People think it must be wonderful to see the famous range of mountains covered by mists
 and the water said to cover all the earth. But if you go there, you will just see water and mountains,
 nothing special. It is a kind of mystery that for people who have no experience of enlightenment,
 enlightenment is something wonderful. But if they attain it, it is nothing. But yet it is not
 nothing. Do you understand? For a mother with children, having children is nothing special.
 That is zazen. So if you continue this practice, more and more you will acquire something,
 nothing special, but nevertheless something. You may say universal nature or buddha nature
 or enlightenment. You may call it by many names, but for the person who has it, it is nothing
 and it is something. When we express our true nature, we are human beings. When we do not,
 we do not know what we are. We are not an animal because we walk on two legs.
 We are something different from an animal, but what are we? We may be a ghost. We do not know
 what to call ourselves. Such a creature does not actually exist. It is a delusion.
 We are not a human being anymore, but we do exist. When zen is not zen, nothing exists.
 Intellectually, my talk makes no sense, but if you have experienced true practice,
 you will understand what I mean. If something exists, it has its own true nature. It's buddha
 nature. In the parinirvana sutra, buddha says everything has buddha nature, but dogen reads
 it in this way. Everything is buddha nature. There is a difference. If you say everything
 has buddha nature, it means buddha nature is in each existence. So buddha nature and each existence
 are different. But when you say everything is buddha nature, it means everything is buddha
 nature itself. When there is no buddha nature, there is nothing at all. Something apart from
 buddha nature is just a delusion. It may exist in your mind, but such things actually do not exist.
 So to be a human being is to be a buddha. Buddha nature is just another name for human nature,
 our true human nature. Thus, even though you do not do anything, you are actually doing something.
 You are expressing yourself. You are expressing your true nature. Your eyes will express,
 your voice will express, your demeanor will express. The most important thing is to express
 your true nature in the simplest, most adequate way and to appreciate it in the smallest existence.
 While you are continuing this practice, week after week, year after year, your experience
 will become deeper and deeper, and your experience will cover everything you do in your everyday
 life. The most important thing is to forget all gaining ideas, all dualistic ideas. In other words,
 just practice zazen in a certain posture. Do not think about anything. Just remain on your cushion
 without expecting anything. Then, eventually, you will resume your own true nature.
 That is to say, your own true nature resumes itself.
 Part 2 Right Attitude
 Single-minded way
 The purpose of my talk is not to give you some intellectual understanding,
 but just to express my appreciation of our Zen practice.
 To be able to sit with you in zazen is very, very unusual.
 Of course, whatever we do is unusual because our life itself is so unusual.
 Buddha said, "To appreciate your human life is as rare as soil on your fingernail."
 You know, dirt hardly ever sticks on your nail.
 Our human life is rare and wonderful. When I sit, I want to remain sitting forever.
 But I encourage myself to have another practice, for instance, to recite the sutra or to bow.
 And when I bow, I think, "This is wonderful." But I have to change my practice again to recite
 the sutra. So the purpose of my talk is to express my appreciation. That is all.
 Our way is not to sit to acquire something. It is to express our true nature. That is our practice.
 If you want to express yourself, your true nature, there should be some natural and appropriate way
 of expression. Even swaying right and left as you sit down or get up from zazen is an expression of
 yourself. It is not preparation for practice or relaxation after practice. It is part of the
 practice. So we should not do it as if it were preparing for something else. This should be
 true in your everyday life. To cook or to fix some food is not preparation. According to Dogen,
 it is practice. To cook is not just to prepare food for someone or for yourself. It is to express
 your sincerity. So when you cook, you should express yourself in your activity in the kitchen.
 You should allow yourself plenty of time. You should work on it with nothing in your mind,
 and without expecting anything, you should just cook. That is also an expression of our sincerity,
 a part of our practice. It is necessary to sit in zazen in this way, but sitting is not our only way.
 Whatever you do, it should be an expression of the same deep activity. We should appreciate
 what we are doing. There is no preparation for something else. The bodhisattva's way is called
 the single-minded way, or one railway track thousands of miles long. The railway track
 is always the same. If it were to become wider or narrower, it would be disastrous.
 Wherever you go, the railway track is always the same. That is the bodhisattva's way. So even if
 the sun were to rise from the west, the bodhisattva has only one way. His way is in each moment to
 express his nature and his sincerity. We say railway track, but actually there is no such thing.
 Sincerity itself is the railway track. The sights we see from the train will change,
 but we are always running on the same track, and there is no beginning or end to the track.
 Beginningless and endless track. There is no starting point, nor goal, nothing to attain.
 Just to run on the track is our way. This is the nature of our Zen practice.
 But when you become curious about the railway track, danger is there. You should not see the
 railway track. If you look at the track, you'll become dizzy. Just appreciate the sights you see
 from the train. That's our way. There is no need for the passengers to be curious about the track.
 Someone will take care of it. Buddha will take care of it. But sometimes we try to explain the
 railway track because we become curious if something is always the same. We wonder, how is
 it possible for the bodhisattva always to be the same? What is his secret? But there is no secret.
 Everyone has the same nature as the railway track. There were two good friends, Chokai and Hofuku.
 They were talking about the bodhisattva's way, and Chokai said, "Even if the arhat, an enlightened
 one, were to have evil desires, still the Tathagata Buddha does not have two kinds of words.
 I say that the Tathagata has words, but no dualistic words." Hofuku said, "Even though you
 say so, your comment is not perfect." Chokai asked, "What is your understanding of the Tathagata's
 words?" Hofuku said, "We have had enough discussion, so let's have a cup of tea."
 Hofuku did not give his friend an answer because it is impossible to give a verbal interpretation
 of our way. Nevertheless, as a part of their practice, these two good friends discussed the
 bodhisattva's way even though they did not expect to find a new interpretation. So Hofuku answered,
 "Our discussion is over. Let's have a cup of tea." That's a very good answer, isn't it?
 It's the same for my talk. When my talk is over, your listening is over. There's no need to
 remember what I say. There's no need to understand what I say. You understand. You have full
 understanding within yourself. There is no problem.


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