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Nanyue said, “What is your intention in just sitting?”
Mazu said, “I intend to become a Buddha.”
Then Nanyue picked up a tile and started polishing it on a stone.
Mazu said, “Master, what are you doing?”
Nanyue said, “Polishing a tile. I am trying to make a mirror.”
Mazu said, “How can you polish a tile and make a mirror?”
Nanyue said, “How can you sit zazen and become a Buddha?”
... Nanyue then instructed: “If you practice sitting Zen, you practice sitting buddha.
[Even so] sitting Zen is not just a matter of sitting or lying down.
In the practice of sitting Buddha, the Buddha has no fixed form. ...”
Dogen: "As Buddha has no fixed form, there is no escape from sitting Buddha.
Adorned with Buddha’s no-fixed form, the practice of zazen is itself sitting Buddha."
Nanyue said, “What is your intention in just sitting?”
Mazu said, “I intend to become a Buddha.”
Then Nanyue picked up a tile and started polishing it on a stone.
Mazu said, “Master, what are you doing?”
Nanyue said, “Polishing a tile. I am trying to make a mirror.”
Mazu said, “How can you polish a tile and make a mirror?”
Nanyue said, “How can you sit zazen and become a Buddha?”
... Nanyue then instructed: “If you practice sitting Zen, you practice sitting buddha.
[Even so] sitting Zen is not just a matter of sitting or lying down.
In the practice of sitting Buddha, the Buddha has no fixed form. ...”
Dogen: "As Buddha has no fixed form, there is no escape from sitting Buddha.
Adorned with Buddha’s no-fixed form, the practice of zazen is itself sitting Buddha."
It is vital to sit Shikantaza Zazen with a profound sense, felt deep in the bones, of the sacred nature of this sacred sitting, that just sitting is the embodiment of Buddha sitting, that the form of sitting is boundless beyond all forms, that sitting is complete beyond all goals and anything to make. In this way, one makes Buddha by sitting free of all need to make, and so in all of life.
Such statements might seem hard to get our heads around, but really it is easy to explain:
Like many of us, Siddhartha wandered here and there longing for peace and answers, searching endlessly, asking this guru and that, trying one practice after another including some quite extreme. He found moments of incredible bliss in deep meditations, but wisely considered doing so to be morphine's temporary release. No lasting relief was to be found in such dead ends. He punished the body to the brink of death in hope of escape from the suffering of this world.
Then, at wit's end, he sat under a tree and assumed the pose of Zazen.
There he sat. Finally, at dawn, he saw the morning star, shining just to shine, a star seeking nothing but to shine, with no goal but to shine, nothing lacking from this shining, nothing more to attain but shining. At that instant, Buddha is sitting just to sit, seeking nothing but to sit, no goal but to sit, nothing lacking from this sitting, nothing more to attain but sitting. There is no distance between star and tree. The star shone like a jewel in the sky, beyond compare with any other star whether bright or dim. In this way, Zazen shines as a starry jewel, beyond compare. Though shining in one place and time, the star is not limited by place and time. Rather, it is all of space and time shining as this one star, beyond form and timeless. Likewise, our one sitting is all of space and time embodied in this one sitting, truly encompassing all yet boundless and beyond measure. The hard borders of self, star, space and sitting drop away ...
We should sit with such attitude, trusting in the sacredness and completeness of Zazen. When one sits, do not omit to sit with a sense that Buddha is sitting as this sitting, alive in this sitting, as this body on this cushion. There is no distance between star and Buddha and where we sit now.
Humans beings suffer because we chase this and that, run after what we crave, run from what we fear or detest. When we fail to attain what we wish, or when the attained does not last, and this life is not as we want, we suffer in the gap between our desires and the state of the world. Death is suffering when we cling to life, sickness and pain are suffering as we long for health, old age is suffering because we cherish our youth, loss is suffering because we dream of possessing forever. Liberation is to close the gap, desiring the state of the world to be the state of the world, all things just as they are, shining just to shine. Then, the coming of death is just death, life is life, sick times are sick times, pain and tears are simply pain and tears, smiles smile, when old be old, when young be young, there is no "loss or gain" but only rising and falling waves.
Even so, despite such contentment, the Buddha did not remain sitting under that tree forever (he was tempted to do so). The star, in its goalless non-doing and shining just to shine, is also doing and working ... giving light and life to the planets. The Buddha rose from sitting to spread light too. Likewise for Dogen, who realized that polishing is not pointless, but rather, the very act of polishing is Buddha polishing Buddha making Buddha right in in the polishing!
The Buddha got up and got walking, thousands of miles, teaching and building community, founding traditions that have come to us today. Dogen, while celebrating just sitting, did not just sit around. But the Buddha's efforts were not the same as his searching before. Dogen, though reminding us that there is nothing to make, truly made something great! The star, though shining just to shine, still burns hot! It seeks nothing, yet does so much! Free of goals, nonetheless every moment of its work is its own goal attained. The shining and tile polishing is the point: There is nothing lacking, but also much that is lacking, both giving light and forging elements to add to the cosmos.
One shines just to shine, but often shining requires hard work! Things are just as they are, but frequently that means that things just ain't so good! Thus, though sickness is sickness, and health is heath, take your medicine and do what the doctor says! Nothing is lacking, but do not neglect to plow and plant your field (for plowing is just what it is, and planting is planting just to plant, each seed to grow by light.) There is never any loss or gain, yet our heart breaks sometimes. When tears fall, let tears fall, for the light of the shining star glistens in every tear. Likewise for smiles and whatever else life brings. By such wisdom, there is not an inch for suffering even amid the pains and sometime sadness of this life, nor clinging like an addict to joys. Even pain is pain, and the sad and happy days are just life itself. This world is Whole, Peaceful and Good just as it is, turning just to turn. Nonetheless, this world is also broken, in need of mending, such that we should labor for good, reduce the bad. The very act of polishing and mending is a Buddha polishing and mending. Though nothing lacks, let us feed the hungry, house the homeless, comfort the lonely, nurse the sick, strive to end wars and violence.
This is how one sits as sitting Buddha, then brings Buddha to life in living.
Sitting to sit, working to work, helping to help, shining to shine, polishing to polish, growing to grow, living to live.
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Gassho, J
stlah
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