Opening the Hand of Thought - illustration

From "Approach to Zen" by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi
in Book 1: The Reality of Zazen, Section 2: The Reality of Zazen:  Chapter 3: Waking Up to Life

[Steve Hagen described this in an essay titled "Coming Back"]

The zazen of the Buddhas and Patriarchs, the zazen of true life, is not like this. Because desires and cravings are actually a manifestation of the power of life, it's simply no good to hate them and try to extinguish them. But on the other hand, if, as a result of this, we are pulled around by desire and craving and chase after it, then life becomes fogged over. The important thing here is that we don't cause life to be fogged over by thought. Rather, we should see all thoughts, desires, etc., as things on the foundation of life, let them be as they are, and still not be dragged around by them. It's not a matter of making great effort to not be dragged around by desire. One just wakes up and returns to the reality of life. As applied in zazen, this means that, even if various thoughts like 'a' and 'b' occur to you, they will all vanish by 'waking up' to zazen. "Neither try to eliminate delusion, nor search for what is real.

page 38 I THE REALITY OF ZAZEN

This is because ignorance, just as it is, is the Buddha Nature. This worldly body itself which appears and dissappears like a phantom in this world is nothing other than the reality of life. When you actually wake up to the reality of life, there is not any particular thing which you can point to and say 'this is it.,, Yung Chia's Shodoka Even in the case where one is completely off the track and things develop to the point that a vivid figure like c, appears, C111 will disappear instantly when one wakes up to zazen. The person who is himself doing zazen is really made to experience with his whole body that thoughts are nothing but empty comings and goings without any real body. But this cannot be easily understood if you do not actually practice zazen.

To say that you cannot realize this without doing zazen is an extremely self-assuming expression, but the reason I say so is this. Usually we are quite unable to recognize that what we think about in our heads is nothing but empty comings and goings. We plunge our heads too far into our thoughts, and live too much in the world of thought. Once we think of something we want or like, we assume that the simple fact that we think we want it or like it, is the truth. Then, thinking that because this idea is the truth we ought to seek it, we chase after it everywhere and end up developing greed. Also, once we think of something we hate or dislike, we assume that the simple fact that we think we hate it or dislike it is the truth. Then, thinking that because this idea is the truth we ought to follow it, we chase after the idea until we finally turn it into anger. In other words, the activity in our every day lives is almost all the result of chasing after ideas like this. We cause a vivid image to become fixed, and then even more importance is placed upon this fixed delusion and desire. We only act by being carried away by delusions and desires. It would be even more correct to say that ordinary people are being flung about by desire and delusion

 continued from Book 1: 'The Reality of Zazen'  Page 39

without even knowing it. A man who is drinking sake (fantasy) knows that he is drunk, but when it gets to the stage that the sake is drinking sake and even further when the sake is drinking the man, then the man is forced to drift in fantasies without even knowing it and behaves accordingly. Almost all people and societies throughout the world behave by being carried away by desire and delusion. Just because of that, the zazen which we do comes to have a great significance. \Vhen we 'wake up' in zazen we are truly made to experience the fact that all the things which are developed in our thoughts may vanish in an instant. In other words, we almost always stress the content of our thought, but when we 'wake up,' we wake up to the reality of life and make this reality of life our center of gravity. It is then that we are made to realize that all the desire and delusions within our thoughts are nothing but empty comings and goings without any real body. When this kind of zazen experience becomes a real part of us even in our daily lives we will not be carried away by the comings and goings of life-like images. We will be able to 'wake up' to our own lives and begin completely afresh from the reality of life. Then, are desires, delusions, thoughts like a, b, c, etc., all things which primarily do not exist and should be denied? This is not at all so because even thoughts which produce desire and delusion are manifestations of the power of life. However, if one continues the thought and is carried away by desire and delusion, life is obscurred and stifled. Then we 'wake up' to ZZ' and from this standpoint of 'waking up' we can see that thoughts, desires and delusions are the scenery of life. If it's during zazen they're the scenery of zazen. There is scenery only where there is life. There is no scenery where there is no life. While we are living in this world, there will be happiness and unhappiness; favorable conditions and adverse conditions; interesting things and boring things. There will be pleasant times and painful times; times to laugh and times to be sad. Really these are all the scenery of life.

Because people plunge into this scenery of life, are carried away by it, and end up running helterskelter, they become frantic. Even though various life-like images appear to us during zazen, we can see the scenery of life for what it is by 'waking up' to ZZ'. Now let's try thinking about this in connection with the 'I' which is fixed by relationships with others the way I explained earlier. We can easily see that the 'I' which is determined from the outside is scenery in the life of the self. It's not at all that there is no such thing which takes the form of an 'I' which is fixed from the outside. Although it produces all this scenery, my own true life is the reality of life which I 'wake up' to without being carried away by the scenery. Zazen is the foundation of life where this reality of life is being real. In that sense, zazen is the reality of the self, the true self. "Zazen is the practice of the Buddha. Zazen is non-doing. This is indeed the reality of the Self. Nothing else is to be sought after in Buddhism." Shobogenzo: Zuinto11ki In other words, the most important thing in zazen is not to cut down delusion and craving and strictly become ZZ'. Of course there are times like this during zazen, but this too is one part of the scenery of zazen. Rather while aiming at ZZ', we have a tendency to go away from it. Even though we have this tendency, the very form of returning to ZZ' and waking up is most important in terms of the zazen which is the foundation of life.

In other words, we almost always stress the content of our thought, but when we 'wake up,' we wake up to the reality of life and make this reality of life our center of gravity. It is then that we are made to realize that all the desire and delusions within our thoughts are nothing but empty comings and goings without any real body. When this kind of zazen experience becomes a real part of us even in our daily lives we will not be carried away by the comings and goings of life-like images. We will be able to 'wake up' to our own lives and begin completely afresh from the reality of life.