Question Three:

Q: Such reasons as correcttransmission by the unexcelled method of the Tathagatas and following in thefootsteps of the patriarchs are beyond common sense. To ordinary people,reading the sutras and [chanting] the Nembutsu are the natural means to enlightenment.You just sit cross-legged and do nothing. How is this a means to enlightenment?

A: You look on the meditationof the Buddhas and the supreme law as just sitting and doing nothing. Youdisparage Mahayana Buddhism. Your delusion is deep; you are like someone in themiddle of the ocean crying out for water. Fortunately we are already sitting atease in the self-joyous meditation of the Buddhas. Isn’t this a great boon?What a pity that your true-eye remains shut-that your mind remains drunk. Theworld of the Buddhas eludes ordinary thinking and consciousness. It cannot beknown by disbelief and inferior knowledge. To enter one must have right belief.The disbeliever, even if taught, has trouble grasping it. For example, when theBuddha was preaching at Grdhrakuta, the disbelievers were allowed to go away. Tobring out the right belief in your mind you must train and study. If you cannotdo this, you should quit for awhile, regretting that you lack the influence ofthe law from a former beneficial relation. What good are such actions asreading the sutras and saying the Nembutsu. How futile to think that Buddhistmerits accrue from merely moving the tongue and raising the voice. If you thinkthis covers Buddhism, you are far from the truth. Your only purpose in readingthe sutras should be to learn thoroughly that the Buddha taught the rules ofgradual and sudden training and that by practicing his teachings you can obtainenlightenment. You should not read the sutras merely to pretend to wisdomthrough vain intellections. To strive for the goal of Buddhism by reading manysutras is like pointing the hill to the north and heading south. It is likeputting a square peg in a round hole. While you look at words and phrases, thepath of your training remains dark. This is as worthless as a doctor whoforgets his prescription. Constant repetition of the Nembutsu is alsoworthless-like a frog in a spring field croaking night and day. Those deludedby fame and fortune, find it especially difficult to abandon the nembutsu.Bound by deep roots to a profit-seeking mind, they existed in ages past, andthey exist today. They are to be pitied. Understand only this: if enlightenedZen masters and their earnest disciples correctly transmit the supreme law ofthe seven Buddhas, its essence emerges, and it can be experienced. Those whomerely study the letters of the sutras cannot know this. So put a stop to thisdoubt and delusion. Follow the teachings of a real master and, by zazen; attainto the self-joyous samadhi of the Buddhas.

From: Bendowa – in ‘The Soto Approach to Zen’  – by Masunaga Reiho