Zen in Ten: "The Sacred Pine Endures the Chill of Time"

The Profound, Poetic Wisdom of Keizan Jokin Zenji

Below are quotes from Keizan Jokin Zenji, considered the “Mother of Zen.” Keizan (1264-1325) is credited with making Soto Zen more accessible to lay practitioners and supporting & ordaining women. Keizan was the founding abbot of the Sōjiji Zen monastery. Since the late nineteenth century, he has officially been designated, along with Eihei Dōgen (1200–1253), as one of the two founding ancestors of the Japanese Sōtō Zen school. Keizan is the author of the Denkōroku (The Record of the Transmission of the Light) and the “Zazen Yojinki.” Enjoy his profoundity! Peace and gratitude, Rev. Shōren Heather

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1. “Know that hidden deep within

   the cloud-enshrouded valley

   There still remains the sacred pine

   enduring through the chill of time.”

2. “The profoundly alone Dharma is not something that you confer on another or receive from another, that would be like searching your face to find your nose.”

3. “The practice of meditation must be your very own training in enlightenment. When you fully awaken to your True Self, you will meet [that person]; if you fail to meet [that person], you will be like a restless, disembodied spirit vainly clutching at reeds or clinging to trees for support.”

4. “From atop a ten-thousand foot cliff

   the water without source,

   Piercing through rock, sweeping away clouds,

   comes seething and gushing forth;

   Though scattering the snow and flower petals,

   making them fly in wild disorder,

   This cloth-like strip, pure white as cotton,

   is beyond the drab world of dust.”

   

   The Rev. Kokyo Henkel gave me permission to use his beautiful portrait of Keizan Jokin Zenji.

5. “With the house demolished and the self o’erthrown,

   no inside or outside remains

   So where, pray, are body and mind

   to conceal their forms?”

6. “Even though, beyond question, you have understood It in principle and, without a doubt, have clarified that It is the Way, nevertheless, only when you have had great awakening to your True Self will you, of necessity, realize what It is for the very first time.”

7. “Never depend on the written word to unravel meaning or depend on acquired knowledge to discern the spiritual; completely demolish such concepts as ‘Heaven and Earth,’ ‘the sacred and mundane,’ and ‘external karmic conditions and internal karmic tendencies'.’ ”

8. “If you do not personally experience It at least once, you will be led by your senses and their objects into vain delusion without your ever knowing the True Self.”

9. “As Great Master Baso (Chinese, Ma-tsu) said, ‘No sentient being has, for untold aeons, ever left the samadhi of Dharma Nature. Since we are always in the samadhi of Dharma Nature, we were clothes and eat food, converse and make respectful replies, for the functioning of the six sense organs and the carrying out of all activities are, without exception, nothing but the Dharma Nature.

10. “Do not say that speech or silence

    is the way to manifest the wondrousness of the Heart

    For how can your sense organs and their objects

    ever possibly defile your own Self Nature?”

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