We begin our series of talks on Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo Bendowa …
anuttara samjak sambodhi … means “supreme, incomparable, unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment”
Most think of Zazen as a means to reach and attain some sought after enlightenment, somewhere down the road.
Jijuyu zanmai is another phrase that means something like “the samadhi, the
still abiding taste of the self in self-fulfillment” …
… In other words, by experiencing Zazen as complete, by dropping all thought of any other place or action to be or do in that moment, by just sitting without judgment or feeling of lack … the self both drops away and is affirmed and fulfilled in that moment. All is complete.
ALL BUDDHA-TATHAGATAS TOGETHERhave been simply transmitting wondrous dharma and actualizing anuttara samjaksambodhi [supreme perfect enlightenment] for which there is an unsurpassable,unfabricated, wondrous method. This wondrous dharma, which has been transmittedonly from buddha to buddha without deviation, has as its criterion jijuyuzanmai. For disporting oneself freely in this samadhi, practicing zazen in anupright posture is the true gate.
[Kosho Uchiyama comments,”…we can understand this (jijuyuzanmai) samadhi of self-fulfillment and enjoyment asthe samadhi or concentration on the self when it simply receives and acceptsits function, or its spiritual position in the world.“]
From: Talk on the Wholehearted Practice of the Way -Kosho Uchiyama (with Shohaku Okumura, Taigen Daniel Leighton)
When the buddha-tathagatas each having received theone-to-one transmission of the splendid Dharma, experience the supreme state ofbodhi, they possess a subtle method that is supreme and without intention. Thereason this [method] is transmitted only from buddha to buddha, without deviation,is that the samadhi of receiving and using the self is its standard. Forenjoyment of this samadhi the practice of [Za]zen in the erect sitting posture,has been established as the authentic gate. From: Bendowa – A Talk about Pursuing the Truth – Nishijima-Cross
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