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| Issho Fujita |
The Whole of Zazen
By Issho Fujita
From: Polishing a Tile, collected essays of Issho Fujita
Most people, if they are asked to draw an image of zazen on a piece of paper, would draw a person sitting in the lotus position. This shows that when we think of zazen, we only think of the sitting person’s body as well as the internal mental activity that cannot be seen. In other words, we only see zazen in terms of the mental and physical activities of one individual person. However, Dogen Zenji did not think of zazen as simply the capability of one individual person. As Kodo Sawaki Roshi said, “Zazen is not one person shut up in one corner of the universe enjoying respite from his or her suffering.” So, if we were to show Dogen Zenji such a drawing, surely he would say, “This is completely inadequate. We cannot possibly say that this is a drawing of the whole of zazen.”
In Dogen Zenji’s writings, we often see words such as “throughout the ten directions,” “all things,” “the entire world,” “throughout heaven and earth,” and so forth. He used these expressions to express an infinite depth and vastness that cannot be measured. When Dogen Zenji speaks of zazen, he is actually speaking of it in terms of this idea of “entire” or “complete.”
For example, in Shobogenzo Yuibutsu Yobutsu he wrote, “The Buddhas practice simultaneously with the entire world and all sentient beings. If it is unable to do this with all things, then it is still not the practice of the Buddhas.” It is possible to replace the expression “the practice of a Buddha” in this sentence with “zazen.” “Sitting is the practice of a Buddha,” so that zazen, which is a practice of a Buddha, must be “zazen that permeates all things.”
As is often the case for us, each of us sits zazen in order to attain satori or peace of mind as my own possession. Then in the name of “seeking the Way” or “practice” we each become obsessed with spiritual practice as a means of resolving our individual internal sufferings and in the process become more and more absorbed in a narrow, complicated world. From the beginning, there is no idea of “throughout all things” in this standpoint. This is nothing other than setting off from the small self and returning to the small self in a narcissistic sort of way.
However, as Sawaki Roshi said, “If there is even the slightest amount of personal interest, then zazen will never be pure and unadulterated.” For that reason, no matter how ardently we practice in a way that is exclusively personal, then it is not possible to do zazen. For zazen to be truly zazen, there is this strict condition that will not permit compromise. From this basic formula that “Buddhist practice = zazen = together with all things”, when drawing a picture of zazen, it is necessary not only to draw the image of an individual person, but an image that includes the whole world.