僕の理想郷 ・ＵＴＯＰＩＡ

僕の理想郷

そこではある人々は土地を耕し、ある人は平和を乱さない仕事に従事し、自分の生活を支えると共に隣人を助ける。僕たちは貯蓄することなく、生きるに必要なものだけを得るためにのみ働く。僕たちは物質的には貧しいが、それは僕たちが
そうあることを選択した結果である。にもかかわらず僕らには真の豊かさがある。というのは質素と自足こそ真の豊かさに導くことを知っているからである。僕等の中には武器を作ったり戦争に関連した仕事に従事している者は一人としていない。平和な仕事でも不正に陥りやすい職種は極力避ける。
僕らの間には上下関係はなく、あらゆる面で平等であり又自由でありお互いに奉仕することを当然なことと考えている。

週一日僕らは皆仕事を休み、その日は自己と向き合い自然の中を散策したり、読書をしたりしながら、生きることの意味・有難さを深く吟味する。時には古から伝わる世界の宗教の教義、哲学の中に記された英知を特定の宗教に拘らずお互いに話し合い、、この大宇宙の下にほんのつかぬ間ながら生きている有難さを分かち合う。
僕らはお互いに兄弟の様に生活しているがよそ者も排他することなくいつでも歓迎する。
一人一人が職業を持ち、倦むことなく自ら率先して働く。日の出とともに働き始め、日没とともに仕事を終えるという大自然の運行に従い生活している。仕事そのものの本質は遊戯より人生にとって喜びは深く、心身共々にとっても心地よいものであり、老いても続けられメリットがあると僕らは考えている。僕らはよく食卓を共にし、病気になれば自分たちが積み立てた共同費用で治療を受け、全員が世話と思いやりを持って看護しあう。そんな世界に僕は住みたいと思っている。

UTOPIA
There some people are engaged in cultivating the
farm land and others are engaged in a kind of work which doesn't break peace,

in order to support our  own living. If necessary, we willingly 

offer our help to others in financial trouble.We don't save money but work to gain only what is
necessary. We are materially poor but it is the result of our own choice. Despite the fact, we are rich in our mind because we know  that only through simple living and self-sufficient life can be
gained the true richness of life. Among us are there no people who make weapons nor people who are engaged in war-related profession. Even
peace-oriented profession , we avoid it if it may put us into injustice. Among us there is no
superiority and inferiority relationship but we are all equal and free in every respect and think it natural to give voluntary service each other. One

day a week we all take a day-off, on which we spend time , taking a walk in nature , reading books with our mind facing to ourselves in silence.
In such a way we confirm the meaning and gratitude of our life deeply. Sometimes we talk about the wisdom written in the teaching of world
religions passed down to us from the ancient times
and share the gratitude of our fleeting life in this
vast cosmic space. We live altogether closely just like brothers but never keep strangers away . Each
one of us has his own profession and work eagerly
and positively free from the feeling of being tired of work. We live according to the law of nature , starting to work with sunrise and finishing our work with sunset . We think work in itself much
more rewarding than leisure and good for both
physical and mental health. we also think that the 
work has a great merit of continuing it all through
our life. We often share dinner one another . If any of us fall sick, we can receive free medical  treatment
with the money saved by all of us and take care of
the sick with considerate mind each other. In such a place I'd like to live.

禅 ポエム Zen Poem

はなは黙って咲き、
　　　　　黙って散っていく。
そうして再び枝には帰らない。
けれども、その一時一処に
　　　この世の全てを託している。
一輪の花の声であり、一枝の花の真である。
永遠に滅びぬ生命の喜びが、悔いなく
　　　　　　　　こに輝いている。




Flowers bloom silently 
                 and wither away silently
They never go back to their branches
      However they entrust everything
        in this world at this very moment
                         at this very place
It is a voice of a flower and 
                      the truth of the flower
There shine happiness of 
                         never-dying life
    

Zen Experience at a little temple

Sunday scenery in precincts
The temple is not  famous unlike ones with big incidents to be marked in the history of Japanese Buddhism. The appearance of the temple is not
particularly outstanding either. It is a kind of the
temple you can often see in the middle size of cities in Japan, insisting its existence quietly in the
corner of the residential area crowded with many
houses. At the entrance of the temple hangs a small wooden notice board " 座禅” ,practice of zen,
on Sunday morning and some people of around
fifteen in number gather one after another from
only God knows where.The expression on the faces of the people exchanging morning greeting
are far from those of ascetic spiritual seekers deeply sunk in their thought in search of an answer to existential problems . They appear to be
ordinary citizens. Behind their faces they should have their own problems ,anxieties and worries.
They should  come to the temple early in the morning hoping solution through zen.

With the sound of singing bowl
Precisely at 7:00 am. The sound of the singing
bowl echoes all over inside the temple. Sunday 
zazen ( practice of zen) participants are already
ready for zazen, taking zen posture with legs crossed. " October 8th' zen session ・・・” runs
the voice of the priest, which is the annoucement
of beginning of zazen. Then facing Japanese sliding doors , they keep sitting , paying all their
attention to counting of one breath after another.
It may be a question of 30 minutes but they throw
all their consciousness into infinitive time. Sometimes the sound of singing birds or that of  passing cars grasps their brains momentarily
but their consciousness is brought back into the
wordless world dominated by absolute silence soon. This unusual silent time when all physical activities stops! It is the peaceful time just like
one you experience when you return your ultimate
spiritual homeland at the deepest part of your 
inner self. It may not be the heart-throbbing time
with excitement but rather the time when your inner happiness rises slowly from the bottom of
your inner being.
Precisely at 7:30 am. Again rings the sound of singing bowl . It is the announcement of the end
of zazen. And then the participants start zazen walk in line slowly half step after another around the inside of the temple. In the end comes chanting of zen script written by the 
pioneer of their zen sect, Dohgen.

What to seek there
The practice of zen there is not very strict with air
stretched with continual sound of ”警策”　or shoulder -hitting rod nor stiff. Very few people
seek the high spiritual stage among them. The 
function of the zazen there is more like  a passing
cool breeze which cools down their hot brain raised in their daily life  and helps them to return
their routine revitalized. Strangely speaking, you
feel your mind cooling down only by sitting with zen posture. It seem to be much more effective than thousands of words. Borrowing the words of
great zen priest , it may be that self settles in self.
Among regular comers there are a few people who
have been attending the practice of zen for more 
than 20 years. For them the zazen there may play the role of easing existential anxieties or fear inevitably coming from inside their mind no matter
how much their worldly life is satisfied in terms of
money, family life and job. Telling figuratively ,
it may be similar to the sound of a temple on the
top of hill coming down to the place where people live, wrapping the mind of Japanese people tenderly with a nostalgic sensation and peace.
Here I can see an aspect of contemporary Japanese spiritual life.
Casual chat over sweet and tea
With the announcement of the priest" Now today's
zazan session is over" the interior of the temple
which was dominated by silence suddenly turns into a noisy place with people running up and down. They prepare for small tea party. Each one
of them engages in different works

such as cleaning, making tea, roasting rice-cakes
and so on. Then casual chat begins.
                            participant A   "Soon I will go to Eihei-ji, the head
                        temple of their sect.
priest             "Good move. You may reach the                               stage as high as a professional                                  nun."
participant B  " The group of monkeys came into                             our garden."
everyone        " What a wild place you live in!"

participant C  " This is a souvenir from Africa.
                  D  " You mean this is the taste of 
                         tea from Tanzania?"
In this way chatting proceeds,sometimes about 
zen-related topics and other times about worldly
topics. The face of everyone  casually talking
appears to be shinning after spiritual activity.
With the announcement of the priest" Now see
you next week" 

everyone gets ready to go home. Somehow the faces of the people getting

out of the temple appear to be clean as if dust 
accumulated in their daily life unconsciously is
washed away.

An aspect of present Japan
At this temple zen session is held every Sunday,which is nowadays unusual in Japan.
The priest is very casual and anything but a kind
of priest with frightful atmosphere which old zen
priest used to have. He is still a vigorous middle-aged man. If you are interested in having a glance
of casual spiritual side of Japan, "座禅”　or practice
of zen here may give you a good chance. Why not
join them?

the name of temple       福昌寺（Fukusho-ji)
     address                     Kanagawa-ken Atsugi-shi
                                      Hase 1600
     Phone NO                 247-5485

Zen in the middle of steppe

Zen surrounded by all green
Green, Green & Green as far as I can see. In the 
middle of such a steppe I sit cross-legged , inhaling air  all around me into the whole part of
my body quietly. What actually comes into my body may be only air but I feel as if all the surrounding green also came into my body at the same time.
The fresh and pure air which came into my body seems to contain dew from the night before and to be filled with indescribable purity and transparency.
The air gradually  spreads everywhere in my body.
And then I breathe out the air quietly and slowly, taking time.
When I repeat the act endlessly , I feel as if I was liberated from all the conception of me created by
my brain and that my real life itself started to breathe in and out voluntarily. 

The reality of all the earthly things
The realty of all earthly things is transiency. Nothing can remain forever. To be conscious of the
absolute truth can bring unbearable spiritual pain.
So we toss about in excessive pain in order to immortalize our existence. But the curtain has been drawn and our reasoning-power has seen the
bare truth. Childish logic is not persuasive enough.
The goal of our relative meaning of life comes to end when it reaches there and never fills our mind
with its meaning and the spiritual joy all through
 our life. Soon the time comes when we have to face our existential anxiety, namely aging and death. Then is there no way to fill our mind with
everlasting spiritual joy? YES, THERE IS!
Bodily understanding is the only way
It comes only when we throw our whole existence
into the absolute truth of transiency and let go of our hero or heroine called me. Then peace comes into our mind quietly like when we sit in the middle of steppe even if it may not last long.
It may be the ultimate direction Zen points out. 
Through such a life we may be able to live our true
life itself. Recently I think this way.
Such a way of life can never be attained intellectually. In fact how unreliable intellectual
understanding may be in actual situations and 
never save our real troubled mind. Bodily understanding ! This is the only way to fill the gap
between the fence of our consciousness and the 
Reality running right behind our consciousness. 
Daily life can be sometimes be monotonous. But 
our daily life is the very ground for our every second. We engage ourselves with daily things
simply and selflessly. The difficulty we encounter 
in our life gives us a good chance to create fertilizer for bodily understanding. Let's jump into
our transient life as a transient human being as if
we sat in the middle of steppe.

大草原のど真ん中で坐禅

大草原での座禅

見渡す限りGreen,Green, Green の大草原のど真ん中で結跏趺坐をし、静かに胸いっぱい空気を吸い込む。僕の胸の中に入ってくる物は唯の空気だが辺り一面の草原さえ同時に
入ってくるようにさえ感じる。体内に流入してきた新鮮な空気。それは前夜の夜露を含み清澄極まりなくみずみずしい透明感に溢れている。その空気は僕の体内の奥深くまで隅々にまで渡って行く。そして静かに長い時間をかけてその空気を
体内から吐き出す。そうした行為を繰り返し繰り返し行っていると僕の脳が作り出したあるべき姿、苦悩等の全ての産物
から解放され、ただ僕の生命のみが呼吸している様にさえ感じてくる。

万物の実相

万物の実相は無常だ。何一つとして永遠に留まるものはない。その絶対的真理を意識することは耐え難き苦痛をもたらす。だから僕たちは自己の不朽化を求め七転八倒する。しかしカーテンは既に引かれ理性はむき出しの存在の実相を見てしまったのだ。子供だましの幼稚な論理は説得力不足だ。相対的人生の目標は達成してしまったらそこで終わりだ。一生涯にわたり僕たちの心に意義と充実を与えることはできない。いずれ実存的不安感、老いと死という究極の問題
に立ち向かわねばならない。では一生涯にわたり僕たちの心に充実と平安を与える術はないのか？と、僕は自問する。
ある！
体得こそ唯一の
それは無常という絶対真理の中に自己の全存在を投げだし
僕という主人公を手放した時、大草原で経験したときの様な
平安があると

。その方向こそ禅が究極的に指し示す方向で嘘偽りのない生命そのものを生きることではないか？と最近僕は感じている。それは知的理解では修得できない。知的理解は実際の状況ではなんと弱弱しく頼りにならないことか？体得。これが唯一の僕と大草原という対象の溝を埋め生命の極相を実現できる道ではないか？日々の生活はともすればウンザリするほど単調になる。しかしそこが僕たちの一瞬一瞬の地盤だ。当たり前の事を当たり前の事として行う。それも意欲的に淡々と。人生の困難は体得の最高の肥やしだ。飛び込んでいこう。この無上の世の中に。無常人として。大草原とど真ん中で坐禅をしているが如くに。

Oh,God! Please help me. Zen vs Christianity

I am a weak human,too.

The essence of any religion is , in my opinion, to listen to the
voice,"I am a weak person. Please help me. "tenderly and to
respond to their despair ,saying " I am a weak person,too. Let's
ask for help together in such a way that we can share our despair with each other." Whatever protection we may cover our heart with in this world such as family, friends wealth and
so on, our human heart is so lonely deep inside that the only
way to shake off our loneliness is either to depend on worldly
desire or to seek the place where the core of our frozen heart can get warmed , which I think is the root of the motive of our
human activities.

The age of loneliness gets deeper
We are lonelier than the past time. It is human 
nature that the more we get to know, the more anxieties we have
. To make the matter worse, what was to be considered to be
in the realm of God is now dissected with bloodless scientific

scalpel. As a result we are pushed into deeper loneliness. The
other reason for our deeper loneliness is that such a thing as 
vital science are handled by a kind of people who have never
been cornered into absolute loneliness coming from the 
consciousness of our human tininess when we face the infinitive and ever-lasting dark universe. They don't know what
it feels like to have no ways to express their ultimate loneliness except for giving a big cry breathlessly. Unlike Einstein , they are not usually modest enough to say " I have
no words except the work of God to describe" when they look
up at the perfect arrangement and order of the universe.

Seeking zen for salvation

I sought zen for the salvation because I felt such religions as
Christianity and Islam were , to be frank, too fictional to believe in. But recently a strong doubt rose up in my heart, " Can Zen save anyone even those weak people including me who are not strong enough to be ready for entire self-denial?
In such a state of my mind I opened the Bible. "WARM! It is
so warm that I felt as if I were wrapped with the warmth. " 
responded my emotion. " But when it comes to some main points in their teaching・・・・・・・？”responded my reasoning-
power. " But,you can't deny the fact that numerous genius  accepted Christianity in the end in the history of about 2000 years. I wonder why? " I reflected on it deeply. I understood one thing. They were reading the Bible not with brain but with belief, the final shore of their struggle.
Life is painful. We writhed in agony. " Oh, I wish I could run away!" Until we are cornered to such an extent , we are not
entitled to say anything about religions.

Zen and Christianity
I compared the essential points of Zen with those of Christianity. Zen just like any other Buddhism starts with transiency,
that is all earthly things come and go. Zen seeks its salvation in our spiritual experience of 空, void, namely the state of no mind detached from either life or death, which can be experienced only after the act of thinking stops. On the other
hand, in my poor understanding, Christianity is also rooted in 
seeking eternal life starting from the fear of death, which means that Zen and Christianity are no different in terms of the starting point, despair when we become conscious of our
tiny existence in this cosmic world. And both of them claim that we can obtain peace of mind only by abounding the 
consciousness of me formed with ego. In fact I see no difference between the state of no mind in Zen and the state  
of our peaceful mind in Christianity when we lose the consciousness of me after leaving everything of me to God.

My interpretation of miracles through Zen
I contemplated miracles like the Resurrection hard to accept
from modern scientific view through Zen. It is , to be sure, an
impossible story if you depend on our ordinary way of thinking, that is dividing subject and object in philosophical sense.But it is not impossible to accept such an unscientific 
story if we think of it on the basis of Zen's way of thinking that , to begin with, things in themselves don't exist and come 
into being only when we have both subject, the mirror of things which can reflect everything and object. 

The unexpected thing happened in my heart

How strange it is to feel our mind more and more peaceful and vigorous when we gradually make the consciousness of me less and less in the direction of total disappearance. I picture
of historical figures such as Francis of Assisi whose portraits hanging on the wall of my room,  Mother Teresa, Gandhi and so on. They are those who found absolute peace in the depth of their mind . Their face tell clearly their peaceful mind and the strength of their determination.

Hiding nook
It seems to me that people of today are worried more than ever due only to the increase of the knowledge without painful mental and physical experiences from their childhood. The good example is the case of excessive consciousness of reaching life expectancy. The words of a Zen priest , Ryohkan,
lightens our mind. He says, " When we become sick, we should
become sickness itself. When time comes, we die. " In his words can be seen the wisdom of how to reach  the peace of mind. Another Zen priest , Dohgen, says, " To learn Buddhism
is to learn ourselves. To learn ourselves is  to forget ourselves." which means in my understanding , that by making 
ourselves nothing , we become no mind itself , the true ourselves , not phenomenal existence. Their attitude seems to
have a substantial agreement with entire self-denial to God
in Christianity. Now, everyone, Let's have a hiding nook where
we can rest our mind whatever may happen in this world.

神様！助けてください。Oｈ、Ｇｏｄ！Please help me.

私も弱い人間です。
いかなる宗教であろうとも、その本質は「私は弱い人間です。どうか御助けを！」の声に優しく耳を傾け、「私も弱い人間なんです。一緒に助けを乞い求めましょう。」の絶望の共有に基づく
あらゆる心の苦悩に応える所にあると思う。現世で家族、友人、富、等あらゆる防護で心を覆っても、人間の心の奥底は孤独で、その孤独を癒す為に本能に基づく現世的欲望で払拭しようと努めるか、どこかにこの冷え冷えとした心を温めてくれる所は？と、心の内で追い求めるといったところが人間の行動の動機の根源にあると言っても過言ではない。

増々孤独な時代が

現代は過去にもまして孤独な時代だ。知れば知るほど不安になるのが人間の常で、今までそれ以上は神の領域とされていた物が、血の通わない科学のメスで解剖され、その結果人間を更に
深い孤独へと追い込んでいるように思える。それも生命科学の様な最前線にいる人たちの多くが、永遠、無限な中で人間の卑小さの意識から来る暗黒の宇宙に向かって息絶え絶えする絶叫する以外に自分の気持ちを表す術がないと言った身の毛もよだつ絶対的孤独感に追い込まれたことのない人たちである。彼等にはアインシュタインの宇宙を前にして「この秩序、法則を前にして「神の仕業としか言いようがない。」と言わしめた
無限を前にした時の謙虚さはない。

疑問？
僕はその孤独からの救いを禅に求めた。西洋文学などを通して知ったキリスト教を中心とする一神教は、率直なところ嘘っぽく感じたからである。しかし最近僕は禅の持つ排他性に自分も含めて本当に命を捨てるほどの精神的覚悟のない弱き者[遠藤周作著「沈黙」の吉次郎等］が、禅によって救われえるのか？という疑問が湧いてきたのである。そして聖書をひも解いてみた。
「温かい。包み込むような温かさだ。」と、僕の感情は反応した。
「でも、教義の中心となるいくつかとなると・・・・？」とぼくの理性は疑問を呈した。「しかし２千年にも及ぶキリスト教の歴史の中でトルストイを含む数多くの天才が最終的にキリスト教を受け入れた。何故だろう？」と、僕は深く考えた。一つだけ分かった事がある。彼等はキリスト教を理性よりも信仰心で読んでいたという事実だある。人生は苦しい。のた打ち回る。何とか逃げたい。助けてくれ。そこまで追い詰められないと宗教の一歩は踏み出せない。


禅とキリスト教

そして僕は禅とキリスト教の違いについて考えてみた。禅を含めほとんどの仏教の宗派はいう。仏教の出発点は無常心だ。つまり全ては消え去る。跡形もなく。そして禅はその救済に「空」の体得を置いた。つまり悟りだ。我々が思考を放棄した後の生にも死にも捉われない無心の境地というわけだ。
一方キリスト教も僕の理解する限りでは出発点は死への不安から発した永遠の命を求めるところに根源があるような気がする。
ということは、双方とも出発点は人間の永遠、無限の中の絶望感にあることに変わりないという事である。そして双方とも「私、私、私、・・・」といった自分の我が形作った私という観念を捨て去る事によってのみ真の平安の心が得られるという所も同じような気がする。元に無心に成り切った座禅の時の心の状態とキリスト教の神に全てを委ね、自分という意識すら失った深い瞑想状態と、どこに相違があるのだろうか？これは全ての宗教に通じているのかもしれない。

復活・処女懐妊等の奇跡の禅的解釈

今までキリスト教の中で最も違和感を持っていた奇跡等の現代的科学から見ると受け入れがたいことを禅的に考えてみた。確かに「私がこうこう考えている。」的、私と対象を分離した思考形態ではありえない話であるが、元々本来物は存在しない。万物を映し出す私という鏡つまり主体と対象物が両方あって初めて物は存在するという考えに立てばそうした非科学的な事も可能になりうるのではないか？

こう考えると心は楽に

それにしても不思議なことだ。そのようにキリスト教、禅に関わりなく自分の存在を徐々に無化し、消していくように考えを推し進めていくと心は平安に成っていき元気になっていくという事実である。宗教の精神に基づき偉業を成し遂げた歴史的人物を思い浮かべる。僕の部屋にも掛けてあるアッシジの聖フランチェスコ
の肖像画、マザーテレサ、ガンジー全てが心の奥底に平安を見出した人々だ。あの揺ぎ無い顔、強い信念の背後に隠された絶対的心の静寂がそれを物語る。

ねぇ、心安らかに生きていこうよ！
現代人は幼少のころから心身共々あまり苦悩の経験なく知識だけ豊富になり、それが増々人々を不安の種にしているように思う。平均寿命に対する意識過剰がその好例だ。「人間病気になれば病気成り切り、死ぬときは死ねばよい。」という良寛の言葉は心を軽くしてくれる。そこには禅的永遠の平安がある。
道元は言う「仏道を学ぶとは自己を学ぶことである。自己を学ぶとは自己を忘れることである。」・・・このことは僕の解釈では自己を無化し無心に成り切ることである。・・・は、そのまま神に自己の全てを投げ捨てるキリスト教の絶対的自己否定の行為と同質ではないのだろうか？とぼくは最近思うのだ。
ねぇ、みんな！いかなることが起ころうともそっと逃げ込めることの出来る絶対的心の慰安所を持とうよ。心安らかに生きるために。