Non-Preaching of a Non-Dream in a Non-Dream - for Michael Thaler

Master Wanshi wrote:

The water is clean right to the bottom,

Fishes are swimming, slowly, slowly.

The sky is wide beyond limit,

And birds are flying, far, far away...



But in this picture, on the look-out for a mouse to eat,

A big hungry buzzard is flying like a big hungry buzzard.

New Year's Resolution: To Give Up More

long time - long time


forget peripheral things / involvements

On his blog One Foot in Front of the Other, a bodhisattva who goes by the name of Michael Thaler, or ohenro-san, is describing what it really is to give up everything.

Michael's account of his journey is an inspiration to understand more deeply what sitting-zen truly is.

Master Dogen wrote: "Taking plenty of time to forget peripheral things, naturally to become one piece: this is the vital art of sitting-zen."

Forgetting peripheral things, or forgetting involvements (EN O BOJIRU in Japanese), is also a kind of giving up.

I am not ready yet for the kind of giving up that Michael Thaler is describing, the giving up of everything.

But still I can practise giving up in my limited way. And, as I have promised Michael already, not forgetting his example, I will continue to practise giving up in my limited way, come what may. I can practise it by sitting in the lotus posture, as follows:

Firstly, I can give up the idea of becoming something or being somebody; I can give up the idea of being -- don't laugh -- a great teacher who can teach everybody everything. The most relevant line in Fukan-zazengi might be TOSABUTSU KOTO NAKARE, "Don't try to become a buddha!"

Secondly, in wishing to come undone, I can give up the idea of doing an undoing. The most relevant line in Fukan-zazengi might be MIMI TO KATA TO TAISHI, HANA TO HESO TO TAISE SHIMEN KOTO O YOSU, "It is vital to cause the ears vs the shoulders, and the nose vs the navel, to oppose each other." The problem of how to bring about that separation -- that lengthening release of unduly contracted and shortened muscles, that coming apart, coming unglued, coming undone -- was a core problem addressed by FM Alexander. FM Alexander clarified for his niece Marjory Barlow, and Marjory made it crystal clear to me, that we cannot do an undoing. But knowing intellectually that an idea is false, is not the same as truly giving it up. It only takes one Alexander lesson to understand intellectually the principle of directing, not doing. To truly and completely give up the idea, however, that I might be able to help the undoing process along with a bit of doing: that requires great patience. It may involve a growing acceptance of one's own fraudulence. By fraudulence I mean a self-deluding tendency to believe one is following one course, when one is actually following another course altogether.

Thirdly, I may be able to somersault from thinking into action, by giving up the idea of joining hands and bowing.

Master Dogen's revised instructions include the words KANKI ISSOKU SHI, lit. "Lack breath/vital-energy for one breath." This is not an instruction to take a deep breath -- it is an instruction to exhale fully, to expire. The earlier instructions just say IKI MO MATA TOTONOE, "let the breath also be regulated." My response to these instructions, over the years, has gradually evolved into the following modus operandi: I decide that I am going to join hands and bow, and at the same time I give up the idea of doing so. Instead of going directly for the end of joining hands and bowing, I come back to the instruction of causing the separation between ears and shoulders, and between nose and navel. If I have really given up the idea of joining hands and bowing, and also really and truly and totally given up the idea of doing anything to force ears and shoulders et cetera to release apart, a deep breath sometimes does itself. If there is no deep breath, I renew, with more serious determination (the kind of determination I learned in the martial arts) my decision to join hands and bow, while again giving up the idea of doing so. Eventually, a spontaneous deep inflow of breath takes place. When this happens, I join hands and bow while at the same time exhaling fully. Then I sway left and right. Then I stop where I feel (rightly or wrongly) the middle is, and endeavour to sit still without fixing.

The key to success in all the above is the giving up of an idea. First to give up the idea of being anything, then to give up the idea of doing anything to come undone, and then to give up the idea of joining hands and bowing.... and yet to join hands and bow.

The trick, in short, is to totally and utterly give up the idea of doing something, and thereby to let it do itself.

I first got this point 30 years ago in the context of competition karate, when I realized to my own astonishment that even as a novice with only one weapon in my armoury -- namely, a reverse counter punch -- I was able to beat experienced black belts.

Actually, I didn't get the point. The point got me. The point picked me up like a tsunami and beached me in bloody Japan; then it picked me up again and deposited me in a soulless but relatively safe haven called Aylesbury, on the outer edge of London's commuter belt, where I did three years of Alexander teacher training and then got stuck waiting for my sons to finish their education at the local grammar school.

After 30 years of trying to grasp the point, if the truth be told, I still haven't got it.

Even as I write, somewhere within me still lurks the idea that if I were to truly and completely give up the idea of trying to get it, I might thereby really get it, and thereby become -- don't laugh -- a great teacher who could teach everybody everything.

To give up everything, as Michael describes on his blog, is no easy thing. Even to give up a last little vestige of an old idea that put us wrong, is no easy thing. But if even the slightest trace of the old idea refuses to be given up, the truth of non-doing is turned into its dialectic opposite, and a deep breath does not come.

The non-advent of a deep breath, truly, is something to be grateful for. My restricted breathing lets me know that there is something for me to give up.

After something is given up, and a deep breath spontaneously comes, then one is truly free to expire.

It is never the point to be tempted by supposed short-cuts like breath counting or abdominal breathing. These are not short-cuts to anywhere; they are tainted, end-gaining approaches, geared to short-term results. Giving up takes time.

Michael, I shall join hands and bow to you. But not for the time being. If I truly give up the idea, a deep breath will come spontaneously.

New Year Retreat; 2nd - 6th January

We are planning a short sitting retreat in France in the New Year.

We will leave from Portsmouth at 3.15 pm on Wednesday 2nd January and arrive back at Portsmouth around 2.00 pm on Sunday 6th January.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday we will have four sessions of sitting-zen per day, interspersed with walking in the forest/countryside, and preparing and eating meals.

We will split expenses for travelling and meals equally between however many participants there are -- the cost will not exceed £100.

If anybody is interested in joining us, please email me at mike.cross@the-middle-way.org

A Spot to Turn the Light and Shine

A Place for Non-Buddhist Non-Thinking (No Trappings)

The dojo is at the bottom of the valley, behind the line of hazel trees, within earshot of the forest stream which is flowing from west to east, towards the rising sun. Even at the height of summer it is a relatively cool place, in the shade of all those trees. In winter the valley forms a kind of natural refridgerator, so that on those days when, eventually, the sun rises unencumbered by cloud over the tree-tops, the benefit is really felt, by beings both sentient and non-sentient.

Altogether, One after the Other: A Non-Buddhist Sangha Manifesto

What is wrong with the Soto Sect? What have I got against the Soto Sect? There might be a clue in the name.

I was hoping to finish making another sitting-platform tomorrow, before going back to England. I made one last week already, with two oak beams that I drove happily back from a local woodyard, atop my old blue Astra van. Flushed with success, I was looking forward to making one for the opposite wall. I constructed the frame last night -- a job that kept me warm as the thermometer plummetted. So I was looking forward to a trip to the woodyard this morning to pick up another couple of oak beams. I planned to pop in to the bakery on the way there and pick up a nice crusty baguette to scoff when I got back. It was a nice idea, but the van wouldn't start. I have been charging the battery all day and trying again, but it still won't start. Evidently I wasn't meant to get the wood today. So I have lit a fire and brought my laptop here by it, where I sit in lotus, wrapped in a fleece, ready for a good old grumble about sectarianism.

The manipulative little bastard who I call my teacher intends Dogen Sangha to be in the middle way between the Soto Sect and non-Buddhism. I think that means Dogen Sangha is not quite a sect, not quite a cult, but just half way to being a sect or a cult. I was never keen on the idea of Dogen Sangha, except that I found it difficult to give up the expectation of being nominated as the next leader of it. But especially since that expectation was not realized, I begin to see more clearly the virtue that non-Buddhism might have.

In Shobogenzo there are two characters pronounced GEDO, which mean "off the way." In his original translation of Shobogenzo into English, Gudo Nishijima translated these as "non-Buddhist" or "non-Buddhism," and in our joint version I failed to change the translation of GEDO. But I think to use "non-Buddhism" as a translation of GEDO does a grave injustice to non-Buddhism. The fundamental point of Fukan-zazengi might be just non-Buddhism.

I don't belong to the Soto Sect. Never. And I might not belong to Buddhism either. I belong to the teaching of Fukan-zazengi.

The Buddha-Dharma is just to sit. Just to sit is the Buddha-Dharma. And just to sit is the fundamental point of Fukan-zazengi. So Fukan-zazengi evidently embraces two-thirds of the Three Treasures.

On the basis of Fukan-zazengi, then, what is the meaning of Sangha?

The first clue might be in the title -- "Rules of Sitting-Zen Recommended Everywhere." The target Sangha of Fukan-zazengi is.... everybody everywhere. Fukan-zazengi is non-sectarian. So so am I. To me the word FU conveys a sense of a horizontal Sangha, a universal community of individuals, without hierarchical position.

Another clue might be in the exhortation SO-SO NO ZANMAI O TEKISHI SEYO, "succeed authentically to ancestor-ancestor samadhi." The words SO-SO conveys the sense of a vertical Sangha, a lineage via which samadhi, the stillness of just sitting, has been transmitted from Sakyamuni Buddha on down.

Regardless of the views and opinions of self and others about what a Sangha is, what I can say from my own actual experience is that I have been sitting in lotus every day for more than 25 years, and for the vast majority of those days I have not sat in a group but have sat on my own.

The person who transmitted the Dharma to me, Gudo Nishijima, similarly, in his daily life, generally sat on his own, facing a vertical wooden beam in his house. "The beam was my teacher," he once joked. When I met him and started my own daily sitting-zen practice, on my own, there was no such thing as Dogen Sangha. That is why it is difficult for me to see Dogen Sangha as fundamental. Dogen Sangha, to me, is more the afterthought of an old control freak.

In theory I shouldn't be like this! In my dreams, I was destined to be this and that. But in fact here I am on by the forest, with only frozen trees and frosty grass for company, with my right shoulder burning and left side freezing, hoping that an old van will start and not having much of a clue what to do if it won't start.

I have spent most of my life training myself in preparation to be the real McCoy. I expected that Alexander training would make me a true teacher of real Buddhism. I never expected that I would find myself preaching non-Buddhism. But a year or two ago my teacher opined that I was a non-Buddhist, and when I started to think what it meant to be a non-Buddhist, I began to see that, yes, a non-Buddhist is, unexpectedly, just what I have become.

After I read yesterday on Michael Thaler's blog One Foot in Front of the Other about his practice of a "sesshin," and his intention to receive "Buddhist" precepts, as part of a "Zen Buddhist community," I felt something akin to revulsion. My increasingly clear conviction is that I don't belong to any of that, and that the fundamental point of Fukan-zazengi is pointing me away from all that. "Sesshin" is a disgusting Japanese word, invented by some latter-day sectarian Japanese shitbag, never used by Master Dogen at all. English-speakers use the Japanese word as if it were authentic, but it is totally not authentic. The traditional period for a retreat that Master Dogen advocated is just 90 days. There is no such thing as a sesshin.

Similarly, Michael, if you receive the bodhisattva precepts, you do so as a bodhisattva, working for the salvation of all. If you think you are a "Buddhist" belonging to a "Zen Buddhist community," you are not a bodhisattva, but a species of Buddhist wanker, excited only by your own idea. Mindful of the mirror principle, I speak of course from personal experience.

We are all in it together, side by side. At the same time, there is a transmission that has continued, one ancestor after another, and its criterion is just accepting and using the self in stillness. The self means the whole self.

Thus, to understand the meaning of Sangha, as I see it, on the basis of the teaching of Fukan-zazengi, one has to be at ease with the paradox inherent in the phrase "Altogether, one after the other."

Being at ease means being totally at ease -- head, heart, pelvis; neck, head, back, legs and arms, one after the other. All together, one after the other.

The conclusion I am drawing to, fanciful though it may sound, is this:

To understand the true meaning of Sangha is to forget involvements and spontaneously become one piece -- which is the vital art of sitting-zen.

Again, true preaching of non-Buddhism is realized only by means of non-thinking -- which is the vital art of sitting-zen.

It may be that those who consider themselves as belonging to the Soto Sect, or who consider themselves as Buddhists to be above non-Buddhists, are like that because of never having got the fundamental point of Fukan-zazengi.

Further Back to Basics

"Just sit in stillness,"
Dogen said,
'Til he lay
On his deathbed.

"Come back to stillness,"
FM said,
Killing all
Ideas dead.

Back to Basics -- A Non-Buddhist Prayer

Discovering Dogen's vital art, FM saw the place to start: "The neck releases," FM said, with hand on heart, and hand on head.

Head then heart? Or heart then head? Without either, I'd be dead.

Still more, when ears and shoulders part, and double spirals spread, the bowels and pelvis play their part, and thus the whole is fed.

That's why, in healing head and heart, we chew brown rice and munch French bread.

Thank God for guts, to step ahead, or take the backward step instead.

LE FUKANZAZENGI EN FRANCAIS

I am setting aside this post for Pierre Turlur's version of Fukanzazengi in French, which he is planning to work on over the coming holidays.

I know that it will be worth waiting for.

Pierre... YOROSHIKU!

LE FUKANZAZENGI [en mauvais francais]

FUKAN-ZAZENGI
Les Règles de S'Asseoir-Zen Pour Tout Le Monde

(RUFU-BON)
(L'Edition Populaire)


TAZUNURU NI SORE, DO MOTO ENZU: IKADEKA SHUSHO O KARAN.
Quand on le recherche, alors, le réveil du bouddha est dans l'origine tout autour: comment est-ce qu'il pourrait devoir une dette à la pratique et l'épreuve?

SHUJO JIZAI: NANZO KUFU O TSUIYASAN?
Le véhicule fondamental existe en soi: pourquoi doit-on coutre effort?

IWANYA ZENTAI HARUKANI JINAI O IZU: TAREKA HOSSHIKI NO SHUDAN O SHINZEN?
De plus, le corps entier est loin dehors de la poussière: qui peut croyer en une méthode de balayer?

OYOSO TOSHO O HANAREZU: ANI SHUGYO NO KYAKUTO O MOCHIURU MONO NARAN YA?
En général, il ne quitte pas cet endroit: quel est la utilité des pointes du pied de la discipline?

SHIKAREDOMO GORI MO SA AREBA TENCHI HARUKANI HEDATARI, IJUN WAZUKANI OKOREBA FUNZEN TOSHITE SHIN O SHISSU.
Tout de même, si il y a un désaccord infinitésimal, le ciel et la terre s'éloignent; et si se lève un petit peu de la contrariété ou de la conformité, l'esprit est perdu confusément.

TATOE E NI HOKORI, GO NI YUTATAKA NISHITE, BETSUCHI NO CHITSU O E, DO O E, SHIN O AKIRAMETE, SHOTEN NO SHIKI O KOSHI, NYUTO NO HENRYO NI SHOYO SU TO IEDOMO, HOTONDO SHUSSHIN NO KATSURO O KIKESSU.
Bien que on peut se faire gloire de l'entendement, avoir une richesse de l'éclaircissement, gagner un état extraordinaire de pénétration, atteindre la voie de véracité, clarifier le coeur, présenter un zèle que transperce le ciel, et errer dans les endroits lointains qui sont entrées par la tète; alors que manquer presque totalement de la route vigoureuse pour faire sortir le corps.

IWANYA KANO GION NO SHOCHI TARU, TANZA ROKUNEN NO SHOSEKI MITSUBESHI.
De plus, on peut regarder toujours les traces du sage inhérent du Jardin de Jetavana, et son six ans de s'asseoir tout droit.

SHORIN NO SHIN-IN O TSUTAURU, MENPEKI KYUSAI NO SEIMEI NAO KIKOYU.
On peut écouter toujours le renom du homme qui a transmis le cachet du coeur de Shaolin, et son neuf ans de faire face à le mur.

KOSHO SUDENI SHIKA-ARI, KONJIN NANZO BEN ZEZARU.
Les sages anciens sont déjà comme ça: comment est-ce que possible pour les gens d'aujourd'hui a manquer de travailler?

YUENI SUBEKARAKU GON O TAZUNE GO O OU NO GEGYO O KYU SUBESHI.
Donc on doit quitter l'oeuvre intellectuelle de rechercher les mots et donner la chasse aux dictons.

SUBEKARAKU EKO HENSHO NO TAIHO O GAKU SUBESHI.
On doit apprendre le pas en arrière de tourner la lumière et luire.

SHINJIN JINNEN NI DATSURAKU SHITE, HONRAI NO MENMOKU GENZEN SEN.
Le corps et l'esprit spontanément se détachent et le visage original surgit.

INMO NO JI O EN TO HOSSEBA, KYUNI INMO NO JI O TSUTOME YO.
Avec envie de gagner cela, adressez-vous vite à cela.

SORE SANZEN WA JOSHITSU YOROSHIKU, ONJIKI SETSU ARI.
Alors, pour entrer dans le Zen une chambre calme est bonne. On se modére en boire et en manger.

SHOEN O HOSHA SHI, BANJI O KYUSOKU SHITE, ZEN-AKU O OMOAWAZU, ZE-HI O KANSURU KOTO NAKARE.
Délaissez toutes circonstances; quitter les dix milles affaires; ne pensez pas 'bon' ou 'mauvais'; ne inquiétez-vous pas de 'droit' ou 'faux.'

SHIN-I-SHIKI NO UNTEN O YAME, NEN-SO-KAN NO SHIKIRYO O YAMETE, SABUTSU O HAKARU KOTO NAKARE, ANI ZAGA NI KAKAWARANYA.
Arrêtez la course de l'esprit, de la volonté, de la connaissance; arrêtez de mesurer par idées, par pensées, par vues. Ne projetez pas de devenir bouddha. Comment ce serait possible de le rattacher avec être assis ou allongé?

YONOTSUNE ZASHO NI WA ATSUKU ZAMOTSU O SHIKI, UE NI FUTON O MOCHIU.
D'ordinaire on place un tapis épais sur le lieu de s'asseoir, et on utilise un coussin rond au-dessus.

ARUIWA KEKKAFUZA, ARUIWA HANKAFUZA.
On s'assied avec les jambes tout à fait croisées ou on s'assied avec les jambes à moitié croisées.

IWAKU KEKKAFUZA WA MAZU MIGI NO ASHI O MOTTE HIDARI NO MOMO NO UE NI ANJI, HIDARI NO ASHI O MIGI MO MOMO NO UE NI ANZU.
C'est a dire, pour s'asseoir avec les jambes tout à fait croisées, au début on met le pied droit sur la cuisse gauche, puis on met le pied gauche sur la cuisse droite.

HANKAFUZA WA TADA HIDARI NO ASHI O MOTTE MIGI NO MOMO O OSU NARI.
Pour s'asseoir avec les jambes à moitié croisées, seulement on appui la cuisse droite avec le pied gauche.

YURUKU ETAI O KAKETE, SEISEI NARASHIMU BESHI.
Laissez les vêtements pendre librement, et mettez les en ordre.

TSUGI NI MIGI NO TE O MOTTE HIDARI NO ASHI NO UE NI ANJI, HIDARI NO TANAGOGORO O MIGI NO TANAGOGORO NO UE NI ANJI, RYO NO DAIBOSHI MUKAITE AI SASOU.
Ensuite, on met le main droit sur le pied gauche, et on met la paume gauche sur la paume droite. Les deux pouces s'appuient l'un à l'autre.

SUNAWACHI SHOSHIN TANZA SHITE, HIDARI NI SOBADACHI, MIGI NI KATAMUKI, MAE NI KUGUMARI, SHIRIE NI AOGO KOTO O EZARE.
Justement on redresse le corps en s'asseoir tout droit -- sans s'incliner à gauche ou à droit, sans plier en avant ou en arrière.

MIMI TO KATA TO TAI SHI, HANA TO HESO TO TAI SESHIMEN KOTO O YOSU.
C'est essentiel de faire s'opposer [se balancer] les oreilles et les épaules, et faire s'opposer [se balancer] le nez et le nombril.

SHITA UE NO AGITO NI KAKETE, SHIN-SHI AI TSUKE, ME WA SUBEKARAKU TSUNE NI HIRAKUBESHI.
La langue touche au palais, et les lèvres et les dents sont mis en rapport. Les yeux doivent être ouvert comme d'ordinaire.

BI-SOKU KASUKANI TSUJI, SHINSO SUDENI TOTONOETE KANKI ISSOKU SHI, SAYU YOSHIN SHITE, GOTSU-GOTSU TOSHITE ZAJO SHITE,
L'haleine passe doucement par le nez. Quand la forme du corps est déjà ordonné, exhalez pleinement une fois, balancez le corps à la gauche et à la droite, et puis taisez-vous assis sans agitation.

KONO FUSHIRYO TEI O SHIRYO SE YO.
"Penser l'état au delà de penser."

FUSHIRYO TEI IKAN GA SHIRYO SEN.
"Comment peut-on penser l'état au delà de penser?"

HISHIRYO.
"Non-penser."

KORE SUNAWACHI ZAZEN NO YOJUTSU NARI.
Ceci est l'adresse essentielle de s'asseoir-zen.

IWAYURU ZAZEN WA SHUZEN NIWA ARAZU.
Que s'appelle "s'asseoir-zen" n'est pas le Zen à apprendre.

SUNAWACHI ANRAKU NO HOMON NARI.
C'est justement une porte tranquille et joyeuse à la Loi.

BODAI O GUJIN SURU NO SHUSHO NARI.
C'est la pratique et l'épreuve qui examine à fond du réveil du bouddha.

KOAN GENJO RARO IMADA ITARAZU.
La loi universelle se réalise actuellement, et il n'y a pas des rets ou des cages.

MOSHI KONO I O EBA, RYU NO MIZU O URU GA GOTOKU, TORA NO YAMA NI YORU NI NITARI.
Si on atteint ce but, on est comme du dragon qui a trouvé d'eau; on ressemble au tigre devant sa forteresse de montagne.

MASANI SHIRUBESHI, SHOBO ONOZUKARA GENZEN SHI, KONSAN MAZU BOKURAKU SURU KOTO O.
On doit savoir exactement: la vraie loi se présente spontanément; obscurité et dispersion dès l'abord tombent par terre.

MOSHI ZA YORI TATABA JOJO TOSHITE MI O UGOKASHI, ANSHO TOSHITE TATSUBESHI.
Si on s'enlève à partir de être assis, on doit mettre le corps en mouvement lentement et s'enlever tranquillement.

SOTSUBO NARU BEKARAZU.
On ne doit pas être brusque ou violent.

KATSUTE MIRU CHOBON OSSHO ZADATSU RYUBO MO KONO CHIKARA NI ICHININ SURU KOTO O.
On voie dans l'antiquité que les gens qui excellaient l'ordinaire et surpassaient le sacré, se donnaient totalement au gré de ce pouvoir.

IWANYAMATA SHI-KAN-SHIN-ZUI O NENZURU NO TENKI, HO-KEN-BO-KATSU O KOSURU NO SHOKAI MO, IMADA KORE SHIRYO-FUNBETSU NO YOKU GE SURU TOKORO NI ARAZU.
D'ailleurs, une transformation en un tour de main, avec un doigt, un mat, une aiguille, ou un claquer; ou une épreuve qui apparie exactement, réalisé par une vergette, un poing, un bourdon, ou un hurlement: ce n'est pas quelque chose qui on pourrait comprendre par la discrimination intellectuelle.

ANI JINZU-SHUSHO NO YOKU SHIRU TOKORO TO SEN YA.
Comment ce serait quelque chose qu'on pourrait savoir par les pouvoirs mystiques ou par la pratique et l'épreuve?

SHOSHIKI NO HOKA NO YUIGI TARU BESHI.
Ce peut être la dignité au delà du son et de l'aspect.

NANZO CHIKEN NO SAKI NO KISOKU NI ARAZARU MONO NARAN YA.
Comment ce pourrait être sauf qu'une modèle avant de l'intelligence et de la perception?

SHIKAREBA-SUNAWACHI JOCHI KAGU O RON SEZU, RIJIN DONSHA O ERABU KOTO NAKARE.
Donc ne discutez pas l'intelligence supérieure ou la stupidité inférieure, et ne choisissez pas entre les gens de finesse et les lourdauds.

SEN-ITSU NI KUFU SEBA, MASANI KORE BENDO NARI.
Si on travaille sincèrement, ceci est vraiment juste le discernement de la voie.

SHUSHO ONOZUKARA ZENNA SEZU, SHUKO SARANI KORE BYOJO NARU MONO NARI.
La pratique/l'épreuve est naturellement sans tache, et la direction dans laquelle on se dirige, encore, est normalisée.

OYOSO SORE, JIKAI TAHO SAITEN TOCHI, HITOSHIKU BUCCHIN O JISHI, MOPPARA SHUFU O HOSHIMAMA NI SU.
En général, dans notre monde et dans autres directions, sous le ciel d'ouest (d'Inde) et sur la terre d'est (de Chine), tous ceux qui maintient le cachet de bouddha, également, ne font que jouir comme ils se plaisent de la coutume fondamentale.

TADA TAZA O TSUTOMETE, GOCCHI NI SAERARU.
Ils seulement s'adressent à s'asseoir [à l'action d'être assis] et sont attrapées par l'état immobile.

BANBETSU-SENSA TO IU TO IEDOMO, SHIKAN NI SANZEN BENDO SUBESHI.
Bien qu'il y ont dix mils différences et mil distinctions, on doit seulement entrer dans le Zen et travailler à le réveil du bouddha.

NANZO JIKE NO ZASHO O HOKYAKU SHI TE, MIDARI NI TAKOKU NO JINKYO NI KYORAI SEN.
Pourquoi pourrait-on abandonner un plancher pour s'asseoir chez soi, afin de traverser les frontières poussiéreuses a l'étranger?

MOSHI IPPO O AYAMAREBA, TOMEN NI SAKASU.
Si on se trompe de un pas, on trébuche par le moment même.

SUDENI NINSHIN KI KIYO O ETARI, MUNASHIKU KO-IN O WATARU KOTO NAKARE.
Vous avez gagné déjà le pivot essentiel qui est un corps humain: ne traversez pas en vain votre lumière et ombre.

BUTSUDO NO YOKI O HONIN SU, TARE KA SEKKA O TANOSHIMAN.
Vous soutenez l'essence pivotale du réveil du bouddha: qui pourrait jouir le feu d'un pierre à briquet?

SHIKANOMI-NARAZU, GYOSHITSU WA SORO NO GOTOKU,
En outre, la substance corporelle est comme une goutte de rosée sur un brin d'herbe.

UNMEI WA DENKO NI NITARI.
La vie ressemble a un éclair.

SHUKKOTSU TOSHITE SUNAWACHI KUJI, SHUYU NI SUNAWACHI SHISSU.
Soudainement c'est évanoui; à'l instant c'est perdu.

KOINEGAWAKUWA, SANGAKU NO KORU, HISASHIKU MOZO NI NARAU TE, SHINRYU O AYASHIMU KOTO NAKARE.
En suppliant, flots élevés qui s'instruissent par participation, après s'occuper longtemps du éléphant truqué, ne doutez pas du vrai dragon.

JIKISHI-TANTEKI NO DO NI SHOJIN SHI,
Faites tous vos efforts pour la voie qui est montrée directement du doigt et qui est tout droite.

ZETSUGAKU-MUI NO HITO O SONKI SHI,
Avez égard à quelqu'un qui est en fini avec les études et sans affectation.

BUTSU-BUTSU NO BODAI NI GATTO SHI,
Accordez-vous avec le réveil des bouddhas.

SO-SO NO ZANMAI O TEKISHI SE YO.
Succédez au samadhi des ancêtres.

HISASHIKU INMO NARU KOTO O NASABA, SUBEKARAKU KORE INMO NARU BESHI.
Si vous faites longtemps le chose qui est comme ci, c'est sur que vous allez devenir comme ci.

HOZO ONOZUKARA HIRAKE TE, JUYO NYO-I NARAN.
Le trésor s'ouvrira spontanément, et vous pourrez accepter et utiliser comme vous voudrez.



[First rough draft completed Saturday 8th December, 2007]