Quotes from D?gen

When we break through the barrier and drop off all limitations, we are no longer concerned with conceptual distinctions.

Because earth, grass, trees, walls, tiles, and pebbles in the world of phenomena in the ten directions all engage in buddha activity, those who receive the benefits of the wind and water are inconceivably helped by the buddha's transformation, splendid and unthinkable, and intimately manifest enlightenment.Those who receive these benefits of water and fire widely engage in circulating the buddha's transformation based on original realization.

as long as there is a hope or expectation of some result to be derived from zazen, then zazen is tainted.

when any action in our day-to-day life is motivated by some expectant result, or by what only appears to be a real condition or circumstance in our life, that expectant result is very likely to be dashed to pieces.

I am respected by others not because of my virtue but because of my clothing.' Foolish people respect others in this way.

who can express the state of having already attained the ineffable?

Uchiyama R?shi subtitled his interpretive translation and commentary of this important work Finsei Ry?ri no Hon, or How to Cook Your Life. The word ry?ri, the meaning of which to be sure includes the cooking and preparation of food, also has broader connotations. Ry?ri may also be used in the sense of conducting or handling one's affairs. The implication of this title is that the author tells us how we should go about conducting our lives and treating everything

Uchiyama R?shi helped me a great deal in not allowing me to use zazen as an escape. He said, "You must know that behind zazen are the teachings of Buddhism, and behind them, your own life experience." These words went a long way in clarifying for me a passage in the Sh?b?-genz?: Genj? K?an (Actualizing the Koan): "To study Buddhism is to study the Self.

Looking deeply into the writings and sutras of past teachers does not mean to learn something that is unrelated to us. Studying ancient writings means to study our lives. To study the Tenzo Ky?kun came to mean for me that I would be studying my own life.

Qué es en definitiva esta Clara Luz? Cualquier cosa que se diga no es más que el dedo que señala la luna. Por ello, el silencio de Bunko parece ser la respuesta más acertada, la que mejor refleja la vacuidad de la Clara Luz, la ausencia de sustancia, la ausencia de luz de la Clara Luz.

Tenzo Ky?kun, or as I have entitled it in English, Instructions for the Zen Cook, was written over a period of years by Eihei D?gen Zenji (1200–1253), who was intimately familiar with both the Rinzai and S?t? schools of Zen, and finally completed in 1237. More specifically, it was written for D?gen's immediate disciples living with him in a monastery in medieval Japan.

jijuy?-zammai, or zazen

shikan-taza (just doing zazen)

Uchiyama R?shi used to say again and again that loss is enlightenment, gain is illusion.

So each moment we can see only part of the world, not the whole world. That is the source of delusion.

From the nature of reality in our life experience at the present time, we say these sliding doors are new, or the ceiling is old. We imagine that this ceiling was made several decades or several centuries ago because of its present nature of appearing old. Yet in reality, only the present exists. The past and the future do not exist [separate from the present].

I was also told that the Eihei Daishingi (Regulations for Eiheiji Monastery), of which the Tenzo Ky?kun is the first chapter, was one of the easier works of D?gen, since it deals with practical matters.

Sawaki R?shi also used to say frequently, "Just sit?that's all there is," and "No matter how many years you sit doing zazen, you will never become anything special.

Sh?b?-genz?: Genj? K?an (Actualizing the Koan):

D?gen says here that to study Buddhism means to study one's Self; to learn Buddhism is to learn one's Self.

However, the reader should not get the idea that here I am comparing zazen with the rest of our day-to-day activities. To do so would be to fall into the trap that many practitioners fall into of clinging to the idea that practicing zazen is most important; therefore, one should practice it twenty-four hours a day. The error here is in taking literally the idea of zazen being the most important activity in our life as opposed to all our other activities.

On the other hand, there is another trap that people can and often do fall into, and that is the one of thinking that we must practice zazen in all of our day-to-day activities. The obvious next step in this way of thinking is to equate all of one's activities with zazen. That is, everything one does is zazen?eating, sleeping

drinking, being. The practical problem in this way of thinking is that all too often people simply wind up doing less and less zazen, deluding themselves into believing that since all their activities are zazen there is no need to sit and face the wall and do zazen.

As overwhelming is caused by you, there is no overwhelming that is separate from you. Thus you go out and meet someone. Someone meets someone. You meet yourself. Going out meets going out.