Kodo sawaki biography of barack

After receiving his ordination, he spent many years living in an abandoned hermitage devoting himself to the practice of Zazen. When the Russo-Japanese war broke out inSawaki was sent to the front where he spent close to four years as an infantryman. One day during battle, he was shot and left for dead and was thrown into a gigantic grave.

He was discovered several days later under dozens of decaying bodies and was sent back to Japan as one of the war wounded. After the Second World War, Kodo Sawaki spread his teaching all over Japan, from big cities to remote villages, and from universities to prisons. He became famous throughout Japan for the sesshin intensive meditation retreat that he gave to people from all walks of life, without making any personal distinction or discrimination.

He slept only a few hours at night. Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email. Type your email…. Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive. Continue reading. Skip to content November 3, November 4, Vanessa Able. Related Reading. Discover more from The Dewdrop Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Type your email… Subscribe. Next post Jack Gilbert — Failing and Flying. Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Moreover, he learned the truth that there are things in life more important than money, position, and fame. He started frequenting a Shinshu temple and, when he was tempted to become a monk to escape from his family, a Shinshu priest suggested he could better orient himself towards Zen.

Inat the age of 17, he left for Eihei-ji, taking with him no money, and having only two small packets of rice with him.

Kodo sawaki biography of barack: Nor is there any discussion

Over four days and night, he arrived there. After standing at the gate of the temple for two days and nights, he was finally accepted as a temple laborer. Upon arrival, the problems began. Being a stranger, he could not become a monk and had to accept a place as a servant, which allowed him, in spite of everything, to learn zazen.

Kodo sawaki biography of barack: Sawaki, who had been

However, he said that he found that there are just ordinary people living at Eihei-ji, and many young trainee priests were very brazen and were just interested in eating lots of food and drinking lots of sake. Life at Eihei-ji was not what he expected, was not in a state of enlightenment. Consequently, he did not stay there for a long time.

He stayed two years with this teacher. Simply sit in zazen. So, I can't be satisfied by only repeating or explaining his remarks. He often said, "All Buddhist scriptures are only footnotes to Zazen. I also want to describe the meaning of Zazen in a language that is intelligible to modern mena and women. Buddhism has become stagnent becuase monks and scholars only expound the old Buddhist scriptures.

No one produces sutras for our age. For several centuries around the time of christ, the extensive Mahayana buddhist scriptures were produced by "Zazen-men. I would like this to be a new age for the production of Mahayan Buddhist scriptures. Religion sinks and loses its vitalty in mere exposition and maintenence of the pre-established religious order.

Only when each and everyone of us seeks the reality of ourselves for ourselves and responsibley creates our own life, will religion be a real scource of transformation in this age. When a person is alone, he's not so bad. When a group is formed, paralysis occurs, and people become so confused that they cannot judge what is right and wrong.

Some people go into a group situation on purpose, just to experience group paralysis, even paying a fee. Often people advertise in order to bring people together for some political or spiritual purpose and only create group paralysis. Buddhsit practitioners keep some distance from society, not to escape from it, but to avoid paralysis.

In Buddhism, the problem of delusion is often mentioned. The importance of the various forms of delusion has differed from one period to another. In ancient India, the biggest delusion was thought to be sex, so Buddhist practitioners tried hard to repress their sexual desires. Dogen Zenji said, "Attachment to fame is worse than violating one of the precepts," and he regarded chasing after fame and wealth as the worst form of delusion because in his day, many Buddhist preist in Nara, and on Mts Koya and Hiei competed with each other for fame and wealth.

Practitioners must be aware of the delusions of sexual desire and chasing after fame and kodo sawaki biography of barack. But by coining the term "group paralysis" Sawaki Roshi has pointed out a major delusion of modern times. Today men and women live their lives relying on groups and organizations and simply drift along in them without forming any real roots.

Buddhism is the practice of waking up from all forms of delusion, of opening the "clear eyes of the self". Once a horse and a cat had a discussion about what happiness is. I hear that they could not reach a conclusion. Don't believe the fortune tellers: how you need to live your life isn't fixed! There are new religious cults that ask kodo sawaki biography of barack on the street: "Are you really happy?!

We can not make that trance of happiness last our whole life time. At least the "normal citizens" among us. Therefore some, who find no response to this "Are you really happy?! Because death will take your money, your position and your health from you. If you think about happiness in terms of feeling happy or unhappy, being lucky or unlucky, than not only a discussion between horse and cat, but even a discussion of yourself with yourself will finally reach no conclusion about what happiness really is.

Beauty is no guarantee for happiness. One beauty has been so popular with the guys that she's already had three kids who do not know who their fathers are. You're in love with each other? Maybe not for your whole life. Some have loved each other so much that they tried to commit suicide together to be united in death. But one of the two survived, and fell in love with someone else shortly afterwards Human beings truly pitiful.

The problem starts with the education in school: People pass exams, collect points, get grades and have numbers. How stupid! What is a good person? What is a bad person? Are you good if your are good in school? Are you bad if you are bad in school? And what about all those idiots that are good in school? The one who comes in last place is frustrated.

He says, "life sucks", and spents the rests of his days in hate and anger. Thus his life really sucks! In night clubs the hostess who is most popular is the number one, and proud of it. But still, would she be save from falling into loneliness sooner or later? She is just that one human product on the shelf of that club that happens to sell for the highest price.

But even though your price is high, once you discover that you are no more than a product, naturally you will feel lonely. Today, the schools seem to function as factories that produce humans. And the purpose of schools lies in raising the prices of these "human products". The purpose of going to elementary school is to go to a good junior high school, the purpose of junior high being to enter a good high school, which serves the purpose to qualify for university.

And you go to university to get a good job. Thus you are riding on a belt conveyor on your way to be sold as a product to be consumed. What we see on the streets these days seems to me to be the protest of the teens against this "human mass production". This protest of the teens represents another problem, but saying that "life sucks" and therefore leading a life that really sucks is an even greater problem.

To study originally meant to find out about one's own life. Today study just gets you a licence that gets you a job. Mob psychology seems so strange to me. If people don't know anything they'd better not say anything. People do things, say things, an hang on to others, without any convictions of their own. They don't know themselves at all.

This is ukiyo, the floating world. Although you think you did a brave deed in trying circumstances, if you did it imitating others, it cannot be called a truely brave deed. Do not lose your head in distracting circumstances. Don't be intoxicated in an intoxicating atmosphere. This is the only true wisdom. Do not be won over to any idea, or "ism", or any orginization.

Have nothing to do with the big fool called "human being. The recent trouble at Waseda University is a good example. I myself was a student at Waseda during a strike inand I wactched the whole process of the student movement from within. I can appreciate how easily people can become intoxicated in such an atmosphere. And they should demostrate while looking at those banners.

To do zazen is to look at the world anew after being in hibernation. It is best not to anything but zazen. If you do something else, maybe the devil made you do it. Often a kid does things by blindly following others. When his friend eats a potato, he wants to eat one. If his friend wants candy, he wants some. When someone he knows gets a kintama-bue a bamboo whistle with a balloon attached to one endhe begs his parents, "Please buy a kintama-bue for me.

At the time that Dakkochans a type of plastic doll were in fashion, I read a letter in the readers' column of the newspaper. It said, "Because my daughter wanted to have a Dakkochanwe went to buy one at a department store. We had to stand in line, but they sold out while we waited our turn. We have a very disappointed daughter. Please produce many dolls for the girls so that everyone who wants one can get one.

It was really a stupid letter, but I found it interesting because it expresses an attitude that is so common these days. I remember the letter exactly; the mother complained as if she were weeping. Dakkochans would soon go out of fashion and no one would pay anymore attention to them, but for her, being behind the times was a fate worse than death.

Similarly, parents think that in order to go to a first class primary school, their children must go to a first class kindergarten, so they stand in line in order to obtain admission acceptance is based on the order of arrival. Kyoiku-mama wants her children to play the piano, so they go into debt to buy one. By following the fads of the day in buying things, many people find their lives worth living.

First, three kinds of electric appliances; next a camera; after that a new car; and then an air conditioner. Because modern religious groups develop on a large scale, many people eventually think that these institutions represent true religion. A large number of believers does not make a religion true. If large numbers are good, the number of ordinary people in the world is immense.

People often try to do things by forming groups and outnumbering the opposition. But they make themselves stupid in this way. Forming a party is a good example of group paralysis. To stop being in group paralysis and to become the self which is only the self, is the practice of zazen. No matter how many coal cinders there are, they are just coal cinders.

But if a huge amount appears before them, people will be impressed by the volume and think it's significant. People mistake quantity for quality. Some people, understanding mob kodo sawaki biography of barack and taking advantage of it might say, "Let's form a group, organize, build a huge temple and become rich and powerful. True religion does not cater to human desires for money, fame social position, or health.

To lead a life based on religious insight is to deeply examine the universal human ideal, realize it within oneself, and live it moment by moment. If something mistakenly referred to as religion spreads everywhere by flattering the desires of the masses, it shouldn't be called a world religion. We must see it as a heresy prevailing over the whole world like an epidemic.

A religion that honestly examines the universal human ideal and shows human beings how to realize it can be called a world religion, even if only one, or half a person devotes his life to it. When Hojo's troops attacked Masashige Kusunoki's Chihaya castle, it was said that fallen warriors of the Hojo Clan were praised by their friends as they met "glorious death" on the battlefield: " A man lays down his life in vain for the sake of fame, why doesn't he give up clinging to life for the sake of the Dharma?

We believed that it really happened. But when we lost World War Two, we lost everything and tuely understood that we had only incurred the enimity of other countries. People often ask about loyalty, but I wonder if they know the direction of their loyalty and their actions. I myself was a soilder during the Russo-Japanese War and fought hard on the battlefield.

But since we had lost what we had gained, I can see that what we did was useless. There is absolutely no need to wage war. Because Sawaki Roshi fought in the Russo-Japanese War, his words are not only for others, but also for himself, as self-reflection. We who were educated before World War Two were taught that Japan wa the greatest country in the world and absolutely righteous in all its actions and that we would obtain personal immortality if we were faithful to it.

We really believed it. After the war, most Japanese could see that it was not true, and some of them reacted against nationalism. When we reflect upon our past and think about our future, we should question not only loyalty to Japan but loyalty to any nation. Whichever country you are devoted to, eventually it will only be a page in the book of history.

What is the true self? It is brilliantly transparent, like a deep blue sky, and there is no gap between the true self and all sentient beings. Some opinions are also past their prime. What parents teach their children are usually these outdated opinions. When greens are going to seed, you can not eat them any more. The same is true for our ideas: We have to see things with fresh eyes!

Often people tell us: "This is important! Nothing is really important. When you die, you have to let go of everything. We might as well burn them down. Often people tell me about the latest book written by some famous professor: "That is a good book. Did you read it? He thinks about them as follows:. Certainly not for monks to practice Buddhism there.

Just to raise coward monks there like cattle or sheep. Therefore, it is no surprise that there are monks who set fire to Kinkakuji or Enryakuji, and the same can be said about Ginkakuji. After all their efforts, racking their brains as intensely as possible, people today have comeback to a deadlock. Human beings are idiots. We set ourselves up as wise men and subsequently do foolish things.

In spite of scientific advancement, human beings haven't come to greatness. Since the dawn of history, human beings have constantly fought with each other. No matter how big or small a war is, the root cause is our minds, which have a tendency to make us growl at each other. You should not forget that modern scientific culture has developed on the level of our lowest consciousness.

But civilization and culture are nothing but the collective elaboration of illusory desires. No matter how many wrinkles of illusory desire you have on your brain, from the point of view of Buddhism, they will never bring about meaningful advancement for human beings. People today are dazzled by advances in science and technology and take human advancement to be identical with the advances of science.

Because the advances of science are significant primarily within the contexts of scientific disciplines, we must clearly distinguish them from human advancement. Arnold Toynbee said, "Our modern scientific culture increased the speed of Adam's orginal sin with explosive energy. That is all. And we never released ourselves from orginal sin. In order to do that, I must struggle with others.

Human beings are not the same. Our consciousness is our own individual possession. Everyone just sees the world from their own hole. They drag their opinion and thoughts along with them; that's why there is so much trouble in this world. Usually we consider ourselves to be very important. We take it for granted that our own thoughts are the best measure of things and judge others' activities and the conditions around us as to whether they are good or bad.

When things do not go well according to our judgement, we become angryget into trouble, and carry around bad feelings afterwards. At times like these, if you can see that this world does not exist only for you, and that your evaluation of things is not absolute, you will be able to breathe more freely and need not cause trouble for others.

Prince Shotoku A. He said: "If you are right, then others are wrong; if others are right, then you are wrong. You are not right all the time; others are not right all the time. We are all nothing but ordinary people. Everyone steeps himself in his own life or lives, blindly believing that there must be something to his daily activity. But in reality, a human being's life does not differ from a swallow's, the males collecting food and the females hatching eggs.

This is the season swallows are flying about. People working in the shadow of tall buildings in the city probably miss seeing swallows hatching in the spring. It's a lovely site to see them during spring and summer, isn't it?

Kodo sawaki biography of barack: In Showa 10 () Sawaki

Some people just get by in life, live from day to day, and never see their lives as a whole. Kobo-Daishithe founder of the Shingon Sect called them Ishoteiyoshina flock of stray sheep. Take a look sometime at the face of a dog who's just had sex. He just stares into space with strangely empty eyes. It's exactly the same with people — in the beginning they work themselves up into a frenzy, and in the end there's nothing at all.

In a part of Manchuria, the carts are pulled by huge dogs. The driver hangs a piece of meat in front of the dog's nose, and the dog runs like crazy to try to get at it. But of course he can't. He's only thrown his meat after the cart has finally reached its destination. Then in a single gulp, he swallows it down. It's exactly the same with people and their pay checks.

Until the end of the month they run after the salary hanging in front of their noses.

Kodo sawaki biography of barack: He who seeks his true mission

Once the salary is paid, they gulp it down, and they're already off: running after the next payday. Like the colliers, I put on a hat with a lamp and went down in an elevator. For some time, I thought the elevator went down steadily. Then I started to fell as if it were going up. I shined my light in the coal shaft and realized, "Oh!

It's still going down. That's the other side of the balance. In the ups and downs of life we are deceived by the difference in balance. Saying, "I've got Satori! Saying, "I'm deluded! To say it's delicious or it tastes terrible, to be rich, to be poor, all are just feeling about the differences in the balance. In most cases, common sense only shows a difference in the balance.

A human being puts his "I" into everything without knowing it. What is good? It's just good for him, that's all. The reason that we human beings are often exhausted is that we do things with personal profit in mind. Usually, we are terribly concerned about luck. Are there really such things as good luck and bad luck? There aren't. There are only calculating measures.

Only when expect to make things profitable for ourselves, is it possible to feel that we didn't make it. Only when we compete with others, is it possible to feel the difference in the balance as loss. True religion takes no notice of the human desire to make things profitable for ourselves or our calculating measurement. If we throw away our ordinary expectations and take an attitude of settling down on whichever side of the balance we fall, it is right there that a truly peaceful life unfolds.

Doing zazen is to stop being an ordinary person.