Friday, December 12, 2008

So what's it all about?

So what's it all about? This henro thing. I mean, what's the big deal? You walk in a circle, ending up back where you started, you don't sit on real furniture for several months, sleep on the floor every night, eat a lot of your meals at convenience stores, walk in the rain (and get s.o.a.k.e.d!), don't talk to anyone for days, and at the end may find yourself tired, sore, hungry, and broke. Are henro nuts?? You could be drinking a Pina Colada on a beach somewhere and enjoying yourself for crying out loud.

Let's say someone walked the henro trail, but not for the purpose of having a new experience. Not because he wanted to see the 'real' Japan. Not because he wanted to chalk up an experience that was unique, and that would label him as 'cool.' Not because he wanted to do something none of his friends had even thought about doing, let alone done. That he didn't even care if anyone else knew he did it, and the only people he told before setting off was his family so they wouldn't call the police when he disappeared for a few months. And when he came back, he didn't tell anyone then either. It wasn't something he needed to brag about. That while on the trail, he didn't take any pictures, didn't get a nōkyōchō stamped, didn't recite the Heart Sutra, didn't dress in the henro garb, didn't carry a walking stick, and didn't tell anyone he was a henro.

Let's say he was like Kūkai back when Kūkai was 21 or 22 years old. He just went. Gave up his job, dropped out of school, and headed to Shikoku. And he meditated, sometimes while sitting on a mountain, sometimes while sitting on a beach, sometimes while walking along a road, sometimes while climbing a mountain path. And he thought. And he analyzed. And he examined. And he tried to figure it all out. If you're like most people, you're born, go to school, get a good job, make lots of money, make a reputation for yourself as being someone others need to know, accumulate stuff, lots and lots of stuff, learn new languages, learn new subjects, like law, poetry, and literature, accumulate a lot more stuff, most of it you want but don't need, and then grow old, secure in all your stuff and in your reputation, before finally ... dying. Period. Dead. Gone. With all your possessions, your reputation, the memories of you, and everything else, still here. You worked your ass off for 80-90 years, and it ended up doing you absolutely no good in the end. You still died. Dead. Completely gone. As if you were never here. End of story.

So let's say he was like Kūkai and tried to figure all that out while he walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. Day after day after day after day. For several months. Can anyone tell me why he should bother?

Kūkai saw the answer early one morning while sitting on Cape Muroto. Dōgen Zenji saw it too, centuries later, and tells us the answer in the Zenki ("The Total Activity of Life and Death") chapter of his Shōbōgenzō.


The Great Way of all the Buddhas and the ultimate goal in Buddhism is detachment from life and death and the realization of enlightenment. We must be detached from life in life and death in death, i.e., when we are alive life is total activity; and in death, death is total activity. Life is the experience of life and death is the experience of death. Life and death together are the actual appearance of truth. The ultimate goal is detachment from, that is total immersion in, life and death. Understanding life and death are [the means whereby the Bodhisattva achieves salvation for himself and other].

Realization of enlightenment means true life — full, free activity. When we actualize enlightenment the full meaning of life and death becomes clear. However, this experience cannot be defined by consciousness or cognition, large or small, limited or unlimited, long or short, near or far.

Our present life is formed by this experience; in the same way, this experience is formed by life. Life is not coming or going, appearing or disappearing. Life is the total experience of life; conversely, death is the total experience of death. In the unlimited nature of Buddhist practice life and death have this special meaning. If we reflect on our present life and begin to have some awakening, gradually, the world starts to manifest its complete appearance. The entire universe is filled with the total activity of life. Each instant has total existence.


Wow. Did you read that? "Life is not coming or going, appearing or disappearing. Life is the total experience of life." "When we are alive life is total activity." "If we reflect on our present life and begin to have some awakening, gradually, the world starts to manifest its complete appearance."

Life is the total experience of life. When we are alive life is total activity. Don't read this as saying when you are alive, then life is total activity. Instead read it as saying when life is total activity, when all of your activities — from working to sleeping, from eating to taking a shit, from sitting at home to walking the henro trail, all activities — are !completely! lived, fully conscious, wide awake, without distractions, as alive and aware as you would be if someone had just pushed you out of an airplane without a parachute, completely focused on your experience, then you are alive.

That's what you can find on the henro trail. That's what makes it worth it. That's why he should bother. The possibility to soar is right there for the plucking. In every step, around every corner, in every encounter, in every new blister, in every new backache, in your sunburned nose, in every smile you give and every smile you receive, in every breath, you get another chance to see that life is the most important thing in your life. You get another chance to realize, as the the sun rises each new day, that it's how you live life that gives you life.

Dōgen finishes Zenki with this summary of the potential that is the trail on Shikoku:


"At the moment of realization, life and death become completely clear. Do not think, however, that there is no previous realization. Every moment contains total reality and is complete in itself. Recognize that there is continual realization, constantly renewing itself."


And Nike finishes its commercials with this summary of Dōgen:


"Just do it."

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