SHINJINMEI 119-130
This text is the basis of discussion (not recorded) during Study Group on 11/27/2022.
Format: Bold is Shinjinmei text (translation by Shinzen Young). Italics is commentary by Joshu Sasaki Roshi. Regular text is comment by Gendo
119 In the realm of true Suchness
If we say that suchness expands and contracts repetitively and forms the cosmos, then suchness is zero, is the Dharma.
Suchness, things as they are, the truth about everything, is the alternation of formation and decay. If formation is taken to be plus and decay to be minus, then the sum total is zero. That activity of plus and minus that defines everything, and whose totality is zero, or emptiness, empty of separate identity, inclusive of all, also called Dharma.
120 There is neither ‘self’ or ‘other.’
So the cosmos which suchness manifests is zero, is empty. Thus the Dharma1 body is not self, not other.
Whatever appears in consciousness is always known relative to something else, plus in relation to minus, an activity of discrimination carried out by the “self” from the perspective of its preferences. What is experienced as “truth” is the whole picture, plus and minus together, empty of separate identity, in which the perspective that affirms a separate self has disappeared.
121 To come directly into harmony with this reality
If the discriminating self wants to know its existence as one with the cosmos, rather than facing the cosmos as an object:
This is the question that naturally arises in meditation practice, “How do I quiet my mind?” revealing that already present is the sense of a truth greater than absorption in the perspective of self and the objects of its concern.
122 We can only say, “Not two.”
Then it must live non-duality which considers life and death not as two opposing things but as one.
What we discover by our efforts is that a truth beyond self and the objects of its concern cannot be found externally, because all pursuit of objects arises from the perspective of a self that discriminates one thing from another, discrimination whose fundamentally distinction is life and death.
123 In being “not two” all is the same.
Because the non-dual dynamic of expanding and contracting forms the whole cosmic continuum from the ultimately large to the ultimately small, all existencee is the very body of non-duality---the same dharma body.
To realize the impermanence that characterizes our experience is to know compassion for others. Or, as ancient Zen teacher Dogen is quoted, “To study Zen is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be illuminated by everything….”
124 All that is, is comprehended in it.
Therefore, conversely, the action of non-duality contains all within. So all individuals each contain the all.
And Dogen goes on to say: “…To be illuminated by everything is to remove the separation between self and other.” To hold both plus and minus, to embrace the whole situation, both riches and poverty, both sickness and health, both life and death, is the experience we call “true love.”
125 The wise in all realms,
Those people respected as wise and thoroughly conversant with the true mode of being of the cosmos
What is called ‘wisdom’ or ‘prajna’ is also called ”the Middle Way,” that frame of mind that holds both sorrow and joy and recognizes the relativity of the two, without ego fixation on one or the other.
126 All enter into this Absolute Reason.
All manifest themselves by participating in this non-dual activity.
Everyone, rich or poor, wise or ignorant, whether they know it or not, have the same true nature.
127 This absolute Reason is beyond time and space.
The non-dual activity does not go on as an act of will projected on an a-priori (unconditionally accepted) world.
Again, if we seek ‘peace of mind’ from the standpoint of self and it's conceptions of time and place, mind only become busier. “Beyond” is beyond self and its willful intentions. The Four Truths begin with attention to dissatisfaction, which, on reflection, is understood as dual in nature, which finds resolution in letting go of the picking and choosing activity that is self.
128 For it, one instant is ten thousand years.
Be it one instant or ten thousand years, the activity of non-duality always manifests the cosmos as zero. So there is nothing (other than it) to compare to it; thus it can be said that it neither expands or contacts.
Time itself is a matter of discriminating one moment in relation to another. We know time as a necessary condition of life in society. Yet, we also experience time differently depending on circumstances. For the baby, one year is a life time; for the old person, the years pass in a flash. Inclusive of both coming and going, both expansion and contraction, time becomes “timeless.’, as when we say it seemed that time itself stood still. Every moment of experience is like this, beginning in timelessness, and in an instant, transformed by the conscious self according to its desires.
129 Whether we see it or not,
Non-duality, i.e. the activity of the Dharma, is always changing---now expanding, now contracting---and so it neither exists nor does it not exist.
Again, peace of mind is not achieved by self and its preferences, by discriminating one thing in relation to another. Or, as it is said, “you cannot make an object of God or truth.” God or truth regarded as object is always viewed from the standpoint of a separate self and its interests.
130 It is manifest everywhere in all directions.
The impoverished world is full of the light of the Dharma’s action.
The truth of a selfless perspective is always happening, from which we are born and to which we return; from which self, as a matter of consciousness, is born in every instant, and to which that self returns again and again. By such we are led to the knowledge that our true nature is inclusive of both our life and our death, experienced as true love.
Format: Bold is Shinjinmei text (translation by Shinzen Young). Italics is commentary by Joshu Sasaki Roshi. Regular text is comment by Gendo
119 In the realm of true Suchness
If we say that suchness expands and contracts repetitively and forms the cosmos, then suchness is zero, is the Dharma.
Suchness, things as they are, the truth about everything, is the alternation of formation and decay. If formation is taken to be plus and decay to be minus, then the sum total is zero. That activity of plus and minus that defines everything, and whose totality is zero, or emptiness, empty of separate identity, inclusive of all, also called Dharma.
120 There is neither ‘self’ or ‘other.’
So the cosmos which suchness manifests is zero, is empty. Thus the Dharma1 body is not self, not other.
Whatever appears in consciousness is always known relative to something else, plus in relation to minus, an activity of discrimination carried out by the “self” from the perspective of its preferences. What is experienced as “truth” is the whole picture, plus and minus together, empty of separate identity, in which the perspective that affirms a separate self has disappeared.
121 To come directly into harmony with this reality
If the discriminating self wants to know its existence as one with the cosmos, rather than facing the cosmos as an object:
This is the question that naturally arises in meditation practice, “How do I quiet my mind?” revealing that already present is the sense of a truth greater than absorption in the perspective of self and the objects of its concern.
122 We can only say, “Not two.”
Then it must live non-duality which considers life and death not as two opposing things but as one.
What we discover by our efforts is that a truth beyond self and the objects of its concern cannot be found externally, because all pursuit of objects arises from the perspective of a self that discriminates one thing from another, discrimination whose fundamentally distinction is life and death.
123 In being “not two” all is the same.
Because the non-dual dynamic of expanding and contracting forms the whole cosmic continuum from the ultimately large to the ultimately small, all existencee is the very body of non-duality---the same dharma body.
To realize the impermanence that characterizes our experience is to know compassion for others. Or, as ancient Zen teacher Dogen is quoted, “To study Zen is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be illuminated by everything….”
124 All that is, is comprehended in it.
Therefore, conversely, the action of non-duality contains all within. So all individuals each contain the all.
And Dogen goes on to say: “…To be illuminated by everything is to remove the separation between self and other.” To hold both plus and minus, to embrace the whole situation, both riches and poverty, both sickness and health, both life and death, is the experience we call “true love.”
125 The wise in all realms,
Those people respected as wise and thoroughly conversant with the true mode of being of the cosmos
What is called ‘wisdom’ or ‘prajna’ is also called ”the Middle Way,” that frame of mind that holds both sorrow and joy and recognizes the relativity of the two, without ego fixation on one or the other.
126 All enter into this Absolute Reason.
All manifest themselves by participating in this non-dual activity.
Everyone, rich or poor, wise or ignorant, whether they know it or not, have the same true nature.
127 This absolute Reason is beyond time and space.
The non-dual activity does not go on as an act of will projected on an a-priori (unconditionally accepted) world.
Again, if we seek ‘peace of mind’ from the standpoint of self and it's conceptions of time and place, mind only become busier. “Beyond” is beyond self and its willful intentions. The Four Truths begin with attention to dissatisfaction, which, on reflection, is understood as dual in nature, which finds resolution in letting go of the picking and choosing activity that is self.
128 For it, one instant is ten thousand years.
Be it one instant or ten thousand years, the activity of non-duality always manifests the cosmos as zero. So there is nothing (other than it) to compare to it; thus it can be said that it neither expands or contacts.
Time itself is a matter of discriminating one moment in relation to another. We know time as a necessary condition of life in society. Yet, we also experience time differently depending on circumstances. For the baby, one year is a life time; for the old person, the years pass in a flash. Inclusive of both coming and going, both expansion and contraction, time becomes “timeless.’, as when we say it seemed that time itself stood still. Every moment of experience is like this, beginning in timelessness, and in an instant, transformed by the conscious self according to its desires.
129 Whether we see it or not,
Non-duality, i.e. the activity of the Dharma, is always changing---now expanding, now contracting---and so it neither exists nor does it not exist.
Again, peace of mind is not achieved by self and its preferences, by discriminating one thing in relation to another. Or, as it is said, “you cannot make an object of God or truth.” God or truth regarded as object is always viewed from the standpoint of a separate self and its interests.
130 It is manifest everywhere in all directions.
The impoverished world is full of the light of the Dharma’s action.
The truth of a selfless perspective is always happening, from which we are born and to which we return; from which self, as a matter of consciousness, is born in every instant, and to which that self returns again and again. By such we are led to the knowledge that our true nature is inclusive of both our life and our death, experienced as true love.