Why We Practice Zazen

Religion and science

Today I would like to give a talk about the reason why we practice zazen. We have very fundamental facts in our human society: one is religion, and the other is science. Usually we think that religion and science are completely contradictory. In the medieval age, religions were very powerful, and people were dominated by some leaders’ religious opinions. So the basis of medieval thought is somewhat subjective, because religious thought was based on religious leaders’ subjective ideas.^[1]

In the Renaissance, human beings found the very important fact that they had physical bodies. Before that time, religious thought suppressed the fact that human beings had physical bodies. They revered human sense perception and began to believe in what they perceived. They called it matter, and to research what matter is is usually called science. According to scientific conclusions, there were many facts which cannot be derived from religious scriptures. Therefore, in the modern age, we have a confrontation between religion and science, and many people suffer from this confrontation. But in the 19th century, when scientific research arrived at its culmination, people could not be satisfied by scientific research alone; they felt that something was lacking. In the 20th century, people have been diligent in discovering what was lacking. In other words, people are looking for something which is different from scientific conclusions. At the same time, we cannot deny the value of science. Therefore, we are wandering between science and what we are looking for.^[2][3]

Ancient India and our time

In ancient India in Gautama Buddha's time, there was the same confrontation between an old spiritual religion, Brahmanism, and new thinkers, the six non-Buddhist teachers, who insisted on materialistic ideas and denied the value of ethics and morals. Gautama Buddha suffered from this contradictory situation. To solve it, he recognized that we are living in reality. He believed in the existence of reality. When he believed in reality, he could understand that spiritual religion is one face of reality. Scientific or materialistic idea is the other face of reality. Therefore, by believing in reality, he could solve the contradictory situation.^[3][4]

The situation in ancient times is similar to the situation in the modern age. When we are practicing zazen, we can realize reality. And when we can believe in the existence of reality, we can interpret spiritual religion as one face of reality and scientific knowledge as the other face. By believing in reality, we can solve the contradictory situation between spiritual religion and science. This is the reason why we practice zazen.^[4]

Gautama Buddha’s suffering

Question: What kind of suffering did Gautama Buddha feel?

A Buddhist scripture says that when he was in a field, a bird came down to the ground and picked up an earthworm. Looking at the scene, Gautama Buddha became very sad. He recognized the fact that all living beings can live by killing others. But at the same time, when he was a teenager, he got married and enjoyed sensuous pleasures. In that pleasurable life, he could not be satisfied. He always had some kind of sadness. So he became a priest. The motivation was the contradictory situation between his spiritual attitude and his physical desire.^[5]

The conflict in daily life

Question: To me the conflict between religion and science seems to exist in the library, not in daily life.

When we believe in some spiritual religion, we want to follow religious precepts, but it is rather difficult, because we do not have sufficient knowledge about cause and effect. Scientific knowledge teaches us the rule of cause and effect, but knowledge about facts cannot teach us the direction in which we should go. So when we follow scientific knowledge, we cannot find any standard for following morals or ethics. Modern people usually find themselves in those contradictory situations. So I think that the contradictory situation between religion and science is related to Gautama Buddha’s suffering in his youth.^[6]

Question: Religion and science are products of human culture. On a desert island, a human being would still have some basic conflict between two parts.

If we can live on an isolated island like Robinson Crusoe, we can suppose that situation. But we are living in the modern age, where scientific knowledge and religious ideas really exist. So we should consider our problems in reality, and in reality scientific knowledge and religious ideas are completely contradictory.^[7]

Question: People don’t usually think they are contradictory.

But at the same time, when we read religious scriptures, for example the Bible, we can find many descriptions which cannot be true according to scientific knowledge.^[8]

Question: People say there’s no conflict now. What do they mean?

Such tendencies have occurred recently: we can find a kind of tendency to consider scientific knowledge and religious ideas on the basis of reality. Therefore, we can find the possibility of solving the contradictory situation between religion and science in the near future. That is the new tendency, and that is what we are pursuing, and that is the reason why we practice zazen. So we are entering into a new age of civilization, in which we can solve the contradictory situation so that one harmonized civilization emerges.^[9]

Two fundamental attitudes

Question: The earthworm and the sensual pleasures don’t seem to me to be related to religion and science.

We can explain the situation by the concepts of subjectivism and objectivism. In religious ideas, almost all assertions are based on subjective ideas: because they believe such and such, this is true. But in science, we use experiments, and we look at facts. Therefore we can say that the religious attitude is subjective, the scientific attitude is objective. These two fundamental attitudes always exist in human societies. So even in ancient India, there might have been such a contradictory situation, and in the modern age we are suffering from it.^[10]

Question: If you describe the conflict as a conflict of religion and science, the people I know in England aren’t interested in that, because ordinary people don’t live in the realm of conflictive abstract things. Explained as a conflict of subjective and objective tendencies that all human beings have within themselves, it seems more widely applicable.

If people do not have any interest in the contradictory situations between subjectivism and objectivism, it is not necessary for them to study Buddhism. All people have an original tendency to have an interest in them, but some people cannot have any interest in studying Buddhism throughout their lives. This is a very sad situation, but it is a dear situation. Gautama Buddha said, People who do not have any circumstances to have interest in Buddhism cannot be saved. This is a rather strong expression, but it is true, I think.^[11]

Japan, English and concrete facts

Question: In English, the words religion and science don’t seem very real. In Japanese, I don’t think you have that problem; I wonder whether it’s because Japanese people don’t have so many abstractions.

I can find two reasons. One is that Japanese life is soaked with Buddhist philosophy. Therefore, we are not conscious of living in Buddhist ideas or Buddhist habits. Actually, we are living in Buddhist habits. Therefore, it is not necessary for us to worry about the contradictory situations of the spiritual world and the scientific world. The other reason is that the Japanese ability to think is not so strong.^[13]

Question: It’s difficult for us to find a very concrete, real link between your ideas and our experience.

Yes, it’s true. One reason is my poor English; in Japanese, it is easy for me to explain Buddhist theory and real situations. So I have to study more concrete English words and get the ability to explain Buddhist theory on the basis of more concrete facts.^[14][15]

One reality

Question: I’m a school teacher. The parents want the grades, but the children have very big hearts. Do I work with their hearts, or do I make the parents happy?

Yes, it is true. Fathers and mothers in Japan today were brought up in the time of war, or just after the war, with a scarcity of food and clothes. Therefore, those parents are usually materialistic, and therefore they are very competitive in bringing up their sons and daughters. But at the same time, children are naturally religious; they can believe in something sacred in the universe. This is the situation of schools in Japan today, I think.^[16][17]

At the same time, we have the experience of contradiction in our day-to-day life. When we eat meals, we feel the taste, and tasty food cannot be denied, should not be denied. But at the same time, we take meals in order to work. So in such a simple fact, we can recognize two factors. One is meaning; the other is fact. The meaning is food which is useful for our work, and at the same time, it is not bad if it is tasty. That is the subjective side. The other side is the volume of calories; this is an objective fact. According to Buddhist theory, we should synthesize the two factors into one reality. We should find the real situation in the parents’ competitive attitude, and at the same time, we should revere the children’s religious attitude too. That combination is reality. We should not throw away either of the two. We should revere objective fact and subjective meaning.^[17]

How to revere both

Question: When the conflict between those two disturbs us, how can we revere both of them?

When we consider that situation through intellectual thinking, the two parts are separate and can never be synthesized. Therefore, we should transcend our intellectual thinking. We should enter into reality. Therefore, we practice zazen. By practicing zazen, we enter into reality. And in reality, there cannot be any different factors in our day-to-day life. There is only one reality. It has two faces, but the faces are not all of reality. We are reality itself. In such a situation, we can transcend the contradictory situation between subjective and objective. So the Buddhist attitude is very simple, but at the same time it is rather difficult to enter it. So we practice zazen.^[18]

The unemotional state

Question: If we practice zazen, does the conflict disappear, or do we just accept the conflict?

When we recognize that we are living in reality, we can perceive the conflict directly, and we can accept the contradictory situations without any emotional disturbance. In Buddhism, we usually think about sunyata. Sunyata is feeling as if it is nothing. When we have sunyata, we can be unemotional about every fact.^[19]

Question: If we’re sick, then it seems like an emotional disturbance.

When we are sick, it is not the Buddhist state. So to cure our sickness is an important Buddhist effort.^[19]

Question: When you talk about a non-emotional state, in English that sounds very cold. But you don’t mean that, do you?

Yes. Sometimes Buddhists are thought to be cold, and usually people think that we should be emotional, we should have love for others. But having love sometimes brings about a different situation, that is, hate. So according to Buddhist theory, love and hate are balanced in the real situation. So if we insist only on the value of love, there is a kind of danger in that. That is my idea. That is the Buddhist idea.^[20]

Question: Is it possible to say a peaceful state instead of no emotional state?

Yes, I think so. The peaceful state is a balance between love and hate. That is called the unemotional state. This theory sounds strange to some people, but this is the Buddhist idea.^[20]