Antaiji – Video

Tenkyo’s talk on Sawaki Kodo’s “To you…”, January 28th 2019

9. To you who would like to slap your boss with a letter of resignation

As a human being, you can walk freely in any direction you choose.
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As a human being, whatever you do, you should do it in a way that can’t be repeated a second time. What can be repeated is best left to the robots.
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Life doesn’t run on tracks.
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Birds don’t sing in major or minor. Bodhidharma’s teaching doesn’t fit on lined paper.
The buddha-dharma is wide and unlimited. When you try to hold it still, you’ve missed it. It isn’t dried cod, but a live fish. Living fish have no fixed form.
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In the soldier’s handbook it says that in war you must be prepared for a thousand different possibilities. That doesn’t just go for war – there’s no rule book for life either. When you try to live your life according to a manual, you’re sure to fail.
For a court case as well, it goes without saying that you have to be on your guard when everything runs according to the book.
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The wild geese leave no traces,
yet no matter where they fly, they never lose their way.
There are no footprints on the way of the bird. It’s not the same as a steam engine that runs on tracks or an ox’s well-worn path.
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Don’t we live life from moment to moment? How could we possibly take life, analyze it, systematize it and file it away?
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The sad thing about people is that they can’t stray even a single step away from their habits.
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Those who do things according to the book are failures.
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We constantly let ourselves be distracted by details, and […]

John’s talk on Sawaki Kodo’s “To you…”, January 27th 2019

他人の目がすごく気になるあなたへ
1. To you who can’t stop worrying about how others see you

屁ひとつだって、人と貸し借りできんやないか。人人みな「自己」を生きねばならない。お前とわしとどちらが器量がいいか悪いかそんなこと比べてみんかてええ。
You can’t even trade a single fart with the next guy. Each and every one of us has to live out his own life. Don’t waste time thinking about who’s most talented.
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目が、オレはカシコィのだげれど、位が低いとも思わず、眉はオレは役なしだげれど、位が高いと思わぬ。仏法の生活とは、この不知の活動である。
山だからというて高いと思わず、海だとて広いとも深いとも思わず、一切合財、不知の活動じゃ。
野鳥自啼花自笑、不干岩下坐禅人・野鳥は坐禅している人に、ひとついい声を聞かしてやろうと思って鳴くわけでもなく、花も人に美しく思ってもらおうと思って咲くのではない。坐禅人も、悟りをひらくために坐禅しているのではない。
みなただ自分が自分を自分しているのである。
The eyes don’t say, “Sure we’re lower, but we see more.”
The eyebrows don’t reply, “Sure we don’t see anything, but we are higher up.”
Living out the buddha-dharma means fulfilling your function completely without knowing that you’re doing it. A mountain doesn’t know it’s tall. The sea doesn’t know it’s wide and deep. Each and every thing in the universe is active without knowing it.
The bird’s singing and the flower’s laughter appear naturally,
completely independent from the person sitting in zazen at the foot of the cliff.
The bird doesn’t sing in honor of the person in zazen. The flower doesn’t blossom to amaze the person with her beauty. In exactly the same way, the person doesn’t sit in zazen in order to get satori. Every single being simply realizes the self, through the self, for the self.
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宗教とは何ものにもダマサレヌ真新しの自己に生きることである。
Religion means living your own life, completely fresh and new, without being taken in by anyone.
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オイ、どっちゃ向いとるんじゃ。藪にらみみたいな目をして。お前自身のこっちゃ。
Hey! What are you looking at? Don’t you see that it’s about you?
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ケツの穴だからというて卑下せんでもいい。足だからというてストライキやらんでもいい。頭が一番エライというのでもない。ヘソが元祖だというていばらんでもいい。
総理大臣が一番エライと思うておるからオカシイ。目の代わりを鼻ではできぬ。耳の代わりを口ではできぬ。みな天上天下唯我独尊である。
The asshole doesn’t need to be ashamed of being the asshole. The feet don’t have any reason to go on strike just because they’re only feet. The head isn’t the most important of all, and the navel doesn’t need to imagine he’s the father of all things.
It’s strange though that people look at the prime minister as an especially important person. The nose can’t replace the eyes, and the mouth can’t replace […]

Fabian’s talk on Sawaki Kodo’s “To you…”, January 26th 2019

29. To you who are pleased when someone compliments the depth of your faith

Many confuse faith with a type of intoxication. There’s a type of intoxication similar to awe that’s nothing but delusion. Faith means, however, just the opposite – complete sobriety from any form of intoxication.
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When most people in the world talk about the mind of faith, they don’t think it’s anything more than kissing Buddha’s ass.
“Do what you like with the others, but at least give me a first-class ticket to paradise!” Prayers like that have got nothing to do with the mind of faith.
Faith means clarity and purity. Mind means the single mind that encompasses the three worlds. So having faith means clarifying and purifying the one mind of the three worlds. The mind of faith means truly becoming clear about your own mind.
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Faith means being clear and pure. It means being at ease. But some people get confused about this as well and think faith is about getting worked up, so they try with all their might to do so. Until they realize that it’s not so easy to get truly worked-up. Then they just act as if they were.
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In old times, people were swept up in awe when they heard that Amithaba Buddha would come to them in their last hour to pick them up. That!s the same as being misled by a fox.
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Everyone wants to go to paradise, but have you ever really seen it? If you think you have, you must have been mistaken.
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There are people who want to live as long as possible. Any religion that offers this will do. What they have to believe in doesn’t matter at all. […]