SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA AND I ARE PRACTICING TOGETHER

THE CHINESE ZEN MASTER Gensha lived in the late Tang dynasty a little over twelve hundred years ago. One day while Gensha and his father were fishing, the father drowned. Gensha stopped being a fisherman and went to Master Seppo’s monastery, where he ordained as a monk. At that time Gensha was already thirty years old, in those days a fairly advanced age for ordination and training.

Master Seppo was a very famous Zen master. It is said that fifteen hundred monks were practicing at his monastery. After two years, Gensha embarked on a pilgrimage to other monasteries. While walking, he stubbed his toe on a sharp rock. Gensha cried out, “Where does this pain come from?”

This body is empty, so where does pain come from? When we stub our toe, don’t we usually shout, “This dumb rock!” or “I am so stupid!” What kind of awareness do we have? Yet in Gensha’s case, he asked, “Where does this pain come from?” And at that instant, he attained realization.

Gensha immediately returned to Master Seppo. Seeing Gensha limping, Master Seppo asked, “Why aren’t you on your pilgrimage?” Gensha replied, “Bodhidharma has never come from India, and the second patriarch has never gone to India. Bodhidharma and I are walking together hand in hand. Bodhidharma is no other than myself. I am the second patriarch, going nowhere. Being here is my life! Shakyamuni Buddha and I are sitting together, sharing life together, living together, breathing together, counting together, being drowsy together.”

Now, we all know that Bodhidharma came from India and that his successor, the Second Patriarch (Taiso Eka) in China, never went to India. So what did Gensha mean?

Gensha became one of the best of Master Seppo’s many successors, and yet he had a very difficult time in practice. He was determined to resolve his doubts, and his questioning was most important. Being in his thirties, Gensha had probably formed a certain understanding about life and was perhaps not so flexible. How did he empty himself? He was training in a huge monastery with fifteen hundred other monks. How much of a chance did he have to talk to Master Seppo? Perhaps they rarely spoke, and yet Gensha attained realization. How did this happen? How about the other hundreds of monks? And how about you?

You may be asking, “Will this happen to me? How can I confirm myself?” Gensha realized himself as Shakyamuni Buddha, as Bodhidharma, as the Second Patriarch. This is true for all of us. Regardless of whether we realize it or not, our life is the life of Shakyamuni Buddha. We are sharing that life together. Gensha realized this by not confining himself to the usual ways of thinking.

We are all on some kind of quest. We have some determination to know who we are or how to pursue our life in the best way. What is the difference between Gensha and ourselves? What creates the obstacles that keep us from seeing what Gensha saw? What creates the hindrances that prevent each of us from seeing himself or herself as the one who is constantly dancing, singing, and talking with Shakyamuni Buddha? All of us must see this for ourselves. No one can do it for us.

How do you confirm yourself as “Shakyamuni and I are practicing together, living together”? In order to experience this, you need to do something with your busy mind. By counting your breath you can trim off busy thoughts, rising like bubbles, one after another. Are you practicing with bubbles instead of with Shakyamuni Buddha? By counting your breaths in cycles of ten, all these numerous thoughts are reduced to ten. By following the breath, you reduce it to two, inhalation and exhalation. But it is not simply a matter of two, ten, or one hundred. Don’t forget, breathing is life. By breathing genuinely in this way, you begin to live in this way. In what way? You appreciate intimately the life that you are living in this very moment.

When I was in college, I lived in a dormitory where I studied with Koryu Roshi. Koryu Roshi often said, “When you breathe in, breathe in the whole universe. When you breathe out, breath out the whole universe. Breathing in and out, in and out, eventually you even forget about who is breathing what.” There is no inside, no outside; no this, no that. Everything is all together disappearing. So what is there? You can answer, “Nothing.” When you truly sit, you can also say, “Everything.”

When we understand Master Gensha’s statement, all of our questions about practice will be resolved. Have trust in your life as the Way itself. Have trust in yourself as Shakyamuni Buddha himself. I want you to appreciate this. This is not a sophisticated teaching. Your life is “Shakyamuni Buddha and I are practicing together.” Please have good trust in yourself.