The Way, master Dogen tells us very clearly, is nothing other than harmony of body and mind.
You find that harmony by turning your gaze inward.
There is harmony of body and mind and there is also harmony between oneself and the rest of the universe. But the root is harmony of body and mind.
Harmony is broken when there is separation. What separates us are thoughts that have nothing to do with the situation, thoughts that don’t accept the situation, thoughts that want to control the situation, thoughts linked to the idea of “me” and “mine”. We call them illusions, false interpretations twisted by the idea of “me” and “mine”. The self, the illusion that doesn’t want to die, is maintained by personal will – “I want that, I don’t want this”.
So people who run around looking for something outside themselves destroy, by that very attitude, the harmony of body and mind. That’s why Obaku says, “the more you search, the more lost you get”.
Correct thinking is in keeping with the situation. It comes from harmony between self and the situation.
Dogen, along with all the Buddhas and the patriarchs, says that practice governed by the self is the worst. A person who thinks only of him or her self, of being happier, of getting more love, more recognition, is in opposition to the Buddha’s practice.
When body and mind are one then we are one with the rest of the universe, we join the universe and we act only for the universe, naturally, unconsciously, automatically. Harmonise body and mind. The Way is simply a question of harmony. Harmonise the lower back with the upper back, front with back, right with left. Harmonise breathing and state of mind. Every instruction is itself the Way. The Masters, in their great compassion, in their great goodness, give instructions that are within everybody’s reach. It suffices to put them into practise.
Crushing your own bones to the marrow is not hard to do. But maintaining the determination of the mind is very hard. Harmonising body and mind in all situations - in the worst situations, at the moment of death, in sickness, or when someone leaves us – calls for extreme delicacy. You can’t do it if you’re agitated. You can’t do it if you’re angry. Doing that means precisely putting an end to agitation. It means stopping anger. It means putting an end to the poisons of the mind.
Harmonise body and mind in the ceremony, when you chant the sutras, when you eat the genmai. From the harmony of body and mind there will be harmony everywhere. So let go of interpretations. Let go of your paranoid points of view. Let go of your fear, your unjustified fear. Just maintain harmony between yourself and the universe without separation.
Some people criticise Zen. “Why do you pay so much attention to the way you eat?” they say. “Why do you pay so much attention to details? They say.” It’s because maintaining the unity of body and mind is very hard. It calls for all our attention. Maintaining harmony between the cells, between the organs, with all existences, requires that we do what we have to do wholeheartedly, the way it should be done, without expecting to get anything out of it for oneself.
