To study the way to Buddhahood is to study the self"

pp. 159-160 in Bioethics and the Impact of Human Genome Research in the 21st Century

Author: Rein Kimura (Eiheiji Temple)

Editors: Norio Fujiki, Masakatu Sudo, and Darryl R. J. Macer
Eubios Ethics Institute

Copyright 2001, Eubios Ethics Institute All commercial rights reserved. This publication may be reproduced for limited educational or academic use, however please enquire with the author.
Dogen-Zenji is the founder of Soto Zen section and he wrote "Shobo-Genzo". It has a chapter "Genjo-Koan" and there is a sentence "to study the way to Buddhahood is to study the self" in it.

To study or train the way to Buddhahood begins by seeing the self very well. When you visit a Zen temple, you can see the word "Kyakka-Shoko", which means light up the feet. It is really important one in Zen field and neither can we ignore the word "Do", which means a way or road.

The way to Buddhahood has a fixed way, for example "Gassho", holding both palms together and "Raihai", greeting and bowing. It begins and ends with courtesy in Japanese traditional ways to Kado, Japanese flower arrangement, Sado, Japanese tea ceremony, and even on the sports field. Sometimes I hear some opinion that they do not mind the fixed way at all because of their having a strong mind, but I think it is just a kind of delusion.

Ekiho Miyazaki is a present chief priest in Eiheiji and he always says to priest trainees, "The way makes our mind correct, and then that corrected mind makes our behavior correct". He also emphasize that the teaching of Eiheiji where its 750 year old history is Zen. In addition, he takes initiative in carrying it out as well as knowing it.

Socrates says, "Know thyself". I think the point is the same everywhere in spite of East or West. We tend to regard "to study the self" as thinking of our self in general and to be buried in our self in daily life. However Dogen's thought is different from others. He says "to study the self is to forget it". He suggests we should not think of it but take it off. Everyone has a feeling to love oneself i.e. an attachment. However this attachment prevents us from happiness.

Soseki Natsume is a famous Japanese novelist and he expressed how much hard we lived in this world as follows. "Using the wisdom makes troubles, leaving the feeling loses the goals and being stubborn makes uncomfortable". It is the reason why we cling to the self each other.

The name of Soto derives from Tozan-daishi, who is a Chinese Zen master. A young monk asked him, "Where on earth has the hot and the cold weather come from and how should we avoid it?" Tozan answered. "Leave to the place where is neither hot nor cold". Young monk asked again, "Where is it?" His last suggestion was quite strict, "When it is hot, stay yourself in the hot weather, when it is cold, stay yourself in the cold weather".

Kenji Miyazawa is a famous Japanese poet and writer. His work is as follows. "Have a fit body that is not defeated by the rain, by the wind, by the snow, even by the heat of the summer. Have no desire, do not take anything into accounts (the rest is omitted)". Having a fit body is a very important aspect in our lives. Moreover his ideal that does not take all things into accounts is to take the attachment off. Please appreciate this poem well.

When the attachment to the small self "I" disappears, we will find that the big self is unified with the truth of the universe. When Dogen see the beautiful universe, he says, "to be enlighten by all things".

It is quite an unusual situation that we are born as a human in this life. Aside from medical aspects, Buddha is said to preach on Dharma while he was walking around the north part of India and have a rest beside the Ganges River because of his being tired. He grasped a handful of the sand and asked his disciples accompanied with him, "Guess which one is the heavier, the sand I hold on my hand or the whole sand of the Ganges River?" They answered, "There is a large amount of the sand on both side of the Ganges. Although you have a big hand, the heavier is the one is the Ganges". Buddha's idea was that the handful of the sand we hold had so many lives on the earth. We happened to be born as a human. It is wonderful and quite unusual to be born as a human.

However we have a lot of sufferings, e.g. diseases, being old, and death while we are living. Sometimes I hear people say, "I love to be alone" when they grow up. Of course it depends, but we cannot live alone. When we become aware of it, we could appreciate being alive now.

In Buddhism, we adore the nature having so many lives and also are taught to live together with it. We have beautiful four seasons in Japan and it is possible, for example, to feel the breath of spring. Woods pump up the water to the brunches and leaves. I heard this system is to adjust their temperature and to keep the sugar back to the root after changing the water into the sugar. This system is called "Photosynthesis". Although we understand this system well, trees have wonderful chemical factories we cannot imitate even by using our technology in it. It implies the dignity, the continuation, and the regeneration of the life. Trees, which are grown up by the photosynthesis, give the energy to various animals; even the creatures we cannot see, and help flourish each other. I think we need to realize this interrelation in the natural world.

From what I have heard, the oldest tree in the world is 7000 years old. It survives with only the sun and the water. It is the envy of us. Plants have existed on the earth since the age before humans had existed and this energy to survive is not equal to us. However we occasionally try to be higher rank than plants, though plants give us numerous benefits using them various ways, both material and immaterial.

Dogen says, "All the nature, e.g. mountains and rivers in all ages are the existences which are equal to Buddha". There is nothing to waste in the natural world, e.g. animals, plants, minerals and so on. To receive and love the natural world and also save the source of the earth are to give them to our descendants and inherit the great heritages. This is our one of the missions.

We are living in the midst of civilized benefits. In plain words, we use money everyday. It is possible for us to do anything we want, but our appreciations to everything around us are missing. We tend to interpret the money as everything and no connection after paying. It is a truth that this way of thinking makes an ego and it appears our behavior. The ego is the behavior as well as the body.

I heard it from a doctor that they use "hiragana", one of Japanese scripts, on their paper in medical society, when they use the word "Hito", means a human. Humans are our big research subjects, I think.

We do not know when we start calling ourselves "humans". We have just decided to call our body as a human symbolically. In our place, our life has a beginning and an end; a birth and a death. The answer to the question what the proof we live now is that we can see, hear, and feel hot and cold. However this is just an explanation. There are the differences between our bodies before and after we know Dharma. There is no true form after realizing true Dharma because everything is certainly changing one after another.

We live in the idea to meet a good connection. We sometimes think a body and a mind are separated. It was the same situation in the old age in the western countries. Descartes emphasized it in 17th century. He said we must have be objective to see the true world. After taking the self off cutting the cloud of the mind and polishing it like a mirror, you could see the true world. This idea has existed in Japan since ancient times. It was considered we could see the truth when we took the desire off and were unselfish. It is really hard to forget the self and be unselfish.

I often tried it when I was young, but I could not. I think this is one of reasons why we think that a body and a mind are completely separated and the mind is the root.

On the contrary, the philosophy that the body and the mind are one came out, and also Dogen teaches the mind is shown up by the action. Therefore we have to show our mind by using our body. For example, people often say she has a gentle heart, but it is not possible look at her mind directly. They just see her behavior and judge her by it.

Our mind is the same, I think. If you think you are quite gentle, it is just you think. Nobody accepts it, unless it appears by your behavior. We have forgotten that our behavior shows our mind.

Dogen shown it about 800 years ago before the western philosophy did it. That thought is expressed "to be enlighten by all things" The body and the mind are unified with the behavior that appreciates with the beautiful universe and the gentle heart.

Finally, I think we want to appreciate "unexpected meeting and touching mind" in our life.

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