静枝様の実弟に当たる新たな著作権継承者の方が依頼して作られた本です。
私は静枝様との思い出を原稿用紙５枚に書かせて頂きました。
松居先生についての貴重な資料なども載るようです。
栃木の病院で田中先生からお世話を受け、付属の施設に一泊させていただきました。
「病人にこんなに何時間も話をさせて大丈夫ですか」
と聞きましたら、
「できるうちに」
とのことでした。
静枝様もそれを望んでおられました。
着いた日は強風で電車が遅れるかと思ったのに翌日はおだやかでウグイスが鳴いていました。
私は泊めていただいた施設から病院へとウグイスの声を聞きながら歩いていました。（途中で田中先生が車で迎えに来てくださり、助かりました)
こんなにおだやかな日にもうすぐ亡くなるであろう病人に会いにいくことが何だか信じられず、・・・・・・・
春になるとこの日のぽっかりした田園風景を思い出します。
5th Lecture How you look to other people
Show your smiles not only when you are happy.
You should form a habit of showing smiles at all times.
Don’t look down on yourself
I repeatedly mentioned that this book of Tendai Shoshikan was not intended for Buddhist saints with great composure and scholars of the art, but for common mortals who are referred to as dirty rags like me
But there are surprisingly many people in the world who have an instinctive dislike of a religious talk, saying “I certainly don’t understand difficult sermons no matter how many times I listen to them,” or “It is quite impossible for a sinful man like me to reach the realm of Buddha’s enlightenment now that I am old.”
To such an opinion, however, Tendai Daishi says that, if you really want to know what is the supreme bliss in your life, you should first of all stop looking down on yourself. In fact, there are words in Tendai Shoshikan, "Do not despise yourself on any account. Because “Sukuse no Zenkon (宿世の善根)” is unfathomable.” Sukuse no Zenkon means that good deeds repeated in former succeeding generations result in happiness in this present world.
If I interpret this phrase in modern style, Tendai Daishi seems to say, “You should not forget that efforts and prayers by innumerable ancestors for billions of years had been piled up before you were born. Even in each individual’s body and mind it is only a tiny part that you have completed by yourself, and the most part is the fruits of history for millions of years. Therefore the difference between a competent and an incompetent persons in the present world is physically and spiritually, as it were, the tip of an iceberg appearing above the sea. Anyway have a try in everything. You can do for sure what others can.”
This is why I adore these words, “Do not despise yourself on any account. Because Sukuse no Zenkon is unfathomable.”
Actually encouraged by these words, I, the living image of “dirty rags,” venture to talk to you in self-important words.
By the way I spent time talking mainly about mental preparations from the first to third lecture of Shoshikan. It was in the fourth lecture that I started to talk about ascetic practices of Shoshikan for the first time.
Well, I imagine that most people would expect to be in practices immediately when they hear of ascetic practices. But here in the first disciplines of Tendai Shoshikan we started with “Kayoku, or Abandon your desires.”
By abandoning your desires I don’t mean leading an ascetic life. What I mean is that you should try to form a habit of never mixing your feelings such as “liking” or “hating” with your senses of colors, sounds, smells, tastes and touch that you are constantly aware of.
In other words, the first step of Shikan practices starts with training to see through stimuli from outside to stir up your emotions or confuse your thinking faculty. But the cause to stir up man’s emotions is not necessarily external stimuli. A lot of causes resulting in stirring up your emotions lie hidden in your mind.
Therefore in the second stage of Shikan practices which is contrary to "Kayoku" in the previous lecture, you go into training to examine closely the functions of your mind. To be more precise, the practice is equivalent to “Kigai Daisan” in the third chapter of Tendai Shoshikan, of which I am going to talk today. The meaning of Kigai, a character we are unfamiliar with, is in short to take off the lid concealing your mind and to let your thinking faculty work correctly.
What is the lid concealing your mind, then? Well, the first one is what we call “greed,” or covetable mind.
The second is anger or bearing a grudge.
The third is a vague state of mind that is apt to doze.
The fourth is restless and flippant mind, or fretting on and on about what has been done.
And the last fifth is suspicious mind.
It is very interesting that one of the disciples who seems to have written Tendai Shoshikan asked Tendai Daishi, “Why do you specifically pick out greed, anger, vagueness, restlessness, fretting and suspicion among a mountain of obstacles to ascetic practices in the world and tell us to refrain from them?” To this question, Tendai Daishi answered clearly, “So-called earthly desires are divided into 84,000 types on minute analysis. ‘The five lids concealing man’s mind’ in question are the root of all worldly desires, so all desires in life will be gone if you try to get rid of them.”
But, to be honest, the descriptions written here were not convincing enough to me for a long time.
Don’t be greedy.
Don’t get angry.
Don’t be vague in mind.
Don’t be restless.
Don’t be suspicious.
Each of these teachings is, to be sure, understandable. Even so, I wonder why these five lids can be said to be the root of all worldly desires. Supposing Tendai Daishi’s words are right, I am still quite at a loss as to what I should specifically do in order to renounce the mental lids. One day, however, I had such an experience that the thick cover of doubt was literally blown off at once owing to a quite unexpected happening.
Where there is no smile, there is no Buddha’s mercy
It was in those days when, as I said before, I was working wholeheartedly in Ari-no-machi in Asakusa, <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on"> Tokyo
At that time a large number of people living in temporary sheds inhabited part of the precincts of <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on"> Kaneiji Temple
To the dwellers in temporary sheds, however, it was almost impossible to make a living as they had done after leaving there. Then, they asked the staff members in Ari-no-machi for help so that they could live there for a while.
Now, this problem created a headache for me. Because the superintendent of <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on"> Kaneiji Temple
There was no doubt at all that Archbishop Ninomiya understood well the situations of those poor people. But major temples in <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on"> Japan
But I knew there was only one way to stop the decision. At that time there lived Archbishop Ohtaki of lofty character in Kaneiji, who was nearly ninety years old. This priest conducted religious services for a long time in high-ranking <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on"> Rinnouji Temple
Therefore I believed firmly that if Archbishop Ohtaki just said, “Save the poor people,” the unfavorable situations would be instantly reversed.
By the way, Archbishop Ohtaki used to be close friends with my father and loved me as if I were his own son. In fact it was Archbishop Ohtaki who introduced me to Archbishop Ninomiya. But he gave up his position as a chief priest at <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on"> Rinnouji Temple
So I thought it wouldn’t work, but since I had no other choice I was impudent enough to go to his private room and plead with him to save the poor people.
Sure enough, as I had thought, he didn’t say yes. “Once I am into retirement, I have no right to meddle in what my disciples are doing,” he said.
But I couldn’t be talked into backing down.
“Well, you backed me up more than anyone else when I told you of my work to support poor people at Ari-no-machi. I still remember what you said at that time---You said, ‘Now that you have made up your mind, devote yourself to the work thoroughly.’ That’s why I am going to fight against <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on"> Kaneiji Temple
After thinking for a long time with his eyes closed, Archbishop Ohtaki quietly said, “Then, you are prepared to die if things go well, aren’t you?”
I replied “Yes.”
Then Archbishop said, “All right. I will grant your request. I also have a favor to ask of you. Will you do me the favor?
When I replied, “Of course. I will do whatever you say,” old Archbishop gazed at my face and said, “If the recent problem is settled down as you expected, I want you to wash your hands of the business as soon as you can.” He added, “Because you look grim these days.”
How can I express my feeling when I heard his words?
Right up to that day I had always considered myself to be a protector of just causes, a brave warrior fighting to save poor people, full of conceit believing that what I was doing was true practices leading to enlightenment. The conceit was smashed up in a second and I felt as if my body and soul had been swallowed deep under the ground like crumbling sands.
All I remember was that tears gushed out from my eyes and I couldn’t help it. I cannot remember how I answered to Archbishop Ohtaki and how I left his room.
I think I shall never forget his words at that time, “You look grim these days.”
Come to think of it, whether I worked to save people in disadvantaged position or for the sake of welfare of all mankind or the salvation of all living creatures, my work was evidently off the path of Buddhist teachings so long as I could not smile at anything, anyplace or anytime. The moment I was conscious of the fact, the meaning described in “Kigai Daisan,” or the third chapter of Tendai Shoshikan, became clear and convincing.
You may wonder how I was convinced. Well, “Kayoku, or Abandon your desires,” of which I talked in the previous lecture, referred from a physiological point of view to a practice to have the brain pass a right judgment about stimuli from outside, while “Kigai or Take off the lid of mind,” of which I am talking now, is how to express what you are thinking in your head with your hands and legs. To put it in easier words, it means how to respond to all kinds of stimuli. Even if it was for the interest of the world or the public, my face expressions must have shown utmost greed as long as I stuck to realization of my desires. When you are indignant at the worldly injustice, you are probably inclined to have square shoulders, clenched teeth or narrowed eyes.
If that is true, I want you to consider what is a common feature when a man sticks to something, when he gets angry, when he has a restless mind or when he doubts something.
Well, the answer is, “I am not smiling now.”
Therefore, what Tendai Daishi wanted to say in “Kigai Daisan” was “You should always behave with a gentle smile even when you are physically or mentally driven into desperation. If you look or behave in another way, that is to say, if you are not smiling at anything, anyplace or anytime, it is a danger signal that your thinking faculty is not working correctly.”
If that is the case, let’s look into what is written in “Kigai Daisan” in detail and see how Tendai Daishi explains the matter in a concrete way.
How to become a man who does not get angry
As I said before, the first lid of mind is greed. But why do we have to go over the problem of desires again after we investigated it thoroughly in Kayoku in the second chapter?
According to Tendai Daishi, what we took up in the previous chapter was an object before our eyes and tangible through sight, hearing, smell, taste or touching. In other words, we dealt with something actually existing outside ourselves. Now what we take up here is a desire to cause imagination in our mind, stir up our emotions and disturb our correct thinking faculty by means of something which does not exist before our eyes.
Then, how can we shake off such desires? In the original text of Shoshikan the following words are written: “Once you have your mind concentrated in deep Zen meditation, you will never be cheated.” In other words, it means, “Thoroughly continue practices to calm down your emotions and experience happiness even once in your life when you have attained ultimate enlightenment. Then you will really know that a so-called man’s desire is quite nonsense.”
Now let’s listen to the explanations of “Getting angry or bearing a grudge.” Tendai Daishi classifies “anger” into the following nine cases:
The first is a case of anger where a certain person is directly annoying you.
The second is a case of anger where a certain person is tormenting or cursing someone you love.
The third is a case of anger where a certain person helps or praises someone you hate.
And there are still other cases in which you get angry, reminded of the above-mentioned cases in the past or fearing they may arise in the future.
Adding up the three cases in the present, the past and the future, we have nine cases of anger in all. Tendai Daishi asserted that man does not get angry from any other reasons than these cases.
To be brief, the feature of anger is that we attribute brutal excitements in our mind to a specific existence other than ourselves. Besides we are inclined to hate or begrudge the other party and to charge our sufferings to him.
That is why our judgment is wrong at the root when we are angry, because our thinking faculty does not work correctly---anger is the root of all evils, says the book.
What is the best way, then, to become a man who never gets angry?
First of all you have to feel another person’s happiness or sorrow as if it were your own. In addition, instead of looking down on anything in this world as dirty, ugly or vulgar, you should try to recognize equal value of everything in the world. In short you have no other way but to smile at anything, anyplace or anytime, so says the book.
Absent-mind, flippant mind, irritation, suspicion
How can we define the “vague state of mind that is apt to doze”? The original text of Tendai Shoshikan says such a state of mind is “Zuimen.”
Its usual interpretation is “sleeping,” but I wonder why sleeping is wrong. The subject of sleeping, which is taken up in the next fourth chapter again, is warned repeatedly by Tendai Daishi, in that sleeping itself is not wrong but sleepiness falls on those who do not make honest efforts for ascetic practices because of sitting late at night to do something quite unrelated to practices.
Therefore, when you feel your brains muddled, you should put something on your head or ask someone to hit you with a stick when you fall asleep, so that you can wake up.
Now, I would like to proceed to the next subject, flippant and irritated minds.
Flippancy is divided into three categories.
The first one is a physical flippancy.
The second is a verbal flippancy.
The third is a mental flippancy.
The first physical flippancy refers to such a person who is always roaming around, is fond of various play or ready to move his neck or hands and feet in spite of his efforts to sit still. The second verbal flippancy refers to such a person who frequently sings a song at any time and place, insists on merits and demerits of a thing or his own likes and dislikes, ask others prying questions or talks on and on about worldly affairs as if he had good knowledge of them.
The third mental flippancy seems to correspond to a person whose mind frequently changes owing to ideas off the main track and who is capricious in various literary works, arts, hobbies and amusements and takes pride in far-fetched views or thoughts.
What is the best way for such a person?
It is precisely for such a person that Zen meditation starting in the fourth chapter is necessary. During the meditation you are in a frame of mind void of all ideas and thoughts by making yourself comfortable, shutting your mouth firmly, stopping any talks. Tendai Daishi said in the third chapter that you should first cure yourself of irritation over what was done in the past rather than physical, verbal and mental flippancies.
Because you could suppress flippancy unexpectedly well but you might be irresistibly seized with irritated feelings even while you are meditating, which is hard to deal with.
What are you supposed to do in such a situation? The answer is very simple: however serious your mistake is, you have only to make up your mind never to repeat the same mistake the moment you are aware of it.
In other words, you should forget all about what was done and simply smile, says Daishi.
Now, let’s proceed to the fifth lid of mind, suspicion.
There may be a variety of suspicion, but what matters here is one which hinders ascetic practices directly. This can be divided into three types, says Daishi.
The three types are:
The first is to suspect your own ability.
The second is to suspect the ability of your leader.
And the third is to suspect an ascetic practice itself.
In fact the phrase I told you a little while ago, “Do not despise yourself on any account. Because “Sukuse no Zenkon” is unfathomable,” was intended for a person who suspects himself. In short, the essence of ascetic practices lies in belief. Any practices will not bear fruit without this believing mind.
So, once you have made up your mind to enter into ascetic practices, you should first of all have confidence in yourself.
Tendai Daishi finishes his explanations about so-called lids of mind with the above statements. If you read “Kigai Daisan” from the beginning again, you will find he preaches repeatedly that smiling is the only way to cure evil practices in case of the four lids of mind, except for the case of sleeping, that is, a state of vague mind.
Come to think of it, it is easier to say “Smile at anything, anyplace or anytime,” but no easy matter when you try to smile in earnest. As is often happens, if you look at yourself in the mirror to see if you are really smiling, you will find a grim and sulky face there. But most people say, “How can I keep smiling all the time from morning till night?” Why ought we to smile at anything, anyplace or anytime? Why can we not do that?
All that matters is that we haven't got a habit to smile, that’s all. To be more precise, you have long neglected practicing to smile since you were born, or your ancestors have been indifferent to smiling for generations, I should say. That is why Tendai Daishi emphasized that you should reflect over and over again on whether you are smiling now or not. After you have mastered these practices, I will finally proceed to a lecture about Zen meditation in the next lecture.
(Broadcast August 6, 1978)
