Great Japanese Zen Masters ( 日本の偉大な禅僧)

農作業後の炉辺での祈り
今日も畑に出て一日中家族総出で過酷なる農作業を行った。そして夕べ、家族一同簡素な家屋の中心に置かれた炉辺を囲みながら粗末な夕食を取りながら「今日も一日健康で仕事ができた。」と、天に向かって心から祈っていた大自然が人間生活を大きく圧していた一昔の時代と異なり、現代の人々の宗教に対して求めるものは大きく変わった。

「どこかに一滴の心の温もりが」と・・・
今人々の多くが一応衣食住の心配から解放され、索漠とした大都会の真ん中で拠所なく孤独の血を流し、一滴の心の潤いを求め彷徨う。何かにすがりたい。何かに心委ねたい。この欲求は切実だ。だが不信と懐疑の世界で生きてきた現代人は
心を素直に開き他者を信じる事は余りに心は硬直化し臆病だ。そして自分の心に率直に従う事が出来ない。とくに宗教
アレルギーの日本社会で育った人々は「私を信じなさい。そうすればあなたは救われるだろう。」と言われても誰がそんな言葉を受け入れようか？

禅の登場する土壌
そこに禅が登場する土壌がある。禅は通常の人間の思考とは発想を異にしている。通常我々は生がありその後に死が続く
と考えている。しかし禅では生死を超えた無心の中にこそ我々の実存の真の正体があり、そこが我々の平安なる永遠の棲家だとする。それは対象化することも、意識化することも
出来ない世界だ。一度意識の矢を対象に向けて投げると我々の真の正体は消え失せる。天空を見上げると大きな雲の一団
が大空を悠々と流れている。又、野の花は誰にも見られることなく咲き、枯れていく。禅が目指すものはその雲そのもの
花そのものに成り切ることだ。その悠久なる推移に抵抗せず
自己主張もせずただ流れていくこと、そこに禅の示した真理に根差した心安らかなる生き方がある。

先人が残した心安らかなる道

人は自己意識した時から苦悩が始まる。しかし自我の意識は我々の存在の根源の中に宿っている。自己意識から生まれる様々な苦悩、そしてその苦悩から解放される無心の道、その相克で過去現在多くの人々が苦悩七点八倒の人生を歩んできた。そしてその苦悩の末、自己を克服し心安らかなる道を残してくれた偉大な先人がいる。今回はその先人達の軌跡を追い、時空を超えて先人達が達した究極の幸福の境地を垣間見ようと幾人かの日本の傑出した禅僧について記したいと思う。

林に住み,童と戯れる「良寛」禅とは？
まず次のブログでは第一回として「天気良ければ町へ托鉢に出かけ、帰路童と戯れる。雨の日は読書したり、文をしたためたりの自由気儘な山林閉居の一人暮らし」を送った「良寛」が達した境地について僕なりの所見を述べたいと思う。

良寛が達した境地の象徴的語録
災難に逢ったら災難に逢うがよき候。死ぬ時は死ぬるがよき候。これ災難を逃れる妙法にて候。

Praying at fireplace after farming
Our family were all out in the rice field engaged
in hard farming work all day along today as usual. In the evening surrounding the fireplace in the center of shabby soot-covered room , we used to take a simple meal praying with gratitude for being able to work in health today. In those days
nature was overwhelming over human life. But time has been drastically changed and what people
expect from religions has been also changed.

Where is a drop of warmth of heart?
Set free from worries about food,clothes and houses , many people of today shed blood of loneliness amid desert-like big cities because of
no place for their soul to rely on. They wander around in search of a drop of warm love. Their thirst is imminent. But people of today who were raised in distrust and doubt are too timid to open their heart and trust others. They can't as much as follow their heart honestly. Especially Japanese who were raised with religious allergy find it impossible to accept such words as " Believe me and you will be saved. "

The soil for zen to be required
Here comes the soil for zen to be required. The root of zen's way of thinking is totally different from that of the ordinary way of thinking. we usually think that birth comes first to be followed by death. But in zen existential true self , unshakable and everlasting peaceful dwelling , lies in no mind over life and death. It is the world of Reality that can't be grasped consciously as an object. As soon as we throw the arrow of consciousness at the object,our true self vanishes away. Looking up at the vast sky above us , we see a mass of cloud passing gracefully uninterruptedly even for one moment.Looking down at the ground, we see wild flowers bloom in spring and wither away in autumn unnoticed. The ultimate goal of zen is to become the cloud or the flowers themselves . We leave ourselves to the eternal stream of change uninterruptedly even for one moment and keep running on the stream

unconsciously.

In such an attitude towards life can be found zen's
way of peaceful life based on their truth.

The way to peaceful mind left in past
Suffering starts only when we become conscious
of ourselves. But our self-consciousness dwells in
the root of our existence. Many way-seeker of past
and present fought against a life of struggle in the conflict between the agony caused by self-consciousness and the way to no mind in which agony and suffering ceases. In the process of peace searching some may sometimes  fall down breeding and stand up with their death-ready will to keep walking. Among them are there great figures who conquered the struggle of life and left 
the way to peace for our generation at the expence
of their life. This time I'd like to introduce some 
Japanese zen masters of such kind in the hope of
having a glance at the ultimate stage of unshakable happiness left by the zen masters over
time and space by tracing back the footprint of their path on which they walked with sweat, tears
blood. 

How's the zen of "Ryohkan" living in woods and playing with kids
To begin with, I'd like to approach the final spiritual stage of Ryohkan who lived a free and self-indulgent life alone in the woods , going to nearby towns to beg for food, playing with kids on  his way back home on fine days and reading books or writing poems or playing the Japanese flute on rainy days. 

His wring I mentioned below shows the essence of
his attitude towards life

When we encounter troubles , we encounter them.
when the time comes to die, we die. This is the
only way to avoid all the troubles.