May 2014 — Banský Studenec
Venue: Banský Studenec
From the retreatPhotosChronicle
Talks of the series
What the series says (short overview) — About these overviews
Across these five talks from the sesshin in Banský Studenec, Mike returns again and again to reality here and now, as against ideas of a better place or a perfect state, and says that Dogen insisted this world is the only real world. As Mike presents Dogen, being awake simply means being here, not lost in thoughts or trapped by emotions, so there is nothing to attain somewhere else, and Mike calls it a strange explanation that the effort is one of getting to where we already are. Mike describes prajñā as the natural state before thinking, in which the mental area is not separated from the physical area, and says that in zazen we enter this wholeness from time to time, though sometimes not for long, because our thoughts come back.
He says that Buddhist writings can carry us away into ideas of a better place; because Dogen wrote in Japanese and Chinese eight hundred years ago, we have to find the meaning for ourselves, from our own real experience here and now, and finding a way past screens and books into this world is, he says, a very difficult but very important effort. When Dogen writes about the perfect, Mike says, he always means the chaotic mess in front of us, not the perfect picture we build in our minds, and that picture has to be thrown away again and again so that we can face reality. He says that the state before thinking contains no ideas or principles, which sounds very dangerous to societies founded on them. He adds that we are so used to having an I in control that we feel vulnerable without it, but that this may be an illusion and that prajñā has no I, which does not mean that the person disappears. As Mike presents the second paragraph of Genjo Koan, making a very strong effort to be present, trying to be something from an idea, does not work and is a delusion, whereas simply allowing ourselves to be where we are is being awake in reality. He adds that reality is not extraordinary but just here, like carrying water or making sure the soup is not burning, and that explaining it excitedly misses the point.
Mike speaks just as plainly about his own use of Buddhism: when he is in difficult circumstances he forgets about it, and he says he came to see that he had used zazen and the routine of teaching Buddhism as an escape rather than a refuge, a difference he calls subtle. He does not claim that Buddhism did not help him, only that he cannot tell; he says zazen keeps him healthy and gives him a base, he thinks that over some years the precepts follow him, and he thinks that his early belief that zazen would solve all problems came from his own misunderstanding of what Nishijima said. In his opinion the teachings of Buddhism do not belong to Buddhism: the truths are everywhere, groups claiming a special teaching or moral advantage damage Buddhism or the truth, and teachers point to a truth we all already have rather than teach one nobody knows. As for effort, Mike says that it is not necessary to know the result of our efforts, but just to make an effort, and that he has no idea what the result of his own has been. He tells how Nishijima hoped that Buddhism based on Dogen's teachings could save the world and dreamed that people would one day enter reality; Mike does not know whether this will happen, although in a strange way the world appears to him to be moving towards it. Nishijima, he says, never tried to make a big or powerful organization, apart from one late attempt that did not work, and Mike says he is very happy not making one, because it is easier for him, adding that it is only his personal feeling that it is better for something to grow naturally than to be constructed intentionally. Mike does not mean that we should have no intention to do anything, and he says organization is necessary, but making an effort through practice is something different from building one: with Buddhism it is not like selling biscuits, and Dogen himself moved from a busy city to a remote place in the mountains. He ends the last talk by saying that doing simple things sometimes is very great, and that we never know the result of something simple done with great effort.
Talks in this series
Mike says Dogen's writings need to be interpreted from real experience here and now, not from ideas of a better place
Mike says that Buddhist writings, Dogen's included, can carry us away into ideas of a better place, but that Dogen insisted that this world is the only real world, so there is nothing to attain somewhere else. For that reason, he says, we need to interpret Dogen's writings based on our own real experience here and now, not on other things we have read or heard. He calls finding a way past screens and books into this world here and now a very difficult but very important effort, and says that Dogen calls it the one great task.
Mike says prajñā is neither a spiritual nor a physical force but the natural state before thinking, when mind and body are not separated
Mike says that prajñā is not a spiritual or a physical force but the natural state of living beings when they do not separate their mental area from the physical area, a state before thinking. He says it does not come from anywhere and already exists before we train ourselves to believe that we have to think before we do things, and that we may be able to sense it near babies or animals. In zazen, he says, we enter this state of wholeness from time to time, although sometimes not for long, because our thoughts come back.
Mike does not use Buddhism to solve his problems, and says zazen can become an escape rather than a refuge
Mike says that he does not think Buddhism has helped him in difficult circumstances, because when he is in trouble he forgets about Buddhism and deals with the situation from his own character. Later he adds that he does not claim it did not help, only that he cannot tell: zazen keeps him healthy and gives him a base, and over some years, he says, the precepts follow him. He also says that Buddhism and zazen can be used as an escape from real problems rather than as a refuge.
Mike explains the opening of Genjo Koan through four points of view; for Dogen, being awake simply means being here
Mike introduces the opening paragraphs of Genjo Koan by saying that Dogen writes from four points of view, which he often uses when explaining Buddhism: an idealistic one, a down-to-earth material one, a third that tries to synthesize the first two, and a poetic one. According to Mike, Dogen says that the teaching of the Buddha is not found where we analyse the world into opposites such as enlightened or deluded but is connected with the state at this moment, and that to Dogen being awake simply means being here, not lost in thoughts or trapped by emotions. Mike adds that if we make a very strong effort to be present, it does not work and is a delusion, whereas if we simply allow ourselves to be where we are, we are awake in reality.
Mike says we need only make an effort, not know its result, and that he is happy not making an organization
Mike says that Nishijima Roshi hoped that Buddhism, based on the teachings of Dogen, could save the world, and that, apart from one late attempt that did not work, he never tried to make a big or powerful organization. For Mike, it is not necessary to know the result of our efforts, but just to make an effort. His own feeling, which he calls only personal, is that it is better for something to grow naturally than to be constructed intentionally. He says he is very happy not making an organization, because it is easier for him, and that he carries on in a similar way to Nishijima.