Day One
Consciousness Is a Vast Ocean 128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5T9s3FD3GB
A few days after arranging the appointment, I set out for the temple on a Monday morning.
It was about an hour from my apartment by local train, followed by a twenty-minute walk from the nearest station.
When I arrived at the station, I bought some daifuku at the dango shop I had been told about, then walked toward the temple with the help of my map.
I’m not good with heat, I muttered to myself as I walked for about twenty minutes under the strong summer sun, finally managing to reach the temple just in time.
I stopped in front of the gate, wiped the sweat from my forehead, and muttered without thinking,
“So this is… the temple.”
As I stepped through the gate, an elderly woman came out to greet me.
She seemed to have been waiting for me, since I had called ahead from the station.
“Miss Seto?”
“Yes, I’m Seto. I called earlier. I’ve come to see Master Un’an,” I replied brightly.
“You’ve come all this way in this heat,” she said, and with that she led me to the master.
The temple could hardly be called beautiful. Weeds grew here and there, and some of the roof tiles were cracked.
Before long, I caught sight of a monk feeding sparrows in the temple grounds.
(So this must be Master Un’an,) I thought to myself.
As I approached him, I took the initiative and greeted him.
“How do you do? My name is Kyōko Seto. I study Buddhism at university. I’ve come today hoping to learn about Zen enlightenment.”
“I see. Enlightenment, is it?”
He fell silent for a moment, his eyes fixed on me as if weighing my resolve. Then he asked,
“Enlightenment is something that must be understood through direct experience. At its core, Zen is founded on the principles of ‘not relying on words and letters’ and ‘a transmission outside the scriptures.’ You’re familiar with those sayings, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am. The truth isn’t conveyed through words, but through experiences beyond words, isn’t that so? But if I rely only on that, my research can’t move forward… So I was hoping you might explain it in words. That’s why I came here today,” I said, almost pleading.
“I see. If you had come seeking to become a disciple, I would simply tell you to practice zazen.”
He paused for a moment, then went on,
“But since you seem to be a student… very well, I’ll try to explain. Let’s see if you can keep up.”
With that, he led me into a tatami room.
(Thank goodness.) I let out a quiet sigh of relief.
The sparrows that had been around him were now perched in the nearby trees, watching us. I seemed to have interrupted their meal.
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Once inside the tatami room, he slowly sat cross-legged on a cushion. I followed his lead and sat in seiza—the formal Japanese kneeling posture—on the cushion prepared for me.
“Sorry for interrupting you while you were feeding the sparrows...”
He paused for a moment, then smiled.
“No. I wasn’t feeding the sparrows—I was feeding myself.”
“Feeding yourself…?” I couldn’t believe my ears.
“Yes—myself. To me, there is no separate ‘me’ and ‘sparrows.’ Everything is me. I was feeding a part of myself in the shape of sparrows.”
“What?!” I was utterly taken aback.
“The sparrows are you? Everything is you?” I asked again.
“Yes. All existence is me. For example, even this little ant crawling here is a part of me.”
He pointed at a tiny ant on the tatami.
“This ant... is part of you?” I stared at the small creature.
“Yes. To me, this ant exists within my own consciousness. So I cannot kill even a single ant. To kill it would be to kill a part of myself. Everything here, including you, exists within my consciousness. Since a part of me—you—is asking, I—another part of me, the monk—am answering.”
(Impossible... What is he talking about?) I thought. Before I realized it, I found myself asking aloud,
“But to me, you and I are different people...”
“Yes, to you, all existence is separate. Before enlightenment, I saw things the same way you do.”
He gazed into the distance and continued:
“But after enlightenment, all existence became part of me. To be exact, the small ‘me’ confined within this physical body no longer exists at all.”
“Huh...?” I was speechless.
(Not confined to the body after enlightenment? What could that possibly mean?)
For a moment I sat in silence, trying to understand his words. I interpreted them in my own way and asked:
“Do you mean imagining that everything else is simply part of oneself?”
He shook his head firmly.
“No. Enlightenment is not just an imagination or a product of thought. Enlightenment is a reality of consciousness that goes beyond thought.”
“A reality of consciousness? What do you mean?”
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(To be continued.)28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAN9dAfHMAi
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