Questions to Master Deshimaru

Question

Through zazen you can sever the karma of body, speech, and mind. Through death too. Is death the same as satori?

Answer

Yes, exactly. The word nirvana means death. Nirvana is the perfect satori. Sometimes it refers to the death of Buddha, perfect extinction. Once we are dead our karma stops creating, no more karma of body, mouth, thought. But there are two doctrines: one says that everything is finished and the other says that karma continues. To you that seems contradictory. In zazen we can make our karma decrease, not stop it. The mouth is shut, the body's karma stops, but that of the brain cannot stop completely, it's too difficult - or else, after a minute or two, you go to sleep. That is because karma is manifested first in the subconscious and appears as a dream. It is really extremely difficult to stop the karma of consciousness. In fact, it is eternal and continues after death. Body and mind are total unity, so if the body comes to an end and dies the consciousness also ceases living. What is life? At death, what stops is the physical activity of the body. But the mind is not separate from it. In Zen there are no commentaries on the problem of substance or on metaphysical questions. And yet they raise many difficulties, I know. Such as, if the body dies, does the mind die too? Many religions claim that the soul flies away. There are scientists who think the same thing: they say the mind floats around for a year or two. Some people imagine that the mind enters into the body of a newborn child. Others say the soul goes to hell or to heaven. Shakyamuni Buddha never said anything of the sort. But the influence of karma continues. The elements that compose the body remain after death, after cremation. The water and blood go into air and earth. The elements remain. Only their physical aspect changes. There is only a physical transformation, and since matter and spirit are unity there is something that remains and is eternally reincarnated. It is possible to think like this. Even the body is not completely finished after death, so our life is like a bubble on the surface of the water, on the surface of the cosmic order. It appears and floats on the horizon, seventy years, eighty years, sometimes one hundred years, then it bursts and disappears - but in reality it continues. There are big bubbles and little bubbles. But you must not be thinking about it all the time, for it tires the brain. Better to concentrate on zazen. Of course, it's interesting to think about it, and karma is important. "How can I avoid a bad reincarnation?" All the great religions worry about the question. It is not accurate to deny, but to affirm raises a difficult metaphysical problem. It's better to remain in hishiryo consciousness.