I Can't Go On

    Every once in a while I get asked whether I think Buddhism is a religion or a philosophy. It’s a question a lot of people interested in Zen Buddhism seem to have at some point or other. I don't know if it matters too much whether you consider Buddhism is a religion or a philosophy, if you feel that it helps you in your life in some way. I studied Buddhism with a teacher named Gudo Nishijima, and he often used to describe Buddhism as a practical philosophy. One thing that distinguishes Buddhism from most philosophies or religions is that doing some kind of meditation is an important part of daily life for a lot of Buddhists. 

    In Zen Buddhism, the meditation practice is called zazen. The general idea is that doing zazen regularly helps us experience life in a way that's a bit different from what we're used to, and helps us to live a bit more in harmony with the world around us. It can create a bit of space where we can take a step back from our busy lives and reflect on or notice what’s going on in our life at that particular time. Gudo Nishijima used to encourage his students to do zazen every day, even for 5 or 10 minutes, and ideally to do zazen once in the morning and once in the evening if we can.

    I first met Gudo Nishijima about 30 years ago. I used to go along to his Buddhist classes and retreats, and I also tried to follow his advice about doing some zazen at home. If you start to do zazen regularly, you probably will notice that it makes a difference in your day-to-day life in some way or other. But it also requires a bit of time and effort to keep up the habit of doing it every day. In my own case, once in a while I’d go through a stage where I’d lose my motivation or interest in doing zazen. After I’d been doing zazen like that for a few years, I had a chat with Gudo Nishijima and told him I was finding it a bit hard to keep doing zazen regularly and that I was thinking of giving it up. He said it was no problem and it was up to myself to decide what to do and to stop altogether if I wanted to. But he also said jokingly that if I stopped doing zazen for a while and then decided to start doing it again, then I’d know that I’m a Buddhist.

    So I took a break from zazen for a couple of weeks. My life went on more or less as before. But after I had stopped doing zazen for about two weeks, I felt something was missing in some way even though I couldn't exactly say what it was. Life just seemed a bit more interesting when I'd been doing zazen regularly. So I started to do zazen again, and continued doing it since then. Later on it occurred to me that when I had been doing zazen on a daily basis I didn’t really notice what effect it had, and it was only when I stopped that I could notice that whatever effect there was from doing zazen wasn’t there anymore. That’s the way it seemed to me anyway, but it may be that it was just something I was going through at the time.

Remembering Gudo Nishijima Roshi today

 

My Buddhist teacher, Gudo Nishijima Roshi, passed away on this day (January 28) in 2014. 

He dedicated most of his life to learning about Buddhism and teaching other people.

Here's a video of Master Nishijima explaining how to do Zazen.

And this is a video of Master Nishijima doing Zazen on a very hot summer's day in Tokyo when he was 89.

I feel very fortunate to have met him and that he was kind enough to teach me about Buddhism. I'll be keeping him in my thoughts today.

Happy New Year 2021

 

Quiet new year in Japan. 

Just a small temple visit to mark the New Year. 

Here's hoping for 2021.

道はその日その日の生活の中に : The path is in day-to-day life

Someone sent me a Buddhist card with the Japanese words “道はその日その日の生活の中に”.
In Japanese this reads “michi wa sono hi sono hi no seikatsu no naka ni”.

The meaning of the words is:
道 (michi): path, way, road
その日その日 (sono hi sono hi): each day, from day to day, day-to-day
生活 (seikatsu): life, living
の中に (no naka ni): in, within, inside, in the midst of

So altogether it means something like “the path is in day-to-day life”, or “the (Buddhist) way is within daily life”.

Think they’re right.

Grace before meals – a Buddhist version

 

We used to say “grace” before our meals sometimes when I was growing up in Ireland. My parents didn’t make a rule of saying it at mealtimes, but every once in a while we would. It wasn’t a big deal, but it was nice to say it together like that sometimes. 

In Japan, people usually  say “itadakimasu” (i-ta-da-ki-ma-su) before starting a meal. There are plenty of different uses and translations for “itadakimasu”, but in the context of mealtimes it’s an expression of gratitude before eating, and literally means something like “I humbly receive”. This usage is said to have its roots in Buddhism and the idea of respect for all living things, which extends to gratitude to everything and everyone that went into making the meal including the plants, animals, farmers and cook. 

The kind of “grace” they say before meals at Buddhist temples in Japan is different to the usual “itadakimasu”.  Depending on the temple, the monks and nuns may say two or three different verses or chants before each meal. Among them, one verse that is recited at most temples is what we call in English the “Five Reflections”  or “Five Contemplations” (called “go kan no ge” in Japanese). Here is an English version of the Five Reflections that we sometimes say at our retreats.

We reflect firstly upon the insufficiency of our effort in this life. We contemplate the effort which has gone into the preparation of this meal.
We reflect secondly upon our merit. We consider whether we are deserving of this meal.
We reflect thirdly upon the sources of our mental illusions and mistakes. We must avoid greed, anger and ignorance.
We reflect fourthly upon the reasons for eating meals. It is to avoid becoming weak and thin.
Finally we reflect upon the ultimate reason for taking meals. It is only to attain the truth.

Click here for a PDF file of the Five Reflections in English, with the Japanese version on their too.