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| | | Book Name: Zen - The Solitary Bird, Cuckoo of the Forest | Previous Next | |
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"BIRD-NEST ZENJI," AND JAKUSO ZENJI, MEANING "MAGPIE NEST," BY HIS CONTEMPORARIES BECAUSE THE BIRDS AND MAGPIES BUILT THEIR NESTS BESIDE HIM.
WHEN THE PREFECT OF THE DISTRICT, CALLED HAKURAKUTEN, CAME TO VISIT DORIN, HE REMARKED, "YOU ARE IN A VERY DANGEROUS PLACE!"
DORIN SAID, "YOU ARE IN A more DANGEROUS ONE!"
HAKURAKUTEN ASKED, "WHAT'S DANGEROUS ABOUT BEING IN CHARGE OF THIS PROVINCE?"
DORIN REPLIED, "HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT YOU ARE NOT IN DANGER WHEN YOUR PASSIONS ARE BURNING LIKE FIRE AND YOU CAN'T STOP WORRYING ABOUT THIS AND THAT?"
HAKURAKUTEN THEN ASKED, "WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF BUDDHISM?"
DORIN ANSWERED IN THE WORDS OF SHAKYAMUNI:
NOT TO DO ANY EVIL,
TO DO ALL GOOD,
TO PURIFY ONESELF --
THIS IS THE TEACHING
OF ALL THE BUDDHAS.
HAKURAKUTEN SAID, "ANY CHILD OF THREE KNOWS THIS."
DORIN SAID, "THAT'S SO -- ANY CHILD OF THREE KNOWS IT, BUT EVEN A MAN OF EIGHTY CAN'T DO IT."
IN AN INCIDENT BETWEEN A MONK AND SEPPO, THE MONK ASKED SEPPO, "I HAVE SHAVED MY HEAD, PUT ON BLACK CLOTHES, RECEIVED THE VOWS -- WHY AM I NOT TO BE CONSIDERED A BUDDHA?"
SEPPO SAID, "THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THAN AN ABSENCE OF GOODNESS."
Maneesha, the greatest friend is within you; so is the greatest enemy. Without you there is no danger -- all is absolutely beautiful and silent. It is within you that jealousy is burning, anger is poisoning; it is within you that greed is growing. And all these together are clouding your consciousness and destroying your individuality, your essential existence.
Zen is not concerned with words, it is concerned with your being. It is not a philosophy. It is not even a religion. It is a way of seeing, a way of being, a very strange style of living through consciousness and not living through unconsciousness.
Before I enter into this sutra, I am reminded of Gautam Buddha, who is the original source of the only religiousness that has come into existence in the world. There have been religions -- many, almost three hundred religions are already in existence -- but religiousness is absolutely absent.
Religion is possible to practice, just
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