Questions to Master Deshimaru

Question

I believe that Zen meditation leads to a deeper knowledge of the self, but I don't believe the cosmos itself has a specific consciousness.

Answer

It is impossible to experience it consciously. That is why the masters use parables or poems or paintings. In Chinese philosophy, the earth and myself have the same root. If we keep saying "God, God, God" nowadays, people don't understand what we are talking about and cannot believe. In Buddhism it is the same with Buddha. But where is God? We cannot see. The cosmic system, the cosmic consciousness: that we can understand. It exists physically, it is energy. Today science is trying to figure out what cosmic energy is. We receive that energy in ourselves, by breathing, eating, through our skin. But that isn't all. We also have an ego, a personal consciousness, and that consciousness also receives energy from the cosmos. Physiologists have studied the question and confirmed this. If our individual consciousness, our ego, is too strong we receive the energy badly. That is why we must abandon our personal consciousness in order to receive God. If we go inside ourselves through concentration, we become receptive. During zazen, in the course of a sesshin, the individual consciousness is purified by meditation and the neurons grow calm. Then we can receive cosmic energy fully.