... Chapter 7 ....... Contents ...


6. To you who think the prime minister is a really special person.

Alexander the Great, Julius Cesar and Genghis Khan were just big bandits. Stalin or Hitler leave even master thieves like Ishikawa Gozaemon or Tenichibô in the dust. They put on a good show, but in the end it was only a question of how far they could go with their daring, just like the crook, Kunisada Chûji. What's strange is that these gang bosses are so admired - by small-time crooks like ourselves. Zazen goes far beyond this: when we penetrate zazen, we don't have to steal from others anymore.

[Footnote: Ishikawa Goemon (1568 - 1594), Ten'ichibô (lived first half of the 18th century), and Kunisada Chûji (1810 - 1850) were outlaws who lived during the Azuchi-Momoyama and Tokugawa periods in Japan. Ishikawa was a thief who, together with his gang and family, was put to death by being cooked alive in boiling water. Ten'ichibô was involved in a coup d'etat, while Kunisada was involved in various illegal activities. It is said that he helped poor farmers with the money he earned with gambling. Ten'ichibô and Kunisada were also punished with death penalty. The lives of this three gangsters yield the material for many historical dramas.]

So you are 'good'? The question is simply: good for what?

In every age, people have been misused and misled by politicians.

We act as if our eccentricities are what make up our true nature.

Isn't it clear that you're a thief as soon as you steal someone's property? Yet today everyone seems to believe that you aren't guilty as long as you haven't been caught by the police, interrogated by the inspector, convicted by the judge and finally locked up in a cell.
The same goes for corrupt politicians: as long as they can hide all evidence to the contrary, they consider themselves to be competent and successful. That shows how far group stupidity has taken us.

Even when the Chinese Emperor was surrounded by shrewd advisors, he always had enough 'wisdom' to mislead them. This type of 'wisdom' has nothing to do with the wisdom of the buddha-dharma.

Not only Ishikawa Gozaemon was a thief. And the fact that somebody who stole something only did it once 'just on a whim' doesn't mean that he is therefore not a thief. A person who has stolen something just on a passing whim is nonetheless a complete thief.
In the same way, Shakyamuni isn't the only buddha. Everyone who imitates Buddha's zazen is a whole buddha.

We all develop peculiar habits. The powerful, and the teachers and intellectuals who serve them, do their best to train us in these peculiarities. In this way we are tied and twisted in the most complicated ways. Religion means untying these knots.
In the end, there is only emptiness.

All those who rely on their political power - are they anything more than a pile of wannabe bosses?

Everyone is trying to make themselves out to be important according to their worldly criteria. How sickening!

What one system built, the other will destroy. What one political power accomplished, will be repealed by the next.

The whole world is only busy trying to cover up the symptoms - and with rubbing lotion!

When I was a child, they told me that I shouldn't look into the eyes of the nobility: "otherwise you'll go blind!" Terrified, I closed the shutters. Now, I'm not impressed by anyone.

One guy sat in prison before the war,
another sat in prison during the war,
another sat in prison after the war.

To be loyal to the orders given by whoever's in power at the moment, a policeman has to be ready to put his life on the line in the course of duty. That's not so easy. I couldn't do it.

He who seeks his true mission won't want to pursue a career. A person who wants to become president doesn't know where he's going in life.

Their election is so important to them that presidents and congressmen campaign to rally votes. Idiots! Even if they asked me to become president, I'd turn it down: "How dumb do you think I am anyway?"

One guy loses the presidential election, so he cries. Next time around he wins the election, and then he smiles into the camera. What makes politicians different from little children anyway? It's exactly the same way with a crying child: you offer him some candy and already a smile breaks out on his teary face. A little more maturity would be nice.

Anyone who relies on his résumé is a failure.

Ordinary people play with status and reputation.

Most people don't live from their own strength. They let themselves be fed by the system.

"He's a great guy: he can drink two liters of wine just like that!" What's called 'good' is usually nothing special. Each clique has their own standard which they use to explain something as 'good' or 'not so good'.

In the world everything's is discussed only from the standpoint of 'decent' ordinary people.

People are impressed by strange things. You only need to be a little different and the whole world is impressed.

It's karma that an owl can see at night. It's karma that an otter swims quickly. It's karma that a whale is so big. And it's also karma that he is killed by a harpoon.
However good or bad the karma may be, it's still only karma and nothing special. You're clever or dumb, liked or disliked, talented or untalented - that's all karma. And whether that makes you a minister or a beggar is also karma.
When a tomcat and a tiger have a fight the tiger wins, but that doesn't mean that the tiger is something special: it's karma. That the dumb are told by the clever what they have to do and say is karma. But that doesn't mean that the clever are better than the dumb - it's just karma. It has nothing to do with the buddha-dharma. People are always running after their karma, but don't let yourself be misled by karma!
If you see a pretty girl, you turn your head. If you're offered a nice sum of money, you work like crazy. You are always being misled by little things. Not being misled by karma means doing something without being misled by time.
[footnote: i.e. Living our lives in the eternal present, without being misled by a hallucinatory past or future]

Some are strong like lions. Others are long, like snakes. Others can see even at night, like weasels. Some have their young stolen one after the other, until the day when someone breaks their neck, like chickens. Some are taken advantage of their whole lives long, and in the end they are slaughtered and eaten, even the bones and the skin are put to use, like cows. Others always have a place on a woman's lap, where they're happy, like tomcats. All of that is karma. It is neither good nor bad.
In the end a person whose karma is too good falls headfirst into hell.

The rat is an enthusiastic worker. That's its karma. We don't need to pay it any respect by saying, "I wish I were as hard-working as you."
We don't need to be amazed either when somebody can see better at night than others - even a tomcat can do that. It's natural that humans can't see so well at night.

That a weasel sees well at night and an otter swims quickly is their karma, it doesn't make them special. What is considered something special in the world is usually nothing more than karma. You are clever and pass every exam? That's only karma. It doesn't mean that you have understood anything about life.

The world judges by strange standards: somebody sees in the dark and he's admired by everyone. At the same time every owl sees at night and every ostrich runs quickly.

If you throw a kitten into a tiger's cage, it'll be afraid and will try to run away. But the tiger will catch it and swallow it in a single gulp. The kitten as well as the tiger embodies our weaknesses as living beings. Only Saigyô's silver cat has it better.
[footnote: Saigyô received this silver cat statue as a present from the Shôgun in power at the time, then gave it away to children playing outside the castle gate]

What could be more boring than showing off your skills? Skills are only relative: they're not really worth anything. What lies beyond your talents, that's what matters.

Tokugawa Ieyasu was so unlikable and cowardly! I wouldn't want to be like him. If Ieyasu came into fashion and everyone were like him, the world would be filled with phony bills.

Throughout history, beginning with the one in Osaka, people built many 'invincible' castles. Yet in the end they all fell with their castles. Just how stupid were they anyway?
Tokugawa Ieyasu is called a sly fox. He made his mischief with talent. But was his rule eternal? No, in the end he was also just an idiot.

When you look at heroes, east and west, past and present, you can clearly see that the strong as well as the weak didn't do anything besides exhaust themselves and die in the end. They all gave everything they had, wearing themselves out for an illusion and piling up guilt.

All beings are blind to the dharma - and that doesn't just go for punks and hooligans. Children who are born blind to the dharma are raised by blind parents, educated by blind teachers and misled by politicians who are blind to the dharma - how could anyone around here not be blind to the dharma.

Once there was a great madman in the Sugamo hospital who called himself 'Ashiwara Shôgun'. He hung a cardboard medal around his neck and bestowed dignified words to those he met to take with them on their way. Now that the war is over, we can see clearly that what the military did wasn't at all different. And now they want to reintroduce medals yet again.

After winning the Russo-Japanese war, we thought we'd won colonies. But what really came of it? After losing the Second World War, we realized that we had only earned the hatred of the Russians.

Everyone is talking about loyalty to the fatherland. The question is simply where this loyalty will take us. I too was completely convinced when I went to war against the Russians, but after our defeat, I realized that we had done something that we shouldn't have. In any case, it's better not to make war in the first place.

The life and death of many depends on whether a single Stalin is born or not. Whether a single person is born or not makes a huge difference. That's why it is so significant that the single person, Shakyamuni, was born.

People are good as they originally are, but unfortunately they drift off in the wrong direction. That's because they follow bad examples.
Sôkagakkai promises you happiness, but where is this happiness supposed to come from? From earning money they say! But what does money have to do with happiness anyway? Shakyamuni renounced palace and throne to go begging as a monk.
Losing your balance because of happiness and unhappiness is what's called 'illusion'.

Everybody's karma is different. What's important is the fact that everyone is pulled forward by buddha in the same way.
Dropping off body and mind means to stop wearing yourself out, and instead to trust in buddha, to let yourself be pulled by buddha.


... Chapter 7 ....... Contents ...