Seeing oneself

Kōdō Sawaki wrote: “We must examine our motivations with our eyes wide open. Because even before we are aware of it, we perform for an audience, like a comedian anxious to please. If our practice is a kind of performance intended for an audience, it cannot be the Dharma of the Buddha.”

We must examine ourselves, not look at others, not seek certification in the eyes of others. Everyone is different, everyone is at a different level of awakening. One thing is certain: we cannot judge someone else’s faith. There are people we take for saints, even though their motivations are not necessarily pure. There are those who drive the wrong way down the motorway without knowing it. They are dangerous, very dangerous. There are those who drive the wrong way down the motorway and know it. They are also dangerous, but less than the former. There are those whose drive on the motorway in the right direction. They think they are not at risk. If they are not careful, they are also in danger. Everyone must practice starting from where they are, on the basis of their own situation.

When we engage in the way of awakening, we recognise that since time immemorial we have thought, spoken and acted motivated by ignorance, greed and aversion. So we decide to sit and observe, to contemplate the true aspect of all things. We decide to examine our motivations with our eyes wide open. Everyone is different. What a child sees is different from what a teenager sees, from what an adult sees, from what an elderly person sees, from what a dying person sees… So everyone must see for themselves.

The Buddha only teaches that it is possible to see, and that it is better to live with our eyes open, to die with our eyes open, that’s all. How can you think that you have nothing left to see? In the Dhammapada, the Buddha says that for a proud and arrogant person, it is impossible to practice the Way. We pass through shadow and light. We cannot separate shadow from light. Light exists, shadow exists. But light and darkness depend on one another. We must all examine our motivations with an awakened eye.

We say: a mosquito is small. A mosquito is small compared to a whale, but it is enormous compared to a virus. This is the relative world. We are always someone else’s idiot. Some people say: I am poor. You are poor compared to someone who is rich, but you are rich compared to someone who is very poor. The world of Dharma is beyond all comparison. There is nothing to look at in others. Some people are content with saying to themselves: “I am better than this great criminal, I don’t need to change.” We must all examine ourselves and go together, all together, beyond the three poisons. The rich man must make efforts, must examine himself. The poor man must make efforts, must examine himself. Those who think they are good people must make efforts and examine themselves. Those who think they are bad people must make efforts and look into themselves. The Way includes all existences, they do not oppose one another; it is together, all together. It is not a matter of women against men, whites against blacks, rich against poor. It is together, all together. This is why the Way is universal.

When the one who gives, the one who receives and that which is given are one and the same thing, we are in a state of forgetting the ego, self-forgetfulness.

“If anyone wishes to take a step further, let them sit down and meditate on the true nature of all things.” This is Buddha’s teaching. We walk towards the light, while walking through shadow and light.

Taiun JP Faure, December 2025