The Quest

Silence and fasting are not always habitual; they are so only when imposed through will because one desires to follow a certain discipline. Silence and fasting should not become disciplines, but rather spontaneous pauses that are necessary to complement and break periods of activity and feasting. Nature requires that the opposites are respected - night and day; joy and sorrow; life and death; sexual activity and celibacy. The dualism has to be lived and transcended. Imagine having daylight in continuous for years; imagine having sex everyday for a lifetime; imagine living for 500 years. One would go crazy only with the idea. Who can withstand that? All of these things would lose their values and life would be terribly dry and exhausting.

Fortunately, the opposites are there to give it a break, a rest and then to allow time to get recharged for yet another period of activity. It is a great pity that we do not respect this law of nature. Activity and feasting have become habitual. And it is we who impose our will to continue there habits, for whatever reason there may be. If I am tired or sleepy, I don't go to rest - instead I drink loads of coffee to stay alert. Isn't this an act of will against myself? If I suffer from diarrhea, it is nature's warning that I have been eating too much and that there are toxins deposited in my system, which it wants to get rid of. Instead of helping nature follow its course, I keep eating and even take medicines to plug my system. All the toxins remain within me and even enter deeper into my system. This would be a violent act of will. These are only a few examples where one becomes a victim of one's own acts of Will; and yet one am not aware. We need a good mental shaking.

There is no asking if these breaks are efficacious. Nature is the most efficient thing that exists. Even the tiniest creature functions in a highly efficient way. And naturally, there comes no need to believe in a thing that is natural. Believing comes only when the object is a man-made. And man is capable of inventing the greatest fictions.

QUESTION OF THE MONTH

Do we have to kill to feed ourselves?

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No Trace

Dr. Daitsuki Suzuki

In order not to leave any traces, when you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind; you should be concentrated on what you do. You should do it completely, like a good bonfire. You should not be a smoky fire. You should burn yourself completely. If you do not burn yourself completely, a trace of yourself will be left in what you do. You will have something remaining which is not completely burned out. Zen activity is activity which is completely burned out, with nothing remaining but ashes. This is the goal of our practice. That is what Dogen meant when he said, "Ashes do not come back to firewood." Ash is ash. Ash should be completely ash. The firewood should be firewood. When this kind of activity takes place, one activity covers everything.

So our practice is not a matter of one hour or two hours, or one day or one year. if you practice zazen with your whole body and mind, even for a moment, that is zazen. So moment after moment you should devote yourself to your practice. You should not have any remains after you do something. But this does not mean to forget all about it. If you understand this point, all the dualistic thinking and all the problems of life will vanish.

When you practice Zen you become one with Zen. There is no you and no zazen. When you bow, there is no Buddha and no you. One complete bowing takes place, that is all. This is Nirvana.

Cover Photo

Friedrich Grohe

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