roaroftigressII.qxd 1/16/05 12:23 PM Page i Roar of the Tigress VOLUME II roaroftigressII.qxd 1/16/05 12:23 PM Page ii roaroftigressII.qxd 1/16/05 12:23 PM Page iii Roar of the Tigress The Oral Teachings of Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett: Western Woman and Zen Master VOLUME II Zen for Spiritual Adults Lectures Inspired by the Shábágenzá of Eihei Dágen Edited and with a Preface by Rev. Daizui MacPhillamy SHASTA ABBEY PRESS MOUNT SHASTA, CALIFORNIA roaroftigressII.qxd 1/16/05 12:23 PM Page iv First Edition—2005 © 2005 Order of Buddhist Contemplatives All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form except for brief excerpts for purposes of review without written permission from the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives, 3724 Summit Drive, Mt. Shasta, California 96067-9102; (530) 926-1053. Frontispiece: Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett in Meditation Hall at Shasta Abbey. The frontispiece photograph and quotations of passages from the Shábágenzá are used with permission of Shasta Abbey. Printed in the United Shasta of America ISBN: 0-930066-24-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 00-131505 The TransIndic Transliterator font used to print this work is available from Linguist’s Software, Inc., PO Box 580, Edmonds, WA 98020-0580 USA, tel (425) 775-1130. roaroftigressII.qxd 1/16/05 12:23 PM Page v Dedicated in grateful memory to Rev. Master Háun Jiyu-Kennett “The Light of Buddha is increasing in brilliance and the Wheel of the Dharma is always turning.” roaroftigressII.qxd 1/16/05 12:23 PM Page vi The Gift of the Dharma excels all other gifts. This book has been donated for free distribution. The production and printing costs of this book were donated in gratitude for the teaching of Rev. Master Jiyu- Kennett and the hard work and dedication of Rev. Master Daizui MacPhillamy, who wished to pass on her teaching. The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives supports its many monasteries, priories and monks. For further information about the Order, please check the OBC website: www.obcon.org If you would like to help the Order with future Dharma publications, please contact us at: Order of Buddhist Contemplatives 3724 Summit Drive Mt. Shasta, CA 96067-9102 USA Phone: (530) 926-1053 E-mail: [email protected] As this is a Dharma text, please treat it with respect. If you no longer need it, please pass it on to others who would use it. roaroftigressII.qxd 1/16/05 12:23 PM Page vii Contents Preface ix Introduciton xxi 1. Existence, Time, Flow 1 2. All is One and All is Different 35 3. It is Enough to know the Unborn 53 4. The Lotus Flower of the Dharma 63 5. Beyond the Dream 77 6. The Great Ocean of Meditation 101 7. Live Fully; Die Fully 125 8. The Moon of Our True Nature 131 9. The Deeper Meaning of Precepts 143 10. The Practice of Mountains and Water 165 11. Always Becoming Buddha 177 12. The Training of a Bodhisattva 191 13. How to Read the Scriptures 203 14. Training After Realization 225 15. Living Beyond Buddha 241 Appendix 1–4 261 About Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett 277 About the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives 285 roaroftigressII.qxd 1/16/05 12:23 PM Page viii roaroftigressII.qxd 1/16/05 12:23 PM Page ix Preface I would be sitting in the mediation hall, my fellow trainees meditating quietly beside me, when on occasion Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett would enter, offer incense, ascend the Dharma seat, recite the Triple Refuge, and announce, “Right, today I would like to talk on a chapter in Great Master Eihei Dágen’s Shábágenzá.” A silent rush of energy would stir the hall, for we knew that she was going to speak on the deeper meanings of Zen. I would increase my efforts to keep my attention alert and to drop off mental chatter quickly, for I knew that both her words and those of Master Dágen were to be heard by an open heart and not to be fil- tered through an analytical mind. It is a selection of these advanced lectures that I wish to offer to you here, in the second volume of Roar of the Tigress. It is not uncommon, when a Zen master wishes to speak of the deeper things of Zen, that he or she will draw inspiration from masters of old. Dágen himself often does this in the chapters of the Shábágenzá, citing passages, poems, and dialogues from his ancestral teachers, using their words as a springboard from which to take off and give the teaching which he knew from his own experience. Rev. Master Jiyu did the same with Dágen’s chapters from the Shábágenzá. Therefore, what you will find in the pages to follow are often three layers of teaching: passages of teach- ing from the Buddha or ancient Zen masters, what these teachings have inspired Master Dágen to say, and what both have inspired Rev. Master Jiyu to say. There is a richness and concentration of teaching in this type of material that has implications for how best to ix roaroftigressII.qxd 1/16/05 12:23 PM Page x x u Roar of the Tigress read it. This is not a book to be read quickly from cover to cover for entertainment or information. I would suggest a slow reading, allowing time for portions of it to sink in before proceeding to the next section, with a minimum of several days between chapters to permit their content to be digested. As editor, I have tried to make sure that you are not forced to re-read passages simply in order to make sense of them, but you may well wish to re-read some in order to allow their meaning to deepen and broaden. The lectures upon which this book is based were meant for mature religious trainees. Some of the talks were given solely to monastics, others to both monastics and householders, but all assume that the listeners are commit- ted to a religious practice and have some years of experi- ence in doing it on a daily basis. While the first volume of Roar of the Tigress contains material specifically selected to form an introduction to Zen training, this volume is “Zen for spiritual adults.” I should say a bit more about the Shábágenzá. It is the collected writings and Dharma talks of the great Japanese master, Eihei Dágen, who brought Sátá Zen from China to Japan in the Thirteenth Century. These are difficult texts, often written in a convoluted and even coded style of writ- ing. Although they are generally regarded as the most impor- tant writings in all of Japanese Sátá Zen, they are also acknowledged to be hard to penetrate. It is likely that some of the chapters in this book will also be difficult for a given reader, while other chapters may seem to flow or even “sing” directly to the heart. I would advise patience with the former, neither trying to force more meaning from them nor feeling badly because they don’t seem to be speaking to you. One often finds, with these things, that time and perspective on roaroftigressII.qxd 1/16/05 12:23 PM Page xi Preface u xi religious training changes what works as teaching. A chap- ter that speaks to you today may not do so next year, and one that is confusing now may speak clearly in the future. The advanced nature of the chapters of the Shábogenzá, and of the talks which they inspired Rev. Master Jiyu to give, does not arise because the topics which they address are intellectually complex or spiritually esoteric: it comes from the fact that they are trying to speak of things which are difficult to put into words. For example, while it is rel- atively easy to give instructions on the postures conducive to good meditation or to outline the basic principles of the Buddhist Precepts, it is another matter altogether to explain how to bring the mind of meditation to bear upon all aspects of life or to show how the spirit behind the Precepts is inher- ent in all things. It is reasonably simple to explain the Buddha’s teaching of anicca, the nature of all things to change and be impermanent, but it is quite something else to explore in detail the implications of this for human expe- rience and for the nature of the universe itself. Because these things are difficult to speak of, the words which are used here, whether by the Ancestors, by Great Master Dágen, or by Rev. Master Jiyu, are words which speak primarily to the spiritual intuition, the “heart,” rather than to the intellect. This is another reason why the chapters to follow should not be read quickly or casually. It takes time for such words to reach an open heart rather than be fil- tered through a critical mind. In fact, this unhurried, open- hearted way of reading is what makes this a volume for mature trainees, since understanding these chapters does not so much depend upon a familiarity with Buddhist terms, or even a background in spiritual experience, as it does upon the ability of the reader to suspend categorizing and roaroftigressII.qxd 1/16/05 12:23 PM Page xii xii u Roar of the Tigress judging and to allow the words to communicate directly from heart to heart. Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett believed that there was a common core and spiritual essence within all of the world’s great religions.