Answers from a Zen Master



Onedropzen.org
These are several questions to Shodo Harada Roshi and his answers from his online site.



Roshi san you mentioned in one of your teisho that love and wisdom are one. How are they one?


We love flowers, because we actually become one with the flower. When a parent becomes one with their child, and a child becomes one with their parents, then for the first time true love can arise. When we can forget ourselves, and the more we can actually become the other, the greater the love is we can experience. The love of the Buddha encompasses everything and everyone.If we analyse things, if we have knowledge about things, then we cannot grasp this. Only through love can we truly accept. Love is deep wisdom toward the other. Love is the highest form of wisdom. Humans only need two things: love and wisdom.
What is required to love oneself?
November 1, 2014, 6:59 pm

When you look with the eye of the small self, there must be nothing as distasteful as oneself. Humans experience that they are not perfect, that they are not eternal, that they are not pure - from there we start to repent and reflect and the wish for change comes forth. While this is a special gift of human to make efforts it is also the life force of all humans. Yet if we stay at noticing how we are not perfect, we get tired of ourselves and the situation. And from there belief, religion arises. For example, when we walk towards the future, because there is one foot on the ground that is why we can lift the other foot freely and move forward. The foot moving forward is searching, the one standing is our foot of wisdom. This wisdom (outside it is God, inside it is Buddha Nature) is our guide as to how we can love ourselves even while we are not perfect. For that we need first to awaken to this deep wisdom within ourselves.



Hakuin talks about fifteen stages of enlightenment. How many stages is enough to be recognized as a Zen Master?
 February 18, 2016, 9:32 pm
The meaning of Hakuin Zenji´s truth is, while having had an experience to not hang it up high. It is not about numbers. What he is saying is that an awakened person does not stop at their own satisfaction. If you have experienced awakening, there is a huge strength filling your mind and body, which lets your throw yourself completely into society living for all beings. If it is not like this, it is not true satori.


Ego seems to be the root behind every suffering of mine. My ego seems to be big and deep. I meditate an hour a day and come to sesshins when possible. Please advice what else do I have to do to remove ego with all of its roots?

Why do you want to get rid of your ego? It is something that never will disappear. Zazen is not for getting rid of the ego, yet we learn the wisdom with which we can use this ego. If we do not have an ego, we cannot work in society for others. If you try to fight your ego, there is no end to this. Whenever you stop and think, that is ego. If you do not think, then the ego is no obstruction. We sit zazen and practice becoming one with our sussokan. Then with time, while the ego exists, it is no obstruction anymore and you can use your ego in a bright way.



Am I correct that the only purpose of zazen as practice is just to clear our minds of all our thoughts? Can we use any tool we want to achieve this or do you think deep breathing as you describe it is the best way for everybody? Please describe the correct way to chant.
March 18, 2016, 1:16 pm

There is no self yet not just any tool will bring us to this realization. Any tool means that there is still a self that can speak about it. Zazen is 24 hours, walking is zen, sitting is zen, all five positions are zen. You need to practice zen 24 hours a day like this or else you will not break through.
This and every moment is spontaneously arising in dropped off body and mind as dropped off body and mind. No inside no outside only this present moment. Still conceptual mind resistance and form keep reemerging. And they fall away again in the clarity of original face. Always free always bound. Is there any abiding in freedom or only this constant practice?
March 18, 2016, 6:51 pm
Since you say that some concepts still come up, it is not true samadhi yet. Like the dancers on stage, they need to practice daily, becoming their dancing, until there is no extra awareness needed for the hands and foot motions to be correct. It is not that they are unaware, yet the conceptual mind does not produce any more noise.

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