A series of Dharma Talks and Zen Mondo
presented by Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho
Ebook: PDF 1MB
The Buddhas and Lineage Ancestors were people, human beings just like you and me. The Teachings are what the Lineage Ancestors understood and subsequently expressed from their own experiencing as uncovered through their own practice. The Teachings are about their experiencing. The Teachings are a record of how those experiencings and understandings were transmitted to students.
The Teachings are about you in this moment. We cannot know this moment by memorizing and spouting back some little slogan about “each thing making everything else what it is” and expect to be convincing. We can see how self-image is used to being a mimic, how it tries to construct and present a self that “understands” rather than being the expression of understanding itself.
The recognition of this moment of body, breath, speech, and mind, is practicing yourself as you are. Through this continuous practice, this gyoji, you become, and recognize that you are, the Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors. When you truly are the full expression of that understanding in every moment, “You steal the nostrils of the Buddhas and Ancestors and make them breath out.”
- Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho, from “Being Breathed”, 2000.