Freedom and Tyranny A series of Dharma Talks and Zen Mondo presented by Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho Great Matter Publications © 2006 Great Matter Publications 240 Daly Avenue Ottawa, Ontario Canada K1N 6G2 http://www.wwzc.org Transcription – Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho, Guillaume Bélanger, Michelle Filion, Shirley Griffiths Proof reading – Ven. Chunen ino, Ven. Senbo shramon, Charles Enman Layout – Ven. Senbo shramon Front cover photograph – New York Skyline by Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho, 2002 Back cover portrait – photograph by Rev. Jido anagarika ISBN 1-895082-24-2 4 CONTENT It’s Too Easy.......13 The Tiny Book of Stopping and Looking Talk 1: Samatha.......19 Talk 2: Vipasyana.......22 Talk 3: Balance.......25 The Posture of Practice 1: Zazen.......31 2: Kinhin.......36 Life and Death and All That 1: Ring Around a Rosy.......40 2: Change.......48 Dongshan’s Hot and Cold 1: Hot.......56 2: Cold.......62 The Four Great Vows 1: All Beings.......67 2: Endless Obsessions.......74 3: Dharma Gates.......78 4: Limitless Awakening.......80 Being Breathed Part 1.......83 Part 2.......89 Part 3.......95 Part 4.......100 5 Vain and Vanished.......107 Mind the Gap.......121 Maintaining the Way.......143 Freedom and Tyranny 1: Overthrowing the Inner Dictator.......156 2: Isms and Ists: The Language of Self-image.......167 3: The Makeup of Coercion.......173 The Point of Wisdom.......185 The Bridge.......197 Songs and Poems Backpacking the Straight Path.......206 The Facts of Life.......207 Poem for a student.......209 Autobiographical Afterthoughts.......211 6 Foreward by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi In the Daibonten-o-monbutsu-ketsugi-kyo, the Sutra of Questions and Answers between Mahabrahman and the Buddha, it says, “Then Sakyamuni Buddha, on Vulture Peak Mountain in the western lands, in the midst of an assembly of millions, held up an udumbara flower and blinked. At that moment the Venerable Mahakasyapa smiled. Then Sakyamuni Buddha said, “I hold the Treasury of the Eye of True Utter Reality, the luminous Awareness beyond reference point. This I transmit to Mahakasyapa.” Thus was the mythological moment that the real Transmission of the Dharma of Awake Awareness is traditionally said to have begun. From India to China it passed through ages of legend until the Sixth Chinese Ancestor Dajian Huineng passed it face-to-face to Qingyuan Xingsi and Nanyue Huiarang. From Qingyuan it continued through bodies and minds until Eihei Dogen zenji received it by dropping through the bodymind. From there it has continued to here, passed from Joshu Dainen zenji to myself and from myself to Shikai Zuiko, Jinmyo Renge, and perhaps many others if there are years yet to come. Shikai Zuiko osho-ajari not only holds up a flower, not only blinks, but also smiles and laughs. In her Dharma Talks and Mondo she presents the Dharma of mindfulness and insight with mindfulness and insight yet also with a modern voice that is easy to hear and to listen to. Some of the words of that voice are printed here. I hope that in reading them you can hear her laughter and find yourself, also laughing. With palm to palm, Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi Abbot of Dainen-ji and the White Wind Zen Community September 16, 2006 7 Introduction These wonderful Teachings are a collection of Dharma Talks and mondo (direct question and answer) given by the Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho since December 1991. Most of them were recorded in the context of sittings over the course of Dharma Assemblies, others during our ongoing evening sittings at the Zen Centre of Ottawa. Through the generous efforts of many monastics and students, they were then tran- scribed so that the public can now benefit from reading them. It is important to note that these Teachings were not read from a text that was written in advance but were in- stead presented in a more or less spontaneous fashion and have been transcribed with very few changes from the re- cordings. That being said, the reader will often notice that the style is not literary but more conversational. This is even more evident in the case of mondo, which are questions and answers that arise through the interaction between Teacher and student. In these Dharma Talks and mondo, Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho invites us to explore and question the ways in which we become entrenched in our ideas and unquestioned as- sumptions about ourselves and the world and move past them to step directly into the ground of open experiencing. From this ground, intelligent choices can be made on the basis of our moment-to-moment experience. From this ground, the choices we can make are clear and free of the rules that stem from the closed circles of conceptualization. From this ground, the choices we can make become simple and obvious. From this ground, we can choose to stop suf- fering and instead begin to enjoy the landscape of our lives. A Teacher like Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho can help us do this. Not because she has some special magic wand or su- perior ideas to teach us, but because the process of being 8 human is the same for every human being. And the ways in which we make ourselves and others suffer, regardless of the content of the suffering, arise from the same basic mechanism of self-image. She’s been there. She’s done that. And today, she can point to each and every one of us, with great dignity and humour, how we too can stop it. And be- gin to have some real fun. You need not believe it. You need not be convinced by it. But you can do it. And Shikai osho is a living example of this. “We all have recognized, or are in the process of recognizing more clearly, that we can and must practice to stop that cycle of tyranny.” — Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho, from “Overthrowing the Inner Dictator” Ven. Senbo shramon 9 Dedication “Freedom and Tyranny” is dedicated to Zen Master Anzan Hoshin roshi, my Teacher. Freely offering this price- less practice of Sho Jo No Shu as taught by Dogen’s Line- age of Zen, he taught me that freedom from suffering and the tyranny of self-image is the realized Way. On March 28,1989 Anzan Hoshin roshi wrote these instructions for me: Komyo Doka Instructions for Shikai anagarika When there is no seeking within or groping without, then the complexity of fabrication releases into the simplicity of luminosity. Then all states simply occur as they are and do not waver, do not gather, do not disperse. Nothing joined, nothing broken, luminosity dances on the ground of essencelessness, bodies and minds arising and going around it irridescent and playful as jewellery. This ground of essencelessness is the primordial mandala of all the Buddhas and Ancestors, the root of formless forms. 10 When there is no seeking or groping, within or without, then the original Buddha Mahavairocana breathes in and out through your face. Now I understand. The debt to my Teacher and the Lineage can never be repaid. But repayment isn’t the issue. The only possible thing to do is what my Teacher and the Lineage did. That is to offer body, breath, speech, and mind to practice and teach others to practice and to wake up to the inherent freedom of their life in this moment. Gassho, Shikai Zuiko osho-ajari Dainen-ji February 9,2005 11 “Dark blue lightens. Morning bird sings.” Summer Palace, Beijing, China Shikai Zuiko 1991 12 It’s Too Easy Shuso Hossen Dharma Talk By Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho With Commentary by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi Zazen-ji, December 12, 1991 Commentary by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi It’s like this: No body, no mind, no time, no space, nothing to be aware of because there is never anything apart from Awareness. And yet it can look like this: bodies and minds and time and space and so here we are. One way of talking about the timeless presencing of Space, Activity and Knowing exerting itself as this whole moment, always, is to say that in 1979 on this day, my Teacher, Yasuda Joshu Dainen Hakukaze roshi died. Tonight here we are. Some three years ago, Ven. Joan Shikai Woodward shamini took postulant’s vows. After serv- ing the postulancy and two years of training as novice, dur- ing the Rohatsu she was acknowledged as a full monk and part of this transition, part of this growth, part of this un- folding of practice, is a tradition called Shuso Hossen. The Shuso is a novice monk who acts as an exemplar of prac- tice who functions as the presentation of the mind of prac- tice amidst the students and then at the end of that period of training the Shusho-shi presents a Dharma Talk to the Sangha. The passage of time, the passage of moments, the continuity of Dharma expresses itself in the commitment of each of us, the choice to be interested in your lives, to be committed to the process of living, to unfold for yourselves who and what you truly are. This evening, the Dharma continues. 13 [Roshi strikes the floor once with the hansaku] It’s Too Easy [Roshi strikes the gong 10 times, Shikai osho strikes the hansaku on the floor once and begins to speak] The heart beats; chest rises and falls with the breath, the sound of the heart beating in the ears, the eyes subtly flickering, focusing in and out in rhythm with the heart beat. We sit and we practice this whole bodymind. And then we try.