Question
After reading: "Question: 'Troubled,' from October 26, 2013. I am troubled by the political world as it is now. I no longer understand who is who; there are no concrete plans. We no longer know who is right-wing or left-wing, and the world deteriorates noticeably a little more each day. I am afraid..."
Reading this question and the answer you gave brought back the first stanzas of the Shin Jin Mei: "1) The true Way, the essence of the Way, is not difficult, but we must neither dislike nor choose. 2) If we neither hate nor love, it (the Way) appears clearly, distinctly, like the entrance to a cave on a mountainside. 3) If a difference the size of an atom arises, an infinite distance immediately separates heaven from earth." Translation by Master Deshimaru.
Going backward, moving forward, joining, withdrawing... Can we really follow Buddha's Way and remain attached to the world? Not only politically, but in the most ordinary daily life? Yet in the world, isn't not loving or not choosing indifference? Or is it detachment? If everything is only an epiphenomenon (thus effectively deprived of "reality," like the five aggregates...), what can loving, not loving, choosing, or... fearing mean? I do not really understand your concern for this world, and since you are a Zen master and a Buddha, I conclude I understand nothing about Zen or Buddhism... Or do I?
Gassho.
machin
Answer from Master Kosen
Ha! Ha! Ha! Zen is zazen, the Great Way is zazen. The rest is theater. But in a play, if we do not choose, love, or hate, we are bored shitless.
Tozan was not talking about politics or theater, but zazen.
Kosen