A Gift of Dharma for 12.16.09
Today’s quote comes from the mighty Rinzai Zen teacher Nyogen Senzaki (1876-1958).
Born in Japan, he was sent to study at his grandfather’s Pure Land temple when he was five years old. Before dying, his grandfather told him: “Even though you have told me that you want to become a monk, when I look at the way Buddhism is now in Japan, I am afraid you may regret it. So think it over.”
By age nineteen, however, he ordained at a Soto Zen temple on Vesak day. The next year, he travelled to Engaku-ji, where he studied under Rinzai master Soyen Shaku. It was there that he first met a lay student of Soyen Shaku’s named D.T. Suzuki.
An avid reader, he later encountered the work of Friedrich Fröbel, who is credited with creating the notion of kindergarten. Inspired, he opened Mentorgarten in 1901.
In 1905, Nyogen Senzaki accompanied Soyen Shaku to the United States as his attendant. He enjoyed traveling in the San Francisco Bay Area and Pacific Northwest immensely, and, when it came time to leave, Soyen Shaku said to him: “Just face the great city and see whether it conquers you or you conquer it. Do not feel obliged to serve me any longer.” With the exception of one trip back to Japan shortly before his death, Nyogen Senzaki remained in the U.S. for the rest of his life.
During the 1920s, he gave dharma talks and lectures in various locations in San Francisco, gathering a following he called the “floating zendo.” He moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s, and the zendo continued to float there as well.
During the Second World War, Nyogen Senzaki was interned with other Japanese Americans at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Afterwards, he moved back to L.A. and picked up right where the “floating zendo” left off. One of these post-WWII students was Robert Aitken Roshi. At the time, he also maintained a friendly correspondence with Soen Nakagawa.
Nyogen Senzaki died in 1958, and his last words were “Remember the Dharma! Remember the Dharma! Remember the Dharma!”
He is the author of Buddhism and Zen (with Ruth Strout-McCandless), Zen Flesh Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings (with Paul Reps), and The Iron Flute: 100 Zen Koans (with Ruth Strout-McCandless). In addition, his teachings have published in the books Eloquent Silence: Nyogen Senzaki’s Gateless Gate and Other Previously Unpublished Teachings and Letters and Like a Dream, Like a Fantasy: The Zen Teachings and Translations of Nyogen.
Here’s the quote:
Mountains and rivers do not conflict.
Grasses and trees live harmoniously.
Nature itself manifests loving-kindness.
Eighty-four thousand delusions
Cover the eyes of man.
He dreams the whole world
In a fighting mood.
He sees not the morning star
In the same way as Buddha did.
Unless he enters into deep Zazen
And emancipates himself
From his own conflicts,
He cannot comprehend
The beautiful cooperation of this Universe.
