| |
in which everybody is: the birds and the trees and the mountains and you and all the Buddhas -- past, present, future. The whole existence is in the state of SATORI. This is another way of saying that God is everywhere, in everything; that God is the soul of everything. Buddhahood is everybody's nature. And the second is the SATORI-event. Every man is from all eternity in the state of SATORI. The SATORI-event is only that historic, anecdotal instance when man suddenly ceases not recognizing that he has always been in the SATORI-state.
You are a Buddha. When you recognize it, or when you remember it, that is the SATORI-event. The SATORI-event is only a window into the SATORI-state, and this SATORI-event has apparent reality only in the eyes of the man who has not yet experienced it. One who has experienced it recognizes that he has always been in SATORI. That is why we cannot speak of progress, evolution, attainment, realization, etcetera, etcetera.
Yoka's Master, Huineng, says 'There is no accomplishment. There is no realization.' And then it follows as a matter of course that the efforts towards realization are all useless.
Then why do the Zen people make efforts? -- just to see their futility. Slowly the futility is proved, and then one is left only with a constant question. In Zen it is called 'the great doubt'; this precedes the SATORI-event. The realization of SATORI consists in realizing that the idea of realization is illusory, and the idea of THE WAY to realization is illusory, because all is realization from the very beginning -- it is already the case.
This is the most fundamental vision of Zen. If you understand it, then Yoka Daishi's SHODOKA, the Song of Enlightenment, can be easily understood.
Now the song:
DO YOU NOT SEE HIM,
THE REALLY WISE MAN, ALWAYS AT EASE, UNMOVED?
HE DOES NOT GET RID OF ILLUSION, NOR DOES HE
SEEK FOR THE (SO-CALLED) TRUTH.
IGNORANCE IS INTRINSICALLY THE BUDDHA NATURE,
OUR ILLUSORY UNREAL BODY IS THE COSMIC BODY.
Statements of immense significance. Statements of great rebellion against all orthodox religions. Statements that can shock you. Statements
|
|
|