168 – Is This IT? Dogen’s Everyday Activity (Kajo) – Part 1

In Zen we say practice isn't anything other than your regular movement. On the off chance that we see the Dharma as something exceptional – a specific movement we treat as more holy, or a state we desire to achieve that will be of a completely unexpected nature in comparison to the commonplace presence we as of now suffer – we're overlooking what's really important. Simultaneously, in the event that we think practice isn't anything other than proceeding with our half-conscious, routine method of living, we're likewise overlooking the main issue! What is an amazing idea and practice? Zen Master Dogen investigates this koan in his exposition "Kajo," or "Regular Activity Quicklinks to Outline Headings: Why Study Dogen? Kajo, or Everyday Activity Dogen's Essay on Everyday Activity Regular Tea and Rice: The Staples of Everyday Living Regular Activity – Is That It? Is This All There Is to Practice? Searching for An Answer: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't Grounded In Your Own Experience of Everyday Activity The Homely Fare of Everyday Life Not Squandering the Strength of the Buddhas and Ancestors Why Study Dogen? As of late, I was feeling the requirement for challenge, center, flavor: Study something, specifically something testing, not quickly available or self-evident or material to my life, however something in our custom introduced as worth perusing or tuning in to. This is the handiness of a course – examining something testing you probably won't have in any case picked… I wanted to plunge into a Dogen fascicle (thirteenth century priest, author of Soto Zen in Japan… ) – not simply singling out sections from different spots that end up finding a way into some point I'm making… I'll get the extent that I can, however don't have any desire to surge it! In this scene I overcome about the main page of Dogen's exposition, which at around 5 pages is one of his more limited ones. I'll get back to examining the remainder of the paper sometime in the not too distant future. Kajo, or Everyday Activity I'll utilize both Kaz Tanahashi's interpretation and Nishijima and Cross… Also interpretation distributed and accessible as pdf (https://shastaabbey.org/pdf/shobo/062kajo.pdf) from Shasta Abbey, deciphered by Rev. Hubert Nearman[i] Tanahashi says in glossary, KA implies house, home, family, and JO implies normal, common, ordinary, standard. Nishijima and Cross clarify JO signifies "normal" or "ordinary." Nearman says, "Kajō in a real sense signifies 'what is routine (jō) in one's home life (ka)'. All through the talk Dōgen discusses sahan, in a real sense 'tea and cooked rice', as the staples of regular living." Nearman likewise says that, "Taking tea and eating rice is a similitude for participating in the Dharma which profoundly supports us." We may be prepared to peruse this fascicle and think "Dharma" each time we read "tea and rice," as though this some sort of code. Notwithstanding, Dogen never utilizes analogies in a such clear manner (this thing subs for that thing, so we can close he's never discussing tea and rice in this part, for instance). This is the reason Nishijima and Cross say of Kajo: "Individuals are regularly inclined to imagine that strict issue ought to be unique in relation to every day life, being more sacrosanct than and better than day by day life. However, as indicated by Buddhist hypothesis, Buddhist life isn't anything other than our every day life. Without day by day life there can never be Buddhism. In China it was said that wearing garments and eating dinners are simply Buddhism. In this part, ace Dogen clarifies the significance of Kajo, regular day to day existence, based on Buddhism." As we make a plunge, we ought to stay open to various degrees of significance… prepared to having our brains and hearts extended and opened… whatever we go in pondering the connection among Zen and our "regular daily existence" is going to be extended, mollified… Dogen's Essay on Everyday Activity Note about identifying with Dogen's works like verse… So Dogen sets this up: IN THE DOMAIN of buddha progenitors, drinking tea and eating rice are ordinary movement. Drinking tea and eating rice have been sent for quite a while and are available at this moment. Along these lines, the buddha predecessors' fundamental movement of drinking tea and eating rice comes to us. Zen as a genealogy custom: Something checked in every age and passed down individual to individual is genuine Dharma… so alluding to the heredity and how long it is = this is significant, this is genuine. This "action of drinking tea and eating rice" – whatever it is – is essential to the method of the buddha progenitors (individuals who have achieved what we need to accomplish… freedom, harmony, ease, empathy, and so on) Tune in up! At that point Dogen shares a customary Zen story, or koan: Minister Daokai, who might later become abbot of Mount Dayang, asked Touzi [Toe-dz-i], "It is said that the considerations and expressions of buddha progenitors are regular tea and rice. Other than this, are there any words or expressions for instructing?" Touzi said, "Advise me, when the head gives a pronouncement in his region, does he rely on [ancient] Emperors Yu, Tang, Yao, or Shun?" As Daokai was going to open his mouth, Touzi covered it with his whisk. "While you were thinking, you've effectively gotten thirty blows." Daokai was then stirred. He bowed profoundly and started to leave. Touzi said, "Pause, reverend." Daokai didn't pivot, and Touzi said, "Have you arrived at the ground of no-question?" Daokai covered his ears with his hands and left. From this, plainly comprehend that the contemplations and expressions of buddha progenitors are their ordinary tea and rice. Standard coarse tea and plain rice are buddhas' considerations, predecessors' expressions. Since buddha predecessors plan tea and rice, tea and rice keep up buddha precursors. Appropriately, they need no forces other than this tea and rice, and they have no compelling reason to utilize powers as buddha precursors. Research and study the articulation Does he rely on Emperors Yu, Tang, Yao, or Shun? Jump over the highest point of the inquiry Besides this, are there any words or expressions for educating? Attempt to see if jumping is conceivable. Regular Tea and Rice: The Staples of Everyday Living In case you're similar to me, a player in you closes down when you hear this mysterious koan talk. It's actual it isn't quickly available more often than not, however it tends to merit investigating (as Dogen says, "research and study the articulation… ") Might get fretful, yet normally worth the time and exertion… and typically likewise something that couldn't be passed on as viably with direct writing clarification. "It is said that the contemplations and expressions of buddha predecessors are ordinary tea and rice." Musings and expressions of buddha precursors = the Buddhist and Zen lessons and practices we have found so helpful and motivating as we carry on with our lives. The Dharma. OK, everything looks OK. Ordinary tea and rice = as Nearman says, the staples of regular living. For us it very well may be espresso and pasta. Furthermore, not exactly what we eat: Water, heat, dress, cash to cover the bills… Investigation: What does it mean when we say the Dharma is a staple of ordinary living? It's fundamental. A significant number of us would concur, it's important for us to carry on with a mostly good life. The requirement for the Dharma is incorporated into us, is inalienable in our make-up, similar to the requirement for food and sanctuary. Isn't that an intriguing thought? That our profound necessities are not a shortcoming or a goodness, but rather like our requirement for food. The Dharma is our fundamental, supporting profound food, not a bonus, similar to dessert. Is there something more unpretentious being said? Our ordinary exercises are something we underestimate, we will in general excuse as not being unique, as not being especially worth our consideration, maybe, except if we end up discovering them pleasurable. In the event that the Dharma is on a very basic level not quite the same as these exercises, is it that the kind of uncommonness we characteristic to our "practice" exercises is in blunder, or is it that our regular exercises are in reality significantly more unique than we understand? Most likely both. That is only the main line of the koan! Regular Activity – Is That It? Is This All There Is to Practice? Next one: Priest Daokai has come to ask the educator Touzi an inquiry: "It is said that the musings and expressions of buddha predecessors are ordinary tea and rice. Other than this, are there any words or expressions for instructing?" Other than this, are there any words or expressions for instructing? What is Daokai pondering about? Inquiries in Zen writing are not scholarly activities. They are certifiably not a keen understudy meandering around flaunting, testing educators to perceive how proficient or clever they are (or in the event that they attempt this, they will have their egotism tested surprisingly). Attempt to imagine Daokai's perspective. We've been trained this about the Dharma being fundamental otherworldly food for individuals, that we're intended to take it in and practice it routinely, in way that becomes ongoing, ordinary, regular, actually like the manner in which we eat, clean, cook, and work. At any rate in Soto Zen, we're asked to "simply sit" and to have "no acquiring thought." Even in different practices, any alleged knowledge you accomplish is useless except if you incorporate into your regular day to day existence. I think I hear Daokai saying, "Is this it?!" Just let the Dharma become an everyday piece of your life and quit expecting anything unique? Shouldn't something be said about the way that we gotten numb to, uninvolved in, stuff that gets excessively commonplace? Shouldn't something be said about those pinnacle minutes we've encountered at specific snapshots of our life, when we get a bigger viewpoint that briefly liberates us and fills us with amazement and appreciation? Is it true that they are immaterial, and the truth is really exhausting? Searching for An Answer: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't How does Touzi answer? "Advise me, when the head gives a pronouncement in his domain, does he rely on [ancient] Em