26. To you who like hearing something inspirational about Buddhism

Many say, “No matter how much Sawaki talks, his lectures don’t inspire me in the least!”
Obviously. Because I myself am not “inspirational”.
The buddha-dharma leads you to the place where nothing is special.
**
They say, “When I hear Sawaki talk, my faith cools down.” Now I’m going to really put their faith on ice: This sort of faith is nothing but superstition.
They say, “Sawaki’s talks don’t awaken any faith in me.” They don’t awaken any superstition, that’s all.
**
There’s nothing more funny than old women looking for “inspiration”. Everything for them is “inspirational” even if it’s only worth as much as pigeon shit. Anyway, this idea of inspiration is mistaken: isn’t it just personal inspiration they’re talking about? They’re only taking refuge in Buddha because they hope to get something out of it.
**
Whatever sutra you read, it’s always about devoting your body and life to the Way. Why is it that the whole world believes religion means praying to Buddha for good health and good business?
**
However much good they do, everything that humans do is bad. If you give, all day long you think, “I gave!” If you do religious practice, you think “I practiced, I practiced!” If you do something good, you never forget, “I did good, I did good!”
Does this mean that we should do something bad instead? No, even when we do good, it’s bad. When we do something bad, it’s even worse.
**
“Beware of doing good!”
A person who does good thinks they’ve done good. That’s why they’re worse than someone who has done something bad. Believe me, it’s easier for those who do bad because they’re humbled by it.
“Does that mean I should do something bad?”
“You should even leave what is good alone. That is even more true for what is bad.”
**
If you do good, you start to work yourself up about everything bad you suddenly see in others. When you have done something bad, you’re quiet, because your own ass itches.
People don’t only calculate when it’s a matter of money. In everything they do they try to bargain up or down. That’s because their body and mind haven’t dropped off. Only when body and mind have dropped off does this business not count any more.
Dropping off body and mind means immeasurability, limitlessness.
**
When someone’s made another clever comment, I say, “Your rice soup is letting off hot air!” This means that with a full stomach it’s easy to talk big.
**
Fighting, sex, greed and lies – in other words: a human being.
**
Everything thought by human beings of flesh and blood is mistaken.
**
“The willow is green, the blossoms are red.” Buddhist teaching is self-evident. But people cover it up with unnecessary categories: good, bad, useful, useless and so on.
**
Rather than simply sitting zazen, people try to put a melody on top of it. That’s why they are able to sing their Buddhist hymns and somehow feel pious doing it.
**
It’s so easy to slip back into human happiness and unhappiness, love and hate, good and evil.
**
“Do good, leave the bad.” There’s no doubt about that, but is it so clear what’s good and what’s bad? Good and bad go hand-in-hand.
**
Zazen is beyond good and evil. It’s not moral education.
Zazen takes place where communism and capitalism finish.
**
If something like emptiness or nothingness “existed” then it wouldn’t be emptiness or nothingness. The expression “seeing emptiness” means that there isn’t even an emptiness to see.
**
As long as you don’t get sick, you forget your body. Even I forgot my legs when they were still strong enough to walk and run. My legs only seem so important to me because they’re so weak. Whoever is healthy, functions without being conscious of their own health.
It’s the flaws that bother us. When no mental phenomena appear, there’s nothing to worry about.
**
Buddhism must teach the liberation that has nothing to do with contracts and words. It is that which only a buddha and a buddha can confide to each other. If both sides don’t understand everything from the beginning, it will never be understood at all.

27. To you who naively starts wondering about your true self

You can’t hold on to your self. The very moment you give your self up, you realize the self which is one with the universe.
**
Precisely that self which I haven’t thought up is who I really am.
**
The two passages, “all things are the form of truth” (Lotus Sutra) and “all existence is Buddha nature” (Nirvana Sutra) refer to that which lies beyond the personal.
**
The entire universe radiates the light of the self.
So I fill the entire universe. I’m not that fool playing with his pocket change.
**
This body is the whole universe. If you don’t have that kind of faith in yourself, you’ll have a weak point you won’t be able to hide. As soon as you get jealous or moody, you’ll show it.
**
Faith means having faith that you are the entire universe, regardless of whether your intellect happens to find that convincing or not. Only this faith can support the religious effort that never weakens.
**
The Buddha Way means having faith in your own buddha nature.
**
Each one of us, whether we know it or not, has buddha nature. That means you are included in all things, manifesting the true form of reality.
**
The form of reality lies open before you. Doubting this is wasted effort.
**
To study the Buddha Way means to study the self which isn’t twisted and can’t be misled.
**
Just forget everything you’ve picked up since you were born.
**
What’s called “dropping off body and mind” doesn’t mean anything more than simply to stop insisting on “I”, “me” and “mine”.
**
In Gakudôyôjinshû it is written, “Having awakened mind [bodaishin] means seeing impermanence.” And the Vairocana Sutra says, “Awakening [bodai] means directly seeing how your own mind really is.” That means above all that seeing impermanence is truly seeing your self.
**
The expression “non-self” doesn’t mean losing your mind. It means being one with the universe.
**
The other side of non-self is “All things are the form of reality”.
**
Non-self, non-mind doesn’t mean drifting away aimlessly in unconsciousness.
Non-self means not going against what is necessary. It means obeying the cosmic order by functioning along with the universe.
**
Is life inside of time? No, it’s the other way around: time is inside of life.
And there’s no life outside of your practice.
**
You are yourself and at the same time you are the entire universe. You are the entire universe and at the same time you are yourself. That’s exactly what the passage in the Lotus Sutra expresses: “There is only the dharma of one vehicle, not two, not three.”
**
When a drop of water enters the sea, and when a speck of dust settles on the ground, then that drop is already the sea, and that speck of dust is already the earth.
**
When the flood of religious ideas reaches its culmination, they arrive at the point which Buddhism calls “the self that fills the entire universe.”
**
All things are contained in my self. That’s why, in my actions, I also have to pay attention to what other’s expect.
**
The Buddha Way shouldn’t be unaware of society. “The two-fold truth of reality and the world” forces the buddha-dharma and human points of view to look each other directly in the eyes.
Deluded living beings are the Buddha’s best clients. That’s why the buddha-dharma has to be very careful on this point.
**
It is because we are grateful towards society that whenever we use something, we think of those who will need it after us.
**
If you have “mind”, you always have something to complain about. If you have “no mind”, you have no mind of compassion either.
Don’t have either mind nor non-mind. That’s difficult. That means thinking from the depths of non-thinking. What’s called “beyond thinking” [hishiryô] is something so vast that it can entirely contain mind as well as non-mind. (footnote Fukanzazengi?)
**
Beyond-thinking isn’t something you can calculate in your mind.
**
The expression “before the empty kalpa” (Footnote) refers to the time when things didn’t have names yet. So how could anyone expect there to be a final word on it?
**
We can’t measure a true buddha.
**
Buddha doesn’t have a fixed form. That’s why we can’t measure him.
**
When you call out, “Amithaba,” you sound like you’re calling a pet. But it isn’t like that at all. “Amithaba” means immeasurable life, immeasurable light – in other words, limitlessness.
**
When you ask what Buddhism is, the answers are “studying the Buddha Way means studying the self” [Shôbôgenzô Genjôkôan] and “truly recognizing your own mind” [Vairocana Sutra].
So when you ask why we begin religious practice, the answer has to be that we are finally setting off on the journey in search of our self.
But if you’re not careful, it might be that you’ll spend your whole life running around like a ghost, without knowing what you’re searching for or why.
**
Step forth in your practice, walking in your straw sandals and getting blisters in search of the one thing without personal nature, without profit. This practice isn’t something outside. It’s turning the light inwards, towards the interior of the self.
You hear about the dharma-gate of peace and happiness, but this peace and happiness isn’t how the world understands it. Finishing once and for all with that worldly peace and happiness is true peace and happiness.
**
The buddha-dharma doesn’t lie in the distance, but we can’t expect to get it for free either. It means becoming clear about yourself.