Everyday Suchness

Buddhist Essays on Everyday Living
Masao "Gyomay" M. Kubose

About the author: Masao Kubose was born in San Francisco, California on 21 June, 1905. He graduated from the university of California at Berkeley in 1935 majoring in philosophy. Rev. Kubose was ordained as a Shin Buddhist minister and given the Dharma name “Gyomay” which means Bright Dawn. He passed away 29 March, 2000 at the age of 94.

Suchness

• What is “Suchness? It is things as they are and life as it is. It is truth as it is. Suchness is the world, void of artificiality or make-up. It is “Sonomama” in Japanese and “Tathata” in Sanskrit.

• He points out that true happiness consists in identifying oneself with something that transcends mere instinctive urges.

• The greatest truths have always been the most simple.

• The role of transcendental wisdom consist not in conditioning the human mind, but in liberating it.

Happiness

• The ancient Greeks thought that good is happiness. But in the middle and modern ages, Aristotle’s formal meaning that good is happiness has been altered to the more material meaning that happiness is pleasure or absence of pain.

• John Dewey said happiness is permanent and universal and is feeling of the whole self, while pleasure is transitory and relative and is a feeling of some aspect of self

• Spinoza says happiness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself.

• In Sanskrit happiness is called “Sukha”

• In Buddhism feeling is divided into three: Sukha, happiness; dukkha pain; and adukhamasukha, neutral feeling

• The loftier kind of joy arises in connection with the practice of dhyana, meditation.

• In the last stage of dhyana, all positive feeling, joy or melancholy is merged in neutral feeling or indifference

• In Buddhism the striving toward a goal is happiness as compared with the Indian ascetics who sacrifice everything for a goal.

• We attain happiness in various ways in our daily life. However we can divide it into three – physical, material and spiritual.

• Mental and spiritual happiness is in friendship and love.

• Happiness is attained by possessing something or being given something by someone. Therefore when the cause of happiness is gone or destroyed, the happiness also disappears.

• Your happiness cannot depend on your health. Of course your beauty and strength will fade away with the passing of time. Therefore health beauty and strength are not to be depended on for real eternal happiness though they are important factors in our happiness.

• Kenko a famous Buddhist priest and author of “Tsurezuregusa” said It is not worthwhile having a friend who has never had the experience of illness. A person so healthy that he has never been sick does not understand the real meaning of sympathy and kindness.

• Happiness that is bought with money vanishes when the money is gone so money is not the way to happiness

• Even happiness brought by love, friendship, sympathy and kindness of friends cannot be depended on for love often becomes hate and friends become enemies because they are all relative.

• Therefore we should look for internal rather than external causes of happiness.

• Buddhism teaches us to look into the core of things, instead of looking around.

• The happiness of the giver is more permanent and rich than that of the recipient.

• Modern people in general are result seekers. Their attitude is that if they will get some benefit they will do something but if there is no profit what is the use?

• Buddhist are taught that every step and every means are very important. Every means itself is an end.

• For artists, musicians and sculptors the work itself is pleasure and happiness but for moneymakers work is only the means to make money.

• The most happy and fortunate person is he who enjoys his work besides earning money.

• The real way of happiness is in the way of giving rather than happiness in receiving. We must find the way of love rather than that of being loved.

• If you are unhappy do not blame others or your environment. It is your mind your attitude that make you miserable.

• The right attitude and a clear and right mind are the way to happiness.

• We try to put up a nice front that is why we have problems.

Awareness

• But we petty human beings try to show the better front and hide the back

• There is really no front and back to true life.

• Most of us consciously and unconsciously live a life of front and back duplicity and that is the trouble today the very foundation of perplexity in life.

• A Buddhist life is a life of honesty where there is no front and no back

• There is no front or back, both are good.

• The true attitude in Buddhism is not such an attitude of defeatedness. Acceptance means understanding of the truth accepting the fact. Accepting the truth means a true understanding of life not the feeling of a victim not a feeling of sacrifice or being defeated but understanding the true facts about life.

• There is nothing to hide when we are sincere and honest.

• No pretense, no worry and no tension.

Limitations

• The first teaching of Buddha was to know thyself. He thought that the most important thing in solving your problems is to know yourself first.

• In another way of expressing it, it seems to me that to know oneself is to know ones limitations. I do not mean limitations in the ordinary sense. It is not limiting yourself. This limitations is not a correct word perhaps. By to know your own limitations I mean to know what you are. I think psychological problems neurotic difficulties are the result of failure to realize ones own limitations. Perhaps appropriateness or position is a better word. Ones limitation in a society or in a family is ones position. It is what you can do what you should do in the most appropriate capacity. Limitation does not limit your action speech or thought. It is knowing what you are and living accordingly.

• Or we try to do a thing which is beyond our own capabilities. Such unfair expectations by ourselves or from others are a cause of many modern diseases.

• Buddhas teaching was this to know ones own position in a designated time place and occasion. Many time we fail to see our own limitations we expect praise and if it does not come we feel miserable.

• So Buddhas teaching to know yourself first is the most important teaching in modern life.

• A story about outlook on other people:

There was a very particular housewife who was very capable in keeping house, keeping her kitchen in order and her backyard clean and she was also a good gardener and so on. She was very proud of herself for being so capable in maintaining their household. One afternoon a friend visited her and while they sat in the kitchen talking of many things this lady said, do you see my neighbor next door? She is such an untidy worker just look at her laundry how dirty it is. There are spots on her sheets and it looks as if they hadn’t been washed and her garden isn’t kept up, etc. The visiting friend then said well maybe that is true but I think if you will wash your window your neighbors sheets and yard will look much cleaner.

• A story about a young man and his father on going to church:

The young son who was a college student in modern science was always against his father devoutly going to church. He asked his father why he constantly went to church when his father didn’t practice what he preached. The young son insisted that his father stop going to church. The old father said son you don’t understand what spiritual life is, but he could not convince the son so he came up with an idea for an agreement. He said son I will quit going to church is you promise to do these things for me: for the next two weeks, I want you to keep a diary of all the things you have said and thought and all the things you have done. At the end of the two weeks, please show me your diary. If you can write these things very honestly and sincerely for two weeks and show me your diary, I will stop going to church. Of course the son said Oh dad, that’ easy enough. I will do exactly as you ask. The son kept the diary honestly and sincerely and put down all the things his dad had asked. After one week he read his diary and realized he was ashamed to show it to other people. Everything of his private life was in the diary. Because of his shame he came to his father and said I am going to quit keeping the diary. I am ashamed to show it to others and even you. I thought that I was good and was doing everything fine but when I became frankly honest with myself writing down all the things I have done privately, said privately and have thought to myself, I found that I just could not show it to you or anyone else. The father said well, you see son we all think we are good and that there is nothing to be ashamed of but if we strip ourselves and look into our own ego self, we are very selfish and we do a lot of thins we do not want other people to know about. That is the very reason I go to church. I go in order to look into myself for that true inner peace that comes from self-introspection and as for myself for the first time I am able to forgive or understand other peoples faults and shortcomings. It is so easy to accuse others blame others but when we inspect ourselves we are the same we are not angels either.

• Going to church is not learning what Buddha said or what is said in books, but being able to see what we are and living our own life according to its own limitations.

• That kind of approach is what Buddha taught . It eliminates mental agony, anger,, stubbornness, and greediness. All these can be eliminated or transcended by understanding ourselves. This is what I mean by knowing ones own limitations or ones position.

Is Your Switch On?

• Air is filled with sound waves of good lectures music and pictures but unless you have receiving set you do not receive them.

• We want to live and not merely exist. To live means a meaningful worthwhile and joyous life and not just physically existing.

• Work and moving about are two different things. When one works he has a purpose or meaning in what he is doing so he puts his life in it. Therefore every work is an accomplishment, a fulfillment and is a joy. However on the contrary if one works without a purpose of willingness his work is not work. It is lifeless and it amounts to just moving about.

• When one falls in love life takes on a new meaning. His whole life becomes alive in fact the whole world becomes alive. It is the same when one discovers himself that is to say when he finds what he really wants to do or discovers something for which me wants to dedicate his life.

Gautama Buddha

• Siddhartha Gautama was born 2400 years ago as the only son of the famous King Suddhodana of Kapilavastu which was in the northern part of India. Siddhartha’s mother was the beautiful Queen Maya.

• As a child and young man he was known as the best horseback rider and a fine wrestler and archer as well as a mental genius.

• As he grew older he became interested in learning the cause of all of life’s suffering.

• He became contemplative lost interest in sports and politics and despite his fathers request that he be the nest king, he left his fathers beautiful palace and became a truth seeker. He was then 29.

• For the next six (6) years he wandered through the country seeking teachers and teachings by which he could solve the many problems of life. First he went to Brahmins and tried their philosophy in solving human problems. Then he studied in a group of ascetics undertaking their severe ascetic life. And so he went on for six years trying every school of religion and philosophy in vain.

• One day after cleansing himself in the waters of the Nairanjana he sat under a pippal (Fig, Bodhi) tree and meditated and there after years of observation and experience he at last found the truth attained enlightenment and called himself Buddha. He was then 35. Until then Prince Siddhartha had not been Buddha.

• Buddha is a Sanskrit term meaning enlightened one. Buddha was not a deity not any kind of god nor was he a man of revelation as in many other religions. Buddha was a man who found the truth and lived the truth.

• Buddha lived to 80 years of age and so for 45 years he taught the way of life that he found himself. He was practical realistic philosopher psychologist and spiritual leader. He was the first to deny the caste system saying that a man should be judged by his quality not by his birth.

• He explained that all things are related to each other through the law of causation.

• The contents of the first sermon were the famous Four Nobel Truths and Eightfold Path

• Buddhas teaching is not theology nor metaphysics.

• Buddha did not speculate on that which is unknowable such as an unknowable beginning or end.

• There is no beginning and no end in eternity.

• He did not conceptualize eternity. Eternity is now. The present moment includes the eternal past and eternal future. It is the eternal present. Buddha was interested in the present. There are many urgent and pressing problems right here and now in our life. Solving the present problems also solves those past and future.

The Four Nobel Truths

1) Recognition of Suffering – We do not have to recognize it – we have it. We have much suffering misery and trouble in our life. That life involves suffering is a fact and just this statement of fact – that all beings are subject to suffering – was Buddhas first statement of the Four Nobel Truths. It was not theorizing or speculating but the facts of life or existence.

2) The cause of suffering - There are no miracles in Buddhism; suffering has definite causes. Buddha was like a physician who diagnoses a patient and finds the cause of his disease. That is why he was often called the physician of life. The cause of suffering is ignorance.

3) The overcoming or transcending of the causes of suffering. Ignorance the cause of suffering must and can be overcome or transcended. Therefore Buddhism is the way of enlightenment.

4) The way to overcome the cause of suffering. The way is the” Eightfold Path”.

• The Eightfold Path is symbolized in the wheel of law or wheel of life, which is the international symbol of Buddhism. The eight (8) spokes of the wheel represent the eight ways of life or law which are in motion. The wheel symbolizes “ Motion”. Life is dynamic and ever in motion. The eight spokes spread out from the hub which symbolizes truth, and the spokes are encompassed by the tire or rim which represents wisdom and compassion.

The Eight Fold Path

1)  Right Understanding

2)  Right Thinking

3)  Right Speech

4)  Right Conduct

5)  Right Effort

6)  Right Occupation

7)  Right Mindfulness

8)  Right Meditation

• By living the Eightfold Path, one can overcome the causes of trouble and suffering.

• “Right” as used throughout the Eightfold Path is very important. It is not right compared with wrong. It is right in the absolute sense and not in a moral or relative sense. There is only the right. The right is the transcended right which is over and beyond the duality of right and wrong. Right or truth changes according to different situations and conditions and times. There is no unchanging permanent static truth or right . therefore the right means in an absolute and religious sense and not in a moral or ethical sense. Right occupation means work to which one can put one’s whole life. It is a life work. Many people think of work as a means for making a living. They choose a job because of pay prestige or because it is easy. But right occupation means life itself. Every work is noble and right if it is one’s life work. The life of dedication is the right occupation and the occupation means the life of dedication. Wrong occupation brings continuous troubles and sufferings to oneself and others. Right occupation is very important in right living.

• Buddha understands the world in which we live as continuous change. Because of this continuous changing of all things we are constantly having to meet new situations and this creates many problems and frequently sufferings.

• Ignorance is the cause of all troubles and sufferings. Ignorance about oneself is the greatest ignorance. The Buddhas first teaching in the search of the way was first to know yourself. Socrates devoted his whole life to “know thyself”. And Buddha taught the same way. One must know who he is before he can do anything to achieve peace , happiness or freedom.

• There is no self as such that does not change. This is the doctrine of “non-self” or no-self. What I am is the sum total of other things and people.

• There is no unchanging and eternal self or souls as such. This does not mean the denial of individuality.

• Buddha emphatically emphasized the uniqueness and importance of an individual. “Be yourself” is the important teaching in Buddhism. [Note: Oscar Wilde said “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.”]

• However, one should not cling to a concept of an unchanging self.

• Only when I see myself truly, Gautama Buddha is present in me.

Thoughts For The New Year

• “Shinnen Akemashite Omedeto” means A happy new year greeting in Japanese, It means literally congratulations that a new year has opened up.

• As I read the accounts of teachings of Gautama Buddha, I saw that more people became his disciples because of his profound understanding and warmth than because of convincing reason or rationality. That is why there are no missionaries propagating Buddhism.

• Another thought for the new year is the way of “let it go” or non-attachment. We cling too much to many things. We create troubles tensions and many problems because we are so possessive and clinging. We have to learn the doctrine of non-attachment and “let it go”. Let it go does not mean carelessness or neglect just a non-attachment is not indifference or aloofness. It is simply freedom from, clinging and possessiveness

• When you do something do it with all your might. Put your life into it. But do not possess or be possessed by it. Do not cling to it. When finished let it go.

• Lovers should love but should not possess. When love becomes possession it spoils.

• Money is a wonderful thing and a very important thing in modern life but when one clings to it he becomes a miser and when one is possess by money there is no life.

• If one clings to opposition that becomes anger.

• If one clings to well being that becomes greed

• It is so easy to cling to words and actions that others have said and done in the past and thus we create problems.

• We cling to the past and neglect the present.

• The world and life are continually changing so instead of clinging to the past we have to live a fresh new life each day.

• Nor should one cling to the future and neglect the present, because the future is unknown and yet to come. We should live the best in the present.

• In the last analysis, all thins in this world and life come and go as they will. Let the way take the ways and let go your own clinging. This is the greatest release.

• Even to life we should not cling but let it go and we are able to live freely.

Story Of A Crutch

• Buddhism is a religion of enlightenment and a way of life. It is not a religion of belief.

• Buddhism teaches to see and understand life and things correctly as they are and teaches right living

• The purpose of all religions is to solve human problems

• Buddhism teaches a self-responsible way of life.

• Thee are much suffering and many problems but we should neither try to ignore or escape them nor should we depend on an external agent for their solution

• Don’t Buddhists pray or ask for mercy to Buddha? Oh, no. Buddha is not a god of any kind. Buddha is a man who has attained enlightenment. He is a teacher who wants us to become like himself free independent and enlightened.

• “Nembutsu” (namo amida butsu) is an expression of gratitude. Nembutsu is a voice that is manifested when the eternal or true life is realized in the individuals life. It is an inner voice of man when the finite and infinite are unified or when subject and object become one. It is great feeling of gratitude when the ego self disappears and completely becomes one with others.

Selflessness

• Walt Whitman once said that modern people think that self is something that lies between ones shoes and ones hat. That is far from the truth. Buddha said the essence of all things is selfless. What we think of as the self is very temporal and an illusion. Most people think “I” is the most important thing. I believe this or I did that or I have the right etc. But in fact, “I” is the sum total of all other people and things. My body is given to me by my parents, the food I eat is provided by others, the clothing I wear is provided by others, the languages I speak have been learned from others, the way I think have been learned Thus all that I am is the sum total of others. There is no “I” as such apart from others. “I” has many states always changing.

• The essence of nature of life is self-less. Only when one is in selflessness is their real peace, beauty and happiness. In selflessness is true self. When a mother does things for her child she does everything for the child without reservation. We say the mother sacrifices for her child but it is not sacrifice. It is really a fulfillment of her life because mother and child are one. Woman is frail but mother is strong because a mother becomes selfless when she has a child.

• Buddha taught selflessness as one of his three basic teachings. It is our mistaken ego selfishness that causes all human troubles and sufferings. We do not realize that we are literally able to live and enjoy life because of other people and things. If one really understand this truth he cannot help but become humble and appreciate others. Buddhism is the way of selflessness.

The Minds Eye

• We need enlightenment or philosophy or religion because we are not satisfied with what we have or with our life today.

• Enlightenment is a new point of view in our life and in the world finding a nde3 angle to see things.

• In neurosis there is something in the mind that the person cannot pass over he cannot solve his problems he is unable to control his own mind. The neurotic mind is all covered up and tightened

• Our inner essence wishes to be free and can be free but some external things stop the freedom of our mind. To have Satori or enlighten oneself is to free oneself from external bondage.

• Everyone is free nothing hinders if you awaken to that true essence of man the true nature of man. To this end Buddha teaches meditation contemplation.

• In Buddhist meditation or contemplation a person becomes quiet so as to see things as they are.

• When contradictions cannot be solved one becomes frustrated hysterical neurotic and may finally end in a nervous breakdown.

• A Story about meeting an insane person:

It is similar to meeting an insane person on the sidewalk who happens to spit at you. Not knowing he is insane you become very angry you are bewildered insulted. A little farther down the street you learn that this person is insane. Now that you see him as he is you are no longer bewildered and hurt. If you had understood that man as being insane you would not have been insulted by what he did. You would have paid no attention and not become angry. You have to see a person as he is. [you have eliminated your problem by eliminating ignorance]

• Buddha taught the seeing of the true nature of yourself as well as of all other things.

• All neurosis is this conflict: something of your own that you want to unfold and something that stops this unfolding. Enlightenment unbinds this knot it is the enlightenment of the totality of your own life.

• We have all experienced partial enlightenment. For example when we have been pondering and pondering on a problem in mathematics and suddenly we find the way to solve it. It is like a flash of light. It brightens. We have new point of view to solve the problem. This is a kind of enlightenment.

• Buddhist enlightenment does not concern one particular thing but the fundamental source of life; the whole life is enlightened and the perspective of life is changed . A new world opens for the person.

• Enlightenment was not just Gautama Buddha’s but you too individually must find this new perspective of life. This new point of view in your life and in all things. That is “Satori”. It must be yours and can be yours. No one can give it to you. You have to find it yourself. Yes it is difficult but it is yours and there it is. But in fact you do not look for Satori because you are already in it. You are in that enlightenment just open your mind and there you will find new light new perspective.

Honesty

• Honesty is one of the most important qualities of mans integrity and every religion teaches us to be honest as in the Ten Commandments “Thou shalt not lie.” And in the Buddhist Five Precepts “Do not speak a word which is not true.” It is the fundamental principle of ethical law and it is said “Honesty is the best policy.”

• The Five Precepts referred to above include:

1. Do not kill

2. Do not steal

3. Do not engage in sexual misconduct

4. Do not make false speech

5. Do not take intoxicants

• It is more important to be honest to oneself than honest to others.

• It is easy to tell lies to others but one can not cheat himself.

• Dishonesty to oneself is the cause of disturbances in one’s inner life, and it is the cause of unhappiness and neurosis

Right Understanding

• Right understanding is the first step of the Noble Eightfold Path and it is the most important one.

• We are long trained and habituated to understand things dualistically and it is so hard to transcend the dualistic concept, to understand thins in totality or in oneness.

• Right understanding is the understanding of things as they are without any comparison. It is a way of viewing things as unique totality.

• We judge things in comparison and say this is good or bad, right or wrong, beautiful or ugly. We judge things according to our taste and convenience. And again we judge things by our own standard and say that one is civilized or uncivilized or barbarian. To compare and judge things by dividing is the characteristic of the Western World, which is based on the dualistic concept of creator and created, God and man, reward and punishment etc. Perhaps this is a development of the Judeo-Christian concept of dualism of creator and created. According to this way of thinking and understanding, everything must be judged as right or wrong this or that. It is a philosophy of either or and a culture of morality. In this philosophy winning is very important. Unless you win you must lose. In such a world co-existence or becoming one is very difficult. There role if wife is right then husband is wrong. It must be democracy or else communism. One must be a friend or else an enemy. If one believes a certain faith then the tries to convert other because he thinks that his is the best and the others are wrong or inferior. The “I m right and he is wrong” idea makes one aggressive and accusatory and become self-praise and conceit. On the other hand one become pessimistic and has a defeated attitude by saying they are rich but I am poor or she is beautiful but I am not. In such a world there are always competition conflict fear and all kinds of complexes.

• Right understanding is not such comparison. It goes beyond relative values. It transcends dualistic comparison. Right understanding means to recognize the uniqueness of each to understand things as they are.

• A piano is a piano, a violin a violin, a flute a flute, a drum a drum. All are unique and independent but when they are played together, a symphony is created.

• You need not compare yourself with the next person. "You" can not be defeated because you are “you”.

Healthful Outlook Toward Life and Death

• An aged person has dignity and wisdom and should be respected and honored. In traditional Oriental homes the aged are most loved and respected. Grandparents are more loved than parents by children.

• The aged should live as aged not competing with the young and vice versa.

• To compare and compete is to create problems. The aged yield the young listen; this harmony and the law of complementaries, just as heaven and earth and plus and minus and yin and yang harmonize and become one. Life is one; this is the beauty in life. Unity in diversity; this is the beauty in nature. This is the same as the concept of different unique instruments making an orchestra or yin and yang coming together to form one.

• It is better to die in nobleness than to live in dishonesty and disgrace. How to die nobly and peacefully as well as live nobly and peacefully is religion. When one live each eternal moment full and honestly, he can die most nobly and peacefully. There is an old saying in Japan that it is better to die as a precious jewel breaks than to exist as a broken brick.

• Death is not much of a problem but how to live is an important problem.

Beyond the relative world

• We are living in the relative world that is to say we are related to each other. Indeed we are interrelated and interdependent. No one is able to live without other people and things.

• We have tendencies to oppose others to blame others and this is the cause of sufferings in human relations.

• But for her to condemn him fight with him become angry with him become disgusted with life pity herself and become ill and neglect her children in that she is at fault

• She must establish her own life which will not be suppressed or victimized by others.

• I was annoyed by someone who did not know any better and I am wasting my time and my life by becoming annoyed.

• We are living in a culture of dichotomy and we objectify others as if they are in opposition to us.

• When we see others in us or ourselves in others we overcome opposition and the relative world and become one.

Buddhism, Zen and Nembutsu

• Buddhism is a way of life as compared with a religion of believing.

• How to live how to find yourself in the multiplicity the complexity of life today is to find the simple pure life which you are seeding. This is what Zen teaches.

• No external agent is responsible for your happiness or misery.

• Zen primarily emphasizes meditation. Shin emphasizes nembutsu. While these approaches may sound different, they really are not. Both reach to complete liberation deliverance and attainment of freedom.

• Through attachment men often become slaves of many things. If one becomes a slave of his own passion this passion grows in him and becomes a misery to himself and others.

• Regardless of which text is used in the various schools of Buddhism all teach this way of life to come to enlightenment to deliverance . the content of enlightenment is Nirvana.

• “Zen”, the Japanese word, is “Ch’an” in Chinese.

• A man is not an independent being as many teenagers think. A man is being who is very closely interdependent and interrelated with other beings.

• True Zen is not a haphazard egotistical individual thing.

• A man whatever he says or does puts his whole responsibility and life into his every word.

• Since your so much for it give your life for it. Just don’t play for plays sake, but play until your death.

• Japanese mothers when their sons went to war always used to say “Go and die.” This go and die in Japanese means to risk your life to give everything you have.

• The Buddhist way is to put everything in when you do something not necessarily in war but in organizational work or in any line of work.

• Ghandi fulfilled his inner urge to live a life of truth. He lived a life of oneness. This world of oneness is Nembutsu. Knowing that the so called pair of opposites, you and I, society and I, country and I, parent and child, wife and husband, God and man, creator and created, body and soul, spiritual and material, are all really one, this is Nembutsu. Not one member of any of these pairs can exist without the other.

• While we are living in complexity this complexity is not haphazard but is definite interdependency interrelationship.

• Nembutsu is the unity of subject and object. Namu-Amida-Butsu means that Buddha and I are one, my country and I are one, entire humanity and I are one.

• Each one of us in a small way is most honorable. Each has a truly sincere purpose to carry out and realize his own potentialities. Therefore, what ever we do, we should do it with all our being. Such fulfillment of ones own life means the fulfillment of the world as a whole. This is Nembutsu and this is the essence of Zen.

• Brotherhood is not words nor concept nor something just to talk about. It is life in itself that is lived together in “oneness”.

• Just imagine how many people are involved in this suit and which I keep myself warm. My very life is the life of other people and things. Whether you like it or not, there is brotherhood and you are involved in it.

• Because all life is one we respect every life. When we realize the reality of our interdependence we cannot help becoming harmonious peaceful and appreciative of one another and of all things.

Non-Dichotomization

• Twice annually we observe O-Higan. Astronomically, it is on O-Higan day that the sun rises directly from the east and sets directly in the west. Thus the length of the day and night are equal. Therefore for many centuries the one week during this time of the equinox (equal night) has been selected as O-Higan week.

• O-Higan also represents a season not too hot, not too cold, thus symbolizing the middle path of Buddhism

• Higan means the other shore

• The destination goal end or Higan is eventually reached if we take each step in the perfect way. If the means are perfect it is only natural to reach the perfect end.

• The thought of Hegel, the German philosopher was recognition of all, acceptance of all, this is all right that is all right take this in take that in. The components of Hegel’s dialectic are thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.

• Thesis is the fact of the current status quo. The new element opposing the current thesis is the antithesis. Putting together the thesis and the antithesis makes the synthesis. This is the process of life. This is the process of the condition of society. Hegel’s thought is not denying a thing.

• Kierkegaard’s thought on the other hand was selecting one thing and denying all others. That is the basis of his existentialism taking a certain thing and affirming it and denying others.

• Hegel and Kierkegaard represent two methods of a way of life.

• Kierkegaard denied all but affirmed the existence of God.

• Carlyle the English philosopher for his significant way of life said that complete negation is complete affirmation. This seems very close to the way Buddha taught.

• In Buddhism especially in the Prajnaparamita sutra non-ego is taught. Often the terminology sunyata or void or nothingness or Suchness indicates complete negation nothingness. In the Prajnaparamita sutra negation is also negated. If there is anything affirmative besides negation it is not negation. So in the Prajnaparamita sutra negation is also negated. To me this negative attitude is very important. In the west everything is the way of affirmation while in the orient the general way of expression and understanding is through negation. Affirmation limits itself. Only through negation can the comprehensive truth or absolute be expressed.

• We are so habituated in the west: we do not want to be negative we do not want to be passive we always want to be aggressive positive active and dynamic. In the orient the attitude is more passive more negative and more static but this static quality or negativeness is not relative to positiveness or affirmation

• Kierkegaard and Kant negated everything with the one exception that they affirmed God. Negating all and establishing something this is not negation in the Buddhist sense. The Buddhist way is that negation is also negated. Nothing is affirmed but all is negated that there is no affirmation is the real affirmation. Continuous change is permanency.

• Shinshu teaches “other power” denying the self and relying on the “other power”. This is a very dangerous way of understanding: negating the self and finding the other power. No it is not two things. There is no other power besides this self. The very negation of the self is the other power. Most people understand this as negating or denying the self and then finding the other power. Denying the self and depending on the other power that is dualistic. It is not that kind of negation but the very negation is affirmation. When self is lost there is the other power. The losing is the other power.

• We speak of unity the unity of two things. That is not true unity. For example it is considered that wife and husband are united into one harmonious life. That is the general western concept of unity that wife as an individual and husband as an individual are put together into unity oneness. But Buddhist oneness is not that kind of oneness. When the husband loses his ego, the husband himself, or when the wife loses her ego, the wife herself, when all is lost there is oneness. Oneness is not putting together into one. But when everything is lost into nothingness that is oneness . Not uniting but losing complete negation is complete affirmation.

• Our tendency is to dichotomize everything and they try to make unity harmony between the two. There will be no harmony when you put two things together. Only when you lose yourself do you find yourself. This is the basic understanding of Buddhism: sunyata or nothingness or Suchness.

• Throw away self power. The very act of losing the self power is the other power.

• Honesty means there is no lie. You do not quit the lie and establish the truth. No, that is not it. It is simultaneous oneness. That is why one is many and many are one as it said in Buddhism.

• When I examine myself I see that I am full of ego. Al the problems miseries unhappiness uneasiness are ego it is nothing but ego. If you have any troubles in your life any worries in your life it is nothing but your ego. Ego creates problems miseries and sufferings. Ego creates attachment and clinging.

• It is not non-ego as apart from ego but in the very fact of realizing my ego, I reach non-ego the Higan.

• Higan as usually taught is the six Paramitas:

1. Sharing

2. Observing the precepts

3. Patience

4. Effort

5. Meditation

6. Wisdom

• These are six virtues or six perfections. If you take them seriously, each one of them leads into non-ego selflessness.

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