellow, no matter which　color is better or worse.

Nonetheless, in our daily lives we are more or　less bound to swim in the water of human world in which all things are rated,　for example, good or bad, useful or not useful, effective or ineffective.  We are seldom out of the human world of　comparison, better or worse, more valuable or less valuable, likes or dislikes,　etc. which leads us to the suffering of uneasiness, complex, jealousy, or　hate.    But if you can have a bit of glance　at the world of non-comparison where each of you exists individually as yourself　with no comparison to others, just as each violet flower exists regardless of　any color, you would be able to live at ease, and you would not try to get the　water at the river front.

Happiness does not lie far away over the　mountain, but within yourself.   You won’t　be able to grasp the happiness, so long as you are in the mode of trying to get　the water at the river front.   To open a　window of your mind to see that scene, that is what I call “the faith” in religion.

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.

Dynamism out of Zazen

By Zen Master Suigan Yogo (1912-1996)
Excerpts from his presentation in March, 1992
Translated in English by Mitsuo Hirai, Tokyo Japan

Zazen (sitting in meditation) constitutes one of the central features of the Buddhist practice in the Zen monastery. It represents the ultimate static state of calmness. But the real virtue of Zazen should not end by itself. Hopefully there would come out of it some dynamism of the active life.

Shoyoroku, one of the old Chinese classic books well read among Zen Buddhists, tells an episode of a monk trying to die by himself at the end of Zazen, keeping his sitting posture till his death, and he did it actually. Then his master lamented his death, rubbing gently his back and commented, “This way of dying could be done, but it is not the way I taught.”

What are the implications of this symbolic episode? Of course, it’s free how you read it, but let me tell you a few comments about how I view it.

First, it is the warning against the extremism in religion. For the monk who died as he sat in meditation, it was a remarkable accomplishment. Very few can do such an extraordinary miraculous performance. He is a man of special ability and may become the focus of admiration. In fact, there are not a few people who admire such a man of special ability, and believe that one cannot reach the spiritual awakening unless he acquires a special ability to go through hard practices to the limit of his physical capability.

But his master didn’t take his performance positively, though didn’t deny it totally. What he was implying is the criticism on the extremes in that too severe practice of Zazen is not productive. Here, the extreme asceticism is discarded. It represents the philosophy of the orthodox Buddhist teaching. Rather than dazzled at one’s special ability, extraordinary performance, or miracles, you might realize the real wonder of the very miracle that there is no miracle in the world, just like the water flows naturally and universally from high to low. Nothing is more valuable than to be ordinary. We are apt to overlook this. Once you realize this very truth, you don’t have to try hard to acquire the special ability and accomplish extraordinary performance to reach the spiritual awakening. For it has been reached already. Then your mind will be at ease and in peace. Do you get it? When you ever die, you don’t have to playact to be cool. Leave you as you suffer.

A man of extreme religious piety is often complacent, coercive and bothersome to the people around him. After all, I think the religion is like a bit of salt for seasoning. It gives a fine taste if used properly, but disastrous if used too much.

Second, it is the warning against Buddhists’ propensity to renounce the active life and escape from the reality of the world. What would happen, if all the monks in the monastery tried to follow that monk who died in sitting in meditation? Coming short of that extreme, if all the monks in the monastery went in practicing Zazen, who would feed them? If a visitor came to the monastery, who would receive and welcome him? There must be someone who works actively to support the monks practicing Zazen. And in a broader term, there must be some people who work and support the monastery. Zazen doesn’t stand alone by itself. Renouncing self should not lead to renouncing the active life. The true virtue of Zazen is to be used in works of the active life.

A voice from India by Shurei Sasai
Extracted and translated in English from his book, “A Fighting Buddhist” Shueisha (2010)

I was trained as a Buddhist monk in Japan, and went through Zen practices in various places. In retrospect, however, all those practices were nothing more than the matters within the monastery secluded from the actual world. Having come to India and been in contact with those people of low caste suffering from poverty and social discrimination, my place of practice has turned from the hall of the monastery to the actual world in streets where they are living daily lives. In front of those people plagued by agony and social discrimination, how can I–as a monk of Buddhism which emphasizes works of virtue and compassion–just confine myself in sitting meditation in the monastery? Perhaps problems of the social stratum may not be as deep as in India, but in Japan as well, people must be suffering from all kinds of agony and conflicting social problems.

So, I would say to the Japanese Buddhist monks, “Why don’t you stand up when you finish Zazen, go out of the monastery into the people in streets and help save them from agony. I think the benefit of Zazen is that one can stand up with refreshed vigor and do something, as Gotama Buddha taught, some acts of virtue and compassion to help save people from agony.”

Profile of Mr. Shurei Sasai (75)
One of the most prominent Buddhist leaders in India, originally from Japan and now of the Indian nationality. Having been trained as a Buddhist monk in Japan, he became suspicious whether Japanese Buddhism could truly save people from agony, seeing as each sect focused exclusively on its own teachings. He moved to India in his early thirties, and ever since dedicated his whole life to save people of the lowest rung of the social ladder, so called “Untouchables”, from social discrimination by converting them to Buddhists. His activity is a new Buddhist movement in India to revive the ideal of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956), India’s first justice minister after the nation’s 1947 independence from Britain, who implemented the historic “mass conversion” of many Hindus in discriminated castes to Buddhism, a religion which advocates the equality of all men.

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.

On the new year’s day at Daiyuzan Saijoji Temple

Pray for what?

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

When you pray, you pray for something—something you wish for. Typically on the New Year’s day, pious men and women go to shrines and temples to pray. Pray for what? With some money offerings they may pray for a good year, good health, happy family life, safety, prosperity, peace, or whatever they wish for. Those wishes may not be always fulfilled, but they make a kind of deal with Gods or Buddha, bargaining their wishes with the offerings. It’s quite human, and I have nothing to voice on it.

But the true benefit of the prayer, when you pray in front of the Buddha’s statue at this temple, is not that those wishes of your selfish motives are fulfilled, but that your mind would become most natural in the light of Buddha. Looking through the eyes of such natural mind, you would come to realize everything on your daily life—no matter it be joyful or sad, win or lose, lucky or unlucky, good or bad—is occurring under the divine protection of Buddha.

So, every time you come up to this temple to pray, confirm by yourself that your mind is natural in the light of Buddha and you are surrounded and protected by the light of Buddha. That is the very root of your religious belief. In the light of Buddha you were born, live and will die. Notice any round of your life, with tears as well as laughter, shines by itself in the light of Buddha.

In the words of Zen, “Pray for nothing.” should be it. The purest prayer is to pray for nothing. And that is the essence of Zazen (sitting in meditation). That is the state of mind you can be perfectly restful in peace.

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.

 
Asuka-dera, located in Asuka, Nara, founded in the late 6th to early 7th century, regarded as one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Japan.

A world–Off the human scale of measurement

By Zen Master SUIGAN YOGO (1912-1996)
Excerpted from his presentation at a seminar on Buddhism in September, 1985   Translated in English by Mitsuo Hirai

At the reception desk I have just passed by, I saw a leaflet advertising this seminar on Buddhism which says on its headline, “Meet the true face of your self.” My immediate reaction was a question, “Can we ever differentiate what is true and untrue of our face? It changes all the time: joyful, sad, angry, and so forth, doesn’t it? Is it the only true face when we are serious like we are here in the Buddhism seminar? No, it shouldn’t be. Something must be wrong with such a way of looking at the world.”

People are inclined to think there are two kinds of life, significant and insignificant. If you look at the world in this way, your life would be something like a sardine moving forward in a big mass in the sea. One of them would ask a fellow sardine next to him, “Where are you going?” The fellow sardine would say, “I don’t know. I’m just following this guy ahead of me. Ask him.” The guy ahead of him would say, “I don’t know either. Ask the top front guy of this mass.” And the top front guy would say, “I don’t know either. I’m just going ahead.” In this way you would always be under the sway of competition and can never be at rest.

Dr. Kiyoshi Oka, the world famous scholar in mathematics, once said, “If I was asked why I study the mathematics, my answer would be, ‘That a violet is in blossom has nothing to do whether it is pretty or useful.’” What he meant was that the existence of violet flowers in nature has nothing to do with the human scale of measurement, pretty or useful. So long as you see the world only through lenses of the human scale of measurement, your eyes would be something like those of sardines in the big mass, and you wouldn’t be able to find a way out. Only when you take off such lenses of the human scale of measurement, you can see a world of different dimension. A mountain exists for its own sake off the human scale of measurement, beautiful or ugly. The world that has nothing to do with the human scale of measurement is what we call “life of universe.”

A professional singer may say, “My life shall be nothing if the singing were taken off from me.” He believes so because he is so tarnished by an idea of the human scale of measurement that the singing is the sole significance of his life. But the thing is that there is a life left to him without the singing, even though he could no longer sing. Where all significances as measured by the human scale of measurement are robbed off, there is a world of non-relativity, or absolute value, the world where one can live a life of universe, or what we Buddhists call a life of Buddha.  If he finds himself being alive in the life of universe, he would feel fine, free at ease, and refreshed even on a rainy or stormy day.  But so long as he is searching out the significance of his life with eyes of the human scale of measurement, he won’t be able to find such world,

No one is born with an idea to live a significant life before he or she is born. Let me talk about a little about my boyhood.  I was born in 1912 in a tiny village located in a deep countryside in the Horai Mountain in Aichi Prefecture, the central part of Japan It was so inconvenient a place for any transportation. My father was the headmaster of a little Buddhist temple in the village, but he died when I was five years old.  My mother, becoming a widow, had no place to remain there for succession.  In a sense she was kicked out from the temple. So she had to leave it with me for her home town of Kuwana, not very far in the west of Nagoya City.  I was carried by my mother on her back down the hill a long way to the railway station.  I can still recall well a scene of it.  It was a warm afternoon in the summer.

At her home town in Kuwana, my mother had to work for her living, since there was no one to support her.  My mother was rather a stubborn woman, very proud of being a daughter of Samurai.  She became a worker at a spinning factory, and I lived with her in a shabby room of the company’s dormitory.  She had to go to work early in the morning, so I had to leave with her to go to school, as I couldn’t remain alone in the room.  But it was too early for the gate opening of my elementary school.  So I had to spend some time in the park nearby to play alone, say, swinging in a swing, until the opening of the school gate.

When I was ten years old, I was sent to a Zen Buddhist temple in the town as an apprentice monk, since my mother could no longer afford to raise me due to her weak health and low wages, and it was the only way for me not to give up the elementary school.  The only alternative offered to me was to become a full time apprentice for Shoji (paper) screen workman. Anyway, that was the beginning of my carrier as a Buddhist monk.  I was raised by the headmaster of the temple in a rigid Zen discipline as one the apprentice monks, but in the meantime I could continue going to school up to the middle school.  Later on I went to the Komazawa University in Tokyo and majored the Buddhism. I have been the Buddhist monk all the way since then.

Looking back my boyhood, it was a poor and hard one compared to most of the ordinary people’s boyhood.  Was it a bad luck or good luck? I have no idea. What would have been my life, if my father had not passed away when I was five?  Most probably I should have remained in the temple with my parents and spent a more ordinary boyhood. Would it have been happier to me? Who knows? Such an imagination is of no use, because to me everything that fell to me was all about my life.  Under those circumstances given to me I have lived my life.

Isn’t it the same to you?  Under the circumstances given to you, you have lived your life, and it is all about your life, isn’t it?  You could exert your best effort every time everyday for betterment of your life, but there is a clear distinction between the world where you can manage your destiny to the extent of your effort, and another world of different dimension where you can’t manage your destiny as it is out of reach of your effort.  There, you can’t do anything.  It’s no use trying to change the world where you can’t do anything.

Can you explain why you are living now as you are?  Why were you born from your parents? Why did your parents get married?  Why did your parents’ parents get married? It’s inexplicable, isn’t it?  But you are existent now as you are.  Our life is given in such a way.  It’s the matter of wonder how and why we are living as now.  And you don’t know if you are alive tomorrow.

The legend goes that when Gotama Buddha some 2,500 years ago achieved enlightenment at the end of practicing Zazen (sitting in meditation) in some early morning of December 8, his comment was the cognition of compassionate togetherness of his existence with the universe surrounding him, all creatures on earth both living and non-living, that is to say, living in the life of universe.

When you practice Zazen, you may seek for something, say, some supernatural power, spiritual inspiration, or healthiness.  In fact, some medical analysis data reveals that Zazen makes the brain waves stable which is good for health.  I won’t neccessarily deny these kinds of motives.  But the genuine Zazen, if I may say so, is not along that line of thought to get something from Zazen.  Paradoxically, there is no way other than throw away everything in order to make you feel somewhat deeper sense of Zazen. You would sit solely for meditation, that is to say, just sit in meditation, attaching no other objective than to sit in meditation.  You would throw away all of your self into Zazen. Perhaps you might have a glimpse of the world outside the human scale of measurement in which you are accepted as you are, as incomplete as you are.  Then you are with Buddha, because you have left everything of your self to Buddha.  You have nothing to claim on, since you have left everything up to Buddha.  That atmosphere is what we Buddhists call a religious landscape.

Interestingly, once you feel such religious landscape where everything is left over to Buddha, anything in your actual daily life which you have regarded so far as trivial and insignificant would show a new light of significance on its own. If you feel receptive that everything is due to Buddha, you will have nothing to claim on, and everything would become significant to you.

Think of your life everyday, for example. You get up in the morning, wash your hands, eat breakfast, and go out to a job work.  Or if you are a housewife, you stay at home, clean rooms, do laundry, and many other bits and pieces of housekeeping. She may say, “Let’s save time for housekeeping works by the use of automated machines and spend the time left more effectively.”  Effectively for what? Which do you think is more important, going out to the job work, or housekeeping?  Is the job work more important, because you must earn money?  Probably. But don’t you think the housekeeping as important as the job work?  Unless the housekeeping is done well, your job work won’t work well.  The housekeeping work should be as important as the job work.  Everything in your daily life, however trivial it may be, is equally important and significant.  Evacuation should be as important as eating.  The point is if you can realize that.

When we talk about the highlight of our life, it usually means a certain outstanding event that marks a turning point of the life.  But couldn’t we regard these bits and pieces of our everyday life such as getting up in the morning, washing hands, eating breakfast and so on, as the highlights of our life, rather than putting them as trivial and insignificant?  I think it important to pay attention to every step of our daily lives rather than neglecting them. It’s like a lion exerting his utmost power to catch even a small mice.  If we bring the highlights to our everyday bits and pieces, they would become significant on their own, and our life become all the more significant.

What is the true significance of life?  As I said before, no one in the world is born with an idea to live a significant life before he is born.  The point is to bring the significance of your life close at your hands on everyday life.  Bring any bits and pieces on your daily lives falling before you as the highlights of your life.  Then you are living in the world where you can affirm everything without any comparison, which is the world seen through the eyes of Buddha, what we call a religious landscape.  There, you would find yourself living at ease, because it is the world outside the human scale of measurement where everything is absolutely equal so that you have nothing to compare.  The highlight of your life is not something you can find out by searching or by reading books.  It lies in your attitude to see that every scene of your daily life is the highlight.

There is a poem depicting the quietness of the deep mountain toward evening, “A song of a bird makes the whole mountain quiet.”  At a very instance when a bird sings the quietness of the mountain is broken, but the mountain becomes even quieter afterwards.  Haven’t you had such an experience?  In that case, the bird’s song can be regarded as a kind of accessory ornamenting the quietness of the mountain.  Likewise, if every action of our daily lives is taken as an accessory of the life of universe, what would be our life?  Laughing or crying, household work or a job work, whatever it may be, any of these would be nothing more than a play embellishing the life of universe, and our life would become simple, innocent and refreshed always.
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Translator’s comments:
Buddhism is widely misconceived as the religion of fleeing from active life, since its basic idea of renouncing self (more precisely, controlling self) is easily misunderstood as renouncing the active life.  But the life in a religious landscape in light of the Buddhist philosophy which Mr.  Yogo has tried to explain hereabove is quite contrary to the idea of fleeing from the active life. It’s natural, realistic, active, and challenging, and yet compassionate.

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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 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.